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.

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.

Critical Stages: Sixth Edition Online

Yun-Cheol Kim, president of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC), writes that the latest edition of Critical Stages is online and ready to stimulate discussion of numerous issues in theater criticism today.

"In particular," Kim writes, "the Special Topic section is abundant with moving articles on how the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami disaster has affected the theater scene in Japan. We all know how calmly and courageously the Japanese people have been as they have dealt with this natural disaster."

Kim goes on to note that the Special Topic articles remind us of the commitment of "our Japanese colleagues, critics and practitioners," who have shouldered many burdens as Japanese society has begun to rebuild.

Critical Stages also focuses on Kapila Vatsyayan, the respected Indian scholar and artist who received the Thalia Prize in Warsaw. In recognizing Vatsyayan, the international association has selected a woman and a non-Western honoree for the first time. Vatsyayan's acceptance speech, originally delivered on recorded video at the Warsaw Congress in March, Kim writes, "elegantly justified IATC’s decision" to honor her with the Thalia, which is given to those who have "significantly influenced our critical thinking with their writing."

In addition to the Special Topic essays and reportage on the Thalia Prize, the sixth edition of Critical Stages also features interviews with prominent directors, actors, and playwrights from Bulgaria, France, Italy, Romania, and the United States. The performance review section includes nine pieces on contemporary theater in Azerbaijan, the Baltic countries, Canada, France, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Korea, and Romania. Also included are two intercultural essays by French authors on Korean and Japanese performances. Three recent books are reviewed in this edition, including a French perspective on Mark Brown’s survey of interviews with Howard Barker across three decades.

PUBLICATIONS: New Critical Stages Available

The latest edition of Critical Stages, the web journal from the International Assoication of Theatre Critics / Association internationale des critiques de théâtre (IATC-AICT), is now online for your perusal. New editor-in-chief Yun-Cheol Kim sent along the following announcement letter, which has been edited for length:

The fourth issue of Critical Stages is finally posted. We am very proud that each issue of the journal has been visited by more than 50,000 readers. Please visit the IATC web journal at http://www.criticalstages.org/, and invite your colleagues, students, and your entire theatre community to visit and make use of it.

Starting with this issue, three major changes have been implemented. New editions of Critical Stages will be posted every June and December. This scheduling adjustment allows writers to address more theatre-oriented events, and provides more time for pieces to be written. A second change, and a rather painful one, was imposed upon us: Maria Helena Serôdio stepped down from her position as editor-in-chief, after having orchestrated the first three issues. Her expertise, competence, and sacrifices have been crucial to the birth of this journal. Critical Stages might well not have been possible without her leadership. As a result of Serôdio’s return to the editorial board, I have taken on the editorship myself; however, I think of myself only as an interim editor-in-chief, serving until we find a replacement.

In my role as the new editor, I have brought about a third set of changes. I have created a section called Special Topics that will accommodate articles or statements on current issues surrounding aesthetic or thematic approaches to the theatre; regional or global theatre arts policies; or other interesting phenomena of social significance to the contemporary theatre. I have also designated Section Editors, who will take the initiative to keep their respective sections dynamic. These changes have worked well, and that can be seen in this issue.

The special topic for this issue is “Censorship in Disguise.” Recently, there have been reports of unfortunate and anachronistic occurrences of political intervention into cultural policies, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. As President of IATC, I publicized my letters of protest on the cases of Hungary, Belarus, and Serbia, to protect the rights of our colleagues and their freedom of speech in theatre criticism; two of these letters are posted on the IATC website: www.aict-iatc.org. In this time of “Jasmine Revolutions,” censorship of any kind is pure nonsense. Andrea Tompa and Ivan Medenica let us know, through their reviews of Hungarian and Serbian performances respectively, how theatre artists have responded to these actions. Randy Gener has been keeping a keen watch on the agonies of the Belarus Free Theatre and gives us vivid reportage on the censorship and persecution of this courageous political theatre group.

Bringing further breadth to this topic elsewhere in the issue, Jean-Pierre Han’s review of the Iranian theatre and Alvina Ruprecht’s essay on the Cuban theatre are also written with reference to the notion of “censorship in disguise.” Taken all together, we have such a rich cluster of articles on the first special topic, both within and without the section itself, that they serve as a mandate for us to fight together against this evil practice, with vehemence and commitment.

The sections devoted to Interviews, Essays, Conference Papers, Performance Reviews, Book Reviews, and Critics on Criticism feature a broad and diverse collection of global perspectives on theatre and theatre criticism.

We are proud to present this fourth issue of the journal, which contains so much interesting work. Unfortunately, we live in a time when theatre criticism is being radically and rapidly reduced in stature. Let’s set aside, though, any pessimism, or even defeatism. Instead, we should raise our voices and speak up for the sake of theatre criticism and theatre art. Critical Stages proves, for the fourth time, that it serves this crucial cause very well.

Yun-Cheol Kim,
President, IATC
Editor in Chief, Critical Stages/Scènes critiques

WEB: New UK Resource

A Circle dinner at the Savoy in the late 1940s.

Our colleagues in the UK have unveiled a fine new website. It is the web home of the The Critics’ Circle, which includes dance, drama, film, music and visual arts. According to information authored by Peter Cargin, “The Critics’ Circle is the oldest critics organization in the world and to date has over 400 members who work in the media through the United Kingdom.”

The site is valuable for its current perspectives on criticism as well as fascinating bits of history of the UK association, which are posted under a “history” link.

Cargin includes a telling quote that has currency today:
“Criticism is passing, as many of us know, through a difficult phase. Its field is becoming more and more restricted. There are fewer papers than there were before the war and less space even in these.”

The words were written by S.L. Littlewood in 1923 first edition of The Critics’ Circular. Littlewood was at the time president of the group.

In addition to the historical information, there is a wealth of information on a variety of topics such as awards, events, and the ongoing challenges we face in arts criticism.

CONFERENCE: Criticism Reflecting Nations’ Theater?


From JEAN-PIERRE HAN, Vice President of AICT-IATC

Abbazia aux Hommes, Caen



Does your country’s dramatic criticism reflect your national theatre?

La Comédie de Caen

(the National Center for Drama, Normandy)

and

the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC)

present

An International Conference

December 14 and 15, 2010

Organizers of this conference invite presentations, of up to 15 minutes in length, that discuss the state of drama criticism and theatrical production in the presenter’s home country. What are the links—or interferences—between dramatic criticism and the development of theatrical production? Does dramatic criticism participate in the chain of theatrical creation? If criticism has a role, how does that interaction occur?

The conference, including a series of roundtable discussions, will be held December 14 and 15 at the Theater of Caen. Ten contributions by critics are planned. Roundtable discussions will focus on shows seen locally and on dramatic criticism from the Internet (blogs, etc.).

La Comédie de Caen

International guests are invited from Monday, December 13 until Friday, December 17. 

During the stay in Caen, guest critics will have the opportunity to attend two plays presented in the official programming of the Avignon Festival :

• La Mort d’Adam, by Jean Lambert-wild, director of the National Center for Drama in Normandy. Patrice Pavis wrote of the productions that “in spite of the complexity [of its] device, of the multitude of tracks and interpretations, this play gives an impression of lightness, harmony and humor. An impression certainly engendered by the very mastered configuration of each of the components (read text, high-definition video, music, magic, photography) and their combination in the production.”
• Wolfstunde, by Silke Mansholt. Performer Mansholt raises questions, in Wolfstunde (Wolflesson), on the wolf that is inside each of us, on the dark part of each individual and the battle between the dark part and the lighter, human part. Based on Mansholt’s personal experience, the work questions the power and impotence of art. Is art free? Are we? If there are, in our contemporary world, wolves and scapegoats, are we wolves or scapegoats? If we are trying to be what we do not want to be, is the wolf transformed into a scapegoat—or is the scapegoat transformed into a wolf? (Adapted from the Festival d’Avignon website)

Participants may also become familiar with the IMEC (Memory Institute of the Contemporary Edition) which possesses archives of such writers and artists as Jean Genet, Bernard-Marie Koltès, Kateb Yacine, Michel Vinaver, Jerzy Grotowski, Antoine Vitez, Alain Françon, and many others.

Deadline for application is 16 November 2010.

Jean Lambert-wild,
Director, National Center for Drama in Normandy

Jean-Pierre Han
Vice President, AICT-IATC
jp.han@free.fr

IATC's Critical Stages Issues Call for Contributions

The International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) is presently preparing the third edition of its web journal, Critical Stages.

The editorial board of Critical Stages, headed by Maria Helena Serodio (IATC honorary secretary general and professor at Lisbon University), as well as the journal's publisher, IATC president Yun-Cheol Kim, issued a call for contributions.

Kim writes: "Please contribute your articles, reviews, interviews, essays to the third edition of our web journal Critical Stages, which will be published in October, 2010. I would like to have as many countries represented in this international journal. The first two issues attracted so many visitors, more than 25,000 each, and I am sure we are doing the right thing with this journal to meet the expectations from the world theatre community toward us. Deadline for articles is August 31. You can visit the site at http://www.criticalstages.org/ and find the style and other guidelines on the front page."

ATCA members are invited to contribute.

For your convenience, the guidelines are as follows:
1) The review should concern a relevant performance during the current U.S. theatre season that would justify international attention, i.e., "that would be important for international critics and scholars to know about."

2) A double-spaced MS Word article file, 2,000 to 2,500 words (or 15,000 characters) in length should be submitted as an e-mail attachment. If written in English, the article should include an abstract – not longer than 200 words. If written in French, it should include an abstract in English.

3) The title of the article only should appear at the head of the article file. The author’s name and/or institution should not appear in the article file itself.

4) A separate file should contain a cover letter with author’s name, title of the article, address, e-mail address, telephone number, and professional affiliation.

5) The writer will have to provide at least three (3) high-resolution digital photographs (JPEG), as well as other types of illustrations.

A photo of a performance should include: title of the performance, name of the playwright (if there is one), name of the director, name of the company, theatre venue, date of the première of that performance, names of the actors (clockwise from top left) and photographer's credits. All necessary permissions for images should be provided. These photos can be in the form of an e-mail from the company, or documentation that you have procured the images from an official web site. In case the performance attended by the reviewer does not coincide with the opening night, the reviewer should somewhere register this fact in her/his text, but without interfering with the general information referring to that production (so that it should match the date recorded in national and international date bases).

6) All writing submissions will be reviewed by members of the editorial board of Critical Stages. This peer-review process will determine the suitability of the articles for publication. Reviews will selected on the principles of geo-political balance and quality of writing.

7) No fee will be offered for the contribution. At the moment, Critical Stages is, and will be, operated on a voluntary basis. (If and when the journal is able to generate enough revenue in the near-future, we will, of course, gladly pay for the contributions.)

8) The editorial board will be unable to read submissions of a different length or formatting from these stated guidelines.

9) Critical Stages is seeking original reviews, not reprints of reviews that have been published elsewhere. We ask that articles first published in Critical Stages include reference to the web address of the journal when they are republished elsewhere.

10) The deadline to submit the review is August 31, 2010. Please send your articles or any questions to Yun-Cheol Kim (yunckim911@yahoo.com) or Maria Helena Serodio (m.h.serodio48@gmail.com).

In this time of globalization, the members of the editorial board of Critical Stages are irresistibly curious as to what is happening in theatre around the world, and to learn the context of local performances. We hope you share our enthusiasm and will contribute your reviews, essays and articles to Critical Stages.

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

--

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

IATC Symposium in Pilsen in the Czech Republic

The International Theatre Critics Association is holding a symposium in the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic in September fromn September 9 to 14. Titled "20 Years LAter or Metamorphosis of Theatre and its Reflection since 1989," the symposium commemorates the forthcoming anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of the Iron Curtain.


The description reads: "The face of the world has been dramatically changing ever since, and so have its stages on either side of the former 'curtain.' Or have they? What have been the most conspicuous gains and losses? Is there still a distinct Eastern/Central European theatre style, and if so what is it and why? Has it influenced Western stages? Or has the process been only one-way: i.e., West-East and only on a management and structural level at that? How has the nature of the theatre-audience relationship changed in Eastern Europe? Have there been special developments in that respect in the rest of the world? What about the plight of the written drama in Eastern/Central Europe: Has there been a give-and-take on par with the West? Or are the bulk of Eastern/Central European playwrights still behind a curtain and, if so, why? Has there been any substantial change in our reflection on theatre? Has education in theatre criticism, a unique trademark of the region's theatre landscape, turned out to be a mission impossible or, on the contrary, is it about to become a possible export?"

Larry Devine of ATCA's international committee will be the U.S. delegate in attendance at the Executive Committee meeting of the International Theatre Critics Association. [Gener]