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An end, not a failure. (“Empty House” by Bryan Rosengrant via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Flashpoint Theatre Company calls it quits

Flashpoint Theatre was founded in 2004 to produce socially provocative and emotionally resonant works of contemporary theater while supporting diverse, emerging artists. Financial support for that mission has dried up, and the company is disbanding.

Samantha Maldonado

Dec 07, 2015 Articles 3 minute read

Is everybody a critic? Statler and Waldrof. (Photo via muppet.wikia.com)

A response to 'Ethics for theater critics'

Does an analysis by a privileged journalist have value?

Theater criticism is an art, and artists have a right to ask for and receive payment for their work. I’d love to provide every writer with adequate reward for his or her valuable work. But to say unpaid or poorly compensated work has no value, and to denigrate the ethics of those writers, is insulting.

Christopher Munden

Dec 01, 2015 Articles 7 minute read

An actress, an “actress,” and a critic: Davis, Monroe, and Sanders in “All About Eve.”

Ethics for theater critics: The Craigslist critic

Does a review that no one paid for have value?

A Seattle theater critic sold his “plus one” press passes on Craigslist in the hopes of both finding a date and scoring a profit. What, exactly, is the problem with that? Let Wendy Rosenfield count the ways.

Wendy Rosenfield

Nov 24, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

Sondra Radvanovsky will be the Festival Artist at Opera Philly’s O17. (Photo by Pavel Antonov via operaphilly.org)

Opera Philadelphia's O17 announcement

An announcement of operatic scale

New plans by Opera Philadelphia are daring and forward-looking. There are aspects of concern, however.

Steve Cohen

Oct 31, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Not to be refilled. (Photo by Daniel Rubin via citypaper.net)

Farewell, 'City Paper'

BSR’s new writer muses about the demise of Philadelphia City Paper, which ceases publication this week.

Mark Cofta

Oct 06, 2015 Articles 3 minute read

One thing that won’t change: the majestic main staircase at the Central branch. (Photo by Gmonkey via Creative Commons/flickr)

Big changes at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Philadelphia's library, reinvented

Money from the William Penn Foundation, along with other public and private gifts, has enabled the library to undertake a big-picture initiative to increase flexibility and efficiency for current and future users in a project called Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Aug 30, 2015 Articles 6 minute read

Must Charlotte Ford (above) forsake the stage to make a living? Photo by JJ Tiziou.

Arts in crisis? Really?

Just how did Faulkner survive (not to mention Charles Ives and Marlon Brando)?

Are boorish Americans systematically starving our creative classes, as two critics contend? It’s an old complaint, once voiced by the likes of Mark Twain and Saul Bellow. But where William Giraldi and Scott Timberg see cultural destruction, I see natural creative evolution, and not just in the arts.

Dan Rottenberg

Aug 04, 2015 Articles 7 minute read

Panelists (from left): Parkerson, Massiah, Cabral, Nance, Jackson; did Ferguson change everything? (Photo: Alaina Mabaso.)

A BlackStar Film Festival panel

Black filmmakers confront the ‘burden of representation’

Must black artists or public figures represent their entire group to the dominant culture? At Philadelphia’s annual BlackStar Film Festival, four filmmakers wrestled with that question.

Alaina Johns

Aug 03, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

Ed Cunningham, the voice of the Philadelphia pledge drive. (Courtesy of WHYY)

Can PBS survive the fundraising trap?

I understand the practicalities of the television business. I understand that if these stations don’t make up their budget shortfalls, the quality of their offerings is likely to suffer, or they might even close down altogether. My concern is the fundraising programming itself and how it is threatening to take over a large segment of our PBS stations’ schedules.