Reviewing the Performing Arts

This workshop course offers practical guidance for journalists who wish to write about the performing arts, including film, drama, music, and dance. We read and analyze works by such critics and essayists as Manohla Dargis, Justin Chang, Wesley Morris, Amanda Petrusich, Naveen Kumar, Vinson Cunningham and Maya Phillips. Students write film, theater, music, and other reviews and critical essays, while learning to develop their skills in perception, analytical thinking, organization, and persuasiveness. We hear from guest writers, watch recorded and live performances, and investigate criticism's ability to build new knowledge of the arts, drawing from work published in a variety of media, both legacy and new. Students learn to develop their own distinctive voices while tapping into their critical faculties to analyze the arts in fresh and convincing ways. Although this is a course for journalists, it is useful for students with an interest in performance or in dramatic writing because it provides a new understanding of the view from the other side of the stage and screen.