Today is World Theatre Day

WORLD THEATRE DAY was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on March 27 by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various theatre events are organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which, at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace.

This year's International Message comes from H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates, Ruler of Sharjah. You can read that, as well as his biography HERE.

Worldwide Theatre--Now Streaming

Fabrice Raina, President of Auteurs de l'Ombre, announced the following:

"The Cultural Center of La Castellane and Les Auteurs de L'Ombre are happy to announce the 2007 edition of the World Wide Week of Writing for the Performing Arts!

Program Live Stream March 22-27: WATCH IT HERE. Like past years, you'll be able to follow our online videoconferences, lectures, debates and theatre plays through our
website.

40,000 internet connections were accounted for last year, and 40 countries relaying this event... Thank you all for forwarding this information to your address book.

We hope you will be amongst our guests wether it be on the web or in the house audience. So, may living playwrights' works be encountered everywhere by the living audience!"

Chris Rawson in London

Our fellow committee member and ExCom liaison Chris Rawson recently saw the best of Londontown. Check out his journal from the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette's website

Photo: Chris and one of his heroes in Leicester Square.

Apply NOW for a Serbian Seminar!

The first YCS of 2007 will take place in Novi Sad, Serbia from May 28 to June 2. (Arrive May 27. Depart June 3). All ATCA members ages 35 and younger are encouraged to apply.

The Sterijino Pozorje Festival in Novi Sad has developed as a meeting point for contemporary theatre. The Festival organizers have invited IATC to host a seminar with 15 participants: 10 international critics and five Serbs.

The seminar is titled “IN/OUT” and focuses on questions regarding the work of theatre critics in international festivals and in new places. Important theatre names travel around the theatre world and critics as well as audiences visit more and more often international productions. How is the local context to be evaluated? How does one embrace and experience a production coming from different societies? How can you share these aspects with the readers of the reviews?

The seminar will be directed by Jean-Pierre Han, a French critic, who will monitor the French-speaking participants, together with Andrea Tompa, a Hungarian critic, monitoring the English-speaking ones. The seminar’s host, the Pozorje Festival, offers hotel, meals and theatre tickets to the participants. Travels to Belgrade are to be covered by the participants themselves, but the festival provides a shuttle service from the airport to Novi Sad.

Download an information sheet HERE. (You must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer). Applications are available for DOWNLOAD HERE and are due March 26 to Larry. If you are unable to access these PDF files, e-mail Kerri at allen.kerri@gmail.com or call 718-501-1567.

Get Published in Iran (Send by Apr. 13)

The Iranian section of IATC is preparing an anthology of critics' writing from around the world. Katayoun Salmasy, who some of us met in Seoul, is the editor.

The Iranian Theatre Critics Association is publishing a book of essays on theatre criticism, with the aim of informing Iranian critics about both past and present methods of criticism across the globe. ATCA members are invited to send one or more of essays about one of that topic or another topic that you deem more useful for Iranian critics, such as "the reality of the theatre criticism; history of theatre criticism; theatre criticism in America now vs. then; different kinds of criticism; different kind of ideas about criticism; etc."

Submissions may have been previously published or can be written specifically for this. Maximum length is 10 pages. Send by Friday, April 13, 2007. If you are interested in this project or have further questions, contact Katayoun at fishkat15@yahoo.com.

Mario's Anthology Unveils April 19

Our fellow committee member Mario Fratti will unveil the compilation of 28 of his plays, Unpredictable Plays by Mario Fratti, on April 19 at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.

If you don't know already, Mario is the author of the Broadway musical Nine (inspired by Fellini's famous film, 8 1/2), which in its original 1982 production garnered five Tony Awards, the O'Neill Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, and in 2000 was a recipient of the Otto Award for Politcal Theater. In the 2003 Broadway revival with Antonio Banderas and Jane Krakowski, Nine won two more Tony Awards and three Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Included in the anthology is one of Mario's newest plays Blindness: A Tragedy in Iraq, a story about 29 American soldiers who committed suicide in Iraq. The world premiere took place in Tokyo in 2004. Mario's nearly seventy plays have received some six hundred productions in two dozen countries and have been translated into many languages.

Join this incredible ATCA member and international theatre artist on Thursday, April 19 at 6PM to celebrate the publication of this valuable anthology!

Italian Cultural Institute of New York
686 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021
RSVP: 212-879-4242 x376

Photo: Mario Fratti and actress Jane Krakowski.

Speak in Bulgarian, uh, Bulgaria

IATC's XXIII World Congress will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria from April 13-17, 2008. The organizers are calling for papers on the congress’ topic "Theatre and Humanism in Today’s World of Violence." In the organizers' words:

"At a time when human life is becoming more and more devalued and human beings more and more disposable, the XXIII Congress of the International Association of Theatre Critics proposes to look at violence in the theatre, and the critic’s response to it.”

They are inviting papers dealing with these and similar questions, with examples from American theatre or what you have seen elsewhere in the world. ATCA members who would like to present a paper on the congress theme in Sofia are required to submit an abstract of 400 words or less by August 15, 2007 to Larry and the final paper (approx. 2,500 words) by November 15.

Papers will be selected by the organizers based on their relevance to the theme and geopolitical considerations. If the Bulgarian section of the IATC accepts your paper, you will be given 20 minutes for your presentation at the World Congress. All hotel accommodations, local transportation, meals, theatre tickets and airport transfers will be paid by the organizers. Speakers and other ATCA delegates are responsible for their own travel costs to and from Bulgaria. For more information on the XXIII World Congress and the theme, visit www.aict-iatc.org.