Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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.