Theatrical Criticism

[freeadmission]

Any of you folks know of good books on the topic? I'm writing a thesis that's mostly about philosophy, but through the lens of Sweeney Todd and I want to make sure I don't do anything stupid.

Thanks much!

[luvtheEmcee]

Do you want books ON criticism, or books BY critics? There isn't really much in the way of "theater criticism for dummies" how-to kind of things out there. I don't really understand what you're writing about -- can you explain further?

[freeadmission]

I'm looking more for books ON criticism.

I'm writing on the nature of justice and vengeance as seen in Sweeney Todd. Though I can do a bang up job of criticism without sources, technical terms look nice in a paper and sources always look nice in a bibliography.

[luvtheEmcee]

So you want books on... how to critically interpret theater? That's a tough one. You're right, you do need sources, and in terms of traditional (i.e. book) sources, you might need to think outside the box a little. It's not something you can so read about how to do and go. But there are books on different lenses through which you can interpret, and stuff like that. So your goal should probably be to find and use not things that will tell you how TO interpret, but that will inform your interpretation. Unfortunately criticism IS very heavily based on interpretation, which is why it's often not readily accepted by the academy, but that's a separate issue. And so it'd put you in a catch-22 to cite someone else's interpretation of the piece, though you can always do that to back up your views. In a piece like what it sounds like you're writing, the work itself (and thus what you see in it) is probably your most important source.

I'm not at home now, but if when I get home later tonight, you still haven't found what you're looking for, I will look at my bookshelf and the bibliography of my thesis (which was similar in nature) to see what I can come up with that might help you, or at least please the people who will be looking at your sources. You can PM me if you want to go into more detail.

[Gypsy9]

THE CRITICS by Lehman Engel, Broadway pit conductor and founder of the BMI Musical Workshops, was written in 1976. It discusses the purposes of a critic, but mainly takes the newspaper and magazine theatre critics of his day and disects their work, giving tons of examples. The book is currently available on Amazon.com for $0.67!!! I would suggest making that tiny investment. Engel is a good writer. His autobiography, THIS BRIGHT DAY, is wonderful. Good luck on your paper.

[professor]

Since you're writing about Sweeney Todd, I would suggest Antonin Artaud's "The Theatre and its Double" and Peter Brook's "The Empty Space"-- "In Search of Theatre" and "The Life of the Drama" (both by Eric Bentley) might also fit the bill. Any good academic library should have all of these.

[luvtheEmcee]

Peter Brook is always an excellent suggestion; in addition to The Empty Space, I'd also recommend his less-well known The Open Door. Another one of my favorites, though it's been a while so I don't know how relevant it would be to what you're doing, is The Dramatic Imagination, but I'm blanking on the author and am posting from my Blackberry. Again, these aren't necessarily things that will tell you what kinds of things to look for when you write a critique, which is basically what I was trying to say before, but they will definitely help inform the interpretations you bring to the paper.

Lehman Engel is an excellent writer - I don't know how I managed to miss that he wrote about critics, so thank you to whoever suggested that. I am going to seek out a copy for sure.

[professor]

"The Dramatic Imagination" is by Robert Edmund Jones (and is a good suggestion!)

[luvtheEmcee]

Thank you, I knew it was something Jones! It's a really quick read. I read it as an introductory text for a class several years ago and was really taken with some of his ideas.

[luvtheEmcee]

Some other stuff I used, basically to frame my argument in a critical analysis of a Sondheim show:

Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey (this is a huge, not terribly in-depth book, but it's a good overview of many things you might find useful. It's also very clearly written, which is fairly uncommon when it comes to theoretical writings.
The American Musical: A Literary Study Within the Context of American Drama... (very very long title) by Mark Bauch
The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity, Raymond Knapp

I used a ton of Brecht, but that was really specific to what I was doing and I don't think that'd help you very much -- I'd stick to Brook and Artaud.

There are also a few excellent books that are collections of critical essays on Sondheim's work. I used Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays and Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook. You might also want to look at those. They're definitely things you can cite as models of sorts.

And then there are all of the standard books on Sondheim, which I'm sure you're familiar with!

I hope that's helpful. Good luck!

[freeadmission]

Wow, thank you guys so much. You've been extremely helpful!