Critics, Dramaturgs and Thinkers:

Add Your Voice to the Future of Theatre

No prior media or writing experience necessary! Just an interest in critical thinking and discussing how we talk about theatre.

What is ITJA?

If you enjoy watching interviews with Broadway stars, follow theater reviews on TikTok, or are curious about BTS content creation for plays and musicals, ITJA is for you! We’re here to talk about how we talk about theater: podcasts, blogs, reviews, and videos are all ways we learn more about this art form, so how do we use each medium in compelling and responsible ways?

Who should join ITJA?

Students interested in marketing, PR, arts writing, criticism, and literary management are encouraged to register for this program or contact the regional Chair for information about The Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy (ITJA) in their region. Whether you hope to become a professional arts journalist or just love talking and writing about theater, ITJA is a fantastic Festival opportunity.

What will we do in ITJA?

Students in ITJA will participate in a multi-session mini course in arts journalism and communications, with a special emphasis on advocacy. Students will receive feedback on various forms of arts journalism—theatre reviews, interviews with stars, editorial responses—from professionals from the worlds of theatre writing and academics.

ITJA 2026 will comprise three 90-minute workshop sessions, plus the opening/orientation meeting. You are welcome to drop into any of these, no need to be present for all. 

Students will be offered mini-assignments to complete that are tied to festival activities and that offer ways to practice interview, reviewing, and reporting skills. At the end of the workshops, one student from the region may be selected to have his/her/their work developed as part of the ACTF National Festival later in the year. There, student critics write reviews while studying with a variety of professional critics and mentors, and they may be eligible to receive a scholarship to the O’Neill Institute for Theater Criticism.

From Mark Charney - National Coordinator of the Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy

The ACTF sponsors workshops in each region called the Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy (ITJA). Once called the National Critics Institute, the newly envisioned ITJA was established to assist in elevating the level of arts criticism and to provide writers the opportunity to grow at the same pace as the artists, whose work they review and interpret.

Like the Critics Institute before it, it works to train good writers, but ITJA does more. Criticism, especially with the advent of technology, has changed radically, and the remounting of the ITJA reflects that. Critics from the regional institutes who are fortunate enough to study at the O’Neill National Critics Institute, for example, rarely explore just criticism as a field. Instead, they seek work in all aspects of theatre.

While a few head to graduate schools in criticism, sure, and many work as journalists, just as many become dramaturgs, art administrators, public relation/marketing specialists, and writers of plays and screenplays, among other jobs. Those who do become critics rarely work using over night deadlines, and most of the writing is sent electronically. Many graduates from the old Critics Institute are now working in radio and television, orally expressing their opinions using sound clips from the plays or movies they are reviewing.

The New ITJA veers from the classroom model of just writing reviews and critiquing them in round table format. Students who participate are inventive within this framework; they write blogs, previews, interviews, and position papers; they frame their ideas orally (often even in radio assignments); and they work with media specialists who currently embrace the technology of the 21st century. The New ITJA asks the critics to connect with dramaturgy, possibly even sharing a workshop or an assignment. They interview, observe, and reinvent, responding more actively to and with invited productions, and they interact with the rest of the festival, rather than working sequestered from it.

In the past, the school hosting the festival has provided the majority of the student critics who have participated in the institute, but in the last many years, we have encouraged each of the participating schools to publicize the Institute more enthusiastically. The process is simple and the rewards are many.

ITJA invites the best writers in your theatre program–and outside of it–to participate in the newly, revised institute, writers who have an interest in advocating for the arts in a myriad of forms. The students selected will meet in daily workshops to look at professional and unprofessional theatre critiques with critics and media specialists with diverse backgrounds in theatre, journalism, criticism, and writing. They will also traverse among the festival, participating actively as reporters, interviewers, and recorders/interpreters of the events in which they actively critique and analyze. Their workshops are no longer limited to a table like an English class, but they use the entire festival as their canvas, upon which they write, comment, and critique, all as theatre advocates. And they no longer post the reviews; instead, they find electronic means to share the best writing, often embracing the region’s website or other means of communicating that incorporates technology.

As Associate Director of the National Critics Institute as well as National Coordinator of ITJA, I invite you to find as many promising theatre advocates as you can to join our newly reframed workshop. If you think other departments have students who would be interested, please have them contact me directly at mark.charney@ttu.edu, but they must have a pressing affection for and knowledge of theatre.

Remember, we’re not looking only for students who want to be theatre critics, although we welcome them too—we’re looking for students in ALL disciplines who want to explore how they can best advocate for theatre using writing, oral, and other communication skills as their medium.