The devaluation of skill, experience, and expertise is a crisis across cultural journalism right now--it's being felt profoundly in theater. It's great that anyone can post a review, but that does not, even in the smallest way, replace what's being thrown away.
There has been a parallel decline in theatre criticism and technical theatre excellence in my area. I can’t prove that the lack of anyone to credibly call out sloppy lighting/set/etc. work (or praise the opposite) is moving people to spend less time on polish, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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Theater tech professional here: it’s not that we don’t care, it’s that every theater cut their technical staff down to the bare bone to survive the pandemic, and most of them never hired back up. We are expected to do the same quality of work in a shorter period with fewer staff. It’s impossible.
