Naveen Kumar. (Photograph by Myles Loftin)
What does it imply to be a nationwide theatre publication? Clearly it is a query we take into consideration loads at American Theatre. The artwork type we cowl is inherently place-based, the final word you-had-to-be-there expertise, however it’s also a type and an business that circulates and replicates all around the nation and the world, with influence nicely past its fast time and house. So it makes a specific amount of sense for people who cowl theatre to maintain one eye on their native levels and one eye—or a nook of their eye, not less than—on what’s taking place elsewhere, together with within the theatre’s business capital in New York Metropolis.
That’s the logic, as I perceive it, behind the theatre protection of such main U.S. newspapers as The Los Angeles Instances, The Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Publish, the place their lead critics have a mandate to cowl each their respective cities’ homegrown theatre scenes and the key fare on Broadway (and generally Off-). Ostensibly their native audiences are as keen on reveals headed for or coming from New York as they’re within the choices at their native regional and storefront theatres (although it ought to be mentioned that a whole lot of native theatremakers in these cities really feel in any other case). And the critics at these retailers do contribute invaluable perspective not solely to native shoppers however to a nationwide readership as nicely, ideally educating each and elevating an intrinsically native artwork type right into a broader dialogue.
That has meant a whole lot of frequent flier miles for Charles McNulty and Chris Jones, respectively, and till just lately a whole lot of hours on the Acela for Peter Marks, who exited the Publish earlier this 12 months after 21 years on the job. Final week the Publish introduced that Naveen Kumar, whose main bylines as a critic have been at Selection and The New York Instances, would be the paper’s new lead theatre critic. Like Marks, he’ll stay primarily based in New York and can proceed his astute protection of choices there, however his core job will probably be to cowl as a lot as theatre within the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) as he can handle.
I spoke yesterday with Naveen about his background on the company aspect of the enterprise, what his protection mandate will probably be in his new job, and his prognosis each for the theatre and for arts journalism (he’ll proceed to function affiliate director of the O’Neill’s Nationwide Critics Institute).
ROB WEINERT-KENDT: Congrats, Naveen. You’ve been doing theatre criticism for some time, however is a full-time gig one thing you’ve been in search of?
NAVEEN KUMAR: Theatre criticism has at all times been one thing I’ve been enthusiastic about since I began in journalism; it was at all times a bit of what I’ve been doing. I don’t suppose I ever assumed that a possibility like this may come alongside, as a result of, as you understand, theatre journalism is sort of area of interest, and there are solely so many shops that actually need it. So I used to be diversified as a journalist when it comes to what I lined, as a contributing editor at Them, the place I’ve been writing about TV and movie and queer tradition. I by no means had the idea {that a} full-time critic place can be in my future or given, so it’s an exciting form of shock in that manner.
After I interviewed Hana Sharif final 12 months, she mentioned she had particularly dreamt not solely of being an inventive director, however of being the creative director of Area Stage. I’ve typically heard folks joke that no child goals of rising as much as be a theatre critic. What’s your theatre critic origin story?
I feel in all probability the one motive I didn’t dream about it as a child is that I didn’t comprehend it was the factor you possibly can dream about. I’ve at all times been a theatre lover. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., seeing excursions coming via Detroit. My first few reveals have been the Fiddler on the Roof tour, the Guys and Dolls tour. We’d additionally go to Toronto and see the large industrial reveals. I used to be a director in school and I carried out a little bit bit in highschool. I’ve at all times simply beloved the shape. However I additionally beloved writing, so I studied English in school, which felt like a extra sensible educational pursuit, although it was by no means. I beloved literary criticism as a lot as something.
After I got here out of school, I labored within the theatre business on the company aspect. I spent about seven years working at expertise businesses, first at a smaller company for actors, a whole lot of whom are massive Broadway stars now, after they have been getting their begin about 20 years in the past. Then I labored at CAA within the theatre division, and my boss represented playwrights and administrators. So I obtained to know a whole lot of how issues work behind the scenes, how reveals come collectively—all of the ins and outs of how new work will get made. That was actually eye-opening. However it simply wasn’t a path I wished to pursue, so I left and went to grad faculty for English literature once more, simply eager to get again into my head and again on the web page. After I completed that program, a pal of a pal wanted somebody to write down about theatre for Towleroad, a queer information and leisure web site. I did that for 10 years, nearly, and I may actually form of write no matter I wished. It was an incredible platform for me to simply work out learn how to write about theatre and what my voice was. That was form of a moonlighting factor I might do alone time, whereas I additionally labored as a duplicate editor and as an editor in digital media, and ultimately went freelance full-time, doing principally writing but in addition some enhancing.
That company background is fascinating. There’s a notion you’ll hear that critics can be higher or extra reliable if that they had some background as practitioners within the subject they cowl, which I don’t suppose is true as a rule or a really perfect, although I’m not against people crossing over. Having a background on the company aspect is a complete different factor. How does that have an effect on your criticism?
I have a look at it as an business. I see who’s getting paid for what, which novels are within the public area—that’s why we’re getting all these Nice Gatsbys. I see which producers are working with which massive expertise. In case you see big-name stars, administrators, and playwrights all on the identical reveals, you’re like: Oh, they’re all repped by the identical brokers. I simply form of take note of the patterns. I’m nonetheless pleasant with folks from that point; I’m not tremendous up-to-date on it, nevertheless it’s positively very fascinating to take a look at it from the enterprise aspect, and to see how that intersects with what we wind up with onstage artistically.
I imply, it’s straightforward to wring your palms and say, “Why is all of this current IP onstage?” and to think about there’s some form of creative god who’s giving or not supplying you with what you need. However there are such a lot of forces which can be shaping what we’re getting, and a whole lot of it on this nation is a industrial crucial—the choices which can be made behind the scenes for what we find yourself with onstage, a whole lot of them don’t have anything to do with artwork. That’s simply one thing that I’m conscious of in a whole lot of completely different contexts, together with what nonprofits are programming—like, are they programming this as a result of they’ve a relationship with this playwright and so they’re at all times gonna do his performs? Are they at all times going to do one thing that brings in crowds, after which subsequent do one thing that’s extra experimental? I’m at all times it from that perspective. It’s pure to me.
Because you talked about nonprofits, that’s a very good segue to ask you about Washington, D.C., particularly, the place there’s a smattering of economic theatre however the place the lion’s share of theatre is at nonprofits of all sizes. What’s your protection mandate on the Publish, and what kind of ratio of New York vs. DMV stuff will you be masking?
I’m very delicate and conscious of the truth that Washington, D.C., readers and theatres, the neighborhood, actually need a native critic. I’m conscious of that; I take that very severely. They need somebody who’s engaged and current and seeing these reveals and responding to them. That’s a very vital a part of the job that I’m not taking flippantly, that I’m going to make a core a part of what I’m doing. I feel there are additionally no illusions about the truth that New York is the middle of economic theatre within the nation, and performs which can be on Broadway find yourself going out to the areas and vice versa; there’s a relationship that’s ongoing and goes in each instructions. So New York protection is at all times going to be an vital a part of any nationwide theatre part, and I’m well-situated and well-versed to care for that a part of it. Since I haven’t began but, we’re going to really feel out how a lot I’ll be touring and masking reveals across the nation and in London. However I feel, once more, the first tasks will probably be fulfilling that native critic duty in D.C., after which additionally masking the middle of the theatre business. We’ll see what I’ve the bandwidth for.
When new creative leaders come right into a theatre or a city they don’t know nicely, they typically discuss doing a form of listening tour to listen to what’s on folks’s minds. Do you intend one thing comparable in D.C.?
I’m positively open to assembly folks and connecting with creative leaders, attending to know them and listening to their issues and what they need from protection. It’s thrilling for me to get to know a brand new metropolis and a brand new scene. I feel there are some individuals who, as I mentioned, would have wished somebody inside D.C. who is aware of the scene. I hear that, and I feel it additionally might be thrilling to have a recent perspective in your scene. I actually discover it personally and professionally thrilling, and I hope the neighborhood can see it in the identical manner—that somebody coming in with a beneficiant, open, curious thoughts about what the scene is can cowl it with a form of vigor and freshness that can assist everybody have a brand new perspective.
One other factor your predecessor, Peter Marks, and different main critics have been doing is to combine evaluations with reported items. I do know from writing you’ve completed, together with for us, that these abilities are in your wheelhouse too. Will you be mixing it up that manner on the Publish?
I positively plan to write down greater than evaluations: essays, commentary, reporting. I feel it’s extensive open for what I discover thrilling and fascinating, and in what course I wish to lead the part.
I’ve principally learn your theatre evaluations of particular person reveals (and by the way in which, thanks for being one of many few Cabaret followers, as am I), so I don’t know your bigger tackle the well being of the American theatre generally. How do you suppose the business is faring general, some years after the Covid lockdown and We See You, White American Theater?
I’ve lined the business in disaster at completely different levels of it, and I used to be paying very shut consideration through the shutdown, after which all of the panicking and existentialism of the second we reopened. There’s been a whole lot of deep considering and listening that has gone on during the last 4 or 5 years, and we’re nonetheless seeing the place that’s main. I feel everybody has one of the best of intentions proper now, and that bringing the urgency of the survival of the business to the fore in the way in which that the final a number of years have completed has been very productive when it comes to our occupied with, who’s theatre for? Who’re we serving? Who’s onstage, and who’s making the choices about who’s onstage? That has gotten a whole lot of thought-about consideration, and a whole lot of modifications have been made. We’re in such early levels and we’re nonetheless seeing how that’s enjoying out.
Definitely on Broadway this season, there was such quite a lot of issues that I feel it’s a testomony to a very broad and diversified urge for food amongst shoppers and traders and producers about what they wish to be placing on. And I feel that vibrancy of selection—that you possibly can go see a really severe, prickly drama or a very enjoyable, foolish musical—is what folks need. Audiences are complicated, and I feel we’re at all times going to be figuring ourselves out. It’s not an business that’s going to simply discover a solution someday, and suppose, Oh, phew, we’ve obtained it now. I feel asking actually massive questions is tough, and there aren’t straightforward solutions, however asking them is step one, and a whole lot of good folks have been doing that and making use of themselves to learn how to reply them. I feel there’s a whole lot of potential there to see what they give you.
The opposite business I wish to ask you about is our personal. As an affiliate director on the O’Neill critics institute, you mentor a whole lot of younger critics. What do you inform them concerning the subject they hope to enter?
One the explanations I’m very honored and humbled to have this place is that I by no means assumed it could be doable. Ever since I’ve been a theatre journalist, we’ve been asking this query of who’s studying it? What’s it for? What’s subsequent? The angle I’ve from working on the O’Neill and the sensible writers we now have each summer season is that there’s such an urge for food for writing concerning the arts, for considering deeply about theatre and media and for participating with it critically, and for serving to readers perceive and dig into it. That is maybe idealistic, however I feel there’ll at all times be a necessity and a want to dig into the tales in our tradition. Tales that we’re being informed throughout each media have which means, they mirror who we’re and our deepest wishes and fears, and there’s at all times going to be a necessity for us to know that and to be in dialog with that. Even a passive shopper of media who’s zoning out to a TV present, that TV present nonetheless has a narrative it’s telling you, that’s seeping into your bloodstream and your consciousness, and it’s shaping folks. So I feel there’s a sturdy and protracted want for what we’re doing.
The shape it takes is clearly altering, and it must—it wants to fulfill readers the place they’re, and reply to the artwork kinds as they alter and to expertise. I feel the concept that criticism at all times has to look the identical or have the identical which means, that it could possibly open or shut a present or get folks to purchase tickets—we now have to think about all these issues as malleable. There’s no proper manner for it to be. Life is change, and in case you’re continuously holding onto the way in which issues was, you’re going to convey your self a whole lot of struggling. That’s to not say it isn’t tough proper now. We’re asking tough questions in the identical manner that theatre business is, however I feel the very fact a whole lot of sensible individuals are asking the identical questions and making use of ourselves to them means there’s potential there for determining a manner ahead.
So are we going to see you on TikTok, Naveen?
That may be one other studying curve for me.
Rob Weinert-Kendt (he/him) is the editor-in-chief of American Theatre.
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