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25 Theater Journalists Chosen for the Second Annual
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December 8, 2005
USC Annenberg School for Communication announced today that 25 arts journalists have been chosen from 20 states to participate as fellows in the second National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. With support from the NEA, the Institute will be administered by USC Annenberg's School of Journalism in Los Angeles from January 9 to January 20, 2006.
"The vitality of the arts depends more than most people think on lively and informed criticism, especially local reviews and coverage from their own communities. Outside our major cities, journalists who cover the arts often are overextended with multiple beats and assignments that allow few opportunities to concentrate on various artistic disciplines," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "USC Annenberg has created an exemplary program of professional development for arts journalists."
The groundbreaking program is part of a $1 million NEA initiative to offer intensive training for theater critics and their editors who work outside the country's top three major theater centers. Sasha Anawalt, author, critic and founding director of the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, will again direct the NEA Institute in Theater and Musical Theater.
Participants in USC Annenberg's 2006 NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater include theater critics, editors, features writers, and arts & entertainment editors from newspapers, radio outlets and television stations. The 25 NEA Fellows are:
The institute is a rigorous 10-day program that aims to improve the quality of theater coverage through writing workshops, history lectures, acting and directing classes, observation of rehearsals, encounters with theater professionals, and the viewing and critique of performances of classic and contemporary plays and musicals.
Guest faculty for the program include Robert Brustein, founding director and creative consultant of American Repertory Theater and theater critic for The New Republic; Ben Cameron, executive director of Theatre Communications Group; Misha Berson, chief theater critic for the Seattle Times; and Jack Viertel, creative director of Broadway's Jujamcyn Theaters and former dramaturge at the Mark Taper Forum.
The Theater and Musical Theater Institute at USC Annenberg is one of three NEA Journalism Institutes, along with the Institute for Music and Opera at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, and the Institute for Dance at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.
For more information about the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater, visit http://annenberg.usc.edu/nea.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
The USC Annenberg School for Communication is one of the nation's leading institutions devoted to the study of journalism and communication, and their impact on politics, culture and society. With an enrollment of more than 1,500 graduate and undergraduate students, USC Annenberg prepares students for academic and professional success in these fields.
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