News from Seoul

Hello everyone,

The World Congress in Seoul went very well, and ATCA had 5 members in
attendance--one of the best turn-outs among the 28 nations that were
represented. Eric Bentley did attend and the we ATCA members got to
shake his hand and get a few photos with him. Bentley's acceptance
speech and various other papers (including mine) are available for
download on the IATC Web site.

I submitted my report from the IATC executive committee meeting to
Larry and Chris, and I'm sure Dominic will excerpt from it in the next
ATCA Update. In any event, here are some highlights for the
International Committee!

>> Yun-Cheol Kim (Korea) reported that there were approximately 93
attendees as this World Congress.

>> The 2008 IATC World Congress is slated to take place in Bulgaria.

>> I reported that ATCA has resolved to host the IATC World Congress
in Chicago in 2010. IATC president Ian Herbert was pleased that we had
come to a decision so soon after our annual meeting in June. No
further discussion.

>> The next IATC Ex Com meeting will be in Salonika, Greece from April
26-29, 2007. As of now, Larry and I are slated to attend.

>> PROPOSED Young Critics Seminars 2007 (NOT CONFIRMED) are slated for
Bulgaria in late April and Serbia in May.

>> In regards to YCS, the IATC ex com discussed including a
cancellation clause in the application due to last-minute
cancellations for various 2006 seminars, which caused embarrassment
and difficulties on behalf of IATC and the hosting nations.

>> PROPOSED Cultural Bridges/Senior Critics Seminars for 2007 are
slated to take place in Romania and Chile. (NOT CONFIRMED)

On a separate but equal note, the Canadian Theatre Critics Association
will be holding a colloquium called "Criticism and the University" in
June 2008. They can host *one* member of ATCA.

See you all in February in NYC!

Kerri

Old friend Lloyd, plus young seminars

Dear Group friends:

I am very happy to tell you we have four applicants from the U.S. for Young Critics seminars in Asia and Europe. They are:

Seoul, Korea: Randy Gener and Gwen Orel

Vilnius, Lithuania: Philip Stephenson

Charleville-Mezieres, France: Lauren Snyder

The applications have been sent to the seminar honcho, Margareta Sorenson, in Sweden and we should hear back soon about which of our number will be whipping out their passports. I'll let you know.

Those of you who have been on vacation or out in the backyard might have missed the dolorous news this week that Lloyd Richards passed away on his very birthday, at what might have been 87 years of age. (Lloyd always was very cagey about birthdates and other nonsense.) He for years was a formidable presence among us at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, among others as head of the Yale Drama School, and on Broadway as the discoverer, patron and sensitive stage director of August Wilson. Over a 30-plus-years acquaintanceship with Lloyd, I always felt he never loved critics a whole lot, but he was encouraging to us at the O'Neill and worked with Ernie Schier and Ernie's heirs to bring young critics into "the process" as acolytes and older critics as dramaturgs, back when nobody knew what the word meant. Eighty-seven is a pretty good run, but we wish he were still around to talk about every playwright he ever knew and gave a step up to.

All the best and a safe holiday week to you all,

Larry

American Theatre May/June 2006 Editor's Note

American Theatre magazine
May/June 2006
The International Issue

Editor’s Note
By Jim O’Quinn

Where have we been, and where are we going?

I pulled American Theatre's May/June issues of 2004 and 2005 off the shelf to refresh my memory, and noted that except for brief touchdowns in Greece and Germany, our international coverage in recent years has concentrated overwhelmingly on Asia and Africa. While we've been witnessing breakthrough gender-mixed productions in Kabul, thanks to Joanna Sherman's reportage ('04), or trekking through Uganda with Lynn Nottage to hear a chorus of Batwa pygmies sing ('05), just what have our theatrical counterparts in Europe been up to? With articles (and a wealth of dynamic images) focusing on work from Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and Norway—as well as capsule coverage of international productions at summer festivals worldwide—this issue will give you considerably more than an inkling.

Why have we called our special section "The New Europe"? Because each of our writers—beginning with avant-gardist Jan Lauwers, whose candid evocation of the Flemish cultural scene strikes some uncanny parallels with our own--is interested not only in art that trafficks in up-to-the-minute manifestations of national sensibilities, but in exploring theatrical horizons that are, in the words of the section's curator Randy Gener, "not fixed and unchangeable." Ours is a world in transformation, and it is often in the minds and hearts of artists that the character of those transformations can be most vividly read.

Back on our shores, this issue delves into the work of three diverse artists whose work you'll be hearing about in coming weeks: pop composer Duncan Sheik, who has an uninhibited talk with arts reporter Nicole Estvanik on the eve of the premiere of his much-anticipated new musical Spring Awakening; playwright Diana Son, who returns to form with a deeply personal new play, Satellites, that examines the experience of motherhood; and experimental director David Herskovits, who audaciously tackles Goethe's Faust in a new six-hour staging. Testing unfixed horizons is clearly their business, too.

™TCG

Update: June 21, 2006

ATCA INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE UPDATE

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2006

YAHOO! GROUP

Ira Bilowit and Phil Stephenson have joined the famed Yahoo! Group. Please make sure you do that ASAP. There should be a message (or two) in your inbox inviting you to join. Please let me know if there is not.

ARE YOU IN OR OUT?

Jonathan Abarbanel has volunteered to call members who were not at the Canada conference to confirm that you are still interested in being involved with the committee. You may also respond to this e-mail if you have not yet been contacted.

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD

Congrats to our own Bruce Burgun for being elected to the ExCom! We will expect him to feel deeply obligated to our committee's agenda at every turn. ;)

WE ARE THE WORLD?

As Dominic mentioned in his ATCA Update on Monday, Michael Barnes has been appointed as the chair of the ad hoc committee for a possible IATC World Congress in the U.S. Alice Carter has been invited to be part of that committee as well. The international committee--that's all of us, folks--form the core of this advisory group. This is why we need to know ASAP if you would still like to remain on the committee. Dominic wants to formally convene the ad hoc committee before the end of June, and release a preliminary report by the fall.

2006 YOUNG CRITICS SEMINARS

As of June 21, 2006, new ATCA member Lauren Snyder (OffOffOnline, New York City) has applied for the France seminar. Randy Gener (American Theatre magazine, NYC) may apply for the one in Korea. Committee member Phil Stephenson (Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh) has expressed interest in the Lithuania seminar.

IATC WORLD CONGRESS IN SEOUL

I will be the official ATCA delegate to the IATC World Congress in Seoul, Oct. 21-26. Glenn Loney and Carol Douglass have expressed interest in also attending as ATCA representatives (though not delegates.) Larry is in conversation with Yun-Cheol Kim, who is the Korean IATC representative and congress host, regarding the details.

YOUR INTERNATIONAL "TO DO" LIST:

* Sign up for the Yahoo! Group

* If you were not in Canada, let us know if you want to remain on this committee

* Save the date! The NYC mini-conference will probably be the last weekend in January or the first week of February 2007. We will probably have one committee meeting during the weekend.


Thank you for your work with international!


~Kerri Allen
American Theatre Critics Association
International Committee Vice Chair

Committee Meeting Minutes: June 17, 2006

American Theatre Critics Association
International Committee

Meeting Minutes

Arden Park Hotel
Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, June 17, 2006, 5:00 PM EST

Present:

Jonathan Abarbanel
Kerri Allen
Ira Bilowit
Bruce Burgun
Carol Douglass
Marie Kilker
Rita Faye Smith
Philip Stephenson

*Note: Inadvertently, Glenn Loney had not been notified in advance of this meeting. Our apologies to him.

Vice chair Kerri Allen opens the meeting at 5:00 p.m.

Open-forum meeting. No set agenda.

Jonathan states that international committee should be about more than just involvement in IATC. The group discusses connecting with international festivals, universities with developed international dramatic study programs, and foundations that may eventually be able to underwrite travel of ATCA members. The committee is eager to create on online and a tangible resource booklet for the general membership about international productions, travel and publication opportunities.

Different financing options and travel opportunities both here and abroad are discussed. Professional and academic exchange programs, FATCA support, and international foundations are noted. The possibility of getting funds from academic institutions based on various conference subjects is discussed. Having institutions underwrite delivering papers is mentioned, as well as approaching bureaus of tourism and promotional junkets given by ministries and theaters. We note that the NEA should be approached for funding at a future juncture.

In the hopes of keeping the general membership aware and supportive of international activities, Jonathan notes the strength of a large international committee to function as a swing/voting block. Committee member Bruce Burgun is a candidate for the executive committee and we are urged to support him.

The committee seeks to justifying our budget, while making sure to utilize and validate it annually. The international budget, in relation to that of other committees’ budgets, is explored by Ira Bilowit and Jonathan.

The committee questions the need and function of the ExCom liaison position. It is mentioned that in the past, committee chairs themselves were the ExCom liaisons. It is suggested that the current is a redundancy in an organization the size of ATCA.

The next international committee meeting will be held during the mini-conference in New York City, winter 2007. Exact date, location and time are TBA.

Kerri adjourns the meeting at 5:45 p.m.

Committee Meeting Minutes: June 14, 2006

American Theatre Critics Association
International Committee

Meeting Minutes

Prince-of-Wales Hotel
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday, June 14, 2006, 12:30 PM EST

In attendance:

Jonathan Abarbanel
Kerri Allen
Ira Bilowit
Bruce Burgun
Marie Kilker
Glenn Loney
Rita Faye Smith
Philip Stephenson

Committee membership is ostensibly at 18, but consensus is that only active members should remain on the rolls. Nina DaVinci-Nichols officially resigned from the committee on June 14, 2006.

Committee vice chair Kerri Allen opened the meeting at 12:30.

2006 IATC Young Critics Seminars

• There is currently one person slated to apply to each. (Korea, Lithuania, France.) Kerri noted that application process has been informal and has drafted and distributed an official application form. Jonathan indicated that FATCA is the body that applicants should approach for future travel funding.

World Conference in Seoul

• ATCA may send three delegates. Deadline to confirm U.S. delegation was May 30. Kerri Allen is the only ATCA delegate attending the conference. Jonathan suggests the vice chair should be the official voting person rather than the Executive Committee (ExCom) Chair and that this distinction be stressed to the committee at-large and to the membership in general.
• General consensus is that anyone interested may submit an academic paper to the Congress. The committee needs to confirm if one party may present a paper on behalf of another. Suitable themes must be related to “Theatricality and Criticism in the U.S.” The conference title is “The End of Criticism.”

Yahoo! Group

• There is some resistance/concern spurred by unfamiliarity with the concept, but Kerri stresses its ease of use and the possibility of being equally informed nationally and internationally as an organization, as well as link directly to the main ATCA website.
• The general consensus is that we could use the Yahoo! Group to organize a roundtable/ referendum initiative to justify the importance of having international involvement, which hasn’t been as integrated in ATCA as in parallel organizations abroad. This could lead to a panel at the next ATCA conference, perhaps this winter, with the intention increasing general membership awareness of matters international.

New Business

• Jonathan brings up new business asking how we can better work to have advocacy for international awareness, integration, and hopefully a World Congress. He notes that alternative funding for such a Congress might be obtained from national agencies (like the NEA) and individual arts-friendly foundations (Heinz, Ford, etc.) An informal vote is taken and the committee is excited and receptive to a U.S.-hosted IATC World Congress.

The next meeting of the international committee will take place later in the week in Stratford. Date, time and place TBA.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 pm.

IATC News: May 2006

IATC News – May 2006

www.aict-iatc.org

The International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) is busier than ever this year. This newsletter is intended to bring news of our activities - past, present and future - to our own members and to sister organisations all over the world. If you know of someone who might be interested in the events described in this newsletter, please pass it on. If you wish to comment on or respond to any of the items, please contact our secretariat.

Turin Congress

In March the association held its XXII biennial congress, in Turin, Italy, in conjunction with the presentation of the Xth Europe Theatre Prize. Our hosts were the Prize organisers and the Teatro Stabile of Turin. The Association is represented on the Executive Council of the Europe Theatre Prize, together with the Union of European Theatres, the Convention of European Theatres, the International Theatre Institute, the Mediterranean Theatre Institute and the Avignon Festival. Several of its members serve on the board which elects the winners of the Europe Theatre Prize and the Europe Prize for New Theatrical Realities. This year the Europe Prize was presented to Harold Pinter, the New Realities Prize being shared between Oskaras Korsunovas and Josef Nadj.

Colloquium: The End of Criticism?

The usual colloquium which accompanies an IATC Congress had to be shorter on this occasion, because of the Europe Prize’s very full programme, but fortunately this led to a concentrated and very valuable series of papers. After an introduction from the Association’s President, Ian Herbert, these were given by Nikolai Pesochinsky (Russia), Maria Helena Serodio (Portugal), Ian Shuttleworth (UK) and Porter Anderson (USA). Mr Pesochinsky questioned the need for theatre criticism in the new climate of information technology. The value of our work was vigorously defended by the three following speakers, representing respectively the academic journal, the overnight reviewer and the internet. A lively discussion followed from the full house of critics present.

All these papers are available on the Association’s website. They are also due to appear in print in theatre journals in many countries including Canada (Quebec), Moldova and Spain; in due course they will form part of the Proceedings of the Europe Theatre Prize.

General Assembly:

Delegates from 27 countries were entitled to vote at the Association’s General Assembly, with individual members and observers from many more countries also present. The full minutes of the Assembly are available on the Association’s website.

Extension of Membership:

A motion was passed to change the Association’s statutes to permit members of sister organisations to join IATC as Associate Members (see below for more details).

Thalia Prize:

The criteria for the Association’s first Thalia Prize were established, and the final design for the award was selected from three maquettes by the distinguished Romanian sculptor Dragos Buhagiar (see below for more details).

Publications: The proceedings of the Association’s two previous congresses were distributed for the first time at the Turin congress, those for the Montreal Congress of 2001 and the Bucharest Congress of 2003. Both are available in English and French, and the Bucharest proceedings are also published in Romanian. Copies may be ordered from the secretariat.

Future Events:

The Association’s programme 2006-2008 is taking shape as a result of invitations confirmed at the congress, and many of the coming events are described below.

Elections:

At the General Assembly, Ian Herbert was re-elected as the Association’s President for a final term. Michel Vais was confirmed as General Secretary. The countries elected to membership of the Executive Committee were Canada, France, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the USA.

At the subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee, Irène Sadowska-Guillon was confirmed as Treasurer, and two Vice-Presidents were elected, Yun-Cheol Kim (Korea) and Margareta Sorenson (Sweden). Ms Sorenson continues as Director of Training Seminars; Kalina Stefanova (Bulgaria) becomes Director of Colloquia and a co-opted member of the Executive Committee.

Tokyo International Arts Festival

The Japanese Section of IATC organised a symposium on criticism as part of this year’s Tokyo International Arts Festival in March. Among Executive Committee members invited to take part were Ian Herbert , Michel Vais, Irène Sadowska-Guillon, Yun-Cheol Kim, Margareta Sorenson, Tomas Milkowski and Kalina Stefanova.

Craiova Shakespeare Festival

The Romanian Section of IATC was prominent in the organisation of the Craiova Shakespeare Festival, held this year from 24 April – 1 May. A conference on Shakespeare, attended by prominent international scholars and practitioners, was chaired by Ludmila Patlanjoglu, President of the Romanian Section, together with Ian Herbert and IATC Honorary President John Elsom.

Future Events

Novi Sad 26-28 May 2006: Colloquium on National Theatres and Nationalist Theatre

In association with the Sterijino Pozorje Festival of Serbian Theatre, IATC will again be co-organisers of the triennial critics’ symposium held in Novi Sad, Serbia. Full details of the XII colloquium topic are on the IATC website, and details of the festival programme (which includes overseas productions such as Blackland from Hungary, directed by Arpad Schilling, and Tiso from Slovakia) are on the Sterijino Pozorje website. The colloquium, for some forty critics and scholars from almost as many countries, will be chaired by Ian Herbert, IATC President, and Ivan Medenica, of Serbian IATC, who is also artistic director of the festival.

St Petersburg 5-11 October 2006: Colloquium on Do You Follow Me?

In association with this year’s Baltic House festival, IATC will be holding a colloquium for 10 established critics on the subject of the ‘generation gap’ in criticism. Details of this event will appear shortly on the IATC website.

Seoul 21-26 October 2006:

50^th Anniversary of IATC – Extraordinary Congress

The Korean section of IATC will be the hosts for the Extraordinary Congress which has been convened to celebrate the Association’s fifty years since it was founded in Paris in 1956. A very full programme centres around the colloquium on New Theatricality and Criticism. The organisers write as follows:

We invite you to join us to work together in Seoul from the 21st to the 26th of October, 2006, when we have our Extraordinary Congress to celebrate the 50th anniversary of IATC. We want to examine how theatre practitioners expand the nature of theatre to meet their new perceptions of human beings and the world, and whether critics are doing their job in characterizing these new practices. Come and share your experience of the new theatricality in your country, and the critical methodology you use to define it.

We believe that the new theatricality requires new criticism. Today’s theatre practices are laying down a challenge: your response to this challenge will engage both the academic and the journalist in world theatre and world criticism — on-line and off-line, now and later. In our fiftieth year, we believe that with your support this IATC congress could make a valuable contribution to the world theatre community for the next fifty years.

The keynote speeches at the congress’s opening ceremony will be given by Dr Patrice Pavis of France and Dr Bangock Kim of Korea. As well as the colloquium, working groups will look at projects intended to enhance the future activity of IATC, such as a proposed journal exchange, an anthology of writings on theatre criticism, and a code of ethical practice for critics. Delegates will be able to see productions in the Seoul International Festival, which takes place at the same time, and to attend a shamanic ritual performance. The closing ceremony will see the presentation of the IATC’s first Thalia Prize (see below).

In parallel with the main congress, graduates from the IATC’s young critics’ seminars of recent years will be meeting, under the direction of Margareta Sorenson and Kalina Stefanova, to put forward their own ideas for the future development of IATC.

Member countries of IATC are each entitled to send two delegates to this congress, who will receive full hospitality and tickets for the theatre events. As is usual with IATC events, delegates are expected to fund their own transportation, although the Association has offered to give a number of small travel grants to countries who might find it difficult to get to Seoul without some help. Full information and application forms are on the IATC website.

Representatives of the major theatre organisations, especially those which were founded at the same time in 1956, will also be invited to attend.

Hong Kong 27-30 October 2006: Conference on Art Criticism

A number of international speakers will take part in a colloquium organised by the Hong Kong section of IATC in conjunction with a festival of performance art to be held at the same time.

Wroclaw November 2006: Colloquium on monodrama

The Polish section of IATC will be inviting six established critics to a colloquium to be held during the International Festival of Monodrama Performance in Wroclaw in November. Details will be published shortly on the IATC website.

Further colloquia are in preparation. Likely venues include Moscow, Russia (Spring 2007), Almada, Portugal (Summer 2007), Tbilisi, Georgia (November 2007), Santiago, Chile (2007/8), Sibiu, Romania (May 2007)

2008 Congress

At the Turin Congress the Association accepted an invitation from the Minister of Culture of Bulgaria to hold their next Congress in Sofia in the spring of 2008. A showcase of Bulgarian theatre will be held at the same time.

Seminars for Young Critics

Apart from the reunion being held in Seoul (see above) there are two seminars for young critics being organised for 2006, in Charleville-Mezières (France: 15-22 September) and Vilnius (Lithuania: 21-25 September). Details of both these seminars and that in Seoul may be found on the IATC website, and there are still places available for all three although the formal application date has passed. They are open to young critics under the age of 35 who have at least one year’s experience as a published theatre critic. Applications should normally be approved by the candidate’s IATC section, but critics from non-member countries may also submit applications. They will be charged a nominal fee of €50; all selected delegates receive full hospitality and theatre tickets for the seminar events.

Future seminars being planned in 2007 include Vigo (Spain), Novi Sad (Serbia), Szeged (Hungary), and Wroclaw (Poland). More details will appear on the website as soon as arrangements are confirmed.

Thalia Prize

At this year’s Extraordinary Congress in Seoul the Association will present the first Thalia Prize. It will take the form of a silver-topped cane designed by the eminent Romanian sculptor Dragos Buhagiar. The prize has been generously sponsored for its next ten editions by the Craiova International Shakespeare Festival through its director, Emil Boroghina.

The prize is not intended as a lifetime achievement award. It will go to the person who in the view of the Association has most significantly changed critical attitudes to theatre by their writings. The first nominations were sought from member sections by the Turin Congress, and are now being voted upon by the newly elected Executive Committee. The first winner will be announced in Seoul, where the prize is to be presented..

Membership

Membership of IATC is usually through its international network of national sections, each of which has its own rules of membership. Individual membership is also possible for critics who do not have a national section in their country.

At the Turin Congress a new category of Associate Membership was approved, which would enable members of other representative bodies who have a serious interest in criticism to join IATC through their own organisation. Such members will receive full information on IATC events and congresses and be able to take part in them, on a non-voting basis. They will receive an Associate member card, which regrettably will not confer the full privileges of the Association’s membership card – this is recognised internationally as a Press Card. Negotiations are beginning with the International Federation of Theatre Research (FIRT) and the International Theatre Institute (ITI) to set up associate membership mechanisms. Enquiries from other organisations will be welcomed by the IATC secretariat.

Full details of the current IATC membership, plus subscription rates and information on the privileges of the IATC card, appear on the Association’s website www.aict-iatc.org

The Association, which is a non-profit body under the auspices of UNESCO, welcomes enquiries from organisations interested in sponsoring or promoting its activities in any form.

May 2006