The Chicago Sun-Times has let go of chief theater critic Hedy Weiss after 34 years at the paper, according to media critic Robert Feder.

Always a polarizing figure, Weiss had come under fire recently for reviews and reporting that many in the theater community considered to be racist in nature. Namely, a review of Antoinette Nwandu’s PASS OVER at Steppenwolf in which she criticized the playwright for discussing violence against the black community at the hands of police officers, but not so-called black-on-black crime. Prior to that, Weiss defended casting white actors in non-white roles after Porchlight Theater cast an Italian-American actor in the role of Usnavi in IN THE HEIGHTS.

The Sun-Times has always stood behind Weiss, even as she has been barred from major press conferences, reviewed work in development, and lost complimentary ticket privileges from theaters.

The position is said to have been eliminated, but that may just be a tactic to circumvent union rules in order to remove Weiss — or it could mean a massive reduction in arts coverage from the city’s second-largest paper.