1st Edition

Who Keeps the Score on the London Stages?

By Kalina Stefanova Copyright 2000

    How does one become a theater critic in London?
    What do the theater critics think of their profession?
    How are they judged by those they critique?
    What do both critics and theatre-makers think of their mutual object of desire - the British Theatre?

    Who Keeps the Score on the London Stages? sets out to find the answers to these questions and many more in this long overdue publication on Britain's current theatre scene. Included are comprehensive interviews with more than fifty major London theatre critics and theater-makers, including Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Stephen Berkoff, Michael Billington, Martin Coveney, Nicholas de Jongh, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Peter Hall, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Adrian Noble, Sir Trevor Nunn and Irving Wardle.
    The author has gathered together a lively discussion about the contrmporary state of the British theatre, drawing a picture of its strengths, weaknesses and the problems it faces today. This volume serves as a long overdue guide to the Theatre critics' profession in Britain.

    Introduction to the Series List of Interviewees Acknowledgements Prologue: The British Dimension of the American Dream Part I: In Their Capacity as an Ideal: Enter the London Theatre Critics Part II: Is The Ideal Really That Ideal? Part III: Who Would Notice If The Critics Disappeared? (Theory in the making) Part IV: Move Over, Tarantino! (14 True Crime Stories from the Critics's Lives) Part V: Diagnosis of a Theatre Part VI: Remembrance of Time Wasted Part VII: Give-And-Take Time Part VIII: Starring: The Critics (16 Eye-Witness Stories about Critics related by Theatre-Makers and Critics) Epilogue: For and Against London Theatre Criticism: A Foreigner's View Index

    Biography

    Dr. Kalina Stefanova is a Bulgarian theater critic and historian. She is the author of harwood academic publisher's Who Calls the Shots on the New York Stages? and Eastern European Theatre after the Iron Curtain. She is assistant professor of theatre criticism at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria.