Guidance on writing a theatre review for StageTalk magazine

We offer the following guidance to prospective reviewers who express an interest in writing for us. StageTalk Magazine does not adhere to a rigid house style, preferring instead to encourage writers with a strong interest and love of theatre to express themselves as they would wish. While recent reviews are always available for reference on our website, the following advice from Lyn Gardner of the Guardian covers the basics well and we offer it as potential guidance.

“The first rule is that there are no rules – you’re writing a review to express your thoughts and feelings about a theatre show, not taking an exam. There are as many ways to write a review as there are personal responses to any production. There is no right or wrong. Allow yourself to develop your own distinctive voice, and be honest about what you really think about a production: convey your enthusiasm for it or explain why you disliked it (be specific!). Don’t worry about going out on a limb. A timid theatre review is often a dull read. The hardest reviews to write are not about the shows you passionately loved or hated, but about ones that were just so-so.

A traditional theatre review often begins by giving the reader some background about a production, a brief outline of plot and themes, a sense of what the staging looks (and sounds) like; it offers an evaluation of writing, production and performances and concludes with a summing up. It’s pretty basic GCSE coursework stuff. (Coursework that I suspect I might fail if I had to do it.)

But it doesn’t have to be like that. Particularly in the digital age, when a theatre review can be a succinct and witty 140-character critique on Twitter, an occasional or regular response on the comment threads of Guardian reviews or a piece of writing on a blog that runs to many hundreds of words and uses the production as a springboard to discuss wider issues. The last of these often sits somewhere on a line between academic criticism and broadsheet reviews; some of the most exciting blog commentary is trying to create a genuine and informed dialogue between those making the work and those writing about it; still more matches the form of the show with critical response. Smart theatre publicists and marketing departments know these bloggers are invaluable and will facilitate access by offering free tickets to those who write regularly and engagingly.
Blogging has changed the world of theatre criticism, and for the better. A wider range of voices on many different platforms isn’t challenging the authority of us full-time theatre critics but broadening it. It may never have been as hard to get paid for writing theatre criticism, but it has never been easier to be noticed for writing it and to gain yourself an audience for what you write.

I’ve been learning on the job for the last 30 years, and am still learning with every review I write. The best advice I can offer is to see as much theatre as you can, write about everything that you see, and always write reviews that really reflect what you felt about a show – not what you think you ought to have felt about it. Oh, and have fun. If you don’t have fun writing the review, nobody will have fun reading it.”

Word length
We will want 400-500 words emailed to us in a Word document by noon the day following the Press Night.

Star system
A rough guide:
5 stars – An exceptional theatrical experience not to be missed.
4 stars – A very good production well worth going to.
3 stars – A decent evening’s engagement worth some consideration.
2 stars – A disappointing production that would be difficult to recommend.
1 star – The production failed on most levels, avoid.

Recompense
There is no payment of fee or expenses at the moment as StageTalk Magazine does not generate its own income. However, you will get a couple of best-seat press tickets, a free programme and, if you are lucky, a drink in the interval – and of course your name online on a prestigious website which is often quoted by the theatres and producers we serve. You may be asked to write something once or twice a month and usually will be given plenty of notice. We hope you will enjoy writing for us.

StageTalk Magazine was launched on 1st December 2013 and presents news, previews, reviews and lots more from theatres in Bristol, Bath, Birmingham, Cheltenham and Oxford and other venues within an area loosely defined by the M4, M40 and M5 triangle.

The articles are constantly changing as news and reviews come in, so if you are promoting a show please let us know. Please subscribe to the site or follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you are always up to date.

We will, of course, welcome any feedback. Please go to our Contact Us page.

What next for StageTalk? A small group of StageTalk’s reviewers, based in Bristol, have now taken up the reins. We will continue to support and promote local theatre, initially focussing on the Bristol and Bath area.

Michael Hasted (Founding Editor) has moved on and is seeking new challenges after running StageTalk for eight years. Theatre has always been close to his heart – he was expelled from school at 16 for skiving off to his local repertory theatre! He trod the boards in rep for a number of years, appearing in various productions with Steven Berkoff, James Bolam and Penelope Keith. He also ventured into TV, appearing in the BBC’s Z Cars.

But Mike is a man of many talents, and in the 1960s he became involved in the Les Cousins music club in Soho, designing their posters and occasionally performing.  He also worked with Cat Stevens, Al Stewart, Van Morrison and Jeff Lynne. His work in the record industry included photographing, among many others, Hawkwind, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Robert Palmer, and he designed sleeves for The Groundhogs, Mike Batt and for guitarist John Williams. In the 1970s he turned to designing book jackets and to magazine illustration, working with Playboy for 20 years. He also became a painter, and his work features in public collections in England, France, Greece and the USA. As if all that wasn’t enough, he has run an English bookshop in the South of France and has continued to work as a writer and theatre director. Thespians, his book of actors’ reminiscences of the 1940s to the 1970s, was published in 2014, and features a foreword by Penelope Keith.

Somehow this very busy man also succeeded in creating and running StageTalk. But he now lives in Delft where, together with his wife Astrid Burchardt, he runs ArtsTalk Magazine, covering concerts and galleries in the South West Netherlands. We are enormously grateful to Mike for his guidance and encouragement over the past eight years, and we wish him all the best for the future.