ATCA Members Urged to Vote on IATC Code of Practice by March 10

As a member of the International Association of Theater Critics, ATCA is asked to vote on a proposed new IATC Code of Practice. The ATCA membership vote will be totaled on March 10.

Following are an explanation and recommendation by ATCA International Chair Jeffrey Eric Jenkins and a link to the English and French texts of the proposed code on ATCA's official website.

Dear Friends,


For nearly two years, the Executive Committee of the International Association of Theatre Critics has worked assiduously toward creating a Code of Practice. This proposed code is not unlike the Code of Conduct which ATCA labored over in the 1990s and finally passed at the Utah Conference in 1997.

After many discussions that took into account both the journalistic and scholarly approaches to theater criticism which have to coexist in the IATC, the working group, which included our own Randy Gener, now offers a final text, which appears below in both its English and French versions. I believe this code offers helpful guideposts for criticism on a global scale, without constraining one from doing work according to one’s own high professional standards.


While there may be slight disagreements among us regarding a word here or a phrase there, we must also take into account that the two texts have to be consistent with each other.


Please know that this document has been created in the finest traditions of international cooperation and collaboration. In this spirit, I strongly urge that ATCA members vote in the affirmative.


All ATCA members are urged to vote. We are asking that votes be registered with me via a special e-mail address no later than 10 March 2010. We will report the results to the International President, Yun-Cheol Kim, on 14 March 2010. If the Code is approved by a majority of the IATC’s sections, of which ATCA is one, it will be on the agenda for adoption at the IATC World Congress in Yerevan, Armenia, June 15-20, 2010.


You may read the document, which is linked on the International page of the ATCA website.

ATCA is voting specifically on the English text. Best Plays Theater Yearbook is hosting a special mailbox for these votes. Please email your vote to: intl@bestplays.org.

With all best wishes,

Jeffrey

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Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
Member, Executive Committee of the International Association of Theatre Critics