The Critics Say...: 57 Theater Reviewers in New York and Beyond Discuss Their Craft and Its Future by Matt Windman

Author:Matt Windman [Windman, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Published: 2016-04-20T07:00:00+00:00

7

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Readers

MATT WINDMAN: What kind of audience do you see yourself writing for?

Steven Suskin: Different readerships have different expectations.

Hilton Als: That’s a very interesting question—and one that I don’t think I can answer. If you have an audience in mind, then you’re not really writing. I think you need to just do your writing. Frankly, I’ve never felt inhibited at the New Yorker or the Village Voice.

Jesse Green: I don’t know who my readers are—and I don’t know how I could learn. I guess I have a certain impression, but I fear it’s a stereotype because it’s based on occasional encounters, rather than on any kind of reliable data. New York magazine hosts what it calls the Vulture Festival each year, which is kind of like the New Yorker Festival, but less stuffy. A lot of readers come to that, so you get a sense of what they’re like. My feeling is that they are culturally savvy. They seem to be youngish, but there’s also an older generation of New Yorkers who have always read New York magazine for its smart tone and cultural coverage. Do they go to the theater more than the readers of the Village Voice or the New York Times? I have no way of knowing that. In any case, it doesn’t influence my writing. The dirty secret of all writing is that you’re not writing for an audience—you’re writing for yourself.

John Simon: To some extent, you have to play with the expectations of the publication and its mucky-mucks, but essentially I am not influenced by the publication—even ones like the New Criterion or the Weekly Standard. As a result, I may be a little too much for some people. I can’t help it. That means too much to me to skirt.

Robert Faires: The audience is kind of invented in my head. It tends to be somebody who shares my love of theater and who wants to know what’s happening out there. I don’t have a very clear sense of demographics. When I was in my twenties, I figured that people in their twenties were reading me. Now that I’m in my fifties, I couldn’t tell you whether people in their twenties are reading me. I have no idea if my audience is male, female, married, or single. That stuff is kind of a blank for me.

Michael Riedel: To be honest, I’m really writing for myself. First and foremost, what I write has to interest me. If it bores me, it’s going to bore anyone reading it. If it amuses me, or if I find it interesting, then I can only assume that people who are reading it will find it interesting.

Chris Jones: I don’t want to be arrogant, but I know a lot of plays. On the other hand, I write for a general newspaper, so my job is not to write for specialists. For the most part, I write for ordinary people. Chicago is a no-nonsense kind of city, so it’s not like I can write academic theses on these shows.

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