Brittani Samuel, a freelance theater critic who writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Broadway News, has been named winner of the 2023-24 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.
The award committee praised Samuel for her “impressive breadth of address to the playgoing public,” foregrounding “the critic’s own social position in an effort to promote more thoughtful and empathetic theatergoing.”
Conferred by the Chairs of the Departments of English at Cornell, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the Nathan Award is administered by Cornell’s Department of Literatures in English in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Nathan committee noted that Samuel “seeks to democratize the role of the critic,” by weaving “critical self-reflection through her discerning evaluation and precise, evocative prose.” The committee singled out her review of Raja Feather Kelly’s dance theater piece “The Fires,” published in The New York Times, as exemplifying Samuel’s critical acumen and distinctive voice. Her rhetoric parallels Kelly’s artistry, rhythmically swirling with balletic grace.
In her reviewing for Broadway News, Samuel has explained that “as a critic, I aim to balance the reality of my lived experience and a production’s take on that experience. I can’t exactly override my partialities (no one can) upon entering a show, but I keep my skull cracked open.” In such critical writing, and as the co-editor of the Obie award-winning web publication 3Views on Theater, Samuel embraces her journal’s mission of “respect for the artist” and commitment to “change how we measure value and success in the theater.”
The award was endowed by George Jean Nathan (1882-1958) “to encourage and assist in developing the art of drama criticism and the stimulation of intelligent playgoing.” Nathan graduated from Cornell in 1904 and became the leading theatre critic of his era. A reviewer with exceedingly high standards, he co-edited the magazine The Smart Set and wrote over 40 books, including his highly regarded essay collections “The Critic and the Drama” and “The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan.”
An archive of Nathan’s papers, correspondence, books and related artifacts are held in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Cornell University Library.
Recent Nathan Award winners include Rhoda Feng, Vinson Cunningham, Maya Phillips, Alexis Soloski and Soraya Nadia McDonald.
