BOOK: Margaret Croyden’s Journey

The Years In Between

Our longtime colleague Margaret Croyden—internationalist extraordinaire—has a new book in print. The Years In Between: A Reporter’s Journey World War II—The Cold War recounts Croyden’s memories and experiences as an actor “embedded” with American occupation troops in France and Germany just after World War II, who later went on to become the renowned critic and journalist we all know now. Her other books include Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: The Contemporary Experimental Theater and Conversations with Peter Brook: 1970-2000.

According to the publisher, The Years In Between is drawn “from diaries, tapes, and memories,” as Croyden “recounts her youthful adventures and struggles and a later transformation, this time ideological, wrought by visits to Berlin, Moscow, Leningrad, Beirut, and Jerusalem to report the theater scene and interview cultural and political leaders. Her vivid descriptions reveal a sharp mind, a critical eye, a humanistic sensibility, and a fearless dedication to the truth.”

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.

OPEN LETTER: Oppression of International Artists

From Association internationale des critiques de théâtre / International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC)

AN OPEN LETTER ON THE OPPRESSION OF INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS

In the wake of governmental repression of theater artists in Hungary and, more recently, in Belarus, the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) adds its voice to the global chorus calling for greater freedom on the pages of publications and on the stages of oppressed theatre companies.

As a non-profit, Non-Govermental Organization recognized under Statute B of UNESCO, the purpose of the IATC is to promote international cooperation through international engagement and advocacy for building bridges among cultures. In the recent repression and imprisonment of theatre artists, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko gives credence to critics who have called Belarus “the last true remaining dictatorship in the heart of Europe.” According to the New York Times, the deeply contentious election of December 19, 2010, after which Lukashenko claimed to have received 79 percent of the vote, led to the leader's announcement that more than 600 “bandits and saboteurs,” including several of his opponents, had been arrested.

The leadership of the IATC is deeply disturbed by the rising international tide of oppression of the arts and literature, especially of theatres and theatre artists. We deplore the conviction and brief imprisonment of Belarus Free Theatre's company manager Artiom Zhelezniak on charges of "illegal assembly." We celebrate the departure from Belarus of company members Nikolai Khalezin, Natalia Kolyada and others, who have been recognized internationally and were honored with a "Special Mention" by the Europe Theatre Prize.

Members of the IATC are theatre critics, but we are also theatre advocates and we will resist all governmental attempts to censor or otherwise marginalize the important work of our global theatre artists. When some artists and writers are not free to think, work, and create in an unrestricted manner, we all suffer a loss of freedom and of human possibility.

We call on all who love freedom—artists, audience members, governments—to rally against these specific oppressions, to agitate for greater creative freedom, and to join our voices in support of those who cannot, or may not, speak for themselves. We encourage our members to shine a bright light on these events and to keep these matters in the forefront of our global artistic discourse.

If we join together in this struggle, we shall prevail.

Sincerely,

Yun-Cheol Kim, President (Korea)
Michel Vaïs, Secretary General (Canada)

International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC)

Association internationale des critiques de théâtre (AICT)

YOUNG CRITICS: Seminar Announced

From Michel Vaïs, Secretary General of AICT-IATC



Palace Square, St. Petersburg

The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) is pleased to announce a Young Critics’ Seminar to be held in conjunction with the 14th Europe Theatre Prize in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 12-17, 2011. The seminar will be comprised of three groups (working in the English, French and Russian languages), each of which will be open to a maximum of 10 participants.

Applications are invited from professional theatre critics between 18 and 35 years of age—there is flexibility in the upper age limit, members of the American Theatre Critics Association should contact International chair Jeffrey Eric Jenkins before submitting an application. The application form also requires a one-page CV, three examples of writing as a professional critic and a letter of recommendation from the critic’s national section of IATC.

Hermitage Museum Complex, St. Petersburg



Successful applicants will be responsible for the cost of travel to and from St. Petersburg, and the cost of any visa required for entry to Russia. However, the Europe Theatre Prize generously offers participants free hotel accommodation (you may be required to share a room with another participant of the same gender), meals and tickets for performances.

The seminar groups will be led by three experienced theatre critics: Jean-Pierre Han (Francophone group), Mark Brown (Anglophone group) and Nikolai Pesochinsky (Russophone group). The annual Europe Theatre Prize has been awarded to many great theatre makers (Krystian Lupa, Patrice Chéreau, Peter Zadek, Lev Dodin), and showcases many world-class productions.

Applications are requested to be sent by e-mail to AICT-IATC Director of Seminars Jean-Pierre Han before February 28, 2011. Members of the American Theatre Critics Association considering application should contact Jeffrey Eric Jenkins by February 1, 2011. A list of successful applicants will be made available as soon as possible so participants may make arrangements for travel and visas.

NEWS: Petition from Hungary

From MICHEL VAÏS, Secretary General of AICT-IATC

Dear colleagues,
The following message from our Hungarian section contains a link to a petition. I encourage you to sign it, as I did.
Michel Vaïs

================

Dear Michel,

Thank you for circulating the Hungarian section’s letter to international media among the members of AICT-IATC. We have started a petition on the internet for the freedom of artists and press in Hungary.

During this week more than 1,700 people signed it from all around the world, among them Elfriede Jelinek, Richard Schechner, Luk Percevel, Caryl Churchill, Martin Crimp, Andrea Breth, Joachim Sartorius, Helgard Haug and many others.

We would be very grateful if you could put this link on the AICT-IATC’s mailing list, it would be a honor to have the support of the members: http://www.petitions24.com/hands_off_culture_and_media_in_hungary

If you agree with the petition, we also ask you personally to sign it.

Best regards,
Tamas Jaszay, Hungary

REPORT: Criticism Conference in Caen

Members of the AICT-IATC gathered December 14 and 15 in Caen, France, to interrogate the shifting role of dramatic criticism in the cultural discourse of various countries. Representatives traveled from China, Finland, Korea, Quebec and the United States to discuss how criticism may influence theatrical production in their respective countries—and how theatrical production may affect theatre criticism.

Primoz Jesenko (Slovenia), Jean-Pierre Han (France),
Yun-Cheol Kim (Korea) and Qing-Yan Zhang (China)

In addition to presentations by outstanding international critics such as Jean-Pierre Han (France), Primoz Jesenko (Slovenia), Yun-Cheol Kim (Korea), Matti Linnavuori (Finland), Brigitte Purkhardt (Québec), Michel Vaïs (Québec), Julie York Coppens (USA), and Qing-Yan Zhang (China), those who attended the conference were given opportunities to see thought-provoking productions from the Avignon Festival.

Dream state: The beast and the blind (from La Mort d'Adam).
Photo: Tristan Jeanne-Valès

Jean Lambert-wild, artistic director of Comédie de Caen and co-host of the conference, presented his multimedia piece La Mort d'Adam, which employs live action—overlapped by projected film—and a female narrator who sits to one side of the action as she provides context for Lambert-wild's layered images. Anyone familiar with Western philosophy and religion might easily see parallels between La Mort d'Adam and tales from the bible, from Arabian Nights, from Greek myth, from Shakespeare. In a conversation with the assembled critics the next day, Lambert-wild shared the very specific influences from his own life that led to the piece. Some critics felt that the French text (and its English surtitles) confused Lambert-wild's tale, while others thought the spoken French provided a sonic score that enhanced the director's other elements of spectacle. Facing the critics, eager for a conversation on what may or may not have worked, Lambert-wild bravely demonstrated the possibilities for which Peter Brook argued in The Empty Space (1968):

I see nothing but good in a critic plunging into our lives, meeting actors, talking, discussing, watching, intervening. I would welcome his putting his hands on the medium and attempting to work it himself. Certainly, there is a tiny social problem—how does a critic talk to someone whom he has just damned in print? . . . The criticism that theater people make of one another is usually of devastating severity—but absolutely precise. (32-33)

Art Macht Frei? Silke Mansholt in Wolfstunde.
Photo: Tristan Jeanne-Valès

When all of the papers had been presented and the critical roundtable of Lambert-wild's piece had concluded, the participants were invited to see Silke Mansholt's Wolfstunde (Wolf Lesson). Mansholt's performance piece employs minimal technical elements and ritualized manipulations of the actor's physical body—Mansholt performs with collaborator Clara Garcia Fraile—in an exploration of the internal battles of darkness and light that comprise human experience. Where Mansholt differs from many other examinations of this type is in her use of imagery that speaks specifically to her heritage as a German—and to the echoes of guilt that resonate for many of those in the post-World War II, post-Holocaust generations. Her use of the famous Auschwitz sign, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Will Make You Free), strikes chords of memory in the minds of her audience and asks an open question regarding the relationship between art and power. Ultimately, the piece seems to ask if the "power of art" is any power at all.

Throughout the four days, participants enjoyed marvelous French cuisine and wine as they engaged in ongoing discussions on theatre, criticism, culture, and politics. There were tours to sites commemorating the 1944 invasion of Normandy by Allied military forces and to a remarkable archive, in an abbey outside of Caen, that contains the works of many well known writers.

In remarks made during a discussion period following one set of papers, Lambert-wild argued strongly for an international federation of theatre-related groups dedicated to keeping the art form in the forefront of global cultural discourse. In the work generated (and seen) in Caen recently, it is safe to say that a good start has been made on getting that discourse underway.

MEMORIAM: Canadian Playwright David French

From DON RUBIN, President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association

David French has died at age 71 after a long battle with brain cancer. The playwright was one of the seminal figures in the emergence of modern Canadian playwriting in the 1970s. His plays Leaving Home, part of his Mercer cycle, and Jitters, one of the great satires on Canadian theatre, are deeply loved and profoundly effective plays, major works that have been done all across Canada and the United States, and continue to be done by professional and amateur companies. French’s plays—most of which premiered at the Tarragon in Toronto in productions directed by Bill Glassco—were also among the first to present real Newfoundlanders on a stage speaking in real Newfoundland accents. These plays will last because they truly are genuine works of art written from the heart by one of our first major modern playwrights. French was a dominant force in our theatre through the 1970s and 1980s and continued to write and produce new work. His contribution to Canada's cultural life was enormous.