{"id":37913,"date":"2016-03-03T17:10:05","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T21:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=37913"},"modified":"2016-03-03T17:21:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T21:21:18","slug":"brock-prof-lands-gig-as-toronto-star-theatre-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/03\/brock-prof-lands-gig-as-toronto-star-theatre-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock prof lands gig as Toronto Star theatre critic"},"content":{"rendered":"

P<\/span><\/p>\n

rofessor Karen Fricker has spent the last three years training Brock University students to critique theatre.<\/p>\n

She will soon be practising what she teaches after landing the role of theatre critic for the Toronto Star, Canada\u2019s largest, most-read newspaper.<\/p>\n

The Brock University Dramatic Arts assistant professor isn\u2019t new to the theatre beat \u2013 her resume includes 25 years of experience for outlets including The Guardian and Variety. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of Irish Theatre Magazine, a publication that operated from 1998-2014.<\/p>\n

At the Star, Fricker will be reviewing major show openings in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas as well as writing feature articles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like an un-dreamed-of privilege to get to have a platform like this at this point in my career,\u201d she says. \u201cToronto is a really exciting and mature theatre market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theatre scene in the GTHA is rich with plenty of interesting things happening \u2013 from major musicals to performance art to original Canadian plays in storefront theatres.<\/p>\n

Fricker can\u2019t wait to see them all and share her observations and critiques with Canadians.<\/p>\n

And, she\u2019s looking forward to sharing her excitement with students, whose critiques are published \u00a0on Brock\u2019s DARTcritics.com <\/a>blog. She started the blog in 2013 to offer students an avenue to be published and edited.<\/p>\n

She plans to make sure her students benefit from the work she\u2019s doing for the Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents will gain a strong sense of connection and understanding of how professional arts criticism works,\u201d she says.
\n\u201cThey will have the opportunity to see their professor go through the same exercises they do and maybe even give her some feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fricker says she\u2019s grateful to be working at Brock both because it\u2019s an exciting time in the arts with the opening of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and because it\u2019s a university that encourages professors to pursue their creative interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a creator, being an artist, has equal standing to being a scholar and producing peer-reviewed research,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Fricker says the Star opportunity fits her creative and research interests of questioning arts criticism in the digital age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider this a part of my research,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a time of extraordinary possibility and growth for criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

DARTcritics.com\u00a0is a response to that research interest and the question of how to turn an earnest blog into trusted criticism. The site has grown from a space for outstanding reviews by third-year students as part of their coursework to include reviews and features by students and recent graduates who are paid for their work. Fricker hopes that the site will continue to blossom into a year-round source of quality arts criticism in Niagara.<\/p>\n

Fricker\u2019s role with the Star was announced Thursday. She\u2019s looking forward to reviewing her first production for the paper this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Karen Fricker has spent the last three years training Brock University students to critique theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":37914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,37,4],"tags":[3891,656,3166,3892],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37913"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37918,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions\/37918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}