Members of The Dramatists Guild of America, the organization of playwrights, of which I have been an active member for many years, was in an unusually feisty mood in a review they let howl at a theater critic in the Windy City. What was the occasion of the lambasting?
A long-time critic for The Chicago Sun-Times reviewed some musicals that were works in progress at Theater Building Chicago, a venue that has been attempting to nourish the struggling art form for many years. The critic, one Hedy Weiss, had deigned to review its showcase performances in previous years but apparently her opinions were not so flagrantly intolerant for the head of the theater to ask her to absent herself until one or more of the works might mature enough to be presented in a more critic-friendly manner. Not so this year.