Commissioned Theatre Reviews & Production Archive

Reviews & Archive

Two services that produce permanent written records of an independent theatre production.

The Critical Commission pays a working critic to write about the show with editorial freedom retained. The Show Archive builds the permanent archive page and organises production assets and photographs into a navigable, credited folder structure.

Critical Commission — $200 ($150 to writer, $50 editorial)

A commissioned piece of critical writing about the production.

Editorial policy

The writer retains full editorial freedom. Payment guarantees the piece is written. It does not guarantee positive coverage.

Every commissioned piece carries a standard disclosure:

This piece was commissioned by the production. The writer retained full editorial freedom.

Productions that cannot accept the possibility of a mixed or negative review should not commission editorial work. Buy a copywriting service instead.

Intake

• Confirmed performance dates the critic can attend
• Commission acceptance, including signed acknowledgement of editorial independence
• The production's preferred critic, if any

Process

• Writer's fee paid on commission acceptance
• Editorial fee paid on publication

Standard reviews are published within 7 days of the critic seeing the show. Longer-form pieces (essays, retrospectives) run on a longer timeline.

All pieces are published on our editorial site, indexed and archived.

Deliverables

Schema, by piece type:

• standard-review — 800–1500 words, published within 7 days
• interview-with-director (optional) — Q&A or essay form
• cast-conversation (optional) — two or more performers in dialogue
• rehearsal-dispatch (optional) — from inside the rehearsal room, with company permission
• design-essay (optional) — set, costume, sound, or lighting, written by a critic
• festival-dispatch (optional) — your show within a multi-show festival piece
• season-survey-inclusion (optional) — your show in a city-wide indie season piece
• retrospective (optional) — written after the run

Show Archive — $220

The permanent archive page for the production, plus organisation of production assets.

Intake

• Production photography in whatever state it currently exists — unlabelled files across Google Drive, Dropbox, AirDrop transfers, phones
• Rough attendance figures
• Links to published reviews
• Audience response excerpts if collected
• Cast and creative bios
• Photographer credits where confirmable
• Image rights confirmation where confirmable

Process

Two phases.

Phase 1 — Asset organisation (within 2 weeks of intake):

Production assets are renamed, categorised, and credited. The organised folder is returned to the production for its own ongoing use, separate from the archive page.

Phase 2 — Archive page (within 4 weeks of closing):

The permanent archive page is built and hosted indefinitely at sydneydramaturgical.com/shows/[slug].

Deliverables

Phase 1 — Asset organisation:

• file-renaming — every production photograph renamed to schema: [show-slug]_[date]_[category]_[sequence]_[photographer].jpg
  • Example: last-days-of-downtown_2025-11-14_production_007_jane-doe.jpg
• categorisation — folders by category: rehearsal, production, portraits, event, behind-the-scenes, marketing-source
• photographer-credit-audit — confirmed credits, flagged images with unclear rights
• rights-status-log — per-image spreadsheet recording photographer, credit required (y/n), commercial use permitted (y/n), expiry if any
• organised-folder-delivery — Google Drive or Dropbox folder owned by the production, returned in the organised state for the production's own use

Phase 2 — Archive page:

Live at sydneydramaturgical.com/shows/[slug]:

• production-summary
• dates-and-venue
• cast-and-creative-credits — full company including SM team, design team, technical team
• production-photographs — two to six images, captioned, with photographer credit
• review-links-and-pull-quotes
• audience-response-excerpts (optional, anonymised, with permission)
• attendance-notes (optional) — rough figures or "sold out" / "extended"
• director-reflection (optional) — 200–500 words
• future-life-of-the-work (optional) — tour plans, restaging, related work

Portfolio PDFs:

• director-portfolio-pdf — credits, photos, reviews, reflection
• performer-portfolio-pdf — one per company member
• designer-portfolio-pdf (optional) — one per designer

Editorial connections (optional):

• retrospective-commission — see Critical Commission
• season-survey-inclusion — if we are publishing a city survey in the run year

Out of scope

• Paid placement in third-party publications — we commission to our own editorial site only
• Video archives — full performance capture, archival recording, and edited highlight reels are not part of this offering
• Photo retouching or colour correction — we organise, name, and credit photographs; we do not edit them
• Marketing copy framed as criticism — productions wanting controlled coverage should buy a copywriting service instead

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