The Complete Critic's Qualifications

by Harold Clurman

Besides having culitvated taste, feeling and a talent for clear observation of people:

1. the critic should know the greater part of classic and contemporary drama as written and played. Added to this, he must be conversant with general literature: novels, poetry, essays of wide scope.

2. He should know the history of the theatre form its origins to the present.

3. He should have a long and broad playgoing experience - of native and foreign productions.

4. He should possess an interest in and a familiarity with the arts: painting, music, architecture and the dance.

5. He should have worked in the theatre in some capacity (apart from criticism).

6. He should know the history of his country and world history: the social thinking of past and present.

7. He should have something like a philosophy, an attitude toward life.

8. He should write lucidly, and, if possible, gracefully. CLARITY.

9. He should respect his readers by upholding high standards and encourage his readers to cultivate the same.

10.  He should be aware of his prejudices and blind spots.

11. He should err on the side of generosity rather than an opposite zeal.

12. He should seek to enlighten rather than carp or puff. (Mindless raving puffery is just as damaging to the theatre and drama as a thoughtless snarky pan.)

• Avoid non-specific adjectives such as BRILLIANT and WONDERFUL; we want to know WHY they are great.
• DISCERNMENT: Determining the value and quality of a certain subject or event, particularly the going past the mere perception of something and making detailed judgments about that thing. As a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgment; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others. Discern between direction, design, script and acting.
• PERSONALITY: Develop you unique voice.
• Read the work of other critics.
• Are you at the theater to analyze or be entertained?
• Critique what is in front of you. Beware of being a show doctor and telling the artists what they should have done instead.
• True or False: the job of a critic is to destroy the bad to make way for the good.
• Three questions for your review: what are they going for? Did they achieve it? Does it work?
• Take notes: Write down a line, an emotion, or when you have an instinctive judgment.
• Fall in love with theater.
• Be prepared to take criticism yourself.

New Play Dramaturgy

Taking notes on a new play, make specific notes about:
- things you don't understand
- Character arch
- things you loved
- inconsistencies

*This is a list of notes that are strictly for you, you NEVER give them to the writer, except maybe "things you loved".

The 1st Meeting

Your 1st meeting with the playwright should be done in person. With this meeting you want to:

1. Get a personality reading. Do your personalities clash or work well with each other.

2. Build a relationship. In this meeting you need to build trust, or how can you expect the playwright to have confidence that you want what's good their script. You should find a an informal, comfortable, meeting place.

3. Don't give notes

The 1st meeting is to establish trust, to get the writers vision, and to build a working friendship. A great question to start off with could be something like:

"Imagine that it's opening night. You have the perfect everything - script, cast, venue, set, lights...ect- everything you wanted has been realized. if you go out into the lobby and listen to the audience criticism:

1. what is the one thing that if no one mentioned you would be heartbroken?

2. What was your original impulse when you started writing the play? Do you feel it still when you read through it now.

Dramaturgical Credo

The Dramaturgical Guide For Set Texts

1. First, do no harm.
2. Do not direct, rewrite, or redesign the text, doing so does harm and ignores rule #1.
3. Listen to the play's rule, wants and needs.
4. Listen to your collaborators' wants, and needs.
5. Identify when #3 and #4 work against one another.
6. Consider and discern whether that pull enhances of distracts.
7. Pose Ope Questions.
8. Listen to your collaborators' responses.
9. Listen to the play's responses.
10. Keep the play's rules, needs and wants at the center of all you do.
11. Help you collaborators remain connected to their passion.

Remember, you're there to help grow a production, you are not there to save it from the critics.

Qualities of a Good Turg?

what makes a good dramaturg?

                curiosity- at the heart of everything you do your asking question.

                sense of humor

                passion – you need to love what you do. You need to love the work as a dramaturg and the play              you are working with.

                Respect – for the yourself and the project you’re working on

                open mind/flexibility

Key essentials for a good working relationship?

                value- you need to give yourself value, if you don’t believe you and your work is important no one else will either.

                negotiation-

                Active Listening

                butterfly

                conversation and communication.

                keep others working and you will be working too

Possibilities of the dramaturgy role?

                encourage dialogue

                think outside the box – our field exist because of this

                be a cheerleader

                community tie

                start a new play festival

                solve problems

                encourage new playwrights 

Dramaturg - as A Literary Agent

Two things to make a good Literary Agent:

(1)    What makes a good script

       (2) and your personal bias

*Know that it can be a good script even if you don’t personality like it.

 

Your theater submission policy…Who can submit and how they can do it

                agents

                Theater artists that can submit – from partnering theaters

                open submission

                ten page sample – for playwrights who don’t have agents

                                *resume

                                *cover letter

                                *ten pages of a script to convince the playhouse they want your script

Script Log:

an excel doc that contains

1.       the script number

2.       date received

3.       the author

4.       title

5.       agent

6.       submitters contact info

7.       who it was submitted to

8.       3 reader – signed in when first received and dated when finished

script report criteria – be brutly honest, precise, well and crafted

Know your theaters mission statement

Know your theater space

Why are you considering this script?

Recommendation

the 1^st read – a script report

one – one ½ page

What makes a script good?

-          transitions from the page to the stage

-          keeping the audience in mind