Critic, editor, novelist and now director of communications. Quinton Skinner, who served six years as a writer and critic at City Pages before jumping to become a senior editor at METRO Magazine last October, has been appointed director of communications at the Guthrie, the theater has announced. He succeeds Melodie Bahan, who is now at the Cowles Center for Dance. Skinner has reviewed many a Guthrie show. "His appreciation of our community, his journalistic sensibilities and his love of the theater make him the perfect choice for this position," Trish Santini, the Guthrie's director of external relations, said in a statement. Also a freelance reviewer for the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, Skinner has served as the Twin Cities correspondent for Variety. His novels include "14 Degrees Below Zero" (Random House), and "Amnesia Nights" (Random House/Wilhelm Heyne Verlag). Skinner assumes his new position on Sept. 1.