Theatre Criticism Changing Landscapes

The world of theatre criticism is rapidly changing in its form, function and modes of operation in the twenty-first century.

The dominance of the internet has led to a growing trend of selfappointed theatre critics and bloggers who are changing the focus and purpose of the discussion around live performance. Even though the blogosphere has garnered suspicion and hostility from some mainstream newspaper critics, it has also provided significant intellectual and ideological challenges to the increasingly conservative profile of the professional critic.

This book features 16 commissioned contributions from scholars, arts journalists and bloggers, as well as a small selection of innovative critical practice. Authors from Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Russia, the UK and the US share their perspectives on relevant historical, theoretical and political contexts influencing the development of the discipline, as well as specific aspects of the contemporary practices and genres of theatre criticism.

The book features an introductory essay by its editor, Duška Radosavljevic.

Theatre Criticism in Britain: an Overview – Ian Herbert (former editor of Theatre Record)
Reviewing Shakespearean Theatre – Paul Prescott (University of Warwick)
The State of Theatre Criticism Today: The Case of Italy – Margherita Laera (University of Kent)
'How demanding are you towards yourself?' and Other Fundamental Questions of Professional Giving and Receiving of Criticism – Nataša Govedic (University of Zagreb)
On the Representation of Theatre Critics in Plays, Films and Novels – Mark Fisher (Freelance theatre critic, UK)
Between Journalism and Art: The Location of Criticism in the 21st century – Mark Brown (Freelance theatre critic, author)
On the advent of internet criticism – Andrew Haydon (Freelance arts journalist, blogger)
Criticism as Political Event – Diana Damian (Performance Editor of Exeunt)
Recent Critico-creative Approaches to Theatre Criticism – William McEvoy (University of Sussex)
Precarious State of Criticism in the US – Polly Carl (Emerson College, Editor of HowlRound)
Postwar Theatre Criticism in the United States – George Hunka (Freelance theatre critic and blogger, US)
Afterwords: Critical and Audience Responses to Needcompany's The Porcelain Project – Matthew Reason (York St John University)
The Critic as Insider: Writing About Theatre as Process, not Product – Maddy Costa (Guardian Journalist, UK)
Death of the Institutional Critic as a Rebirth of Critical Possibility – Alison Croggan (Author, freelance theater critic, Australia)
The Problem of Reliability: Theatre Criticism in Latvia, 2000–2013 – Valda Cakare
Theatre – Spectator – Criticism – Marine (Maka) Vasadze (Freelance theatre specialist)
Theatre Reviewing in the Age of Market Economies: The Greek Case – Savas Patsalidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Criticism in crisis? What Theatre Critics Think, and Their Readers Expect: an Empirical Analysis of Misunderstandings – Vasco Boenisch (Freelance advisor)
Circus Of Uncertainty: The New Virtuosi – Yohann Floch (Freelance culture consultant)
Speech on Critics and Censorship – delivered at the Critics Circle Centenery Conference, September 2013 – Nicholas de Jongh (Freelance theatre critic, author, playwright)

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