Theatre Critic Research Articles

A tipografia de Pierre Plancher e a crítica teatral em língua francesa no Rio de Janeiro do Primeiro Reinado

Inaugurated in 1824 in Rio de Janeiro, Pierre Plancher's typography transformed the city's press scene. Elevated to the dignity of royal printer under the protection of Pedro I, the French pressman and journalist played a decisive role in the emergence of theatre criticism during the first years of the Empire (1822-1831). The first French-language newspapers published in Rio de Janeiro also came into being thanks to Plancher's encouragement. In the pages of L'Indépendant and L'Écho de l'Amérique du Sud, which circulated between 1827 and 1828, the opera and ballet performances of the Imperial Theatro São Pedro de Alcântara resounded with vigour.

Theatre, Anti-Theatricality and Anti-Blackness in Romantic Criticism

This article argues that anti-theatricality is entrenched in, even a manoeuvre of, anti-Blackness. The article begins by establishing the contexts of the first Black actor known to have played Othello in Britain – Ira Aldridge in the first half of the nineteenth century – and, conflictingly, the repeated efforts in Romantic-era performance and criticism to reject Othello’s Blackness. These contexts highlight the default white perspective of Romantic theatrical texts, and the role anti-Blackness had in shaping Romantic dramatic criticism. Having introduced these concepts, I offer a close reading of Charles Lamb’s essay ‘On the Tragedies of Shakspeare’ (1811, rpt. 1818) to demonstrate that Romantic anti-theatricality’s desire to transcend embodiment is, specifically, a rejection of marginalised bodies in favour of an idealised imagination coded as white.

The Albert Nekimken Turkish Theater Collection: Censorship, Contentious Politics, and the Cold War Stage

Turkish political theater of the 1960s-1970s was a genre that galvanized both its intellectual proponents and drew the ire of state authorities. Deeply marked by the work of Bertolt Brecht produced some half a century earlier, the stage became an important setting where the broader violence between far-left groups, far-right groups, and the government was recast in literary form. During his doctoral research on the influence of German Marxism on Turkish political theater, former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Albert Nekimken collected plays, works of theatrical criticism, periodicals, short stories, novels, and rare recordings of performances, among other materials. The Albert Nekimken Turkish Theater Collection, primarily composed of Nekimken’s research materials, began to grow as playwrights, intellectuals, and others contributed interviews or gifted materials to the young scholar in the mid-to-late 1970s. These works were acquired by Nekimken at a time of rampant political censorship and ntellectual persecution–exemplified by the fact that many of the publications and performances in the collection were banned or subject to great censorship by the Turkish government. Among the works in the collection are those by well-known writers such as Orhan Asena, Engin Cezzar, Güngör Dilmen, Muhsin Ertuğrul, Nâzım Hikmet, Orhan Kemal, Aziz Nesin, and Haldun Taner. This newly described and processed collection held in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University offers new directions to students and scholars of political theater, the history of Modern Turkey, Turkish-German literary exchanges, and intellectual histories of the Cold War. The collection also gives educators hoping to bring primary sources into the classroom new pedagogical tools to explore histories of censorship, erasure, and contentious politics.

Una talaia sobre el music-hall: anàlisi de la crítica teatral del periodista Joan Tomàs a "Mirador"

Joan Tomàs (Igualada, 1892 – Mexico City, 1962) is one of the most pre­eminent Catalan theatre critics and cultural journalists during the 20th century. He was a contributor for a wide range of publications, including El Diluvio, La Publicitat, El Poble Català, El be negre, L’Opinió and Mirador. As a result of the Civil War, he went into exile in France and then in Mexico, where he continued to work as a journalist until his death in 1962. This paper analyses articles on the music-hall subject which Tomàs pub­lished between 1929 and 1936 in Mirador.

Not Billington, not Zoella, and Definitely not a ‘Fangirl’: Social Distinction within Communities of Amateur Theatre Critics

Not Billington, not Zoella, and <i>Definitely</i> not a ‘Fangirl’: Social Distinction within Communities of Amateur Theatre Critics

Feminism and Antifeminism in Romanian Theatre Criticism in Interwar Years

In Romania, during the interwar years, it seems that theatre reviews – much like theatre criticism in general, narrowly as it was and sometimes continues to be defined in Romania – was only considered legitimate if signed by men. There were but two timid exceptions, two female voices whose writings were partially recovered as late as 1978-1983 and have been insufficiently explored since: the poet and memoirist Otilia Cazimir, who worked as an inspector for the Ministry of Arts’ Theatre Directorate for a decade, and the aesthetics professor Alice Voinescu. This paper is an attempt to turn the spotlight not onto the two writers’ theatre-related activity, but rather to the way they engaged, in writing or in action, with the thorny issues of feminism. Their opposing standpoints – a feminism of emancipation vs. an anti-feminist type of feminism – still proves emblematic to our day for the specific way in which socio-cultural mentalities and perceptions on women’s condition in 20th-century Romania were preserved; it appears that post-socialist theatre criticism, especially from the decade 2000-2010, coalesced around the same positions.

The scripted audience in Roman comedy

Abstract Despite the prevalence of audience-centred drama criticism, very little is actually known about the composition or nature of theatre audiences in antiquity. Metatheatrical passages in Plautus’ and Terence’s comedies in which the audience is described or addressed are usually treated as historical evidence for real-life theatre audiences in Republican Rome. This article argues that it is preferable to treat the comic audience as a fictional character. The scripted audience is recurrently portrayed by the comedians in a far-fetched and anti-realistic manner: it can be treated as a stereotype, along the other ‘stock’ characters of Roman comedy.

The Emancipated Amateur: Rancierian Reviewing Practices and New Models of Theatre Criticism

The current proliferation of digital platforms and the reduction of arts coverage in mainstream media outlets in Canada has given rise to many theatre reviewers whose contributions to critical discourse are often dismissed because they lack professional legitimization. This article uses Jacques Rancière’s formulations of the ignorant schoolmaster and the emancipated spectator to interrogate the distinction between professional and amateur critics. It argues that participants and practices typically understood as amateur provide models of criticism that are pluralistic, affective, and inclusive. Analyzing three central case studies—a newspaper column featuring “regular” spectators, reviews by children and youth, and mentorship initiatives for emerging Black, Indigenous, and people of colour critics—the article demonstrates how amateurs challenge the notion of expertise as exclusive knowledge possessed by the elite. It highlights the benefits of opening up critical conversations during this crucial moment when the Canadian theatre industry is confronting its complicity in systemic injustices and seeking to attract new audiences.

Полихудожественное взаимодействие обучающихся во время построения лингвокультурных сценариев как средство обогащения тематического словарного запаса студентов – будущих переводчиков (на примере английского языка)

The purpose of the study is to determine the influence of poly-artistic methodological support for the study of linguistic and cultural scenarios on the formation of lexical and grammatical foreign language skills among students at the Faculty of Translation. The initial understanding of the cognitive approach to teaching foreign languages in a narrow sense (only as a system-theoretical support for processes) led to its underestimation and oblivion. The article examines the current trends towards borrowing individual components of the cognitive approach for the development of a communicative method of learning foreign languages. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the introduction of a poly-artistic approach in the training of students – future translators through the adaptation of professional highly specialized exercises for the training of future actors, directors and theater critics for their subsequent integration into the process of studying English-language frame models and scenarios, which had not previously become the object of research. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that, despite many years of experience using a communicative approach in teaching foreign languages, many students still face difficulties activating passive thematic vocabulary and grammatical rules and, as a result, a language barrier. As a result of the study, it was found that in conditions of meaningful operation of language and speech skills, students present the educational process not as a set of rules or a set of information, but as a toolkit for independent creative language activity. Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov λ-criterion and the Fisher φ*-criterion (circular transformation), the beneficial effect of artistic and methodological support for the construction of linguistic and cultural scenarios on the expansion of the thematic vocabulary of students within the framework of the theme “At the Restaurant” has been experimentally confirmed.

Representations of Experimentation in Contemporary Arabic Theatre

Art is a dynamic and renewing aesthetic vision. Since the dawn of creativity, arts have sought to break away from tradition and embrace new forms and elements in response to intellectual and other changes. Theatre, in particular, has experimented with its structure and content due to its inherent flexibility and transformative nature. Social and environmental conditions in the Arab world have driven theatre practitioners towards innovation.Many Arab playwrights responded to the events of 1967 by adopting an experimental approach in theatre. Egyptian playwright Sayyed Hafez is a key figure who emerged in the 1970s, contributing significantly to the renewal of theatrical composition. Realizing that traditional theatre was no longer effective in engaging society, Hafez introduced innovative ideas.Until the early 1970s, Arab and Egyptian theatre was predominantly traditional. However, new efforts to revitalize it began with Hafez's experimental play "The Pride of Triviality in the Land of Meaninglessness," which broke classical norms and offered new perspectives on characters, settings, and heroism.Hafez continued his experimental approach in subsequent plays, such as "It Happened as It Happened but No Event Happened," "Silent Drums in the Blue Valleys," and "They Are as They Are but Not the Vagabonds." These works reflect his desire for rebellion and passion for experimentation in theatrical writing.This study aims to analyze the features of experimentation in Sayyed Hafez's theatrical texts and their impact on the construction of the theatrical text. The significance of the research lies in exploring these experimental tendencies, benefiting specialists in theatrical criticism. The objective is to identify representations of experimentation in Hafez's plays.

ЧЕТВЕРТЬ ВЕКА БЕЗ ЧЕХОВА: ПЕРЕОЦЕНКА ЦЕННОСТЕЙ

The article examines the reaction of the literary and theatre criticism in the USSR and Russian Diaspora on 25th Chekhov&amp;#x27;s commemoration. In the country, where socialism was being constructed, classical tradition was under attack, as well as Chekhov, who exerted his influence on the aesthetic system of dramaturgy in particular and theatre in general. In those conditions the play “The Weirdo” (1929) by Alexander Afinogenov, nurtured by the Revolution and seduced by the highest power, and his appearances and speeches at various disputes and in press, supporting “psychological realism” and best theatrical tradition of the Moscow Art Theatre, were perceived ambiguously. Key words: Chekhov, chekhovism, twenty-five years, criticism, new drama, classical traditions, MAT, Afinogenov, “The Weirdo”, revolutionary theatre

Critical Conversations: Emerging BIPOC Critics Reimagine Theatre Criticism through the Digital

Abstract: Theatre criticism in the Global North currently finds itself at a pivotal point, as the internet eclipses legacy media as the central space for critical discourse and as ongoing antiracist and anticolonial activism highlights the underrepresentation of BIPOC artists across the theatre industry. Within this context, stakeholders in the theatre community, recognizing the importance of a vibrant critical discourse, are faced with finding more sustainable and equitable models. This article considers the future of theatre reviewing through a case study of Taking on the World (TotW), a mentorship program for emerging BIPOC critics run in conjunction with Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company and Intermission magazine. TotW participants' innovative critical practice demonstrates that de-hierarchizing theatre criticism necessitates reimagining the form, and specifically centering conversation as a key quality of process and product. Exploiting the capabilities of the digital, TotW participants embed conversation within their work and model a mode of criticism that challenges traditional notions of expertise and is ultimately more inclusive. Applying recent scholarship on theatre criticism to examples of work produced in the program and participant interviews, this article advances new ways of practicing and teaching theatre criticism at this crucial moment.

Recovering Virginie Gireaudeau: Race, Language, and Representation on the American Stage

Abstract: This article recovers the life and career of Virginie Gireaudeau, one of the first African American actresses to appear in a major North American theater. Performing in New Orleans in 1826, she played the female lead in two tragedies, supported by a group of white professional actors and actresses from France. But despite Gireaudeau’s obvious significance for American theater historiography, her story has not yet found its way into theater criticism or history. The article suggests that Gireaudeau’s marginalization is symptomatic of an American “national” theater historiography that is largely focused on the anglophone stage. Drawing on a multilingual approach and the careful analysis of a range of newspaper accounts and notarial records, the article argues for the inclusion of non-English-language voices and materials. It demonstrates how broadening our perspective in this way can provide new insights into the life and work of underrepresented performers while enhancing our understanding of the complexity of early American theater as a whole.

On Theatre During Romania’s ‘Golden Age’: Diorama Theatre. Discourse on Theatrical Criticism During Communism. The Deceitful Spring 1965-1977. By Miruna Runcan

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; This work is the second volume of a comprehensive ‘trilogy’ aimed at accounting for the theatrical discourse during the communist period. Covering more than a decade, a so-called ‘deceitful spring’ (1965-1977), comes after ‘the fluctuating thaw’ (1956-1964) tackled by volume one and is followed by ‘the blizzard’ (1978-1989) which ends just before the fall of the totalitarian regime in our country. The author’s endeavour is unprecedented, and the comprehensive research conducted on almost five hundred pages ranges from the education in the field to the party’s contribution and the magazines’, not to mention the theatres’ or the openness to the West. A sociological dimension is also envisaged, along with a rhetorical analysis that stirs interest in specialists, reviewers, theatregoers and others related to the world of theatrical performance to enlarge their horizons. &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Koptā kritika sociālo tīklu laikmetā

The article analyses the situation of professional theatre criticism in the contemporary theatre environment and the reflection of current stage processes in performance reviews. The aim of the study is to identify changes in the purposes, form and content of professional theatre criticism at a time when social networks have become popular and are used both as a platform for discussion and as a platform for self-expression. In order to distinguish between reviews of performances written by professionally trained experts and other written reviews, the author of the article uses the term “cultivated criticism”. The research sources are the Latvian professional media Teātra Vēstnesis and www.kroders.lv, as well as the social network Facebook. The media content is analysed using the insights of art criticism theorists from the beginning of the 20th century to the current day and comparing the common and different principles of reviewing in the pre-digital and digital age. The professional standards of the review authors are also addressed. The author of the article has chosen the principles of theatre criticism from the works of the American theatre director and critic Harold Clurman (1901–1980) and the Scottish theatre critic and cultural journalist Mark Fisher as a theoretical framework. The findings of these experts are related to the opinions of Latvian and Lithuanian practising theatre critics on the meaning of reviews. The content analysis of the reviews looks for intersections with the American art critic Ben Davis’s concept of post-descriptive criticism, which, according to Davis, changes the descriptive nature of traditional, ekphrastic criticism. The research confirms Davis’s thesis that the transformation of a visual image into a verbal image is changing along with the changes in the artistic and informational environment. Regardless of the form of the review, theatre criticism remains an essential tool for the study of theatrical processes. At the same time, it is concluded that media content analysis does not provide a clear answer to the question of how to make cultivated criticism seen by theatre practitioners as respectable feedback and suggestions for professional development. These findings suggest that the paper’s topic is open for further research and discussion.

Teātra kritika Covid-19 pandēmijas laikā (2020–2022)

The experience of the pandemic period (2020–2022) has become part of the recent history of Latvian theatre, and the purpose of this article is to analyse the adaptation of criticism to the ‘new normal’ in terms of both form and content. The article’s research object is the reviews by theatre critics in the Latvian printed press and electronic media during the period of pandemic restrictions – from March 13, 2020, until spring 2022. After March 13, 2020, when the first outbreak of Covid-19 began in Latvia, inevitable confusion arose not only in theatres but also in the press writing about the theatre industry. The specialised cultural media had to create a new concept of content, shifting from performance reviews to the format of interviews or discussions. As theatres created new performative works of various formats, critics had to find new ways and vocabulary to write about them, including the use of new words such as ‘covid time’, ‘lockdown’, ‘online performance’, etc. New virtual performances contributed to discussions about whether or not e-theatre is a ‘real theatre’; critics began to pay attention to such technical aspects as the angle of the camera, the specifics of editing, the choice of close-ups, etc. Discussions became relevant on how to distinguish between performances created specifically for the virtual environment and recordings of performances that theatres showed during lockdown. Experimental formats of criticism emerged: in the spring of 2020, a cycle of fake reviews of performances that were not shown to the public due to the pandemic was published in the electronic journal Kroders.lv; inspired by the form used in Elmārs Seņkovs’s successful virtual performance “Iran Conference”, four critics founded the KuKū critics’ discussion club on the Zoom platform, its name describing the sense of the world at that time. Criticism changed from evaluative and analytical in the traditional sense to empathically descriptive, stimulating a discussion about the ethics of criticism. Categorical definitions turned into discussion questions and critical observations – into empathetic advice on how theatres can survive in pandemic conditions. The authors’ article explores these and other aspects of form and content by conducting a qualitative content analysis of Latvian theatre critics’ reviews and outlining the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Latvian theatre criticism.

Frances Burney’s A Busy Day; or, an Arrival from India (1800-1802) and the Family Business

Frances Burney (1752-1840) became one of the most famous eighteenth-century English novelists after the publication of her first work Evelina (1778), which was followed by other successful novels that made her a household name in Britain. Though Burney was always very attracted by the stage and there is a close relationship between her narrative and dramatic production, her comedies and tragedies have been considerably less explored and celebrated by eighteenth-century scholars and feminism. This article examines Burney’s comedy A Busy Day; or, an Arrival from India (1800-1802), which was never performed on stage during her lifetime and was one of the author’s last compositions paving the way for her harsh social criticism in The Wanderer (1814). Like all of Burney’s works, A Busy Day contains a good deal of satire and a provoking view of the domestic ideology, colonialism and the economic interests of the family at the turn of the nineteenth century. Burney introduces an insightful analysis of vulgarity and prejudice against the middle class. By drawing on the work of several Burney scholars, gender and theatre studies, I show how gender and colonialism are interrelated in A Busy Day, which showcases an evolution from Burney’s first heroine in Evelina to a more mature woman that would continue up to The Wanderer and it turns out to be Burney’s fiercest dramatic criticism against bias based on class, race and sex.

Problems of Russian Theatrical Reception of Shakespeare in Criticism of Yuli Eichenwald

The problem of this study lies in evaluating the methodological approach of Yuli Eichenwald (1872—1928) as a theatrical critic and theorist, specifically his writings on Shakespearean productions both in Russia and abroad. Known primarily as a literary critic, Eichenwald also wrote about theater, but his works in this area have been largely unexplored. The aim of this study is to shed light on Eichenwald's principles of theatrical criticism. The material used consists of little-known articles by Eichenwald on theater theory and Shakespearean productions from 1903 to 1927. The research employs hermeneutic and comparative methods. The findings reveal that Eichenwald demonstrates a literature-centric position in his articles on theater, according to which theater is merely an illustration of literary works. He increasingly uses productions as a pretext to discuss Shakespeare, often without mentioning the actors or directors. Eichenwald’s perception of theater as a mediator, as an auxiliary device between the play and the reader, leads to his rejection of the concept of directorial theater and the denial of the director as the author of the production. The authors conclude that Eichenwald’s theatrical criticism is a logical outcome of literature-centric judgments about theater, from Aristotle to Hegel, where theater is considered as part of literature.

Российская профессиональная и "любительская" театральная критика в зеркале дискуссий

The article is dedicated to discussions in old and new media about the state of modern Russian theater criticism and reveals the mechanism and consequences of dividing its authors into professionals and “amateurs” who write about the same performances, but with different degrees of responsibility and on different platforms – in special publications not for a mass audience and in amateur blogs that are easily accessible to everyone. A whole layer of scientific literature on theater criticism and theater journalism existing today in the conditions of digitalization of the media space and reflecting the phenomena of digitalization of the theater itself was studied. The theater critic has always not only assessed the phenomena of art, but also described them, trying to preserve living emotional impressions, recreating the appearance of disappeared performances, recording unique moments of acting, measuring the “temperature” of the auditorium; analyzed the changing styles and artistic trends, preferences, tastes and moods of the public. It would seem that the tasks of a professional theater critic remain the same. In fact, much has changed not only in its status, goals, functions, tools, and the content it creates, but also in the situation around it. Today we are witnessing the emergence of a new generation of young theater critics, who do not always have a special theater education, have never worked in professional media, call themselves bloggers, but are just as active as professionals in judging the theater. The topic of this study seems relevant since the discrepancies between the points of view expressed by the designated parties on modern theater are becoming more and more obvious. Therefore, the aim of our research is to study Russian theater criticism through the prism of the discussions going on around and within it. The study used the method of observing the practice of modern theater criticism, analyzed joint discussions published over the past ten years in the Russian media and the Internet, individual interviews and articles by professional representatives of the theater critical workshop and “amateur” bloggers about the purpose of criticism and the meanings it defends and the tools used. As a result, differences in the work of professional theater critics and representatives of amateur theater blogging, on the one hand, and, paradoxically, a tendency towards their convergence, on the other, were revealed. The described situation differs from the relationship in the environment of professional and blogger journalism, which is not related to such a specific field as theater. The most advanced “amateur” theater critics understand that they still cannot exist without knowledge of its fundamentals and deep mastery of the profession, and specialists feel a natural urge to move to the blogosphere, which they consider as an attractive platform for reaching the audience in conditions of a shortage of traditional print media.

Українсько-польський культурний діалог театральних практик в українській спеціалізованій періодиці 2014–2023 років

Background. Cultural and artistic international relations remain a highly relevant research area in current globalization processes, especially the threatening political redistribution of spheres of influence by antagonist states. Cultural dialogue, including the "soft power" of cultural diplomacy, is a crucial communicative tool for mutual understanding. Theater arts hold a special place in this process. The article aims to explore the specifics of cultural and artistic dialogue development between Ukrainian and Polish theaters via the analysis of Ukrainian specialized periodicals from 2014 to 2023. The related task is to define the degree of scientific elaboration of the problem. This research continues the problem's scientific exploration presented in the article "Cultural and Artistic Dialogue of Ukrainian Theaters on the Pages of Polish Periodicals at the Beginning of the 21st Century." Methods. To confirm the working hypothesis methods of observation, analysis, comparison, and experiment were used; the study is based on the axiological, informational, systematic, historical approaches. Results. The article presents the conducted analysis of the publications (dated from 2014 to 2023) dedicated to Ukrainian-Polish cultural relations in Ukrainian printed and electronic theater studies editions, mainly in journals such as "Ukrainian Theater," "Proscenium," and "Cinema-Theater." Conclusions. Analysis indicates the intensity of creative communications between theater groups of both countries, and interest in international contacts at national, institutional, and personal levels. The qualitative data obtained are significant for interdisciplinary research in cultural studies, and practical cultural diplomacy. It also will be useful for cultural anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, journalists, art critics, and theater critics.