Theatre Criticism: Changing Landscapes

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Description

The world of theatre criticism is rapidly changing in its form, function and modes of operation in the twenty-first century. Even though the history of professional theatre criticism can only be traced back to the nineteenth century and the growth of the newspaper industry, its influence has been significant in the fields of arts marketing, theatre production, theatre history and aesthetic theory alike. The dominance of the internet has led to a growing trend of self-appointed theatre critics and bloggers who are changing the focus and purpose of the discussion around live performance. Even though the blogosphere has garnered some suspicion and hostility from the mainstream newspaper critics, it has also provided some interesting intellectual and ideological challenges to the increasingly conservative profile of the professional critic. This book features twenty internationally commissioned contributions from scholars and arts journalists, and is structured into five sections: histories and theories of theatre criticism; cultural and political contexts of theatre criticism; genres of theatre criticism; practices of theatre criticism; and critics' voices. Together, the contributors provide a broad-ranging and comprehensive overview of the various issues concerning theatre criticism today including histories, politics, cultural variations, changing functions, practices and emerging new media-specific genres. The book features a general introduction by its editor, Duka Radosavljevic.

Reviews

[This] proposal . . . is an excellent one. As far as I know, no other volume of essays exists that takes up the current state of the field and considers how it got that way. It aims to consider important questions about the function of criticism at the present time, and - most important - to do so within wider contexts of the seismically shifting media landscape, rise of "amateur" criticism, changes in critical discourse, status of the academy and of the professional theater. I believe that the book would find an eager market in college and university courses about criticism, dramaturgy, and contemporary theater more generally . . . The proposed book's international perspective is not only appropriate, but important. All this leads me to the strong opinion that this is a book well worth publishing: it fills an important gap in the field and its editor brings both scope and depth the project. * Professor Alisa Solomon, Columbia University *
There is a large hole in the existing English-language literature about the role and location of theatre criticism in both theatre production systems, and in the academic study of theatre. As such, books such as that proposed by Dr. Radosavljevic are very welcome, and this project seems like an important and timely one . . . More books on the subject are really necessary. There is so much going on amongst the theatre critical community in Britain at the moment about the changing nature of the field. [The editor] is taking on a challenging but important task in trying to step back from a fast-moving debate and get a scholarly purchase on it. * Dr Karen Fricker, Brock University *

Author Bio

Duka Radosavljevic is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Kent. In 1998 she won the Harold Hobson Sunday Times Student Drama Critic Award and has written hundreds of theatre, dance and comedy reviews for the Stage Newspaper. She has also worked as the Dramaturg for the Northern Stage Ensemble and as an education practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is the author of Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century and the editor of The Contemporary Ensemble: Interviews with Theatre-Makers (Routledge, 2013). She has also contributed articles and book chapters to four Bloomsbury Methuen Drama edited collections.