As mentioned in an earlier post, the St. Pete Times' John Fleming has raised conflict-of-interest questions re Creative Loafing's theater critic, Mark E. Leib, who has reviewed shows at theaters where he either has or will have readings or productions of his plays. In making his argument, Fleming allowed that it wasn't unheard of for critics to also be playwrights, and mentioned Village Voice theater critic Michael Feingold, who is also a playwright and translator, as a prominent example.
I know Michael, so I emailed him to get his take on the issue. Interestingly enough, he also knows Mark: he was the dramaturg for a production of one of Mark's plays when it was staged at ART in Cambridge, MA. While Michael was happy to hear of another writer following the "classic dual path" of theater critic/playwright, he acknowledged there are pitfalls. Here's what he said:
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2009.