NEW YORK CITY: New York magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss announced today that Sara Holdren will join the magazine and its entertainment site Vulture as lead theatre critic. Holdren is an accomplished director and theatremaker who will bring an original perspective to the role of critic. She will write reviews as well as more essayistic pieces, and begins her role July 31.
“We were looking for a fresh, exciting voice, and we found her,” Moss said in a statement. “Sara never imagined herself a critic, but she has the makings of a great one. She comes at theatre criticism from an unusual background and perspective, which will be helpful, but she also happens to be a wonderful critical writer—vivid, wry, interesting, impassioned. We’re excited to welcome her to the dialogue.”
Holdren has worked as a freelance theatre director based in New York City, and is the artistic director and cofounder of the theatre company Tiltyard. Recent projects include MIDSUMMER (which she co-adapted from the play by William Shakespeare) with Tiltyard, Deer and the Lovers by Emily Zemba, The Zero Scenario by Ryan Campbell, and The Master and Margarita, adapted by Edward Kemp from the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. She holds a B.A. in theatre from Yale University and an M.F.A. in directing from Yale School of Drama, and was a 2016 Drama League Fellow.
“I am thrilled to set out with New York magazine upon this new path in my life as a maker, viewer, and lover of theatre,” Holdren said in a statement. “I have thrown myself into the glorious tumult of playmaking from almost every angle—director, actor, designer, producer, technical staff, usher, student, teacher, audience member—and I am keenly aware of the honor and responsibility of adding ‘critic’ to this list.”
Holdren succeeds Jesse Green in a post previously held by Scott Brown, Jeremy McCarter, and John Simon. As Green said in an interview after he was hired as The New York Times‘ co-chief theatre critic, editor Moss has a history of talent-spotting promising writers and convincing them they can be critics. A sample of Holdren’s writing can be found here.
