I have been writing about dance and theater for more than 40 years, first when I lived in NY and then after my family moved to VA, where I wrote regularly for The Richmond Free Press for seven years and then for The Richmond Times-Dispatch for another 10-12 years. I have enjoyed it all, and learned a great deal from those experiences, as well as from free-lancing for various publications from The Village Voice to academic journals and even a Volkswagen magazine that was published in Brazil. (The asked me to write an article about capoeira when they opened a new auto plant in Brazil.)
Editors and the people who make financial decisions at newspapers have great power when it comes to the arts. Performing arts reviews may appear next to the obituaries, or get cut altogether because of lack of space or to make room for an ad. I’ve had an editor who used to change my reviews if he did not like what I had to say about a performance. I would rush to see the paper to find out what I had written – it was as much a surprise to me as it was to the readers/subscribers. Over the years there have been many occasions when I have had to tell an artistic director or public relations manager that I could not review a production or that the review I had written would not be published. There was no room, there were not enough readers, or the production did not run long enough are the most frequent reasons given for having a review “killed.”
I say all that as background for this blog. RVArt Review is a place to read timely reviews of dance and theater performances – and potentially other art forms as well – that are part of the Richmond theater community. I hope you find it helpful, and I welcome your feedback.
-Julinda, January 10, 2018, revised July 10, 2021 (3.5 years & 208 reviews later)
Member: American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
RVArt Review 