Kressley, Laura (2023) Embedded theatre criticism in England 2012-2022: between mainstream criticism and dramaturgy. Doctoral thesis, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.

Abstract

This thesis engages with embedded theatre criticism in England in the decade since 2012. It advocates for understanding the practice as a type of theatre criticism that focuses on rehearsal processes rather than performances. Recent engagement within contemporary scholarship articulates embedded criticism as a shift away from mainstream criticism's norms (Fisher 2015, Costa 2016, Radosavljevic 2016, Vaughan 2020). Significantly, Karen Fricker argues that embedded criticism is a divergence from the "critical trifecta" (2016) of description, analysis, and judgment. This thesis builds on Fricker (2016) and Maddy Costa's (2016) interventions by arguing embedded criticism is a shift from critical norms and works towards dismantling widely held expectations of critical distance and objectivity.
In arguing for embedded criticism's significance, the thesis explores its overlaps and differences with dramaturgy and mainstream criticism. The methodology includes case studies, text analysis of critical outputs, interviews, and autoethnographic fieldwork drawing on Gay McAuley's model of the participant observer (2012). Chapter one analyses embedded criticism over the decade and documents its development. Chapter two investigates the rehearsal space's foregrounding in embedded criticism through examining Megan Vaughan's embedded criticism (2017). Chapter three identifies the role of subjectivity through analysing Ava Wong Davies' embedded criticism (2018-2019). Chapter four examines German dramaturgy's documentation of rehearsals but differentiates it from dramaturgy in England. Chapter five utilizes autoethnography, recollection and critical reflection to consider my work as an embedded critic, mainstream critic, and dramaturg.
By identifying key features that, in combination, distinguish embedded criticism from mainstream criticism and dramaturgy, the thesis argues for embedded criticism's engagement with the rehearsal space and the critic's subjectivity. In doing so, the thesis articulates the importance of a distinct practice that prioritizes process over product and dismantles existing distances between critics, artists, and audiences.