By Michelle F. Solomon, Artburst Editor
Originally published on artburstmiami.com
Christine Dolen, the Miami Herald’s theater critic for almost four decades passed away at 74 years old after a progressive lung disease.
Her husband, former Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel arts editor, wrote on Facebook from her social media account that his wife “passed peacefully (Saturday night) at home . . . spending the last 10 months in home hospice care.
After retiring from the Miami Herald in 2015, Christine joined artburstmiami.com as its theater critic writing hundreds of theater profiles, previews and reviews. Her last two reviews for artburstmiami.com were of two immersive theater productions: Miami’s Juggerknot Theatre Company’s “Conjuring the King” in the city’s Little River neighborhood and Miami New Drama’s “Museum Plays” at the Rubell Museum, both at the end of February 2024.
Laura Bruney, founder of the Arts & Business Council of Miami, who oversees artburstmiami.com, said “Christine was an arts journalist pioneer and so vital to us as we developed Artburst 20 years ago. She was also a wonderful person and champion for the arts. She will be lovingly remembered.”
A Personal Tribute From The Artburst Editor
When longtime theater critic Christine Dolen retired from the Miami Herald in 2015, it wouldn’t mean her insightful theater criticism would come to a halt. “I want to write about theater until my last days on Earth,” she promised. And that she did.
Christine and I had always seen each other at shows. I was freelancing as a critic for floridatheateronstage.com after Oline Cogdill and Bill Hirschman asked me if I wanted to write for them.
When I became the editor of artburstmiami.com in 2021, Christine was already writing for the Miami “arts bureau,” the brainchild of the Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs now Emeritus Director Michael Spring.
The chance to work with Christine was a wonderful journey and something I feel so fortunate to have had.
I was her last editor and it means the world to me.
We would plan theater coverage, she would send me her copy and I would make suggestions as a content editor does. There weren’t many fixes, of course, but she said she was so grateful to have someone with a theater background and with a similar passion working with her to toss ideas around and make our theater coverage the best. One time, I mentioned a story about focusing on all of the original work our regional theater companies were doing. The consummate journalist, she called me a few hours later to tell me she had all the interviews lined up and had already started work on it.
We talked about theater and our careers. I started acting when I was a kid with my mother in community theater, graduated from Emerson College in Boston as a theater major, and got my first job at a newspaper in Pennsylvania as a theater critic.
Her father, William “Bill” Hindman, was a veteran South Florida actor who also worked on stages in New York, one time replacing the legendary Jason Robards in a 1985 Off-Broadway production of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.” He was in South Florida-made films, now famously recognized as the boys’ basketball coach in all three “Porky’s” movies, and played a priest in Syndey Pollack’s 1981 film shot in Miami, “Absence of Malice.” Some scenes were shot at the Miami Herald. He died at the age of 76 in 1999 at Palmetto General Hospital of complications following surgery for lung cancer.
We sometimes would go into deep-dive conversations about playwrights, genres, favorite shows, our past experiences, (we both worked in the features department at the Detroit Free Press, although at different times), and the good old days working at newspapers.
Christine and I shared another bond we often discussed: how important arts and theater criticism was to a community and how every day we felt blessed that we held an important place in the arts ecosystem to make sure that criticism and support for South Florida theaters continued to flourish.
She told me how much she appreciated that she had a “solid backup” ; I would pick up reviews to write when she had too many in one weekend, a usual occurrence during the busy South Florida theater season. But if she could’ve cloned herself to write all of them, she would.
The last two reviews she wrote for Artburst were at the end of February, immersive theater plays that required walking, sometimes standing, and not the typical proscenium seated show. I told her I would be happy to go and review in her place (she was already using oxygen to aid her breathing from the lung disease). She insisted that she go. She said she didn’t want to “let the theater companies down” or her reading audience.
For the past year, we texted and chatted on the telephone. Although she was no longer writing reviews, she wanted me to fill her in on what I was seeing and what was going on in South Florida theater.
One day I asked her if there was anything I could send to her. She said, “Well I really don’t need anything,” but since I insisted she would take me up on my offer. She loved the #10 Curry Ramen at Poke Ramen Asian Soul Kitchen, not far from her home. I sent her lunch via Uber Eats. It became a ritual after that for us. The next time, I delivered the #10 in person for lunch at her home.
She was working on a tribute to playwright Nilo Cruz for a Carbonell Awards presentation that she had been asked to create for the ceremony. It was a way for her to be there; it would be one of the only Carbonell Awards ceremonies she would miss. In 2023, she received the prestigious George Abbott Award from the Carbonells; just the second time since 1978 that it was given to the same recipient.
I shot video from my phone at the Carbonells of what she had written for Nilo’s award and sent it. She said she so appreciated it, but she also texted that it was important that I send her photos of the sparkly black dress and shoes that I told her at lunch I would be wearing to the awards.
“Send me pics. You will be a knockout!!,” she texted before the ceremony.
We texted frequently, which was easier for her in the past few months than talking on the phone, because of her breathing, talking on the phone was difficult. But she’d make sure we had our phone calls even if it was for a short time.
One of the texts I cherish was this: “So glad you are at Artburst enlightening people about theater.”
I texted her Friday to check in and to see when I could bring over lunch again. Did she want ramen? It became our running joke. She said she was looking forward to a visit from her sister on Monday, but would love to see me. Her last text to me was: “I’m still hanging in there . . . lunch sounds good.”
Next time I’m heading out to review a show, to carry on her legacy and keep the torch burning bright for Miami’s Drama Queen, and, in her words, “enlightening people about theater,” I’ll plan a special tribute. Dinner and a show: The #10 at Poke Ramen Asian then off to the theater.
I know the irreplaceable Christine Dolen will be there with me in spirit.
ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.
