Bob Abelman Boeken

A Theater Criticism/Arts Journalism Primer: Refereeing the Muses examines the skill set associated with being a critic and arts journalist. It explores the history, evolution, and future of the profession in the United States, and carefully and purposefully dissects the preparation, observation, and writing process associated with generating thoughtful and interesting arts criticism. Using theatrical productions as the best and most vivid example of a storytelling enterprise that employs creativity, imagination, collaboration, aesthetics, and artisanship to effectively engage an audience, this book is intended to generate the critical thinking and critical writing skills necessary to effectively engage in all forms of arts journalism. It is designed to be used as a college-level textbook on theater criticism and arts journalism courses, for those looking to become more thoughtful, critical consumers, for casual critics thinking about starting a blog or working for their university newspaper, and for working critics hoping to improve their craft. The text is written in an accessible style and includes quotes from renowned critics and arts practitioners throughout as well as frequent sidebars that offer timely, insightful, and entertaining examples of the points being made in the text. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents: The Arts at Arm s Length Criticizing the Arts, or Not The Critic Critical Thinking The Evolution of Criticism: From Dramatic to Theater The Evolution of Theater Criticism: The Modern Era Storytelling Conventions The Storytell ers Prelude to a Critique Writing a Critique Deconstruction of a Critique.

“Funny. Utterly delightful. Totally believable. . . . A hilarious, but true-to-life, glimpse into the madcap and magical process of putting on a play.” —John Rubinstein, Tony Award–winning actor (Pippin, Ragtime)When a local critic takes an acting role with a top-tier theater company in order to write about the experience, he gets more of a story than he bargained for.“An irrational, overriding, mind-numbing fear.” That’s how Asher Kaufman describes his relationship with Shakespeare—not what you might expect from a veteran theater critic. So when Asher learns he’ll be trying out for As You Like It, he realizes this assignment will be a very bumpy ride.What starts out as a stunt to increase readership for the Cleveland Jewish Chronicle becomes one man’s personal battle with the Bard and ends up a laugh-out-loud tale full of twists and turns, endearing characters, and behind-the-curtain action.How will this clandestine critic overcome his lifelong fear—while sharing the stage with actors whose past performances he panned (and without getting panned himself by his fellow critics)? It’s enough to give anyone opening night jitters!This fictional memoir will delight theater fans who have ever wondered what might be going on backstage during a performance—or in the mind of a theater critic.

A fallible local theater critic takes an acting role as a stunt for his newspaper and finds himself in the middle of an unscripted, onstage, opening night murder. Asked by police to help their investigation, he now must find out which of his quirky castmates is a killer. They all claim innocence, but he knows firsthand: they could just be acting.