The headline on my computer screen announcing Richard Christiansen’s retirement referred to 40 years of his observing Chicago theater. Yes, he has done that.
Almost unique among critics, though, I think he has had a big share in making Chicago theater. The old saw about somebody needing to be there to hear the tree falling in the forest applies especially to work on the stage. Christiansen has spent the last 40 years going into the forest, finding wonderful work and talented people, and also encouraging readers into that forest. He has helped create an appetite in Chicago for theater on a high level, and where there’s an appetite, there’s an incentive to meet that appetite, which leads to the creation of more new theater.
Those of us who have been reviewed by him over the years know that, even when he has taken us to task, he has been a valued collaborator in generating the Chicago theater renaissance. I seriously doubt that the proliferation on Chicago stages we enjoy today would have happened without him.
It’s time for someone to name a theater for him. It would be an appropriate way to begin to say thank you and express our love.
