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.