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:
50th 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
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