August 24, 2017

 

The Theatreview Trust

Profile

“Theatreview therefore is an invaluable asset on the arts landscape because it remains clearly committed to critical writing of the theatrical art forms”

Jonathan Bielski, Artistic Director | Kaiwhakahaere Toi Auckland Arts Festival | Te Ahurei Toi ō Tāmaki Makaurau

Theatreview was ‘invented’ by John Smythe, and went live on 2 April 2006. 

Mission

Theatreview‘s mission is to review the full array of New Zealand professional performing arts practice in order to:

• evaluate and celebrate excellence in culturally diverse production and performance
• inform prospective audiences through timely reviews (and the “Coming Up” facility)
• provide informed feedback to practitioners
• welcome audience and practitioner commentary, feedback and debate, and
• build a comprehensive and readily searchable heritage archive of professional performing arts practice in NZ.

The Theatreview Trust

The Theatreview Trust registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission on 5 January 2011: # CC45963. 

Patron: Bill Sheat CNZM, OBE

Consultant: Margaret Belich

As at August 2018 the Trustees are:

Dawn Sanders ONZN, QSM: Chair

Colleen McColl: Secretary

Marjorie McKee: Treasurer

John Smythe: Trustee

Raewyn Whyte: Trustee

Overview

Theatreview.org.nz is the only performing arts review site in New Zealand that has offered comprehensive nation-wide coverage and an easy-to-access archive. As such it provides an essential service within New Zealand’s performing arts infrastructure, offering a critically responsive record of the quality, quantity, diversity and trends of current performance and production across the spectrum of the professional performing arts. (As of 2018, Theatreview has had to drop Auckland theatre from its coverage and visitors are referred to TheatreScenes for Auckland theatre reviews.)

Often Theatreview is the only publication to review the work of emerging artists, Fringe shows, return /developed seasons and successive seasons of touring productions. The site also posts links to other media reviews in order to broaden the ‘conversation’. Theatreview gives smaller regions a voice by commissioning reviews of local professional productions, touring productions and the performing arts components of ever-growing regional festivals. This offers fresh perspectives on shows from elsewhere and keeps all visitors to Theatreview informed about what is playing where and when.

Theatreview sustains a nationwide sense of community within the performing arts world, being the hub of performing arts critical discourse, a virtual meeting place for the performing arts community and the ‘go to’ place for people from diverse sectors seeking informed commentary on current and past productions.

International seasons of New Zealand works are also reviewed wherever possible – e.g. NZ productions staged in London, New York and Australia have been reviewed, including the 2015 La Mama season. NZ content in the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 was individually reviewed and contextualised amid weekly wraps (podcast in 2016) of international fare. Although a funding shortfall means the 2017 and 2018 Edinburgh Fringes cannot be reviewed, Theatreview prefers to engage with such events whenever and wherever they occur.

Because Theatreview’s objective is to accurately reflect professional performing arts practice from year to year, the statistics may fluctuate. What will continue to grow, however, is the heritage resource of reviews, commentary, news and debate. Theatreview is in constant use by practitioners, the general public, politicians and their advisers, teachers, students, researchers and a wide range of arts and creative industries organisations. Since 2015 Theatreview has regularly contributed reviews on RNZ’s Afternoons/ Jesse Mulligan 1-4, raising awareness of Theatreview with a key demographic.

Producers and directors refer to the Theatreview record when casting new productions and creating production teams. The table below details the visitor statistic for 2017. There is a strong demand for its work to continue and the heritage resource to grow. 

The Editorial Team

John Smythe: Founder and managing editor of www.theatreview.org.nz  and its senior theatre critic, John Smythe is a Trustee of The Theatreview Trust. He has a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts from the National Institute of Dramatic Art and a certificate in screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

Starting in Gang Shows and David Tinkham’s Wellington Rep pantomimes, training in the Aro Valley with Nola Millar and her tutors, touring with the NZ Players Drama Quartet and participating in the early years of Downstage set John off on decades of wide-ranging professional experience as an actor, playwright, screen writer, tutor and theatre critic – in New Zealand, Australia then back in New Zealand.

He has served as a theatre critic for The Melbourne Times, The Australian, Theatre Australia Magazine – and, in New Zealand: the National Business Review and theatreview.org.nz.  He has been a contributor to Sean Plunket’s Newstalk ZB show, written a regular theatre column for FishHead Magazine and since 2015 has facilitated the supply of Theatreview critics to Radio NZ’s  Afternoons programme (later renamed Jesse Mulligan 1-4) .

John has served on the Board of Studies for Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and as Vice President then President of the New Zealand Writers Guild (and before that the Australian Writers Guild), serving on a range on industry boards, and attending (and helping to host) a number of International Affiliation of Writers Guilds meetings in the process. He also served twice on the international jury for the Banff Television Festival.

John’s most recent stage play, Where There’s a Will, was produced at BATS Theatre in April 2015. His non-fiction book titles include Downstage Upfront: the first 40 years of New Zealand’s longest running professional theatre (Victoria University Press, 2004) and The Plays of Bruce Mason – a survey (VUP & Playmarket, 2015).  

Raewyn Whyte: Associate Editor (Dance) for Theatreview since 2010.  Raewyn is responsible for management, editing and posting dance reviews contributed by a team of 40+ writers throughout New Zealand onto Theatreview web site. Raewyn also undertakes recruitment and mentoring of new writers and contributes many reviews herself, as the senior dance critic

Raewyn has been a dance critic and freelance arts writersince 1982 and was previously dance critic for The Dominion, the New Zealand Listener, and RNZ (National and Concert).  She is currently a contributor and commentator on dance for DANZ Quarterly, Theatreview and the New Zealand Herald. She has also been much in demand as a panellist, forum facilitator and seminar presenter/workshop leader.  Raewyn was asked to give the Keynote address at the TDENNZA dance research conference in 2013.

Raewyn has published more than 1700 articles (reviews, interviews, previews, feature articles, columns, OpEd etc) and edited 28 books for Book Sprints Limited, 2 for private clients and written more than 80 indexes for book publishers since 1992. See www.allmyownwords.wordpress.com for recent publications.

Raewyn completed an MA at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Her thesis topic was Writing dancing – the scope and limits of contemporary modern dance criticism.  Subsequently she completed candidacy towards a PhD dissertation: Performing the Nation: The Waitangi Day Commemorations as a Co-Performance of the State and Tangata Whenua in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. However, her dissertation was not completed.

Summary of 2017 Web Site Statistics for Theatreview (All figures retrieved from Google stats)
Prepared by Raewyn Whyte.

Monthly breakouts below (these reflect festival seasonality!).

	Jan 2017	Feb 2017	March 2017	April 2017	May 2017	June 2017	Jan-Jun Totals
Unique visitors	6,631	14,201	18,469	14,319	17,635	14,027	85,282
Number of visits	8,172	20,740	27,246	19,306	24,381	20,418	120,263
Total Pages viewed	13,662	37,518	50,246	32,728	39,609	36,704	210,467
Average # of pages viewed per visit	1.67	1.81	1.84	1.7	1.62	1.80	1.80
% New visitors	71.48	60.74%	59.01%	64.73%	63.45%	77.40%	74.73%
% from New Zealand	59.01%	75.27%	75.27%	72.45%	77.11%	73.98%	72.18%
Referral sources
From a search engine	5,763	11,799	16,481	12,036	14,786	8,290	69,155
From social media	649	4,550	4,675	4,058	5,470	3,665	23,067
Direct visit	1,256	3289	4,369	2,276	2,891	1,536	15,617
Referral link	504	1,038	1,643	918	1,226	737	6,066
Email/Other		7	78	18	8	28	139
NZ Location- number of visits from	Jan 2017	Feb 2017	March 2017	April 2017	May 2017	June 2017	Jan-Jun Totals
Auckland	1,890	6,900	9,428	6,015	8,248	4,471	36,952
Wellington	1,207	4,133	4,308	2,952	4,132	2,335	19,067
Christchurch	649	1,925	2,600	1,999	2,019	1,493	10,685
Dunedin	100	342	950	466	648	387	2,893
Tauranga	109	228	318	272	452	299	1,678
Hamilton	96	252	326	239	446	315	1,674
Palmerston North	89	258	340	155	267	157	1,266
Smaller Regions	Whangarei 113	Napier 159	Nelson 216	Whangarei 222	Nelson 275	Napier 134	1,119

 

	July 2017	August 2017	September 2017	October 2017	November 2017	December 2017	Jul-Dec Totals	Annual Totals
Unique visitors	11,387	13,684	14,744	13,901	12,483	7,973	74,172	159,454
Number of visits	15,362	19,549	21,373	19,988	17,568	11,056	104,896	225,159
Total Pages viewed	26,840	34,789	36,137	36,233	30,294	19,644	183,937	394,404
Average # of pages viewed per visit	1.75	1.78	1.45	1.44	1.72	1.39	1.59	1.70
% New visitors	78.10%	77.40%	76.90%	78.20%	77.70%	76.60%	74.50%	76.00%
% from New Zealand	69.99%	72.2%	72.45%	69.18%	70.53%	67.26%	70.27%	73.08%
Referral sources
From a search engine	7,254	9,007	8,898	8,128	7,800	5,190	46,277	115,432
From social media	2,482	2,757	3,283	2,954	2,429	1,200	15,105	38,172
Direct visit	1,066	1,482	2,020	1,986	1,617	991	9,162	24,779
Via a link	663	934	875	901	850	618	4,841	10,907
From email	9	5	95	202	125	118	554	693
NZ Location- number of visits from
Auckland	3,057	4,201	4,297	4,117	4,033	2,259	21,964	58,916
Wellington	2,006	2,392	2,496	2,134	2,011	1,321	12,360	31,427
Christchurch	1,179	1,414	2,032	1,297	1,163	768	7,853	18,538
Dunedin	371	400	306	394	277	167	1,915	4,808
Tauranga	183	213	216	301	205	88	1,206	2,884
Hamilton	179	258	302	240	254	198	1,431	3,108
Palmerston North	181	134	169	188	151	60	883	2,149
Smaller Regions	Napier 113	New Plymouth 119	Nelson 129	Napier 181	Napier 104		646	1,765

 Key Supporters

The Theatreview website is one way in which our Talent Development & Relationship team tracks theatre talent, especially writers and actors.
Dave Gibson, Chief Executive Officer, NZ Film Commission

Circa Theatre is happy to support the Theatreview website in its application for funding, as it is an invaluable archive and resource for theatre and the Performing Arts. … In Wellington we have lost several of the publications that used to review live performance, and Theatreview is one of the few platforms that remain for reviews and discussion.
Linda Wilson, Secretary, Circa Theatre

More and more our audiences are finding out about and booking their theatre going experiences on line. Theatreview has been at the forefront of this; under John Smythe astute leadership – Theatre view critics have always offered in depth analysis of productions and performances, an intelligent and insightful alternative to the often flimsy reviews in daily papers. In this industry where we can become so intensely involved in our own project Theatreview offers reliable, efficient and always interesting critiques of other theatrical endeavours that we may not have the opportunity to see in person. I wholeheartedly support Theatreview in their bid for continued funding.
Colin McColl, Artistic Director, Auckland Theatre Company

Theatreview plays a hugely important role for the performing arts sector, with regards to connecting artists with audiences, creating dialogue, discussion and lively and intelligent criticism of New Zealand work.
James Wilson, Executive Producer, Q Theatre

It is impossible now to imagine the theatre industry here without Theatreview’s dynamic presence. …… Theatre-making without a critical context leads to desultory work. We believe that John Smythe’s passion, intelligence and deep historical knowledge of theatre in NZ — and Theatreview’s focus, momentum and industry buy-in — have helped raise the standard of NZ theatre practice. For our part, we have invariably been challenged and ultimately energized by seeing our work and that of other practitioners through the polished Theatreview lens.
Stuart McKenzie (playwright) and Miranda Harcourt (actor, director, teacher)

Theatreview is the only online permanent record of professional theatre production in New Zealand and is an important instrument in critical engagement with new New Zealand theatre and the dispersal of important news and views. … Of all the digital cultural portals serving New Zealand theatre this site is the most comprehensive, regular and vital, and in this respect deserves serious consideration for public funding.
Murray Lynch, Director of Playmarket

Theatreview has reviewed Pacific works and I am always impressed with the amount of background research that has gone into the use of Pacific nouns, names of dances and cultural references in their articles.  This is indicative of the high calibre of writing and research taken into account when looking at works form the Pacific.  Theatreview is an important voice in our dance community.
Iosefa Enari, Director of Pacific Dance New Zealand

To have a range of views and different voices in dance reviews is important for the growth and development of audiences of dance in New Zealand.  Theatreview provides and essential vehicle and service for critiquing and reviewing dance across the country and in this regard the expertise of Raewyn Whyte to manage and develop the process of dance reviews is invaluable.  Raewyn is an acknowledged expert in dance criticism, including attaining international tertiary study qualifications in this area of dance.
Anton Carter, Chief Executive of Dance Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ)

Their (Theatreview’s) work is invaluable to practitioners and presenters of theatre. They have a national reach with a good number of top-notch reviewers, who provide potential audience members with sound advice. It is essential for the arts to have this voice and representation; it goes a long way to keep the arts vital and to pique interest and provide information.
Shelagh Magadza, Artistic Director of the New Zealand Festival

As an almost daily user of Theatreview, I am impressed by the professional way in which it is run. Reviews by Theatreview’s in-house reviewers are always posted in a very timely fashion, usually coming out before reviews in other media. Information about forthcoming events, job vacancies, new appointments, obituaries and numerous other significant events is professionally collated and disseminated. There is no other organisation or publication that does this work for the theatre community. 
David O’Donnell, Associate Professor in Theatre, Victoria University of Wellington

Theatreview therefore is an invaluable asset on the arts landscape because it remains clearly committed to critical writing of the theatrical art forms.  I know of no arts practitioner who is not regularly on Theatreview as it has become an indispensable industry and participant resource.
Jonathan Bielski, Artistic Director, Auckland Arts Festival