NOTED: American Theatre Critics Association Re-Elected to International Governing Body

Members of the AICT-IATC Executive Committee meet in the shadow
of Anton Chekhov's bust at Дом Актера (Actor's House) in St. Petersburg

The American Theatre Critics Association, the United States national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC), was re-elected to the Executive Committee of IATC at the General Assembly during the association’s World Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 15. The congress was held in conjunction with the 17th Europe Theatre Prize/Premio Europa per Il Teatro. Attending the congress were Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, IATC Vice President and Chair of ATCA’s International Committee, and Brad Hathaway, immediate past Vice Chair of the ATCA Executive Committee.

Prior to the General Assembly, members from across the globe were invited to address the congress on the topic of "Performing Arts Today: Freedom and (In)tolerance." Presenters included representatives from Serbia, Russia, Québec, the United States, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Following the conference, AICT-IATC honored the esteemed German scholar Hans-Thies Lehmann with the 2018 Thalia Prize, presented to a critic, scholar and/or practitioner whose work has had a profound impact on the nature of the field. Lehmann was honored for his groundbreaking work, Postdramatic Theatre. 

The General Assembly re-elected Margareta Sörenson (Sweden) to her final term as President. Michel Vaïs (Canada) was re-elected Secretary General, marking twenty years in that position. Further, the General Assembly confirmed that the 30th AICT-IATC World Congress will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia in early May 2020. The vote in the General Assembly resulted in the selection of ten national sections that will serve as the voting Executive Committee for the next two years: China, France, Georgia, India, Japan, Nigeria, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and the United States.

The USA section received 85 percent of the possible votes, which caused Jenkins to note, “It is deeply gratifying that our international colleagues are so supportive of keeping our section engaged in this time of global uncertainty for the arts and for humanity.”

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REPORT: News on International Theatre Criticism

Barry Gaines

American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) member Barry Gaines attended the 16th Europe Theatre Prize festivities in Rome last December and wrote about the experience for Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques, the journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC).

The 2018 prize festivities will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, to coincide with the 29th World Congress of the International Association of Theatre Critics, November 13–18, 2018. During the World Congress, IATC will present the 7th Thalia Prize, which is given, according to IATC President Margareta Sörenson, to someone who has been "responsible for a body of work in criticism and theatre studies" that has also been "particularly important to us, the international critics, in our profession."

Hans-Thies Lehman

Hans-Thies Lehmann, the 2018 Thalia laureate, wrote the groundbreaking book Postdramatic Theatre (Routledge English edition, 2006), in addition to other influential texts. According to authoritative sources, Lehmann's work summarizes "a number of tendencies and stylistic traits occurring in avant-garde theatre since the end of the 1960s." What he refers to as "postdramatic" is not "focused on the drama in itself, but evolves a performative aesthetic in which the text of the performance" engages with the "material situation of the performance and the stage." Lehmann's codification of the field has been highly influential for artists and scholars alike since it was published in German in 1999. Past Thalia Prize laureates are Eric Bentley (USA, 2006), Jean-Pierre Sarrazac (France, 2008), Richard Schechner (USA, 2010), Kapila Vatsyayan (India, 2012), Eugenio Barba (Denmark, 2014), and Femi Osofisan (Nigeria, 2016).

For the World Congress, a conference on “Performing Arts: Freedom and (In)Tolerance” has been announced and paper proposals are currently being adjudicated. Given rising levels of nationalism and autocracy throughout the globe, this World Congress and its conference promise to richly engage participants on issues that are of great importance in this political and cultural moment. American delegates to the congress are IATC Vice President Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, and ATCA members Ellen Foreman and Brad Hathaway. Members of the editorial board of Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques will also gather in Russia to set the course for the journal's next two years.

CANCELED: 2018 World Congress at Banff

Banff Center, Canada

The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) announced that its World Congress, planned for September 2018 in Banff and Calgary, Canada, has been canceled due to a lack of funding commitments. Secretary General Michel Vaïs has reported on behalf of himself and IATC President Margareta Sörenson that several other options are being investigated.

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."

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?

REPORTS: An American in Sweden

Jay Handelman

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE of the American Theatre Critics Association was represented at the recent executive committee meeting of AICT-IATC last month by Foundation ATCA president Jay Handelman. Held this time in Malmö, Sweden, on the occasion of the biennial festival of the arts, executive committee meetings allow for lively exchanges of ideas related to the business of managing our various associations. When the delegates are not in meetings, they have the opportunity to sample local theatrical offerings and report back to our membership in the United States. As someone with numerous experiences in our international meetings, Handelman served as delegate for Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, chair of the International Committee and vice president of the International Association of Theatre Critics. The critic for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Handelman also reported on his theatergoing experience for his readers in Florida.

Margareta Sörenson

The Malmö meeting, chaired by AICT-IATC president Margareta Sörensen of Sweden, was devoted largely to discussions about future opportunities for international seminars for young critics and for established critics, the planned 2016 World Congress, and developments aimed at helping the AICT-IATC webjournal, Critical Stages, to sustain the growth it has experienced since its inception. Now overseen by its third editor, Savas Patsalidis of Greece, Critical Stages has embarked on a project of outreach and development aimed at larger readership and greater impact in cultural discourse.

[The minutes of the executive committee meeting are available in English here, and in French here.]

Jean-Pierre Han

Jean-Pierre Han, the director of seminars who represents France and serves as one of three vice presidents of AICT-IATC, reported that there have been numerous challenges in getting seminars to fruition--there were more than a half dozen proposed in Beijing--due to shifting budget priorities in potential host countries and the cost of travel for potential attendees. There are positive signs that a Young Critics' Seminar will be arranged in Bangkok, Thailand, at the end of October 2015, but there are no additional details. A call was sent by ATCA chairman Bill Hirschman to all American Theatre Critics Association members about an Established Critics event in Novi Sad, Serbia, set for September 2015. The application deadline was June 20. There is also a possibility of an Established Critics' Seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina, late in 2015, though there is no further information as of this date.

Ivan Medenica

In Beijing last fall, Serbia proposed hosting the 2016 World Congress and leaders continue to discuss the possibility of making it work. According to Ivan Medenica, the representative from Serbia, the country's current financial outlook and upcoming elections may lead AICT-IATC to seek a different arrangement for 2016. Other possibilities are under consideration, including an alternative format for hosting a congress, which is currently under consideration by the leadership of the AICT-IATC executive committee.

Savas Patsalidis

The vision for Critical Stages continues to evolve under the leadership of editor Patsalidis, managing editor Don Rubin, and executive editor Jenkins. With overhead amounting to the equivalent of $10,000 USD, the publication now seeks donations and advertising from individuals and groups. Illinois Theatre has committed to advertising its programs of study on the site through 2016. An ongoing challenge to the journal are the archives of the first ten volumes, which have been rendered inaccessible due to changes in technology and technical personnel. Patsalidis offers a strong vision for the publication's continued improvement, which will ultimately reflect well on the organization.

Finally, the organization has created a logo contest that seeks submissions for a visual representation of the association that takes into account the contemporary dimensions of "live performance" as AICT-IATC engages with them. Submissions should be forwarded to Michel Vaïs, the secretary general of the association, by September 21, 2015.