{"id":54093,"date":"2018-10-30T15:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T19:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=54093"},"modified":"2018-10-30T17:05:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T21:05:30","slug":"dart-prof-wins-national-award-for-theatre-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/10\/dart-prof-wins-national-award-for-theatre-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"DART prof wins national award for theatre criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karen Fricker is getting rave reviews from a respected national audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The associate professor in Brock\u2019s Department of Dramatic Arts is being honoured with the 2018 Nathan Cohen Award for excellence in critical writing by the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fricker won the award\u2019s short category for her 2016 <\/span>Toronto Star<\/span><\/em> review<\/span><\/a> of Michel Tremblay\u2019s classic <\/span>Hosanna<\/span><\/em>, as revived by Toronto\u2019s Soulpepper Theatre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fricker, whose research areas include Quebec theatre, said the play is a complicated touchstone of Quebecois culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA big challenge of writing this review was trying to use the research-based knowledge I had about the play without being overwhelmed by it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a really hard review to write, so it\u2019s gratifying that it\u2019s being recognized.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fricker has a long history with theatre criticism, having written for outlets including <\/span>The Guardian<\/span><\/em> and <\/span>Variety<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>as well as being the founding editor-in-chief of <\/span>I<\/span>rish Theatre Magazine<\/span><\/em>, a publication that operated from 1998 to 2014<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> She has written for the <\/span>Toronto Star<\/span><\/em> since March 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fricker joined Brock\u2019s Department of Dramatic Arts in 2013. Her research interests include contemporary theatre and globalization, popular performances of nation and cultural identities, and theatre criticism. Recent projects have included work on<\/span> circus performance<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits between my work at Brock and at the <\/span>Toronto Star<\/span><\/em> flow both ways,\u201d Fricker said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI try to connect students in my courses to what\u2019s happening in GTA theatre, and we learn from each other\u2019s responses to the work. When we publish their edited reviews on the DARTcritics website, their voices enter the broader dialogue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of her interest in arts criticism in the digital age, Fricker established the blog\u00a0<\/span>DARTcritics.com<\/span><\/a> to provide students with an opportunity to publish their work. The site grew from a space for student coursework to a year-round source of quality arts criticism in Niagara. The site now includes reviews and features by students and graduates who are paid for their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nathan Cohen Awards were established in 1981 and are given out every two years to honour outstanding critical writing about theatre and performance in print or electronic media. The awards are named after legendary <\/span>Toronto Star<\/span><\/i> and CBC critic Nathan Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n

A history of the awards and past recipients may be found on the <\/span>CTCA\u00a0website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fricker will receive her award in December at a special luncheon in Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karen Fricker is getting rave reviews from a respected national audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":54097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,37,1,4],"tags":[6442,30,3166,2518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54093"}],"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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54098,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54093\/revisions\/54098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}