Deadline hired Gerard, previously a Broadway reporter for The New York Times, over two years ago with a plan to have the veteran writer expand the website's coverage of New York media and theatre.
Gerard revealed the news in a succinct email that said, “I have loved working at Deadline and will miss my great colleagues there.”
The writer, who confirmed to Playbill.com that he has been laid off, is unsure where his work will next appear and could not comment on Deadline's future plans for theatre coverage. “As to my own plans,” Gerard said by email, “I'm regrouping, considering my options and taking a much-needed, if unanticipated, breather.”
Gerard is the author of Act Two: Creating Partnerships and Setting Agendas for the Future of the American Theater and Wynn Place Show, a history of Wynn Handman, the co-founder and artistic director of The American Place Theatre. Gerard was also chief drama critic for Bloomberg News, chief drama critic for Variety and senior editor and cultural columnist at New York magazine. A past president of the New York Drama Critics Circle, Gerard has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has been a guest judge for the Village Voice Obie Awards and the Lucille Lortel Awards.
