Being a critic can be a difficult business, not to mention being the one critic that some Chicago theaters say they will no longer invite to review their shows.

Hedy Weiss is the longtime theater and dance critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on-air contributor to WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight." In the last week, a petition calling on theaters to stop inviting Weiss to productions in the wake of her June 13 review of "Pass Over" at Steppenwolf Theatre has garnered more than 3,500 signatures.

The petition at Change.org was created by a group of local artists calling itself the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which claims 70 of the city's 200-some theaters have agreed not to offer Weiss complimentary tickets to review a show (part of a longstanding and common arrangement between theaters and arts presenters and members of the media covering their work, including the Tribune). After suggesting the names of those theaters would be released this week, co-founder Sasha Smith said Thursday her group is not planning to release the list because "at this point it is just already public knowledge (which theaters stand with the coalition), and the list keeps growing and expanding day by day, so at this point it's sort of a moot point to release one specific list."

Some theaters have posted public statements about their positions on the controversy. Steep Theatre representatives announced on Facebook they will suspend offering complimentary tickets to Weiss, reversing a decision theater leadership made more than a month ago when they were asked by members of the arts community to stop inviting her to their productions. Artistic Director Peter Moore said the company revisited the issue after the "Pass Over" review and determined "it's a stance that we felt we needed to take." He added that the theater may reconsider its position if Weiss responds to the criticism.

On its Facebook page, the Broken Nose Theatre posted a link to the petition and said it already has a policy of "not inviting any critic who utilizes their reviews to unapologetically espouse and propagate racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted and malicious views."

But according to two sources in the Chicago theater community who asked not to be named, the theater coalition, known as ChiTAC, made repeated phone calls and sent emails to local theaters asking that they join the petition. Some theaters reportedly felt pressured to do so. Smith said the coalition's main course of action was writing letters and the movement "has always been about love, respect and protection."

"We don't want to fracture this community. We want it to be as strong as it possibly can (be) for every member of this community. We want to build this community up and continue these hard conversations. If there's any pressure, or rather if anyone is feeling pressure, it's because these conversations are hard, they're difficult to have and we have to look at ourselves internally and ask, 'Well, what is the right thing for us to do?'"

WTTW Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss appears on Chicago Tonight on WTTW in May. Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss appears on Chicago Tonight on WTTW in May. (WTTW) (WTTW)

Weiss has not commented publicly. But Sun-Times Publisher and Editor Jim Kirk, Managing Editor Chris Fusco and Editorial Page Editor Tom McNamee met with Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and Executive Director David Schmitz Tuesday, days after Shapiro and Schmitz said in a statement that Weiss' review "once again revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country's historic racism."

Speaking Thursday about the meeting, Kirk said: "We had a productive, wide-ranging discussion about the growing and ever-changing arts scene in Chicago. We remain committed to providing readers with thoughtful and incisive reporting and criticism across this important sector of the city."

On Friday, the Sun-Times published a statement by its editorial board in support of Weiss (“We stand by our critic and a vital Chicago theater scene”). The statement acknowledged that Weiss's review had offended some readers, particularly those in the Chicago theater community: "Could Hedy have been more nuanced in her comments? Should her review of “Pass Over” been edited better? Was it tone-deaf? We are all free to complain, defend and debate." It further acknowledged the paper could do better in finding journalists of color to cover the arts. But, it continued, "Hedy Weiss is a theater critic of integrity who writes from a place of honest good faith." In taking on her detractors, the board took issue with Steppenwolf's statement, which it called "surprising." And although it described the subsequent meeting with the theater as worthwhile, it said that: "Nothing she wrote comes close to what Steppenwolf assessed as 'deep-seated bigotry.'" It said the paper would buy its own tickets to performances to which Weiss was not invited, as necessary.

In a statement Friday, Shapiro and Schmitz said the Sun-Times leadership embraced an invitation to meet with ChiTAC and the League of Chicago Theatres. The Steppenwolf directors described their own meeting with ChiTAC founders as "powerful and urgent."

Weiss, in her review, praised elements of "Pass Over," which is a play by New York playwright Antoinette Nwandu that riffs on "Waiting for Godot" by swapping the usual protagonists for two young black men, who are alternately seduced and terrorized by two white characters, the second of whom is a police officer. The review took issue with Nwandu's choice of villain. Weiss wrote: "No one can argue with the fact that this city … has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion's share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself."

The first public reaction to Weiss' review came from ChiTAC, followed by the letter from Steppenwolf. That "once again" referred to what Shapiro and Schmitz deem Weiss' track record of insensitivity and worse. The folks at ChiTAC also write of what they called Weiss' lengthy pattern of "racism, homophobia, and body shaming found in her reviews."

Weiss' critics point to what they feel are some notable transgressions over the years. These include a 2004 review of Tony Kushner's play "Caroline, or Change," in which she referred to the playwright as writing "in the classic style of a self-loathing Jew"; a 2013 review of a work about the racial profiling of Muslims in which Weiss cited the Boston Marathon bombing and wrote, "What practical alternative to profiling do you suggest?"; and of body-shaming for this, about a recent production of "Mamma Mia!": "Theresa Ham's character-defining costumes make the most of the many 'real women' figures on stage, just as the gold and silver spandex outfits outline the perfect bodies of the terrific chorus dancers."