For several years, I headed the American Theatre Critics Association’s membership committee, so anyone who applied had to get past me. It wasn’t hard. I’d quickly review the person’s credentials—education, work experience—read the requisite eight published reviews, and in the vast majority of cases, gave my OK.

In those days you were a “professional” theatre critic if you were paid to review plays on a regular basis by some established entity—usually a newspaper, but I also reviewed applicants from radio and TV and, increasingly with each passing year, websites. The pretenders, people who set up their own sites or contributed to others mainly as a ploy for free show tickets, were easy to spot: the websites looked cheesy, and the writing was terrible. I’d suggest they reapply when their careers advanced. If anyone asked what I meant by that, I’d stammer a bit and say, “When you’re writing for a larger audience,” or “When you have an editor who can vouch for you,” or “When you have proof of income for your reviews.”

I wonder how many of our current members could meet those criteria now. “There are critics with twenty and thirty years of professional experience who have been laid off from their newspaper jobs and are now forced to jostle alongside the Yelpers, Tumblrs and Wordpressers,” reads a recent Drama Queen blog post by Wendy Rosenfield, a freelancer in Philadelphia and ATCA member herself. “I say it’s time to fumigate”—that is, to use something like an ATCA Seal of Approval to separate bona fide critics from the dilettantes, egobloggers, and insiders with a show to promote or an ax to grind.

“It’s a big problem,” says David Rubin, a professor of communications at Syracuse University. “There is still inherent credibility with certain institutions online,” he adds. “There is still value in brands.” In other words, we assume a critic affiliated with a major news organization knows her stuff, is working under some editorial supervision, and has no conflicts of interest with the artists and organizations she’s writing about. For critics without such ties, Rubin says, intelligent readers (and press agents who give out the comp tickets) have to look at the work and decide for themselves.   

A new membership committee at ATCA, led by Pamela Harbaugh, has come up with seven tests for membership, ranging from years on the job to size of audience, of which any new applicant must pass five. Working for free, as many online critics must do until the “business model” issue gets solved (if it ever does), is no longer a deal-breaker.

“We are redefining professionalism,” says ATCA president Christopher Rawson. The organization is also reviving its series of Young Critics Institutes, weekend seminars held across the country in which veteran critics teach aspirants about writing, ethics, and building a career. For details, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org.