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).

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.