Critics’ Table
ABOUT
A diverse roundtable of theater critics that review current Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Every episode features three luminary theater critics ready to give you their opinions on some of your favorite shows. The table looks forward to you pulling up a chair and joining them!
Intention – To create room for more diverse theater criticism and thought. To offer jobs to rising theater journalists in the community and offer different perspectives.
This podcast is created in partnership with the BIPOC Critics Lab.
Read more about the BIPOC Critics Lab
In the BIPOC Critics Lab, lifelines are encouraged over deadlines, and criticism is approached through a multimedia lens, in which podcasting, audiovisual techniques, and social media are as valuable as being skilled in written essays and traditional reviews. Critics conclude their lab experience with their first paid published piece and leave with practical knowledge, tools for decolonization, and a reminder that in order to honor the culture and artforms they’re covering, they must first honor their individual voices.
WAYS TO LISTEN
Episodes
Paradise Square
Oratorio for Living Things
Critics’ Table – Podcast Trailer
OUR CRITICS
Juan Michael Porter II
(he/him)
Ekemini Ekpo
(she/her)
Ran Xia
(she/her)
Christian Lewis
(they/them/theirs)
Bedatri D. Choudhury
(she/her)
Rishi Mutalik
(he/him)
Juan Michael Porter II (he/him) is a Black queer man living with HIV in the middle of Brooklyn. He is the staff writer of TheBody.com and an active contributor to Did They Like It?, TDF Stages, and American Theatre. He has written for PBS, SF Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, NY Observer, Playbill, and Time Out NY. Juan Michael is a 2020 National Critics Institute and 2021 Poynter Power of Diverse Voices fellow, as well as the first Black man to serve as a nominator of the Drama Desk Awards.
Website: http://juanmichael.com/
Ran Xia (she/her) is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based Playwright/Director/Audiogremlin. Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Resident Director at the Tank (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019, In Blue, Tallest Man in the World, etc.); Guest director at Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Montclair State (Randi & Roxanne), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co (Zoetrope, Memory House, and many more); audio producer at Black Revolutionary Media. Directing Fellow at Westport Playhouse. Upcoming: Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird at Rattlestick Global Form Festival. Ranxia.info
Her reviews are linked at: ranxia.info/critic.
Bedatri D. Choudhury (she/her) is a film critic and culture journalist, born and raised in India, and living in New York City. She is presently the Managing Editor of Documentary magazine.
Christian Lewis (they/them/theirs) is a queer nonbinary freelance theatre critic with published pieces in American Theatre, Theatermania, Theaterly, The Brooklyn Rail, HuffPost, BroadwayWorld, Medium, Exeunt, Out, and is part of the critic cohort at Did They Like It? Christian is also a member of the Outer Critics Circle. They cohost What’s Up Broadway? and have been a guest on The Fabulous Invalid and Stage Left. They also have been featured on panels about queer and trans representation in theater from The Brain Lab and RE: THEATRE. Christian is (far too) active on twitter and can be found @clewisreviews. In addition to all the theater stuff, Christian has a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center.
Rishi Mutalik (he/him) is an actor, singer, and writer based in New York City. His professional acting credits include The Rose Tattoo (Acting Company) with Patti LuPone and Bobby Cannavale, Camelot ( Lincoln Center) with Gabriel Byrne, and Brundibar and Comedy on the Bridge (Yale Repertory Theater). Rishi is the co-author of the play Color Coded and a member of the second cohort of the BIPOC Critic Lab. He is excited to use this platform to bridge the conversation between theatermakers and critics. Outside of the theater, Rishi works for the non-profit Girls Who Code and serves as a standardized patient for the Yale School of Medicine. He is also deeply passionate about South Asian American storytelling, tennis, and pizza. You can follow him on Twitter @RishiMutalik and subscribe to his newsletter, Sages and Stages.
Ekemini Ekpo (she/her) is a New York-based, Nigerian-American theatre-maker and cultural critic. She has performed with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, The 24 Hour Plays, Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop, Apollinaire Theatre Company, and The Playground Experiment, among others. She is a member of the BIPOC Critics Lab, conceived by Jose Solís and run in association with the Kennedy Center, and the 2021 IGNITE Mentorship cohort for emerging women and non-binary artists of color. Ekemini is a graduate of Harvard College, and is currently training at the Atlantic Acting School.
IG: @e.u.ekpo
Website: ekeminiekpo.com