How to Write About Theatre
eBook - PDF

How to Write About Theatre

A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers

  1. 296 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

How to Write About Theatre

A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers

About this book

What do you do if you find yourself weeping in the stalls? How should you react to Jude Law's trousers or David Tennant's hair? Are you prepared to receive toilet paper in the post? What if the show you just damned turns out to be a classic? If you gave it a five-star rave will anyone believe you? Drawing on his long years of experience as a national newspaper critic, Mark Fisher answers such questions with candour, wit and insight. Learning lessons from history's leading critics and taking examples from around the world, he gives practical advice about how to celebrate, analyse and discuss this most ephemeral of art forms - and how to make your writing come alive as you do so. Today, more people than ever are writing about theatre, but whether you're blogging, tweeting or writing an academic essay, your challenges as a critic remain the same: how to capture a performance in words, how to express your opinions and how to keep the reader entertained. This inspirational book shows you the way to do it. Foreword by Chris Jones, Chief theater critic, Chicago Tribune

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INTRODUCTION
9
Notes 
1
Steele, 
Richard 
(1761), 
The 
Dramatic 
Works 
of 
Sir 
Richard 
Steele, 
Knt
, 
J. 
and 
R. 
Tonson, 
S. 
Crowder, 
T. 
Caslon, 
T. 
Lownds, 
H. 
Woodgate 
and 
S. 
Brookes. 
2
Coleridge, 
Samuel 
Taylor 
(1907), 
Coleridge’s 
Lectures 
on 
Shakespeare 
and 
Other 
Poets 
and 
Dramatists
, 
J. 
M. 
Dent 
& 
Sons. 
3
Mamet, 
David 
(1994), 
‘A 
National 
Dream 
Life’, 
in 
A 
Whore’s 
Profession
, 
Faber 
and 
Faber. 
4
Ticketmaster 
(2013), 
State 
of 
Play: 
Theatre 
UK
, 
http://blog.ticketmaster 
\
(co.uk/news/theatre-uk-evolving-engaging-2013–2209). 
5
Hoyle, 
Ben 
(14 
May 
2007), 
‘Dead 
white 
men 
in 
the 
critic’s 
chair 
scorning 
work 
of 
women 
directors’, 
in 
The 
Times
. 
6
Applebaum, 
Anne 
(2013), 
Iron 
Curtain: 
The 
Crushing 
of 
Eastern 
Europe 
1944–56
, 
Penguin 
Books. 
7
Engel, 
Lehman 
(1976), 
The 
Critics
, 
Macmillan. 
10

Table of contents

  1. Cover page
  2. Halftitle page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Dedication page
  6. CONTENTS
  7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  8. FOREWORD
  9. 1 INTRODUCTION
  10. 2 HOW TO LEARN FROMCRITICS OF THE PAST
  11. 3 HOW TO TAKE ON DIFFERENT CRITICAL STYLES
  12. 4 HOW TO WRITE FOR YOUR READERS
  13. 5 HOW TO DO YOUR RESEARCH
  14. 6 HOW TO FINDYOUR VOICE
  15. 7 HOW TO WRITE THE FIRST SENTENCE
  16. 8 HOW TO STRUCTURE A REVIEW
  17. 9 HOW TO WRITE IN THE MOMENT
  18. 10 HOW TO WRITE OPINIONS
  19. 11 HOW TO GIVE STAR RATINGS
  20. 12 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT ACTING
  21. 13 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT PLAYS
  22. 14 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
  23. 15 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT THE AUDIENCE
  24. 16 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT CONTEXT
  25. 17 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT EMOTIONS
  26. 18 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR BIAS
  27. 19 HOW TO WRITE ABOUT CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
  28. 20 HOW TO PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER
  29. INDEX