Conversation Academy for Contemporary Theatre Journalism

The very first Academy for Contemporary Theatre Journalism took place from November 2019 to March 2020 on the initiative of the Alliance of International Production Houses. Twenty theatre critics from all over Germany discussed in Essen, Dresden and Hamburg the opportunities and expectations relating to a type of journalism that corresponds with the multifaceted productions and methods of producing contemporary theatre.
Academy organisers Esther Boldt and Philipp Schulte speak here with two of the participants, freelance author Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser and taz editor Jan-Paul Koopmann, about their experiences, solidarity and the future of criticism.

Esther Boldt
What prompted each of you to apply to participate in the academy?


Jan-Paul Koopmann
I never get the opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues about texts outside of specific assignments, texts that don’t originate as part of a current production flow. The idea of reflecting on fundamental issues and discussing them with colleagues is something that never happens in my everyday work.

Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
The same applies to me, too.


Esther Boldt
What is your impression of the academy so far? Has it fulfilled your expectations?

Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
I would first compliment the jury on their selection of participants. It is a very well-rounded group, made up of very different people from different age groups and different media, including television, radio and newspapers. The participants are in different positions in those media, for example, there are editors, trainees and freelance employees. This makes it a balanced group, but also a diverse one. In other words, we never run out of topics to discuss.


Jan-Paul Koopmann
And we always manage to find each other on some lever or another. Like you said, it’s a very diverse group, but the thing that we’re all interested in is contemporary forms, contemporary theatre.


Philipp Schulte
I’m not a critic, but it looks to me like theatre reviews and criticism – much like writing in general – is primarily a lonely activity. Certain types of discussions, moments of solidarity, moments of exchange – these are perhaps unusual outside of a certain media structure or hierarchy. Am I right in saying that?


Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
Yes, I also think there’s a big difference between writing, on the one hand, and art and theatre on the other. Discussions, exchange and the notion of a work-in-progress are always part of the process of art and theatre. At the academy, we had concentrated discussions about our texts without any production pressure, and this also distinguishes them, for example, from the blog of the Theatertreffen. I learned a lot at the blog, but at the same time I was always busy kicking out texts.


Esther Boldt
There’s definitely a form of exchange that happens in editorial offices. In the best case scenario, there’s a discussion about the meaning and purpose of a text, and authors also get feedback from their supervising editors.


Jan-Paul Koopmann
Yes, but that’s a completely different level. We engage in that kind of discussion every day too, of course, we have to, and we talk about individual texts when it comes to editing. But we don’t talk about the fundamentals in editorial meetings. At the academy, however, a space is opened up where precisely those key questions can be discussed: What is contemporary theatre? What kinds of shapes does it assume? What subjects does it examine? And what does it mean to write about theatre? At conventional editorial meetings, we simply don’t have time to have those kinds of discussions.


Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
Preliminary decisions about whether a text will be a critical review or not, and what the nature of the critique should be – these decisions have always already been made in advance. At the academy, however, we questioned precisely this framework, and we also considered texts with the idea that they could look completely different if we wanted them to.


Jan-Paul Koopmann
Still, the format of a critical review remained astonishingly present at the academy. At the beginning, we looked for other kinds of texts, but we ended up speaking much more about attitudes and about how much of an agenda we should have in critical pieces on specific productions. I took a lot out of that discussion and thought about it a lot later, especially when I was writing texts between the academy weekends.


Philipp Schulte
I was amazed that we talked so intensively about texts. The idea of sending out one-line reviews online was much less present than I expected at the beginning. I noticed a definite pleasure in the writing of texts, an enthusiasm for intellectual, written examinations of the performances one has taken in.

Esther Boldt
Is there a specific moment you experienced at the academy that stuck in your mind, one that you noted as being particularly special?


Jan-Paul Koopmann
No, not a specific moment so far. What’s special for me is the intensity with which we work. Everyone is totally present. We sit in the theatre until late in the evening, and then the discussion continues the next morning at the breakfast table. This happens not only for days, but also over the course of several modules. I’ve never experienced that in other work contexts, and it’s something I think is very unique to the academy. Plus, the very respectful interaction among the participants. You go out on a limb with drafts and half-finished texts, but I never for a second felt uncomfortable when discussing what I’d written. That’s valuable and not something I take for granted.


Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
I can think of two things. First, when we were in Essen, I remember having a discussion about the corrective element in texts. I think this question is one of the most urgent issues of our time – not only in relation to cultural criticism, but also totally concretely in political terms in our democracy. Second, Lisa Lucassen from the performance collective She She Pop was invited to the academy in Dresden, and she said: “What? You believe that performance reviews are actually a dialogue? I’ve never heard that before!” This clash of ideas … I found that totally interesting!


Philipp Schulte
Do you see the academy as having any specific use beyond its ideational value?


Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
I think we developed a form of solidarity, or at least we generated a level of awareness for each other. I learned that if I want my work to be perceived as an offer to engage in dialogue, then perhaps I need to do more to make that happen.


Jan-Paul Koopmann
We already talked about the fact that the group consists of people from very different professional backgrounds, and what’s new for me is the cooperation with people who have studied theatre studies. That did me a lot of good and inspired me to read theory differently, that is, not just in relation to specific questions.


Esther Boldt
What do you wish for the future of theatre journalism?

Jan-Paul Koopmann
II’d like to read more texts by people who think a lot about culture, people who could lead a discussion about theatre in our newspaper without being professional journalists. This would bring other perspectives, other viewers, to the public discourse, ones that are different to those of professional critics, whom we still need, of course. We journalists are trained to use particular tools that allow us to write about anything, but I don’t always feel good about that. It would be much more interesting to hear from people who are affected differently, especially when it comes to political theatre.


Theresa Luise Gindlstrasser
There is so much ego, so much Amazon, so many different star ratings these days. If I could wish for one thing, it would be that criticism would slow down. Not necessarily with regard to production processes, but in relation to modes of social behaviour and judgments. Criticism would become old-fashioned in the best sense of the term; something slow and tentative, something that remains critical not only of the object but also of itself.