Saturday, December 30, 2017

PUBLISHED: Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques New Issue


The IATC journal Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques has been published just in time for your new year reading. Editor-in-chief Savas Patsalidis announced publication December 29 with a Special Topic for Number 16 edited by renowned international artist and author Johannes Birringer on "Sound/Theatre: Sound in Performance."

Flesh Waves (phase #4), by Isabelle Choinière,
with dancers Laurie-Anne Langis, Édith Doucet,
Nadège St-Arnaud, Béatrice Trudel, Frédérique
Forget, 2013. Photo: Mateo H. Casis, Cie Loc & Mac

Sound designer Chris Wenn weighs in on "Acoustic Ecologies of Independent Theatre in Melbourne." Scholar and artist Gretchen Jude explores the "Sounding Body as Digital Assemblage."

Bill T. Jones and I-Ling Liu perform Story/Time. Photo by Paul B. Goode

Performance thinkers
from around the globe consider varied topics within editor Birringer's "ensounded" construct such as aural choreography, Bill T. Jones "repurposing" John Cage, soundscapes of "narco silence" in the border areas of the United States and Mexico, corporeality in choreography of new music, sonic energy and the body, and other intersections of sound and performance as the impact of design creates new ways of thinking about theatre and performance.


La Terquedad, a project on which writer and director
Rafael Spregelburd started working in 1996.

Also featured in this edition are national reports on theatre in Ireland, Hong Kong, Argentina, Serbia, GreeceAnglophone CanadaIsrael, and Chile. Performance review editor Matti Linnavuori of Finland has once again curated a lively selection on international perspectives from around the globe. Don Rubin of Canada offers his usual thoughtful collection of book reviews on performance topics.

Coming in February 2018, Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques will roll out the second installment of Number 16 featuring interviews, conference papers, and essays. Stay tuned for more and let us know how the journal might better provide news, reviews, essays, and special topics of interest to you.

Friday, December 22, 2017

PROTEST: IATC Statement on Serebrennikov Detention

Kirill Serebrennikov in court December 4, 2017.
Photo: Artyom Geodakyan/TASS
According to the website of Radio Free Europe, which based its reporting on TASS and Interfax, a Moscow City Court upheld on December 4 an extension of house arrest for Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. He has been detained on fraud charges, accused of embezzling approximately $1 million in State funds. Serebrennikov was arrested in August. In October, the district court extended his house arrest to January 19. The 48-year-old director has repeatedly stated that the charges are "absurd."

Prior to his arrest, Serebrennikov

clashed with Russia’s Culture Ministry over the staging of a ballet about legendary Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who defected to the West in 1961. Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky suggested that production might violate a 2013 'gay propaganda' law. (RFE)

As a result of his detention, Serebrennikov was not allowed to attend the Europe Prize for Theatre festivities in Rome, December 12–17, where he was to receive one of the top prizes bestowed in the category of "Theatrical Realities." The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) issued an official protest against the detention of the artist at its meeting in Rome on December 17. The critics' organization noted that despite Serebrennikov's isolation, his Nureyev ballet opened recently at the Bolshoi Theatre. The IATC also noted that the organization "shares the deep worries of the Russian critics, who already launched a protest in August, against the arrest of Serebrennikov. The accusations . . . alleging misuse of funds in his theatre, do not justify his prolonged detainment."

The IATC statement concluded, "the world of the arts and free expression will never accept the maneuvers of any state trying to stop an artist from speaking with a clear voice for freedom."

Friday, December 1, 2017

NOMINATIONS: 2018 Thalia Prize Deadline


2016 Thalia Laureate Femi Osofisan
The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) requests proposals for candidates for the IATC Thalia Prize. National and regional sections of IATC are invited to propose candidates. The 2018 Prize will be given at the IATC World Congress in Banff, Canada.


2006 Thalia Laureate
Eric Bentley
The Thalia Prize is IATC’s prestigious award for outstanding contribution to the field of theatre criticism, and to critics and theoreticians who have played significant roles in shaping our understanding of theatre spanning different cultural settings, politics, and aesthetics.


Previous Thalia Prize honorees have featured an impressive selection of laureates: Eric Bentley (USA, 2006), Jean-Pierre Sarrazac (France, 2008), Richard Schechner (USA, 2010), Kapila Vatsyayan (India, 2012), Eugenio Barba (Denmark, 2014), Femi Osofisan (Nigeria, 2016).

2008 Thalia Laureate
Jean-Pierre Sarrazac
Recommenders are urged to consider 
candidates whose body of work has been influential at home, in their regions, and abroad, or whose writing they feel merits attention on an international platform. National and regional sections are therefore not restricted to suggesting candidates from their own countries, but may refer any candidate believed to fulfill the criteria of the Prize.


2010 Thalia Laureate
Richard Schechner
National and regional sections proposing candidates must submit a brief biography of the candidate along with translation (where needed) of excerpts from the candidate’s work in English or in French, the working languages of IATC. Thalia honoree recommendations must be submitted by December 19, 2017.


2012 Thalia Laureate
Kapila Vatsyayan
Each national or regional section may propose only one candidate. National and regional sections should note that the successful candidate must be present to receive the award at the Thalia Prize Award Ceremony at the World Congress in Banff, Canada (September 23–28, 2018).


2014 Thalia Laureate
Eugenio Barba
The Executive Committee of IATC will prepare the candidacies received from the national or regional sections for its next meeting in Craiova, Romania in April 2018, where the decision on the laureate will be taken.

For more information or to make a recommendation, members of the American section should contact Jeffrey Eric Jenkins (jej [at] illinois.edu).

Saturday, August 26, 2017

RUSSIA: Director Under House Arrest

Kirill Serebrennikov
The Russian Theatre Critics Association has issued a statement of its concern over undue pressure applied in the case of director Kirill Serebrennikov, who was arrested under cover of darkness in St. Petersburg and placed under house arrest in Moscow. An English translation of the critics' association follows here, with slight editing for clarity:
The Russian Theatre Critics Association, a national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC), has issued a public statement to express anxiety over pressure being exerted on theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov. 
Serebrennikov was deported at night by force to Moscow from St. Petersburg, where he was shooting a movie. The next day he was sentenced to house arrest by a regional court. 
The situation surrounding Serebrennikov grew more tense in July when the opening of the ballet Rudolph Nureyev, which he directed at Bolshoi Theatre, was canceled as controversial. 
Serebrennikov is accused of misusing funds that were targeted for a cultural project titled The Platform. One of the items in the prosecutor’s investigation implies that the production of Midsummer Night's Dream was not created at all. This assertion is false: the production has been seen dozens of times, it continues to run, received a range of reviews in various media, and was nominated for the national theatre prize, The Golden Mask. The investigation continues to assert that the work does not exist. 
There are deep doubts about the motivations for the prosecution of Serebrennikov. The responsibility of the stage director is unrelated to financial and production activities, which is covered by an investigation of the producer and the bursar for The Platform project. Serebrennikov never refused to answer questions in the course of the investigation of the case. 
His house arrest seems an unnecessary use of pressure on the artistic creator. Serebrennikov has never staged blatantly political performances. Nevertheless, the style and issues raised in his works are always fresh, unconventional, and truly innovative. The director was personally outspoken in support of liberal values. He was critical of the trial against the Pussy Riot group, of homophobic legislation, of church obscurantism, and he has supported transparent presidential elections. 
Just a month ago, the board of Europe Theatre Prize announced its decision to award Serebrennikov the New Theatrical Reality prize at this December’s event in Rome. 
Serebrennikov's impact in Russian culture is truly significant. He created several productions at the citadel of realistic theatre—the Moscow Art Theatre—and helped revive it for new audiences. He created The Seventh Studio of Moscow Art Theatre and educated a company of actors who used artistic language matched to a new dramatic style and thought for the generation now emerging. This group has undertaken The Platform project that received The Golden Mask in 2012, titled The Scoundrels, about right-wing radicals in contemporary Russia. 
Serebrennikov supervised the rebranding of a Moscow theatre house as the Gogol Center, which has attracted young crowds and become one of most thrilling places for drama in Moscow. Productions created by Serebrennikov generated discussion and sometimes controversy among its audiences. Now under house arrest, he is unable to complete a theatre production for the Gogol Center in addition to his film about the early the Russian rock 'n' roll generation that was shooting in St. Petersburg. His project of opera film of Hansel and Gretel at Stuttgart Opera house, filmed partly in Rwanda, must be postponed. 
The Russian Theatre Critics Association hopes that the international community of theatre critics will support our attempts to protect the social and artistic rights of Kirill Serebrennikov and of the evolving Russian artistic culture.                — August 24, 2017
Deadline's Greg Evans also reported on August 24 that the European Film Academy called for the "unconditional release" of Serebrennikov in an article that showed the director in an apparent holding cell. A tweet by Pussy Riot is quoted in the Deadline piece saying that Serebrennikov "had been placed under house arrest by 'Putin's butchers.'"

Holding cell? Kirill Serebrennikov Photo: REX/Shutterstock




Friday, July 21, 2017

CALL: Populism and Theatre

Shota Rustaveli State University of Theatre and Film. Photo: Giorgi Balakhadze
An international colloquium on "Theatre and Populism" has been announced for October 4–5, 2017, in Tbilisi, Georgia. This is an event sanctioned by the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) in association with the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre, and Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi State University of Theatre and Film. Following is an excerpted English translation of the call for papers.
In modern history and, especially, in recent years "Populism" has become a commonly used term in politics and culture. Might we, therefore, deploy this term to describe political, cultural or everyday life? Is it useful as a descriptor for aesthetic, practical, or socio-political dimensions in our experience? Is there even a precise linguistic definition of the term?
For understanding Populism, researchers often refer to 19th century Russian and American populists, to Ancient Greeks, to the slogan of the French Revolution "Exprimer le peuple," to present-day politicians such as Le Pen, Trump, Erdogan, and to Brecht’s political theatre. According to Pierre Rosan Vallon, Populism is the ugliest answer to the dysfunctions of democracy.
With dissonant, contradictory definitions at the core of the phenomenon and with diverse means, possibilities, methods, and resources available for its implementation, we may trace one common feature: that populism functions only if it is targeted to a certain group, stratum, or community of people that can be defined and manipulated. Thus, Populism, like theatre, cannot exist without people, without audience.
The main topic of our 5th International Colloquium launched under the umbrella of the International Association of Theatre Critics and its Georgian Section is "Theatre and Populism." Topics of interest for papers include but are not limited to:
  • What are the traps of populism in contemporary theatre?
  • Populist cultural policy in theatre of different countries: Does it exist?
  • Audiences and Populism: Please or provoke the audience?
  • Populism as the tool for attracting the audience
  • Narration in performances – truth or lie?
  • Does populist playwriting or aesthetic aspects and clichés of a populist performance exist?
Participants are asked to forward abstracts (no longer than 200 words) in English to Ms. Lela Ochiauri, organizing committee member, teklataia@yahoo.com. The deadline is August 10, 2017. Invitations will be dispatched before August 20, 2017. A diversity of proposals from around the world are most welcome. Participants will have at their disposal technical equipment and support of Power Point and DVD presentations. Oral presentations should not exceed 15 minutes to allow time for discussion. The working languages of the colloquium are English and Georgian, with simultaneous translation.
Papers will be published in a special issue of Centaur by Tbilisi State University of Theatre and Film. The complete text of papers (up to 4,000 words in English or French) should be submitted for translation in electronic form no later than October 1, 2017.

Friday, June 30, 2017

CALL: Three Young Critics' Workshops

National Theatre. Iași, Romania 
The International Theatre Critics Association (AICT-IATC) has announced three Young Critics' Workshops to be held in the final months of 2017.

The 10th International Festival of Theatre for Young Audiences: This workshop will be held in Iași, Romania, from October 4 to 10, 2017. The arrival date is October 4 and the departure date is October 10 for a total of a six-night stay. There will be two working groups: one in English and one in French. The size of the groups is limited to ten participants. Monitors will be announced later.

Wuzhen Theatre, China
The 5th Wu Zhen Theatre Festival: This workshop will be held in Wu Zhen (also written Wuzhen and Wu-Zhen, in some sources), China, from October 19 to 29, 2017. The festival will take place between October 19 and 29. The exact dates of the workshop, which will include a six-night stay, are to be announced later. There will be two working groups, one in English (ten-participant maximum), monitored by Octavian Saiu, Adjunct Secretary General of IATC, and one in Chinese (six-participant maxium), monitored by Peng Tao, President of the IATC China section. The waterside town of Wu Zhen has been declared "UNESCO World Heritage Site." According to our colleagues from China, it is the "uniquely beautiful location of the most vigorous theatre festival in China today." Workshop participants will have the opportunity to see performances created by artists such as Katie Mitchell and Oskaras Koršunovas, new works produced by Germany's Schaubühne and Russia's Vakhtangov State Academy Theatre, in addition to a wide variety of productions from Australia, Switzerland, Brazil, Lebanon, Ireland, Romania, and other countries. Alongside such international productions, Wu Zhen Theatre Festival will also offer a varied showcase of Chinese theatre created by young and established theatre artists such as Tian Qinxin, He Nian, Zhou Ke, and Ban Zan.

The 2017 International Association for Performing Arts and Research Festival: This workshop will be held from November 4 to 10, 2017, in Pune, India. The arrival date is November 4 and the departure date is November 10 for a total stay of six nights. There will be two working groups of 6 participants each. The English-speaking group will be monitored by Deepa Punjani, a member of the IATC Executive Committee, and Ajay Joshi. The French-speaking group will be monitored by Mariko Anazawa, Adjunct Director of Training Workshops for IATC. 

American Theatre Critics Association members who are 35 years of age and younger may apply for admission to these workshops by submitting the completed application information below to the Director of Training Workshops, Jean-Pierre Han (jp.han@free.fr). The application is also available on the website IATC website aict-iatc.org). Please send all required attachments to Jean-Pierre Han, jp.han@free.fr before August 15, 2017.

International Young Critics Workshop Application
Name:
Gender:
Nationality:
Age:
E-mail:
Other contacts (telephone, mobile):
Language (English / French):
IATC national section recommending:
Other materials required:
1) Short CV and main professional experience (newspapers, journals, radio/TV, web, blog, etc.)
2) Three attached samples of published articles
3) Proof of membership in the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) or other IATC national section

Thursday, March 23, 2017

TURKEY: World Theatre Day

Ancient Roots: Theatre at Ephesus, Turkey

As World Theatre Day 2017
approaches on March 27, thoughts of theatre artists and critics turn increasingly to global concerns over freedom of expression. In Nigeria recently, theatre critics hosted a forum aimed at examining the boundaries that face critics (and artists) when the political grounds on which they stand, to paraphrase the great playwright August Wilson, seem to undergo tectonic shifts daily.


Recent events in Turkey, a country that the West has long celebrated as a significant example of how democracy may work amid the pressures of encroaching theocratic impulses, have raised concerns about the lengths to which those in power will go to maintain a status quo. Turkey is also a physical crossroads of the ancient world where theatre has deep roots and a powerful claim on the imagination and spirit of the populace. Istanbul alone, which literally bridges east and west, may be the truest expression of the cosmopolitan in the dozens of languages and dialects spoken in its streets, and in the scores of cultures across millennia that have been inscribed on its urban landscape. The Theatre Critics Association of Turkey, a constituent group of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC), has issued a clarion statement that is filled with passion and a hopeful outlook for the future of the art form. It is brave, bold, and an inspiration in these times of uncertainty. (The translation below has been edited slightly for clarity.)
Turkish National Declaration for World Theatre Day 
We are at the threshold of twilight. The art of theatre, however, is the essential medium to lead us through the threshold and into radiant days. 
At present, academics who act for peace in our society, have been exported from their university. As a result of these actions, one of the oldest and most prominent theatre departments in Turkey is about to be closed. One of the private theatre schools, which has graduated many young members of the Turkish theatre scene, has been sabotaged by arson as the theatre supported the secular, parliamentarian republic of the present. Other private theatre groups are deprived of necessary state financial support. Theatre artists who stand in protest and call for support of environmental rights are exported from their municipal or state theatre companies. In these times, it is incredible to celebrate World Theatre Day and to perform the art of theatre, yet there is hope as well. 
We, the workers of theatre, never doubt the power of the theatre to change lives and transform people. The theatre is our sine qua non. 
Despite all obstacles it must face, theatre will continue to raise society’s awareness, to guide audiences to critical thinking, to defend freedom of thought and basic human rights, to conceive truth and to help the masses conceive it, too. 
Our word will never end, our curtains will never be closed by force, our limelight will never be extinguished, and our "fine voice" under this "dome of many colored glass" will never surrender to darkness.
In this time of rising insecurity for free expression, when a Pandora's Box of hateful ideology has been unleashed across the globe, one is forced to pause and consider: Will I be so bold when it is my turn to speak truth to power? Our colleagues in Turkey point the way.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

WOMEN: Actors in Afghanistan

Activist Director: Anneta Papathanassiou
Do you think being an artist is difficult? Banned under Taliban rule (1994–2001), Afghan theatre has been making a comeback with many women at the forefront. Playing With Fire: Women Actors of Afghanistan (2014) by Anneta Papathanassiou exposes the ongoing erosion of Afghan women's rights in this powerful film. The director's timely, eye-opening documentary perfectly captures art’s transformative power and the dangers faced by these courageous women artists. It is a stark reminder that every day is International Women's Day.

This story is certain to inspire those who support the creation of living art and freedom of artistic expression. Everyone who cares about the performing arts in the evolving global milieu should see this film. In the coming week, there will be a free, public screening at the Spurlock Museum on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 14.

Iranian theatre critic, director, and playwright Katayoun H. Salmasi will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion. Salmasi is former vice president of the Iran Theatre Critics Association who currently advises the Iranian Cultural Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

AsiaLENS Presents
Playing With Fire: Women Actors of Afghanistan (2014)
Directed by Anneta Papathanassiou
Afghanistan (58 minutes)
In English and Afghan (Dari), with English subtitles

AsiaLENS is a series of free public film screenings and lecture/discussion programs—organized by Asian Education Media Service (AEMS) and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (CEAPS) in collaboration with Spurlock Museum—presenting recent documentary and independent films on issues reflecting contemporary life in Asia. All AsiaLENS screenings are free and open to the public.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

NEWS: Lagos Critics' Conference

Conference Home: National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos
Our friends in the Nigeria section of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) recently hosted a theatre critics' conference at the National Theatre, Iganmu, which received a keynote address from playwright, critic, and 2016 Thalia Prize laureate, Femi Osofisan. The conference topic of "Theatre, Criticism and Politics — Where Are the Limits?" arose, according to Emmanuel Dandaura, president of the Nigeria section as a response to events occurring throughout the globe. In a statement to the press, Dandaura noted that

Politics, theatre, and theatre criticism have long been interwoven and interdependent. In the highest peaks of its history, theatre and other performing arts have been a collective self-representation of society, its basic values, and beliefs, including mainstream political narratives.
When contesting these narratives, theatre has been more ironic, subversive and blasphemous than openly confrontational — although direct theatrical conflicts with society are also well known. 
When theatre criticism appeared as a genre in Western media in the 18th century, it fought the same battle as the (bourgeois) theatre itself. Theatre and criticism were important social platforms in the battle against conservative, aristocratic, and clerical states – even as they advocated a new and progressive bourgeois society. 
In the last two and a half centuries, the relationship between these three "players"—politics, theatre, and theatre criticism—has been fluid. There were periods in which all were going in the same direction—for good or ill.  
In some historical periods, (dissident) theatre was courageous, provocative, and challenging. Criticism, however, strongly controlled by mainstream political power (as with much of the media), could not support it. In some constructs, media demanded that theatre be more politically daring. 
The International Theatre Critics Conference (ITCC), therefore, will interrogate how global theatre and theatre criticism respond to current political events. 
Does theatre, internationally, address these challenging topics? Is there a new political theatre? Is there a growing trend toward the political or do individual cases arise on their own? How do critics react? Are we free (enough) to openly support theatre that dissents from accepted political and cultural norms? Is the social impact of this type of work more relevant than its artistry? How do we recognize a politically brave theatre in societies different from our own? If we recognize it, how do we communicate it to our readers?

These queries and proposed answers were also addressed by an international group of critics led by IATC President Margareta Sörenson. What role do you think critics should play in analyzing and interpreting the political impact of theatre? Does it matter? Is it a factor in your response to theatre?

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

RESPONSE: Turkish Critics Engage

Something Rotten?: Müdjat Gezen Arts Center after presumed arson. Photo: AA
Theatre critics in Turkey report to us that, as theater academics were being expelled during the "state of emergency," a significant theater academy founded by Turkish actor and director Müjdat Gezen was burned. Gezen described the act as a "terrorist crime" and took pleasure in noting that the bronze bust of the hero of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was unscathed in the attack.

The Theatre Critics Association of Turkey responded with a document titled "Something is Rotten in the Turkish Republic." Parts of the following have been edited for clarity:
In Turkey, academicians who sign in support of social peace continue to be expelled from their institutions with a state of emergency decree. Prestigious professors of the Theatre Department in Ankara University's Faculty of Language, History and Geography, were also expelled after other recent expulsions. 
These academics, including members of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) Turkish Section, were unexpectedly and inappropriately removed from their duties despite their professional standing and long experience. With this decision, undergraduate and graduate studies are now suspended. Our greatest hope is that our distinguished professors will be reinstated and allowed to work at their universities following social pressure and implementation of the law. 
Arts Advocate: Müdjat Gezen
As this chaos unfolded in higher education, Müjdat Gezen Art Center, which was created by a private initiative and educated hundreds of actors and actresses, was burned in a presumed act of arson after being targeted by a media channel broadcasting ideas of the extreme right wing. The center, founded by Müjdat Gezen, was damaged tragically. Gezen is one of the greatest actors and directors of Turkish theatre and is well known for his Kemalist and secular ideals. Upon hearing news of the fire, hundreds of actors, actresses, directors, students, and audience members flocked to art center and stood guard outside. 
The Theatre Critics Association of Turkey, condemns this discriminatory and criminal behavior. We believe in the combined resistance of Turkey’s intellectuals, academicians, and artists. We will continue to work toward the restoration of social morality and the freedom of thought through the cultivation of the arts.
ATCA International will continue to monitor the unfolding situation as arts institutions throughout the globe respond to an apparent rising tide of artistic and academic oppression.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

REPORT: Theater Trouble in Turkey

#DoNotTouch: Protest Against Theatre Faculty Expulsions 
As the political situation tightens in Turkey, members of IATC have shared information with us in an attempt to raise awareness of what is happening to the arts and artists in what was once a society that prized democratic discourse.

We received a declaration from the Theatre Department of Ankara University, disseminated February 12, 2017, which has been edited for clarity:

Exported: Prof. Dr. Beliz Güçbilmez
Ankara University, Theatre Department professors Prof. Dr. Selda Berk Öndül, Prof. Dr. Tülin Sağlam, Prof. Dr. Beliz Güçbilmez, Dr. M. Elif Çongur and the research assistants Ceren Özcan and Şamil Yilmaz have been exported from duty by the new Decree-law No 686. With Assoc. Prof. Dr. Süreyya Karacabey, who had been exported before by the Decree-Law No. 679, seven of our colleagues who form the majority of our department have been expelled from work in government offices. As a result, the undergraduate programs of our department have received an irreparable blow, and the post-graduate programs are almost out of the question.
Exported: Prof. Dr. Selda Berk Öndül
Exported: Dr. M. Elif Çongur
The exportation of our professors—who have created invaluable works and made undeniable contributions to the theatre world of Turkey—by the laws that pertain to only those who “are connected with or are members of or partake in terror organizations, groups, organisms or organizations or other structures which are claimed by the National Security Council as threats to our national security” is inexplicable and wrong as far as justice and conscience are concerned.
Exported: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Süreyya Karacabey
Exported: Prof. Dr. Tülin Sağlam
These exportations spreading in the Higher Education System, i.e., in the majority of universities in Turkey via new decree-laws has turned into a clearance or liquidation operation. Governance of universities, which are supposed to be institutions of freedom of thought and expression, by decree-laws can by no means be accepted. It is undoubtedly obvious that this attitude will bear critical outcomes and give an irredeemable harm to our colleagues’ and to our department’s future, as well as to our university, to the academia in general and to our country. We here resolve to blame the Ankara University rectorate and demand that our colleagues be returned to their posts immediately.  
— Members of the Theatre Department, Faculty of Letters, Ankara University
An update has been received from the Theatre Critics Association of Turkey and will follow.

Monday, February 27, 2017

BORDERS: Barba Barred From U.S. Entry

In a February 22, 2017, posting on their Facebook page, 2014 Thalia Prize laureate Eugenio Barba and his company Odin Teatret announced that they "had to cancel [their] tour to Miami because of immigration problems."

Persian Passion: Eugenio Barba and company attend a
performance of a "tazieh" play. Photo:
Tehran Times

This news came 12 days after Barba and other guests were photographed at Tehran's City Theater Complex while watching a performance of a "tazieh" play, which Tehran Times describes as an "Iranian passion play." Theater critic Alisa Solomon called attention to the immigration problem in a Facebook posting today. American theater artists are protesting the U.S. government action via social media outlets. ATCA International is monitoring the story.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

REPORT: Marie J. Kilker in Belgrade

When Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, vice president of the International Association of Theatre Critics and chair of ATCA’s International Committee, posted on Facebook a picture of me at AICT-IATC’s 2016 World Congress, I relived an experience I feel I should share with my ATCA colleagues. It was my honor to be shown in the distinguished company of critic Ivan Medenica, artistic director of BITEF (Belgrade International Theatre Festival), who had joined Jeffrey, Michael Howley, and me. BITEF, that very important European presentation and celebration of the performing arts, ran concurrently with IATC’s biennial congress.

Delegate's Delight: Michael Howley, Noura
Erica Jenkins, Ivan Medenica, Jeffrey Eric
Jenkins and Marie J. Kilker at the 2016 World
Congress in Belgrade. Photo: Katayoun H. Salmasi
Medenica noted the outstanding contributions of Jenkins, as the American was once again elected—by sizable numbers—to IATC’s executive committee. Ivan repeated his congratulations in the pictured conversation and warmly included in further conversation both my fellow ATCA delegate Michael Howley and me. We were so proud to realize the important contributions we made as critics and contributors to global theater as well as the reputation of American theater. Jeffrey had scored a big hit with his paper on the musical Hamilton in a final conference panel.

It so happened that “unofficial” interaction proved to me valuable not only professionally but personally throughout my days in Belgrade. Ironically, though I had cited Michael’s many accomplishments when I nominated him years before to ATCA’s executive committee, I hadn’t learned details about his Cambridge, England, theater and educational experiences until we conversed at a lunch first and later over a drink after a matinee. Michael at the conference made many friends for the American section and, I’m sure, more on his extended stay in Belgrade. (Those of you who know of my passion for theater in Paris will not be surprised to learn I stopped off for four days en route home to see four art shows—comped with my IATC membership card—at matinees and four theater pieces each evening in France. These included a Petit Palais exhibition on Oscar Wilde and a monodrama acted by Oscar/Les Clack for Dear Conjunction Theatre Company at the Théâtre de Nesle.)

“Newness and Global Theatre: Between Commodification and Artistic Necessity” was the theme of our International Conference with two full days of panels, papers, discussions involving critics from all over the world. I thought that these illustrated “Newness” more cogently than did the BITEF offerings I saw. At my age, I’ve been around long enough to have seen so many performances in so many countries and the United States that it’s hard to amaze me with anything astonishingly new. The nearest might be combinations, especially if executed in unusual ways, but these presume knowledge of what went before differently.

Not So Free?: Maja Pelević and Olga Dimitrijević in Freedom:
The Most Expensive Capitalist Word at 2016 BITEF.
Photo: Sonja Zugic
Most of what I saw in Belgrade that claimed itself as “new” consisted essentially of monologues. They were, though, “set” in or backgrounded by projections or dance or film and often prominently featured music. Freedom: The Most Expensive Capitalist Word—featured two alternating monologues with untheatrical breaks for “interactive theater”—in this case, engaging the audience to buy things or donate for a cause described in a background film. The History of the Machine Gun combined an opening biographical monologue followed at length on the other side of the stage by an extended lecture about horrific experiences the speaker had in the first person’s African homeland, among other such besieged places. Its “new” feature consisted of the speaker coming downstage center and urinating. 

Hanging Around: Elfriede Jelinek's Nora! at the
Belgrade Showcase. Photo: Nenad Petrović
In a showcase of specifically Belgrade theater outside the main BITEF program, Nora! by Elfriede Jelinek at Yugoslav National Theatre and The Wizard of Oz by at the National Youth Theatre were the ones I reviewed. Though the showcase did not represent the BITEF and conference theme, The Wizard of Oz was a newly written version of the well known show and movie that “gradually moved away from the original precisely so as to remain to it as close as possible.” Nora! was not, like Ingmar Bergman’s, a new version of Ibsen’s play but a continuation of the story of its heroine after she left her husband. It was impressively configured in a Brechtian literary mode, though much more complicated than the kind of epic theater Erwin Piscator would have advised. I reviewed these and the other productions I saw for TotalTheater.com, where reviews and pictures are archived.

Thalia Laureate: Author and critic Femi
Osofisan of Nigeria
What I remember most are the things that do not appear in my reviews—my personal experiences. They started at a first breakfast when I was seated with Femi Osofisan from Nigeria. My studies didn’t go past Yoruba, so being able to get a few insights from Professor Osofisan was very precious. Later, he was honored with the prestigious Thalia Prize, which celebrates the honoree’s impact on critical thought. A reception with the ceremony was held at the estate of the German Ambassador. As a traveler, I usually head first in new places for cultural sites, predominantly of visual arts and theatre. That afternoon we critics were treated to the opening of an African arts museum on the ambassador’s estate. Had I not been a conference delegate but just a tourist, I would not have had the opportunity to peruse that collection.

From new critic friends from Turkey I received many samples of great Turkish confectionery, including two that I hadn’t eaten on two trips to Turkey. I also enjoyed a number of conversations with Greek critics. One from Athens who mostly reviewed opera shared his opinions that have since influenced my outlook. I also amazed him with information about Sarasota Opera’s having finished the complete Verdi cycle, for he had not heard about it! He does follow opera in a number of countries, and now he may include Florida in future reviewing. I’m arranging for him to get press information from our opera by mail. I’ll also be getting some posts from him and critics from other countries who whetted my interest in the fare there.

Of the papers delivered, I was able to get “backstage notes” from several of the presenters. The one I first followed up on when I got home involved an exploration in connection with new North African plays. I had asked about Mohammed Dib and Mouloud Feraoun’s work and found out how theirs was a transition to, not a part of, the new. I also gained added insights on deconstruction, on theater as a cybernetic machine, and what’s being done in Brazil and my favorite Argentina. Back home, I had almost immediate opportunity to apply the first of these insights reviewing a Gilbert and Sullivan musical in St. Petersburg.

As I accompanied an Indian critic to the theater one night, I learned enough to make me want to return to her country. Although I myself am not as physically agile as many of the people I met in Belgrade, there were so many kindnesses from them that I missed very little of the off-conference experiences. I wouldn’t have made it to one theater without help from Katayoun H. Salmasi, Jeffrey’s wife (and a presenter from Iran/USA), who walked me through “a short passage” that was at least a mile. (On the way, I did get to see some important sights at night.) Helpers brought me selections of drinks and pastry during coffee breaks to which I otherwise would have had to walk down several flights of stairs from our meeting room.

A waiter in our hotel dining room always rushed to help me with a breakfast or dinner tray. Later he told me he admired my fending for myself in getting food from the buffet and how I always seemed so cheerful. How nice! And who wouldn’t feel cheer at all that was gained by this delegate to the IATC International Conference and BITEF? Thanks to IATC and ATCA from the smiling woman critic in good company in that picture!

 — Marie J. Kilker