Reviewing Outside Your Identity - Online Panel Discussion

Join moderator John Stoltenberg (DC Theater Arts) along with panelists Sarah Rose Leonard and Brittani Samuel (3Views on Theater), André Hereford (Metro Weekly), and Chris Klimek (Washington City Paper) for a discussion about the challenges and obligations when reviewing work created by artists whose identity — race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. — is different from one’s own.

There is merit and principle in having a woman review a work by a woman, a queer person review a work by a queer person, a Black person review a work by a Black person, etc. But can the critical conversation about a particular work of theater contain multiple voices? And can a reviewer responsibly respond to a work by an artist who is not one’s own gender, sexuality, or ethnicity? What are the challenges and obligations, and what value is added (or lost)?

John Stoltenberg is executive editor of DC Theater Arts. He writes both reviews and his Magic Time! column, which he named after that magical moment between life and art just before a show begins. John began writing, producing, directing, and acting in plays in college and continued through grad school—earning an M.F.A. in theater arts from Columbia University School of the Arts. He was writer-in-residence and administrative director with The Open Theatre, his plays were produced off-off-Broadway, and he won a New York State Arts Council grant. Changing course, he turned to nonfiction essays, articles, and books, and had a career as a magazine editor. He returned to the theater as a critic, and is a member of the American Theater Critics Association. He tweets at @JohnStoltenberg.

Sarah Rose Leonard is Co-Editor of 3Views on Theater, an online theatre criticism publication dedicated to multiplicity. A dramaturg and creative producer, she is currently a Live Events Producer at KQED, Northern California’s NPR and PBS member station. Previously, she was the Literary Manager at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Literary Associate at Signature Theatre. Sarah’s dramaturgy credits include: This Much I Know (Aurora Theatre Company), twenty50 (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Angels in America (Berkeley Rep), A Good Neighbor (Z Space), In Braunau (San Francisco Playhouse), You For Me For You (Crowded Fire Theater), Big Love (Signature Theatre), and The Hotel Colors (The Bushwick Starr).

Brittani Samuel (she/her) is a Caribbean-American arts journalist, theater critic, and co-editor of 3Views on Theater. Her work has appeared in American Theatre Magazine, Broadway News, Glamour, Observer, Vice, Zora, and several other outlets. She is an alumna of the BIPOC Critics Lab and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute.

André Hereford is a critic and contributing editor for Metro Weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. He is a Rotten Tomato-approved member of WAFCA and GALECA, and can be found on Twitter @here4andre.

Chris Klimek is a writer and podcast host for Smithsonian magazine. His work appears regularly in The Washington City Paper, at NPR, and The Washington Post, and he is a frequent guest panelist on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour Podcast. He is an alumnus of the NEA Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre and of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute, and has taught criticism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.