How to destroy theatre criticism (then maybe how to save it)

Two updates below.

This week, Adelaide-based Aspire Magazine, which bills itself as having “a big fat crush on SA’s emerging talent [and] creative types”, advertised looking for someone to become their theatre critic.

The selected candidate will work with Aspire throughout 2016, seeing over 25 shows and filing reviews for online publication within 24-hours of the performance, as well as writing a column for their bi-monthly print publication.

The catch? This isn’t a paid position. Instead, it is a “prize”.

“Win free tickets to a year’s worth of amazing arts shows”, the headline reads. Writing about these shows is, of course, a fun bonus — that just happens to be contractually obligated through the competition’s terms and conditions. While Aspire has a paid staff and a freelancer’s budget, contributing theatre coverage for free is an “opportunity.”

Conspiring with Aspire to bring this award is a who’s who of Adelaide’s arts originations: Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival of Arts, WOMADelaide, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Australian Dance Theatre. Do we think any of these ogranisations are hosting competitions so people can win unpaid work with them? I am upset with Aspire for running this competition; I am especially upset with these organisations for supporting this venture.

To start with Aspire, I am upset that a professional publication would treat arts criticism as a fun extra, and not on equal footing with the rest of their coverage. I believe cultural criticism is of deep importance, and readers and artists deserve writing that is thought-out, intelligent, and on par with the rest of the writing any given publication publishes. If some writers are paid, all writers should be paid — especially in the case of commercial magazines like Aspire that will use this free content to drive advertising revenue. Aspire, of course, isn’t the only publication that treats criticism as worth less than its other coverage: ArtsHub is possibly the most egregious example in the Australian arts world of features writers being paid while critics go without, and it has been established practice in street press for years.

Writers — be they emerging, established, or the winner of a “prize” — deserve to be paid. Saying that writers are young, inexperienced, just starting out, or “an arts lover” shouldn’t be any excuse. As the cliché goes: if it’s worth being published, it’s worth being paid for.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the two most formative formalised professional development opportunities I undertook as a young writer were paid. These opportunities — Next Wave Festival’s Text Camp, where I wrote for RealTime, and an internship with the Guardian during the Adelaide Festival — offered me time and close relationships with fellow writers and editors. They understood I was still finding my way, but they treated me like a professional and asked a lot of me — an occasion I was equally thrilled and terrified to rise too. My voice was respected by listening ears, keen advice, strong editing, and in a paycheck for my work. They taught me many things, but also that my time was worth being compensated for: writing about art is a joy, a privilege, and a job.

So onto the arts organisations collaborating in this project. I am disappointed that, at a time when it is so hard to make an income as a freelance arts journalist in Australia and intelligent professional criticism is thin on the ground, these organisations would codify criticism as not worthy of professional treatment.

In putting their names to this “award”, they are actively supporting a sector of the publishing industry that says criticism isn’t worth paying for.

A system where critics aren’t paid is a system where critics can’t work to find their voice and expand their knowledge and performance vocabulary. They can’t grow as writers, as critics, and as thinkers. The only way to have a strong critical culture is to ensure new writers are supported and believe they can stick with it.

In the short-term for these organisations, this arrangement will buy them extra articles for their media clippings; increase the calculated worth of their editorial media coverage; and bump them up a few percentage points when they brag about favourable media responses. But is this a long-term goal that will be beneficial to them and the artists they work with?

This arrangement says media coverage should be about maximizing quantity and praise, not quality and nuance. There will always be another person ready to step up into a prize; no skin off the arts industry’s back if they burn out after a year. Arts writing is fun. It’s disposable. It doesn’t need to be a profession in Australia. Not when the churn will supply the pull quotes.

I don’t think this arrangement with Aspire is beneficial to these arts ogansations. I don’t think it is truly beneficial to Apsire. And I don’t think it’s beneficial to anyone who wants to write or read about the arts.

If you are a new writer being asked to write for free, consider the position of those around you. Is this your best friend’s zine? Is this your university student press? Is it a passion project where you will be embraced as an equal? Is it a structured opportunity that will give you strong support from an organisation that deeply cares about new or young writers? Take the beautiful unpaid opportunity and run with your life.

Doesn’t tick these boxes? Walk on by. Write on your own terms: start a blog or a zine or a podcast, alone or with friends. If you want to review performance, sign up to every email list and look for discounts. Find out who does last minute tickets for cheap at the door. Volunteer in festivals. Enter every competition for tickets you can — as long as there are no strings attached.

Find your writing community: they’re online, on twitter, and on blogs. They’re at the Emerging Writers Festival and the National Young Writers Festival. They’re at poetry nights and magazine launches. Pitch and submit to literary journals — start with Voiceworks if it all seems overwhelming. You won’t get paid much, but no-one is being paid much, and you’ll find yourself a part of an incredible community.

When you have a back-catalogue of writing, ask theatre companies for tickets. Find the artists you really love and introduce yourself to them and say why you want to be in their audience. Explain you don’t have much of a readership because you’re just starting, but you are passionate and working hard.

Write for free, but only for yourself.

If you’re an arts organisation, listen out for the emerging voices and help to nurture them with tickets and by sending them press releases. If you can’t give them tickets to press night, invite them to a Saturday matinee when you’re at 60% capacity. But try and invite them to press night. Consider if your organisation can work to offer professional development opportunities for young writers and thinkers, and consider the longterm benefits of beginning to nurture a strong critical culture. Don’t support exploitative practices.

If you’re an artist involved in a show and have artist comps or discounts, contact the young writers you admire and ask if they would like to use the offer.

If you’re an established arts writer, offer your plus-ones to emerging writers. Take them to shows, read their work, discuss theatre and writing.

If you’re starting to write about theatre and we’re in the same city, get in touch. I would love to take you to a show, or have coffee to discuss this world. If we’re not in the same city, get in touch anyway: I want to be reading your work.

There are so many voices out there we’re not hearing. We’re not going to start hearing them with competitions that dress up labour as a prize. If you care about arts or journalism or arts journalism, you have a stake in these unheard voices: help me figure out a way to support them.

And please, please, publications: pay your writers.

UPDATE 8/12/15 8:15am: Aspire Magazine has changed the terms and conditions, and this will now be a paid position.

UPDATE 8/03/16 At some point, Aspire Magazine quietly cancelled the competition all together.