Use the IATC card!

Fellow committee member Marie Kilker wants to remind us that she has received free or discounted admission to various sites in France, Russia and the UK by presenting her IATC card. (I personally got into the Chiado Museum in Lisbon, Portugal for free.) Marie shares her detailed travel successes below.

Do you have a success story? Please share it with the committee!

Marie Kilker writes:

One of our duties as a committee member is to inform all ICTA/ATCA members of advantages of "carrying the card." I have always stressed to the International Committee and general members how valuable it is for gaining entry to art exhibits, historic sites, and museum shows, especially at any venue connected with UNESCO. I have forgotten to add many libraries and exhibitions or collections in libraries.

I visit Paris at least yearly, and often the admissions the card covers free add up to more than the price of a year's ITCA/ATCA membership. In January '07, for instance, I visited at no charge several Louvre special shows, an exhibit of publicity art (including for theatres) at the Musee de la Publicite, a Japanese art show at the Marmotan, a huge exhibit of the art and other treasures rescued from the sea at Alexandria, Egypt, and shown at the Grand Palais, and the newly reopened Orangerie with its many Impressionistic paintings and a special showing of late Realistic,
pre-Impressionistic paintings that duplicated much of a famous showing of 1934.

But the show I expected least from but found absolutely thrilling was at the Bibliotheque Nationale's site Mitterrand: an exhibition on Antonin Artaud. In addition to materials related to his Theatre of Cruelty promulgations, there were many photographs of him and samples of his poetry, diaries, journals, drawings and paintings. (I never knew there were so many!) A whole section was devoted to his appearances in film, with continual showing of clips of scenes in which he played. Of course, I inspected minutely the section devoted to Artaud and theatre, including interviews about him and it by people like Anais Nin and the director Roger Blin. I remember getting that thrill of recognition when I saw photos of his famous production of his version of THE CENCI and realized the scenery was by Balthus. I had just seen paintings by Balthus the previous day at the Orangerie. So I really had the sense of visiting the era.

I am reminded that the first time I visited the Bibliotheque Nationale Mitterand was for an exhibit on Gerard Philippe, and that was predominantly on his theatre, so it also prominently featured Louis Jouvet. I also fondly recall an exhibit on Sarah Bernhardt at the Bibliotheque Nationale's old central site, which has not been by any means abandoned. The one on Bernhardt had a number of recordings of parts of her performances, which could be listened to on little phones while seeing related pictures. A more static exhibit was of pictures of Moliere productions through the ages. The annuals of the Comedie Francaise and much of the Renaud-Barrault Company's documents are among the treasured documents of France's national library.

You will also find documents at the Public Records Office in London of interest. It has a few things the British Library lacks, especially about authors (yes, Shakespeare too). Oh, and the Theatre Museum behind the Gorky Theatre in St. Petersburg has terrific collections, though you have to persuade the guardian that you are a scholar (well, at least a student of theatre who publishes about it) to see much of anything.

So add free admission to government-owned libraries abroad and their special showings to the advantages of IATC membership! That card--don't leave home without it!