The Dirty Dozen

The above was our half-joking working title at American Theatre for this great new feature by David Cote, which surveys 12 of the nation's most influential theater critics about the state of the arts, and the state of arts coverage, in their respective markets. It's an excellent national panorama, and inspires something like cautious hope for the form. I liked in particular the profile of John Moore, critic for the Denver Post:

Moore's statewide beat sends him tooling for hours over mountain roads in his 2004 Subaru Forester. "I'm putting a lot of miles on my car," he says with a laugh. "But we think it's important to focus not just on the metro area. Outside of Denver, you've got Theatre Aspen and the Creede Repertory Theatre, which was started by Mandy Patinkin, but it's 250 miles from Denver."

..."These mountain-town theatres don't just add to the economy. Some actually drive the economies. Mineral County has only 450 residents and Creede Rep is one of its largest employers. It draws audiences from all over Colorado, New Mexico and Dallas. They get 20,000 people to see seven or eight shows in rep in a tiny town. And they don't just do light summer fare. This past summer, Creede did The Road to Mecca. It's, like, great theatre in the strangest places."

That's always American Theatre's beat.