How to Write About Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers

About the 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

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. How to Learn from Critics of the Past
3. How to Take on Different Critical Styles
4. How to Write for Your Readers
5. How to Do Your Research
6. How to Find Your Voice
7. How to Write the First Sentence
8. How to Structure a Review
9. How to Write in the Moment
10. How to Write Opinions
11. How to Give Star Ratings
12. How to Write About Acting
13. How to Write About Plays
14. How to Write About the Production
15. How to Write About the Audience
16. How to Write About Context
17. How to Write About Emotions
18. How to Write About Your Bias
19. How to Write About Culture, Society and Politics
20. How to Put Everything Together
21. Index

About the Author :
Mark Fisher is one of Scotland's foremost commentators on the arts. With over 25 years' experience, he is the Scottish theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List and a freelance contributor to Variety, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. He is the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide ("A wonderfully practical but also inspirational book full of good advice" - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian) and the co-editor of Made in Scotland, an anthology of plays published by Methuen Drama.

Review :
A perfect introduction to what could be a lifetime of pleasure in and around theatres … Mark Fisher has written an intelligent and insightful manual “for critics, students and bloggers” that will help those studying theatre criticism to understand their chosen trade and pursue it more effectively. Whatever else you read this autumn, Mark Fisher's new book How to Write About Theatre (Bloomsbury) has to be top of the list. If you've ever tapped out so much as a tweet about a show (which is in effect a mini self-published review), then this is the book for you. . . . Fisher very helpfully breaks down writing about theatre into two ways of dealing with things such as audience, production, emotions, context and more. He even discusses star ratings, writing about your own bias . . . and how to write about culture, society and politics. Along the way this accessible, moderate, helpful and very thorough book suggests learn-the-ropes exercises. Whether you're a highly experienced writer about theatre or a raw beginner desperate for advice and training, there is something for you here. In one of his many succinct definitions, Fisher suggests the critic's job is to "write well, think clearly and entertain". This book can teach you how to do this - and a lot more. Highly recommended. [An] entertaining and informative must-read for budding, blooming or even slightly bloomed theatre critics. It is clearly written, widely researched and in the typically even handed and generous style of the author. This book is a useful tool for both experienced writers/critics and novices alike. In it Fisher manages to balance some insightful commentary on the history of criticism with a well structured guide to writing ... Fisher’s book is an approachable yet informed text, it provides detailed context and content while maintained an accessible and engaging format. A comprehensive, astutely researched, academic guide to theatre criticism ... Fisher offers pertinent advice ... [with] some wonderful quotations from archive and contemporary reviews to illustrate how to write with conviction ... [A]n inspirational, constructive manual for all theatre professionals. Undoubtedly, one of the most successful books on theatre criticism. In approachable and fastidious prose, Fisher guides the reader through twenty chapters in which he demonstrates how one can perform theatre criticism that is analytical and accessible, regardless of the intended audience or medium of delivery … Fisher has given us a short (but analytical) view into the debates, the schools of thought, and the rationale for different approaches to theatre criticism. Because social media has made us all members of the public sphere, the information is invaluable for students, journalists, scholars, tweeters, bloggers, and teachers. How to Write about Theatre is a great source to teach theatre students about the history of criticism as a profession, and about what publishing theatre criticism shares with the process of making theatre. The strength of the book is how Mark Fisher repeatedly frames the act of publishing criticism as a performance … Fisher prepares the reader to consider the social purpose and artistic dimensions of their writing so that they see theatre criticism as an art. This book focuses on the fundamentals of crafting an engaging argument and identifying one’s potential audience in ways that will resonate with theatre students. Fisher’s text will serve them well, because it trains their capacity as writers in fun and creative ways and illustrates how their training in performance can inform their writing … Students who utilize this book to learn how critics might analyze theatre will be prepared to think more critically about the productions they work on, as well as their own writing … Fisher’s text teaches students how to write journalistic arts criticism, but it is a valuable resource with straightforward advice for any student learning how to translate a theatrical event into writing. A wry and useful how-to for the newest would-bes working in this changing and maddeningly difficult area of theatre.