Croyden, Margaret

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CROYDEN, Margaret

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: Attended Hunter College, New York University, and Oxford University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Faber & Faber, 19 Union Square W., New York, NY 10003.

CAREER:

New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ, former professor of English literature; Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS), former host of Camera Three; New York Theatre Wire, commentator and reviewer; theater critic; lecturer and speaker.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lifetime Achievement Award, New York League of Professional Theatre Women, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets: The Contemporary Experimental Theatre, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1974.

In the Shadow of the Flame: Three Journeys, Continuum (New York, NY), 1993.

Conversations with Peter Brook: 1970-2000, Faber & Faber (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of articles to publications such as the New York Times, Village Voice, American Theater, Antioch Review, Texas Quarterly, and the Transatlantic Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets: The Contemporary Experimental Theatre, theater critic Margaret Croyden discusses the contemporary experimental theater groups of the 1960s, including the Living and Open Theaters, Jerszy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Kaprow, Schechner's Performance Group, the Bread and Puppet Theater, and more. Christian Science Monitor contributor Barbara Nell Hymes noted, "Here is a rewarding book for the theater buff willing to persevere through some of the mazes of avant garde playmaking."

In her second book, In the Shadow of the Flame: Three Journeys, Croyden provides a look at three of her personal experiences in life. The first journey is to Poland to take part in an experimental theater group's exercise in a forest. The second journey is a visitation with the Hindu guru Baba Muktananda. The final journey is to Israel where Croyden talks to a spiritual teacher. In each journey Croyden overcomes part of her past and learns more about herself. A Publishers Weekly contributor claimed, "It is a mysterious and sometime dark chronicle, but it is one with a rare honesty and with a beauty that comes through."

In Conversations with Peter Brook: 1970-2000, Croyden has compiled thirty years worth of interviews with theater and film director Peter Brook. Croyden and Brook discuss his major works throughout the fourteen interviews that make up the book. A Publishers Weekly contributor concluded that in Conversations with Peter Brook, "Croyden shows how the craft of journalism can rise to the level of art itself by challenging an artist to reveal himself."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Theatre, September, 2003, review of Conversations with Peter Brook: 1970-2000, p. 83.

Booklist, April 15, 2003, Jack Helbig, review of Conversations with Peter Brook, p. 1438.

Christian Science Monitor, April 17, 1974, Barbara Nell Hymes, review of Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets: The Contemporary Experimental Theatre, p. F5.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 1973, review of Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets, p. 1234.

Library Journal, April 1, 2003, Minnesota Schwartz, review of Conversations with Peter Brook, p. 102.

Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1994, Susan Salter Reynolds, review of In the Shadow of the Flame: Three Journeys, p. 6.

New Age Journal, May, 1994, Lisa Horvitz, review of In the Shadow of the Flame, p. 120.

New Yorker, July 7, 2003, Leo Carey, "Giving Direction," p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, October 11, 1993, review of In the Shadow of the Flame, p. 38; April 7, 2003, review of Conversations with Peter Brook, p. 61.

Sewanee Review, January, 1977, John Rees Moore, "Perspectives on Modern Drama," pp. 167-180.

Virgina Quarterly Review, summer, 1974, review of Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets, p. R107.