Dramatists Guild condemns workshop review

A veteran Chicago Sun-Times theater critic who panned a two-day festival of work-in-progress musicals, calling them deeply flawed, has inspired outrage.

Hedy Weiss, a Chicago theater critic for 20 years, was invited to the Theater Building of Chicago to see eight workshopped plays that were part of Stages, a weekend festival, The New York Times reported.

Weiss had written features and reviews of Stages in past years and was always invited back. But this year, she wrote the plays were not ready for prime time.

Her critique outraged the Dramatists Guild of America, angering playwrights Edward Albee and Tony Kushner and composer Stephen Schwartz.

Guild President John Weidman wrote to the Sun-Times' publisher, saying Weiss' review was a shocking and irresponsible betrayal of one of the fundamental understandings which makes the creation of new work possible.

If you are given a press kit and if you are given pictures, what are you supposed to do with them? Weiss asked in a New York Times telephone interview.

A Chicago Sun-Times editorial said positive reviews seemed acceptable but negative reviews appeared to be a problem. The theater should not invite reviewers if it does not want reviews, its editors said.

(UPI)

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