“A critic should always strive to recapture the sense of wonder and surprise with which he first beheld a now-familiar work of art.” ShouldFirstsArtWonderSurpriseCriticsStriveFamiliarWorks Of ArtSense Of Wonder Author:Terry Teachout
“That's something you can't get off the wires in New York is people providing intelligent coverage of what your theater company in Podunk is up to. Many of the people who write what we call amateur criticism are professionals in anything other than name and receiving a paycheck. Very often, they know more than the professional critic who might be writing for their local newspaper. So, really, I'm all for it. It's changing the playing field, it's shaking things up, it's going to make the critical environment a healthier environment.” PeopleWritingEnvironmentCriticismIntelligentCriticsWireShaking Author:Terry Teachout
“Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. It's not like the conductor in the symphony orchestra performance because he's standing in front of you waiving his arms. You now what he's doing. You don't know what the director is doing unless you know a lot about theater and even then you can only deduce it. You know it when you go to rehearsal. You really know it when they are rehearsing something of yours. I learned more in the rehearsals for The Letter than I have ever dreamed of know in the theater as a critic. If it doesn't make me a better critic, I'm an idiot.” ArtCriticsInvisibleIdiotTheatricalConductor Author:Terry Teachout
“There will be this mix of people like me who write for major national newspapers and amateur critics, practitioner critics, whose primary way of distributing what they talk about is through blogs and on the web. The line between professional and amateur criticism will become increasingly blurred. The problem here is that if you want to do this for a living, you have to be able to earn a living doing it.” PeopleWritingProblemCriticismCritics Author:Terry Teachout
“Virgil Thomson, the great classical music critic, who was also a composer, but said that criticism was the only antidote he knew to pay publicity. Critics at their best are independent voices people take seriously their responsibility to see as many things as they can see, put them in the widest possible perspective, educate their readers, I really do think of myself as a teacher. Newspapers that don't carry arts criticism at all while not fulfill this function. And probably their arts journalism will be deprived as a result.” PeopleThinkingArtResponsibilityTeacherPerspectiveCriticismIndependentCriticsJournalismEducateComposerClassical Music Author:Terry Teachout
