Mark Blankenship is a writer, critic and the co-creator and editor-in-chief of the now dormant popular culture blog The Critical Condition.
Life and career
Blankenship was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, where he majored in Theater Studies and minored in English literature. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2001, and he is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. While at Emory, he served as the theatre, film and music critic of the student newspaper, The Emory Wheel. He also studied theater at Oxford University. Blankenship attended Yale School of Drama from 2002–2005 and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. As an undergraduate at Emory, he was a member —and during his sophomore year, president—of Rathskellar, the university's comedy improv troupe. Blankenship also acted in and was dramaturge for several productions at Theater Emory, an Equity theatre He was a member of the Emory Scholars, and co-founded the Scholarship and Service Summer Program, which places students in summer internships with local non-profits. While still a senior at Emory, he was hired as Literary Manager of Atlanta's Horizon Theatre Company, a position he held from April 2001—August 2002. In late 2001, he was cast as the voice of Dooley, the Southern Movie Hound on the short-lived Turner South series The Southern Movie Hound. While at Yale, Blankenship began writing for Variety, The Village Voice, Rolin Jones and Maulik Pancholy He has lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn since 2005. His writing credits include numerous pieces for The New York Times, Variety, New YorkDaily News, The Village Voice, The Advocate, Time Out New York, The Huffington Post, NPR and American Theatre. He regularly appears as panelist/expert commentator for and CNN.com. In 2008 Blankenship founded the pop culture blog The Critical Condition with Art Meets Commerce, a New-York based new media advertising and marketing firm. The blog sought to engage readers in dialogue about various aspects of pop culture, acknowledges the impact it has on the larger culture and offers insight and analysis of the ways it is shaped by the changing zeitgeist. As an entity, it also became part of the increasingly interconnected "conversation" that exists among culture bloggers. The blog has officially been on hiatus since February 21, 2012.
Awards/Honors
One of seven judges for the 2008 Obie Awards Received an American Theatre/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for arts writing.
