Complete Story
06/21/2018
Jackie Demaline, former Enquirer theater critic, dead at age 68
Jackie Demaline, who covered theater and the arts for The Enquirer for 20 years, a tough critic but a passionate believer in the arts, died on Sunday at St. Elizabeth Hospice after a four-year struggle with cancer. She was 68.
She was the theater critic during a time that the Cincinnati theater scene was growing, with a flowering of new companies and theaters. "Jackie could take a lot of credit for that," said Ed Stern, who was producing artistic director of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during Demaline's tenure at the newspaper.
It was with a tough love that Demaline supported the theater scene. She could be a fierce and biting critic, often causing affront in directors and actors. "We were at odds several times," said Stern. "But the thing that was clear and became more and more evident was that she had a genuine zest for the theater. She wanted it to do well in Cincinnati, wanted it to grow. Her reviews were never vindictive, though written with a critical eye. I had to acknowledge that what she was doing was constructive."
D. Lynn Meyers was another theater director who was sometimes at odds with Demaline's reviews. "But even when she hated a play, she came at it with an absolute respect for the art form. We in the theater world respected her for that," said Meyers "She was always an advocate for the artist, and she was a very fierce advocate of Ensemble (Theater Cincinnati), at keeping it open in its Over-the-Rhine home during times when everyone thought we should close." She was a tireless theater-goer, said Meyers. "She would go to productions in basements and out-of-the-way places, at odd hours."
