Is Lyn Gardner Suggesting That Theatres Pay For Developing A New Crop Of Critics? Or For Turning Audience Members Into Critics?

“A new approach to theatre criticism, in which theatres see developing critical voices as part of audience and artist development and invest in it accordingly in terms of both time and money, is needed. … Particularly when The Stage survey indicates that word of mouth and friends is a more trusted source of opinion than mainstream publications. Could audiences be those friends too?”