Hrvatska kazališna kritika

If someone wishes to one day join Jurišić's chosen society with one of his texts, he will certainly want it to happen, if possible, in the later reprint of a book that is extremely interesting to theatregoers. Therefore, there would be no point in flattering the compiler. He also skillfully avoided the need to explain his anthological intentions and criteria by entrusting the writing of the preface to Milutin Cihlar Nehajev and his text from 1921, Criticism and Theatre – a letter to the editor of Jutarnji list, which has proven to be permanently relevant. "I must say," writes Nehajev, "that of all the parts of the journalistic profession (and this includes theatre reporting), theatre criticism seems to me the most difficult and thankless job... Who asks the other day how many hours of mental effort those few lines cost? Who takes into account how much inner struggle is required to clearly and yet considerately express your opinion... And thanks?" – asks Nehajev, expecting an answer quite similar to the one he would receive today. And in the conclusion of the letter, he sets an unattainably high demand for theater critics: “Let us be artists! But be artists too, up behind the scenes, starting from the director to the electrician. Just like us who have been sitting in the same critics' chairs for years, painfully and wholeheartedly performing our duty. If art is truly our common (and only!) goddess, we will always find ourselves around her statue, hand in hand, in the same circle.”