Events of Note!

This looks like the kind of event that excites my readership. I know it excites me. Get your ticket now.

Should be very interesting.

THE CRITIC SYMPOSIUM

This is a rare opportunity to hear critics and journalists from various arts disciplines discuss what they do and why they do it.

As part of our Shaw New York festival we’re planning on presenting a symposium that will take place on Saturday June 2^nd at two o’clock. We’ll honor Shaw’s beginning his life in the world of the arts as a critic. Never doing anything half-way, he set out to redefine the notion of what being a critic meant and set a new standard for writing about the arts.  He saw arts criticism as an art form in itself, a noble piece of the whole arts picture.

In his book ADVICE TO A YOUNG CRITIC, Shaw wrote:

“Dear Sir. There is no way of ‘becoming’ a dramatic critic. It happens by accident and it usually happens to some sort of journalist who probably writes about anything but the theatre. Remember: to be a critic you must also have literary skill—and trained critical skill, too. The power of analysis, comparison and so forth. As to what to read, read anything you feel curious about. It’s quite possible that your real interest may not lie in the theatre at all. But in any case, read dramatic literature, not histories or criticisms of it. Read three of four of the most famous plays of Moliere and Victor Hugo. Sample Beaumarchais, Voltaire, De Musset, Augier and Dumas fils until you know their styles. Read all of Goethe’s plays and a lot of Schiller’s. Read a rhymed play of Dryden’s a play of Wycherley’s some of Congreve’s, several of Sheridan, a Boucicault and a Robertson. Read Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Read Ibsen all through. Also any memoirs of actors that you can unearth or can’t avoid. That will do for a beginning. Read all the great critics. Get a ticket for the British Museum reading room and live there as much as you can. Go to all the first rate orchestral concerts and to the opera, as well as to the theaters. Join debating societies and learn to speak in public. Study men and politics. Finally, since I have given you all this advice, I add this crowning precept, the most valuable of all: Never Take Anybody’s Advice.”

This is our first Critic Symposium, exploring the world of arts coverage in the media as an art form unto itself. Is it cultural, entertainment, a public service to society? ‘Are critics necessary?’

Among those scheduled to join the discussion are David Cote, Joe Dziemanowicz, Adam Feldman, Peter Filichia, Andy Propst, Michael Riedel, Frank Rizzo, John Simon, Michael Sommers, Elisabeth Vincentelli, Rob Weinert-Kendt, Linda Winer and Jason Zinoman. Jeffrey Eric Jenkins of NYU will be the moderator for this event.

Time: Saturday June 2^nd  2pm - 4pm

Place: The Players 16 Gramercy Park South