New York Drama Critics' Circle

The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 21 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area.

[1][2] The organization was founded in 1935 at the Algonquin Hotel by a group that included Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell, and Robert Benchley.

In 1989, the newspaper's executive editor decreed that their critics could no longer participate in any awards voting.

However, in 2003, the newspaper adopted a revised ethics policy that forbade its journalists from membership in an awards-voting body, and its critics withdrew from the NYDCC.

At the end of each theater season, it votes on the annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, the second oldest playwriting award in the United States (after the Pulitzer Prize).