National Critics Institute Staff

DAN SULLIVAN was chief theater critic of the Los Angeles Times for 20 years. Previously he reviewed theater and music for the New York Times and the Minneapolis Tribune.

His present base is the Twin Cities, where he writes and teaches journalism at the University of Minnesota.

In 1999, after six years as its associate director, he succeeded the late Ernie Schier as director of the O'Neill's National Critics Institute. He has served as dramaturg for a dozen O'Neill Conference plays, including John Henry Redwood's The Old Settler (1995).

HELENE D. GOLDFARB, Administrator, has been affiliated with the O'Neill Theater Center for almost 20 years. Her commitment to the theater started as a member of the audience and progressed to techie at Hunter College, lighting designer for community theaters, and producer for the Nightingale Company, a forerunner of the Roundabout Theatre Company. She is currently president of the Scholarship and Welfare Fund of the Alumni Association of Hunter College and Treasurer of the Feminist Press at CUNY, the oldest women's publisher in the United States, and serves on the boards of several other non-profit organizations.

MARK J. CHARNEY, Assistant Administrator, is Director of Theater and a playwright at Clemson University. His adaptation of The Decameron was featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and his 37 Stones, or The Man Who Was A Quarry was performed at the Charter Theater in Washington, DC. He also helps coordinate the college critics institute and the dramaturgy initiative for the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival.

The National Critics Institute allows theater critics and communicators to grow as writers while deepening their awareness of the theater-maker's art. Our method: plunge a handful of Critic Fellows into the O'Neill's production process and make them write something every day. Mornings go to writing workshops with senior critics; afternoons, to seminars with O'Neill artists; evenings, to play watching and writing. More than 300 writers have survived our "boot camp for critics" since 1968.

2010 faculty

LAWRENCE DE VINE reviewed theater and books for the Detroit Free Press for thirty years. He was an O'Neill Critic Fellow in 1971.

MICHAEL FEINGOLD is the chief theater critic for the Village Voice, a winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for distinguished criticism and a 2002 National Arts Journalism Program senior fellow. His translation of Giraudoux's Sodom et Gomorrah was performed at the 2001 National Playwrights Conference.

LEONARD JACOBS reviews and reports on the New York theater for Back Stage. He was an O'Neill Critic Fellow in 2003.

JULIUS NOVICK is another George Jean Nathan Award winner, and has reviewed for the Village Voice, Newsday and the New York Observer. He currently writes for Back Stage. His book, Beyond Broadway, is a landmark study of America's resident theaters.

DOMINIC PAPATOLA is theater critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He has also reviewed for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Duluth News Tribune. He was an O'Neill Critic Fellow in 1993.

MICHAEL PHILLIPS reviews film and theater for the Chicago Tribune. He has also reviewed for the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union and the St.Paul Pioneer Press. He was an O'Neill Critic Fellow in 1984.

J RANELLI is a director who has clear and fond memories of the O'Neill's very first days. He remains a persistent advocate for the development of new voices and a theater response to them.

J. WYNN ROUSUCK is theater critic for the Baltimore Sun. She was a 1982 Critic Fellow.

JEFFREY SWEET Books include The Dramatist's Toolkit: The Craft of the Working Playwright. His plays include Flyovers, Bluff and Immoral Imperatives.

LINDA WINER is theater critic for Newsday. She has also reviewed for the Chicago Tribune, USA Today and the New York Daily News.

2009 Critic Fellows

Lindsay Christians, Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times

Devil Dippold, Villanova University

Susan Elliott, Musical America

Laura Hedli, Columbia University

Kelly Hires, DePaul University

Emily Madison, Columbia University

Cindy Pierre, Talkin' Broadway.com

Bradley Troll, University of New Orleans

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to the New York Times Foundation,
The Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival,
Clara Hieronymus and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center,
The American Theater Critics Association,
The John S. Knight Foundation, The Shubert Foundation,
The Debbi Wasserman Bilowit Fund, The Ernie Schier Fund,
the Goodspeed Opera House, the Ivoryton Playhouse and our
Many individual patrons and friends.