Henri Hütt: the cross-genre theatre awards jury has come to an end

Theatre critic Henri Hütt writes in the publication Theatre. Music. Cinema about his experience serving on a cross-genre theatre awards jury. Hütt questions what it means to return sole decision-making authority over the directing award to the drama jury, and argues that this does not expand opportunities for dance, music, or installation theatre.

Theatre critic and scholar Henri Hütt, who served on a cross-genre theatre awards jury last year, has published an opinion piece in the publication Theatre. Music. Cinema about his experience with the joint jury and its conclusion.

Hütt raises an important question: what does it signify that sole decision-making authority over the directing award is being returned to the drama jury? According to him, such a decision does not provide dance, music, or installation theatre with broader opportunities for recognition.

The idea of the joint jury emerged from a desire to view Estonian theatre more broadly, transcending genre boundaries and enabling a comparison of different theatre forms within a single evaluative framework. Now that this experiment appears to have ended, the question arises of whether the attempt achieved its goals.

Hütt's concern is that a return to separate juries effectively means that drama remains the yardstick of theatre art, while other forms — dance, musical theatre, installation performances — fall outside this standard. The directing award is one of the most prestigious theatre awards in Estonia, and who receives it reflects broader understandings of what counts and what does not.