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BACKGROUND • ELIGIBILITY/REGISTRATION • WHAT TO BRING • GUEST CRITIC
The National Critics Institute

Background

Good theater needs good criticism. As playwrights, directors, designers, and actors work to develop their craft and create work that challenges them and their audiences, they need the informed eyes and ears of the critic to celebrate their achievements, to give honest evaluations of their work, and to encourage them to continue to work to create exciting theater. Critics are also needed to inform the public about individual plays and about the importance of theater itself.   Good theater criticism is necessary for the healthy life of the theater.

It is for these reasons that KCACTF, in partnership with the Eugene O'Neill Institute, sponsors the National Critics Institute (NCI). While NCI may work slightly differently from region to region, in general at each festival student critics spend a few days working with an invited guest critic. The student critics write reviews of some of the productions at the festival, discuss these reviews with the guest critic and the student critics, and by the end of the festival submit a review that demonstrates what they see as their best work.   One student critic from each region is selected to attend NCI workshops at the Kennedy Center. From there, at least one student critic from all the regional winners is selected to attend the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center during its national playwriting conference in the summer. All expenses are paid to both the Kennedy Center and the O'Neill Institute, and student critics at both sites have the opportunity to work with nationally recognized theater critics.

NCI in Region VIII follows this format. Beginning on the second day of the festival, students meet with the guest critic in a seminar format, where they talk about theater in general and the plays they see at the festival and where they share their reviews of the work they have seen. Although the experience is intense and time-consuming, with five or six scheduled sessions, the atmosphere is open and collegial, and students generally leave festival recognizing they have learned a lot and grown as student critics and writers. Indeed, the selection of a person to go to the Kennedy Center experience is usually viewed as far less important than the experience itself

Eligibility Requirements

All students from the region are eligible to participate in NCI.   A student does not need to be nominated by a respondent or faculty member. There is no pre-screening of writing or resumes. Preferably students will sign up ahead of time so that adequate space can be planned for, but they may sign up when they arrive at the festival. To sign up, simply check the box or the Festival Registration form labeled Critic's Workshop. Then pay close attention to the ever-changing Festival Schedule so that you can plan to attend all sessions.

NCI is also open to students of all disciplines and class levels.   In the past, it has included college freshmen as well as graduate students. Although most participants come from theater programs, students in English and journalism are also welcome and can bring important insights to the discussions and to their reviews. Indeed, students with backgrounds as varied as cultural history and psychology could also contribute to and grow from the experience. The most important attributes participants share is a love of theater, the ability to write, and a desire to use these skills to help contribute to the development of strong theater.

We hope that theater faculty and other KCACTF professionals will seek out students in journalism, English, and other programs as well as theater students and encourage them to participate.

What to Bring

The most important things to bring are a passion for good theater and an active inquiring mind. However, students should also know that much of the writing they will do occurs at night, after they have seen an evening show. We cannot guarantee that they will be able to have computer access at the host school. Thus, student critics are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop computer that can be connected to the internet. While this is not absolutely necessary, not having a lap top may make the experience more difficult and frustrating. If students do not have a laptop, they should see if they can borrow one from the school library or academic department.

GUEST CRITIC


Sandra Ross

Sandra Ross holds a BA from San Diego State University and an MA (with a specialization in Rhetoric, Linguistics and Literature) from the University of Southern California, where she is a Ph.D. candidate. Currently, she teaches full-time in The Writing Program at the University of Southern California. As a senior lecturer, she assists new instructors in developing sound pedagogical practices in the teaching of various types of composition — persuasive, analytical, and developmental. She has taught part-time at several colleges in the Southland, including California State University Los Angeles, East Los Angeles College, El Camino College and Marymount College. For the past several years, she has adjudicated for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in the Southern California region, and she enjoyed supervising the Critics’ Workshop at the 2005 KC-ACTF in Arizona. Since 1996, Sandra Ross has reviewed theater for the LA Weekly. She has also written for other publications including The Advocate, Easy Reader, and TheaterMania.