Genres of Cultural Journalism: Theatre Review

This paper focuses on cultural journalism and its main species. After a brief review of the main genres of the cultural writing press, I will dwell on the theater chronicle, trying to see what style of writing is circumscribed and what are the main steps in writing a theatre review. Based on my 23 years of experience as a journalist in the daily generalist and specialized cultural press (Cultural Magazine of the Romanian Writers' Union, ARCA), I dare to say that the secret of any theater review lies in the balance between the information transmitted and the journalist's comment, between the statement and the argument displayed. Being a personal judgement, therefor subjective, the article can rise dissatisfaction among directors, actors, set designers etc. who do not always resonate with the journalist's verdict. My paper will provide several personal examples of approaching the theater show, situations that I have faced over time, all to shed some light on writing the theater review. From a stylistic point of view, I will try to see how theatre review differs in the overall press coverage. The editorial style of the theater review could be circumscribed to the journalistic style, having at the same time an accentuated aesthetic dimension. This brings it closer to the language of literature.

Theater review: The Other

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Theater criticism, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," and online community

After summarizing initial research into the UK's theater blogging communities, I present some early observations about amateur theater critics writing from within and outside fandom. From my multiple perspectives as Tumblr user, blogger, theater fan, and academic, I consider the way those who respond to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) on Tumblr display similar behaviors to those who maintain general theater review blogs, with both groups appearing to organize and distinguish themselves according to strict codes of ethics, ways of working, and markers of taste.

Dancing theKolomyikaat the Opéra-Comique: Léo Delibes's Galician OperaKassya

In the spring 1893, the following statement appearedin a theater review in one of the Parisian dailies: “Mais, dans ce diable de pays de Galicie, on n'est jamais tranquille et il faut toujours craindre pour le lendemain [But, in this hell of a land Galicia, it's never quiet, and one must always fear for tomorrow].” These words were written in response to the first, and perhaps the only, opera produced in Western Europe about the Austrian province of Galicia. The work's plot centered on a love triangle between a count, a gypsy girl, and a peasant, and was set against the historical backdrop of the Galician peasant uprising of 1846. The opera in question,Kassya, was the swan song of French composer Léo Delibes, written after a trip he took to Hungary and Austrian Galicia. The critic who penned the above words, Georges Street, certainly knew something about intrigue and conspiracy within the Austrian Empire. He was the grandson of Metternich's master spy, Georg Klindworth, and the son of Agnes Street-Klindworth, who gathered intelligence for her father about refugees of the 1848 upheavals living in Weimar. Delibes's opera and Street's biography interconnect only circumstantially—the former composed the music toKassya;the latter attended a performance and wrote a review—yet this coincidence suggests an interesting avenue for investigation regarding French contacts with East Central Europe.