Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune Chief Critic Emeritus
By Margaret Sheridan

Chicago Theater was born in attics, basements and store-fronts. Many communities could draw from their own neighborhoods for cultural sustenance. Making a trip to the Loop to see a play in the 60s was a choice, not a necessity. This lack of pretense, driven by raw energy, would come to make Chicago a nationally significant incubator for new works and fresh talent.

For more than 40 years, this evolution was methodically reported, critiqued, supported and prognosticated by the tireless efforts of Richard Christiansen. The journalist and intellect behind the by-lines of critic-at-large at the Chicago Daily News then the Chicago Tribune, is being honored this year for his contributions to theater by Victory Gardens Theater.

In March, named its newly created second-floor, 109-seat theater after Christiansen. The room’s intimacy, size and leanness are fitting.  “It’s typical of how Chicago theater started’’ says Dennis Zacek, artistic director, Victory Gardens. “We all owe Richard.  Now is the time to celebrate him.’’

Christiansen retired from the Chicago Tribune in 2002. Yet, he remains an avid fan and participant in theater – locally, nationally and internationally. At 78, he rarely misses an opening, and continues to write and speak on his passion. His book A Theater of Our Own: A History and a Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2004) chronicles Chicago theater from its early years in the 1830s into the new millennium.

“Without Richard Christiansen, David Mamet might have taken much longer to catch the world’s ear,’’ says BJ Jones, Artistic Director, Northlight Theater. “Steppenwolf might not have moved from Highland Park to be closer to a growing array of fans his reviews were amassing in the city. Christiansen’s work chronicles how a critic and a community built a world-class theater industry with hungry fans and ravenous artists.”  

He used his knowledge and professional commitment to report to the community and build relationships for actors, directors and playwrights, according to Sandy Shinner, Associate Artistic Director, Victory Gardens Theater. Yet, he served as the critic and upheld his responsibility to judge on behalf of that community. Not all reviews were favorable, but they were constructive.   

To balance the demands of supporting progressive theater and retaining critical objectivity is extremely difficult, according to Michael Billington, theatre critic for The Guardian, London. “It is more difficult in America (than England) where there is usually one or two dominant newspapers…in a city and a critic’s words carry huge weight and influence,’’ writes Billington. “Richard has walked that particular tightrope with admirable precision and grace.’’  

New works and artists continue to excite Christiansen. He understands the journey of an artist, what it takes to create a work of art, and the bumps and bruises that go along with that journey. “He is a good man with an aesthetic of his own. He loves art,’’ says Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director and Founder, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. “He knows how much it takes to make a work of art, that an artist must open up his soul. His intent was to bring and give life to Chicago theater. His was an altruistic journey.’’    

He once described his style of criticism as “informed opinion,” honed by the demands of journalism, where accuracy and objectivity count before opinion. He wrote for a broad audience. “Those who knew more… and those who only wanted to know if the show was worth the price of the ticket. So, you give information,’’ he says.

His respect for and acknowledgement of peers and their influence on him, go to many. Among them, the late Brooks Atkinson, theater critic for New York Times, and the late Pauline Kael, the New Yorker film critic, “who was fun to read and wrote with vigor and excitement”. The late Claudia Cassidy, a powerful force in Chicago arts criticism, encouraged him, even though they often disagreed. He admired the works of Eric Bentley, the British-born playwright and drama critic for the New Republic, who blended information, wit and intelligence.   

Christiansen was raised in Oak Park, Illinois and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in English in 1953 from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota where he was active in drama and the student newspaper.

With sights set on earning a PhD in English, he did post-graduate work at Harvard. But Cambridge's academic atmosphere didn’t suit a restless and curious nature. Instead of pursuing a graduate degree, he accepted a three-month internship at Time, Inc. in New York City. The training program shaped writing and reporting skills by producing stories for diverse magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Time, Life and Fortune.

But life in New York was cut short when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served two years in Europe. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, his assignment was safeguarding the military’s insured and registered mail on trains that traveled from Hamburg to Munich and Paris.  A comfortable familiarity with Paris and its arts scene became his haunt from Saturday mornings to Monday. 

Upon discharge in 1956, Christiansen declined Time, Inc.’s offer of full-time employment as a magazine writer in New York. Instead of working in a faceless gallery of writers, he decided to return to Chicago. The excitement of newspapers, the power of a by-line and the opportunity, ultimately, to write about the performing arts, dictated the decision. He was hired as an intern by the City News Bureau in 1956, the legendary boot camp for Chicago journalists. There he met another cub reporter, Mike Royko. Their friendship, which lasted decades, strengthened when both accepted jobs one year later at the Chicago Daily News.  

Christiansen worked the dreaded night shift for three years as rewrite editor, a job he describes as “the emergency room of journalism’. He credits his talent and skill for writing clean copy on impossibly short deadlines to that stint. It was also at the Daily News where he exercised his knowledge and passion in writing on theater, dance, TV, movies and pop music. Ultimately, he became editor of Panorama in 1964, the inspired arts section created by his mentor, the late Herman Kogan.      

With the demise of the Chicago Daily News, his plan to work for the Chicago Sun-Times was thwarted by an offer in 1978 from Larry Townsend, the then-entertainment editor at the Chicago Tribune, to join the paper as its “critic-at-large” on the culture/entertainment beat.

His responsibilities continued to expand. He became the Arts & Entertainment editor and in that role was instrumental in raising the national profile of Chicago’s burgeoning arts scene. He supervised the work of critics in music (pop and classical) movies, art and architecture. At the same time he managed to serve as reporter and critic on the theater and dance beat. Commissioner Lois Weisberg of the Department of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago comments "today, visitors from all over the world come to see Chicago's vibrant off-Loop theater scene.  It is a testament to Richard's early commitment to cover the work coming out of the many community-based theaters that were home to our young actors, directors, designers and playwrights.  The theater community owes a debt of gratitude to his passion for the arts and his dogged determination in ensuring that these smaller theaters achieve recognition."

After Christiansen retired as chief critic and senior writer from the Chicago Tribune, the theater community gifted him with an universal pass to all theaters and performances, to which he quipped: “Life doesn’t get better than this.’’     

Margaret Sheridan is a Chicago-based journalist, who has worked full-time as a reporter for The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and South China Morning Post (Hong Kong).