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

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?