Top Washington critic joins DCTS

Jayne Blanchard, for many years one of the Washington area’s most prominent theatre critics as chief critic for the Washington Times, has accepted an invitation to join DC Theatre Scene. Blanchard, who left the Times as part of that publication’s radical downsizing, begins her work at DCTS with a review of the “alarming beauty” of Synetic Theater’s Antony and Cleopatra.

“Jayne has an important perspective on Washington theatre .”, editor Lorraine Treanor said. “Knowing that she will continue to review theatre in our area is a comfort to me as a theatre lover. And it’s a real treat that she is doing so on our site.”

Blanchard has reviewed Washington theatre for over ten years, and was a theater critic in the Minneapolis area for several years before that. She has written for the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, ADAM magazine,  Style magazine, USA Today,  Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today, Family Circle and Newsday, among other publications. She’s told readers how to own a private island and the ingenious way she disposed of thirty-five bridesmaid’s dresses. She is a communications specialist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and a resident of Baltimore, MD.

“Mainstream publications sometimes underestimate the power and importance of the arts. We don’t here.” Treanor said. “As long as you’ve got something to say about theatre, and can say it as well as Jayne Blanchard does, you have a home at DC Theatre Scene.”