The 2011 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, administered by Cornell's Department of English, was conferred for the first time to a blog: Jill Dolan's "The Feminist Spectator." The award carries a $10,000 prize and is one of the most generous and distinguished in the American theater.

"In the late 1950s, when Nathan created the award to be given in his name, he could not possibly have envisioned this technological revolution that would arise just a few decades after his death," the award committee wrote, adding that they believed Nathan would have embraced this new means of communication, recognizing its potential to encourage the art of drama criticism and stimulate intelligent playgoing.

"The Feminist Spectator" blog, launched in August 2005, addresses how theater and performance "shape and reflect our lives; how they participate in civic conversations; and how they serve as a vehicle for social change and a platform for pleasure." Dolan is the Annan Professor in English and professor of theater at Princeton University. The blog also focuses on "gender, sexuality, race, other identities and overlaps, and our common humanity."

The Nathan award committee commended Dolan for her consistently thoughtful and articulate discussions of the contemporary stage: "Dolan intersperses informed personal responses to plays and performances with significant historical, political and cultural insights that help frame and contextualize her remarks. A tireless champion of women artists, Dolan graciously, yet compellingly, enjoins us to be mindful spectators as well as lovers of the theater."

Nathan (1882-1958) was an influential theater critic who graduated in 1904 from Cornell, where he served as editor of The Cornell Daily Sun and the humor magazine The Cornell Widow. Nathan went on to write for and co-edit (with H.L. Mencken) two influential magazines, The Smart Set and The American Mercury, and to publish 34 books on the theater. He was the inspiration for Addison DeWitt, the critic played by George Sanders in the film "All About Eve."

Nathan's will mandated that the winner be chosen "by a majority vote of the ... heads of the English departments of Cornell, Princeton and Yale universities."

The award has been given annually since 1959. Previous winners include Walter Kerr, Jack Kroll, Alisa Solomon, Charles Isherwood, Michael Feingold, Elinor Fuchs, Cornell professor H. Scott McMillin, and last year's winner, Charles McNulty, chief theater critic for the Los Angeles Times.