International Theatre Critics Association Launches a Web Journal

The International Theatre Critics Association (IATC) has founded a new web journal, called Critical Stages, which debuted in November at www.criticalstages.org.

Published in English and French, the biennial web journal is a collaborative and international effort whose primary aim is to provide an outlet for articles about the art of criticism in the theatre.

Critical Stages contains not only theatre criticism but also interviews and other articles about theatre seen from a critic's point of view.

Says Critical Stages publisher Yun-Cheol Kim, who is also the president of IATC, "There are abundant reasons and motivations for creating the journal, among which two are the most important. First, the theatre is in a real crisis. There is no time in history when the theatre has lost its social function as much as it has in our time. In Europe, people have already begun to speak of the death, not the crisis, of the theatre. In response, a journal on theatre criticism can help make theatre matter in society."

Kim continues: "Second, theatre criticism itself is in critical condition. A journal such as this one may help theatre criticism to recover its vitality, so it can serve the theatre arts and the society. I firmly believe that the most important function of theatre criticism is, and should remain, to generate interest in the theatre arts in society."

The inaugural issue delves into the Polish guru Jerzy Grotowski; the dramatist Eugene Ionesco; and the first IATC Thalia Prize winner, the playwright/critic Eric Bentley. It also contains a penetrating review of the Swedish dramatist Lars Noren's Diary as well as performances in various countries.

The contributors in the first issue cover countries from all continents: South Korea, India, Japan, Israel, France, United Kingdom, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Finland, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Cuba and South Africa.

The editor-in-chief is Maria Helena Serodio, an academic and critic from Portugal.  The co-editors are Lissa Tyler Renaud (English language), a theatre director and scholar from the United States; and Michel Vais (French language), a critic from Quebec, Canada.

In addition to Yun-Cheol Kim, the members of the editorial board of Critical Stages consist of Randy Gener, a critic and editor from the United States; Herve Guay, an academic and critic from Quebec, Canada; Temple Hauptfleisch, a critic from South Africa; Matti Linnavuori, a critic from Finland; Tomasz Milkowski, a critic from Poland; Manabu Noda, an academic and critic from Japan; Rodolfo Obregon, a critic from Mexico; Ludmila Patlanjoglu, an academic and critic from Romania; Patrice Pavis, a theoretician from France; Maria Shevtsova, an academic from the United Kingdom; Don Rubin, an academic and critic from Canada; Halima Tahan, a critic from Argentina.

IATC, established in 1956, operates through its national sections in some 50 countries.   [Gener]