Yarger Selected for Critics Insitute

Everybody’s a critic, but only the best ones get full ride scholarships to The O’Neill Critics Institute. Lauren Yarger, Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. learned last week that she is one of the best. The prestigious program is the only one of its kind in the country and accepts only a handful of applicants each year. Lauren, who has an extensive journalism background but is new to writing theatre reviews, didn’t think she stood much of a chance of being accepted into the program as it is not for novices, but, when Director Dan Sullivan read a few of her reviews, he asked her if she would like to attend this summer’s Institute – on full scholarship.

The Institute is a boot camp for critics. For two weeks in July it runs concurrently with the national Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference on the O’Neill grounds in Waterford, CT. Fellows experience an intensive writing workshop and turn out a piece of copy nearly every night: a review of the previous night’s show, a description of an individual actor’s performance, and interview with a director. Then the copy is dissected by the group under the direction of a seasoned theater writer or editor. Sullivan, who reviewed theater for the Los Angeles Times for 20 years, said, “It’s a tough two weeks, not a vacation at the beach…For two weeks we live and breathe theater…There’s no other program like it.”

Lauren has been involved in just about every aspect of theater imaginable from writing scripts to producing shows, but critical review is a new endeavor for her.
“God just keeps opening doors!” she said.

Her reviews can be found at http://masterworkproductions.homestead.com/reviews.html
and http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/