New critics’ seminar in Wiesbaden

The theatre festival "New Plays from Europe 2008 " –" Neue Stücke aus Europa 2008" in Wiesbaden invites  applications to a seminar for eight young professional theatre critics, which will take place between 13-19 June 2008. The seminar is a collaboration between IATC and the festival and will be conducted by Margareta Sörenson (Director of IATC training seminars) together with Jürgen Berger (German theatre critic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Theater Heute). Seminar participants will also be responsible for producing a festival bulletin, with Jürgen Berger in charge as its editor. The working language of the seminar will be English; the bulletin is published in English and German. The festival gathers together new and exciting plays from Europe’s stages, performed by companies from the countries themselves. It is famous for the warmth of its welcome, and the many informal opportunities it provides to meet playwrights from all over Europe. Applications should be sent in two copies, one to Margareta Sörenson (soerenson@swipnet.se) and one to the festival (biennale@staatstheater-wiesbaden.de) including an endorsement from a national critics’ association within IACT, a short CV and a recent theatre review in translation to either English, German or French. Applicants must be practising critics with at least one year’s experience, and preferably under the age of 35. The selection of the applicants will be made by Jürgen Berger and Margareta Sörenson together. Applicants will have their travel costs covered to a maximum 300 EU; free accommodation, meals and theatre tickets are likewise provided.

Deadline for applications is 15th of March; applicants will be notified by 30th April. For more information about the festival visit www.newplays.de

BITEI – INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PERFORMING ARTS
VIIIth edition – INTERSECTIONS

May 24 – 31, 2008
Chişinău, Moldova

The “Eugene Ionesco” theatre, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Moldova, of the City Hall of Chişinău and UNITEM – the Theatrical Union of Moldova, organizes, in the period of 24-31 May, 2008, the 8th edition of BITEI - International Festival of Performing Arts, with the title Intersections.

The Festival is structured in 5 sections:

1.  Drama („big” performances, small-format performances, mono-performances)
2.  Non-verbal theatre (pantomime, dance, physical theatre etc.)
3.  Theatre for children
4.  Theatre in non-conventional spaces (street theatre etc.)
5.  Musical theatre

All artists interested to submit their proposals should fill in the application form here (available in Romanian and English). The deadline for proposals submission is March 30, 2008.

In plus to Application forms, the applicants should send to the organizers the following materials: a CD/DVD with the proposed performances and a press dossier.

All submitted performances shall be viewed by a pre-selection committee. Only selected companies/artists will be contacted. 

Organizers are offering participants in-country transportation; hotel accommodation and meals; technical and administrative support; advertisement; free access to all the Festival events; the trophy „Golden Eye” and diploma of the Festival; a cultural program.

Companies / artists will need to consider international travel costs, and to seek financial support from local funding sources. The organizers of the Festival will provide letters and invitations to support individual funding applications.

Further information:
teatrul.ionesco@starnet.md
+373 22 23 36 71 / 23 38 33
Petru Vutcarau
Artistic director
BITEI – International Festival of Performing Arts
Str. Sfatul Tarii 18
MD-2012 Chisinau, Moldova
e-mail for video materials:

Dear collegues,
Bellow you can find information about 4th edition of NOVA DRAMA/NEW DRAMA festival, which takes place from 9th to 14th of May 2008 in Bratislava. We would like to ask you to inform about the festival via your websites and mailing lists to theatre critics and theoretics, theatre festivals´ organizers and other interested people.
Thank you very much for the support.
With best regards,
Romana Maliti
Public and Foreign Relations Dpt. – The Theatre Institute Bratislava
Nova drama / New Drama Festival

Festival Nová dráma / New Drama 2008

4th Festival of Contemporary Slovak and World Drama
9th – 14th May, 2008, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Festival of contemporary Slovak and world drama Nová dráma / New Drama Festival was established in 2005 as an annual presentation of the best contemporary Slovak and world drama productions created by Slovak theatre makers. Visited by more than 30 foreign guests every year, the festival offers an overview of contemporary Slovak theatre, interesting insight into Slovak directors and playwrights´ work, a wide range of performances from different regions of Slovakia. The main programme will bring 8 – 12 productions from theatres of all Slovak regions.
The new feature of the festival in 2008 is its foreign section. This special section of the programme entitled Focus Russia is an original presentation of contemporary Russian drama and dramatists. There are 5 renowned dramatists who accepted our invitation – Yelena Isayeva, Olya Mukhina, Rodion Beletsky, Yuri Klavdiev and Maxim Kurochkin. Within the Focus Russia project we organize an international conference entitled „Russian Drama in Theatre after 1989“, creative writing workshop, translation workshop, lecture on contemporary drama, staged readings,  encounters and discussions with our Russian guests, specialists focusing on Russia from Europe and Slovak theatre professionals. There will be a production of the visiting theatre from Moscow presented within the programme.
The final festival programme will be available in March 2008 on the Theatre Institute website www.novadrama.sk.

The festival is organized by the Bratislava Theatre Institute in cooperation with the Slovak National Theatre, the Astorka Korzo´90 Theatre and the Association of Contemporary Theatre.  The festival is being held with the support of the European Commission as a part of the international project – European Workshop of Translation (L´Ateliér Européen de la Traduction) a partner of which has been the Theatre Institute from 2005.

If you are interested to visit the festival, we would kindly ask you to indicate it so as soon as possible, not later than March 7, 2008.
The registered festival guests will be offered free tickets to all performances, free access to accompanying events, meetings and discussions, local transportation in Bratislava and hotel accommodation bookings. Festival provides interpreting assistance, transport from and to airport and visa support if needed.

Contact:
Diana Selecká - Registration of International Guests
Tel: 000421 2 59304705, Fax: 00421 2 52965986
E-mail: diana.selecka@theatre.sk

This is the Registration form for the Sofia Congress, which will take place from 14-19 April, 2008.

Mr Lukes was for some years the Czech representative at the Executive Committee of the IATC. He will be missed by all his colleagues.
MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC NATIONAL THEATRE IN PRAGUE
FACULTY OF ARTS & PHILOSOPHY, CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE
THE AGENCY DILIA
THE JOURNAL SVĚT A DIVADLO (WORLD AND THEATRE)
announce with deep sorrow that, at the age of 73, after a serious illness, the death occurred on Saturday 22 September 2007 of
Prof. PhDr. Milan Lukeš, DrSc.
Milan Lukeš graduated in theatre studies from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. His first employment was in the publishing house Orbis, which he left in 1961 to join the journal Divadlo (Theatre). He became managing editor in 1964, remaining there until the journal was forced to close for political reasons in 1970. Under his management Divadlo covered everything new in contemporary theatre, criticism and independent thought. During the brief years when the Czech theatre enjoyed an international reputation, Divadlo was an important platform for the debates of contemporary theatre.
In 1966 Milan Lukeš joined the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy of the Charles University as a lecturer in theatre studies. He was to influence countless theatre students over the next forty years. As a teacher he set an example of high standards in scholarship and in freedom of opinion.
Milan Lukeš was made head of the drama company of the Czech National Theatre in 1985, and remained in that post until December 1989. His management of the company anticipated its post-1989 development. He opened the stage to new talents, celebrated today but at that time unknown. He gradually built up a modern and high quality repertoire which was frequently ahead of its time. He was not afraid to stage the work of contemporary writers. Thanks to him, the drama company of the National Theatre was well prepared for the revolutionary changes after 1989.
After the Velvet Revolution of November 1989 he became successively Minister of Culture, a Member of Parliament, and Deputy Premier of the Czech Republic. He later became Chairman of the Board of the National Theatre and Chairman of the Council of International Festival Divadlo/Theatre in Pilsen.
As a translator, Milan Lukeš concentrated mainly on the Elizabethan playwrights (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Heywood) and on modern American and English drama (Shaw, O’Neill, Williams). Thanks to him, Czech audiences came to know the work of John Osborne, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter. He also translated the history and theory of theatre (Brockett, Craig, Aronson and others). He was himself an author, writing essays and books on William Shakespeare, the Elizabethan theatre, Eugene O’Neill and the theory of drama.
For the last eleven years he had been on the editorial board of the journal Svět a divadlo (World and Theatre). Through this he drew together his work as an editor, author and translator, which began back in the 1960s.
The theatre has lost a brilliant intellectual with profound knowledge, a true “theatre scientist”, an outstanding translator, and a personality of European dimensions.
We will part with Professor Milan Lukeš for the last time on Wednesday 3 October 2007 at 2.00 pm, in the Main Hall of the Strašnice Crematorium in Prague.
Mourners may leave their condolences in the book prepared in the Kolowrat Palace (Ovocný trh 6, Praha 1) from 27 September 2007 to 3 October 2007 from 10.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m.

Polish section IACT belongs to the oldest section of our Association. It is a reason of the impressive event took place in Von Golik Gallery in Warsaw, Poland, in the end of the March  2007. The exhibition of the sculptures by Wiesław Janasz, the famous Polish sculptor was there presented. It was the collection of sculptures which were material signs of the awards of the Polish section in last years. The vernissage was connected with a gala of Boy Award 2007 (Anna Augustynowicz, director of Shakespeare “Measure for measure” in Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw was awarded), the most important award of Polish IACT founded in  1957. In these beautiful meeting participated previous winners of Boy Award, among them Maja Komorowska, the actress of Jerzy Grotowski, the president of Warsaw Theatre Academy, prof. Lech Sliwonik, director of Culture Department of the Warsaw City Hall, Marek Kraszewski, president of Polish Actors Society, Krzysztof Kumor, editors, critics. The papers presented the president of Polish section dr Tomasz Miłkowski and the prior winner, honorary President of  Polish Actors Society, Ignacy Gogolewski.

We kindly inform you that the 6th edition of the Contemporary Drama Festival Budapest will take place from the 22nd of November to the 2nd of December 2007. The festival programme offers you 6 Hungarian and 6 foreign performances and provides you a number of side-events and supporting programmes.

Among others 5606 / mad soul beaten army, the new performance of the well known director, János Mohácsi from the Csiky Gergely Theatre Kaposvár will be invited which treats the subject of the 1956 revolution in an open-minded way and which has recently provoked long desputes in Hungary. András Visky’s Long Friday is also part of the program: this is the adaptation of the Nobel Price Awarded Imre Kertesz’s novel, Kaddish for the Unborn Child. The performance is presented by the Cluj Hungarian State Theatre and directed by Gábor Tompa, the leader of the theatre. Béla Pintér’s Company, one of the most important Hungarian independent groups, is invited with My Mother’s Nose. And the Örkény Theatre from Budapest will present István Tasnádi’s play, Finito.

The festival is organising a special Visitors’ Programme for its foreigns guests to give a large picture of the contemporary Hungarian thaeatre scene. Besides attending the festival’s main programme we provide you the oppotunity to meet Hungarian theatre professionals and to obtain a large package of information about contemporary Hungarian playwriters, plays and performances.

The festival is applying for a grant to the National Cultural Fund to finance the Visitors’ Programme. If it turns out as predicted we can afford for our guests free accomodation for 5 nights in Budapest, free tickets for the Hungarian performances, possibility to attend the activities included in the Visitors’ Programme and a weekly transport ticket.

It would be a great honour to see you in Budapest, we hope you can accept our very warm invitation.

Kind regards,
Mária Szilágyi
Festival Director
Contemporary Drama Festival Budapest
creativ.media@mail.datanet.hu

A new association of theatre critics has been formed in China, with its office in Beijing. IATC president Ian Herbert and vice-president Yun-Cheol Kim were there in June. The new association comprises some 21 members, and is a part of the Regional Association of Asian Theatre Critics. The Chair of the future China IATC Board is Zhang Xian, Dean of the Literature Department of the Central Academy of Drama. The IATC executive committee will decide on the candidacy of this new national section at its next meeting in St. Petersburg, in October 2007, then, will submit its decision to the Sofia congress for approval.

At the meeting of the executive committee in Thessaloniki, on 26 April, 2007, it was decided to appoint an adjunct to the Secretary General, in the person of Ivan Medenica, delegate from Serbia in the IATC. The minutes of the Thessaloniki meeting can be found in this site at Archives & Documents /Excom/ Thessaloniki, and the address of the new Adjunct Secretary General is in the "Who's Who" section, under Serbia.

The papers of the Thessaloniki symposium, which took place on 26 April 2007, are now on this web site. Please go to Archives & Documents, Symposiums, and Thessaloniki 07.

Young critics’ seminar in Cordoba, Argentina,
1-7 October, 2007
Young critic´s seminar during the Festival de Teatro Mercosur, Cordoba, Argentina
1-7 October, 2007

During the first week of October an IACT seminar for young theatre critics will be organized in Cordoba, hosted by the Festival de Teatro del Mercosur, an international theatre festival with a strong presence of latin american theatre. Cordoba, in the center of Argentina, is the second city of the country, with a rich theatrical life.  The festival will present theatre productions from Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay as well as performances from Spain, France and Germany.
The IATC seminar is focusing on contemporary theatrical forms and new realities within theatre. Working languages will be English and Spanish, and ten international critics are invited to work together with a number of Argentinian young critics. The young critics must finance their travel to Cordoba, but  the festival generously invites the participants to hotel rooms, meals and theatre tickets. The seminar is working four-five morning hours, some free time is offered in the afternoon before the theatre performances at night.

The seminar will be directed by Margareta Sörenson, Swedish theatre and dance critic, responsable of the IATC young critic’s international seminars and vice-president of IATC internaional. She will be assisted by an Argentinian critic. Applications should be sent to Margareta Sörenson, soerenson@swipnet.se, at the latest 31st of August. A recommendation from the national AICT section where the young critic is a member, is compulsory. The list of participants accepted will be presented during the first week of September. Communications by e-mail only.

Young critics’ seminar in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 23-27 October, 2007
The IATC is inviting to a Seminar for Young Professional Theatre Critics in Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia (northwest Spain).  The seminar is hosted by the festival “Feira de Teatro de Galicia”, with the support of the “Instituto Galego das Artes Escénicas e Musicais”. Collaborative partners are the Spanish Association of Theatre Directors (ADE, its section of Theatre Studies, the Spanish section of IATC), and the “Escola Superior de Arte Dramática de Galicia”.

The festival “Feira do Teatro de Galicia” is promoted by the Galician “Consellería de Cultura e Deporte” and the “Instituto Galego das Artes Escénicas e Musicais” and is now in its 15th edition. It is dedicated to the presentation of a wide variety of works developed by Galician and other Spanish companies, performed in an equally wide diversity of spaces, from conventional theatre buildings to bars and local “tabernas”. 

The seminar will take place between 23 and 27 October 2007 (arriving date: 22, departure day: 28). The 16 seminar participants are offered hotel, meals and theatre tickets. (Notice that you may have to share a room.) The festival also assures the transportation of the participants from and to the airport. Working hours of the seminar: daily 10-14h. The working languages of the seminar will be English, Portuguese and Galician and the seminar will be directed by Paulo Eduardo Carvalho, from the Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics, and currently assisting director of the international IATC seminars for young critics. 

We are pleased to invite all theatre critics to the 24th Congress of the IATC, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 14 April, 2008 (arrival date) to 20 April, 2008 (departure date). The 12th Europe Prize for Theatre will take place in Thessaloniki (or Salonika, or Solun, Greece) just before the Congress, from 9-13 April, 2008. We will try to reserve a bus to bring all delegates from Salonika to Sofia, which is a short journey.

Below is a call for papers, with the official invitation from the Minister of Culture of Bulgaria.

Please send all requests for giving a paper to Kalina Stefanova kalina@eurointegra.com, director of symposiums for the IATC, or: Krasimira Filipova
Director of Theatre, Varity and Circus Department
Ministry of Culture of The Republic of Bulgaria
e-mail: k_filipova@abv.bg;
tel.: +359 02 987 89 22; fax: +359 02 980 49 88

***
Theatre and Humanism in Today’s
World of Violence

At a time when human life is becoming more and more devalued and human beings more and more disposable, the XXIV Congress of the International Association of Theatre Critics proposes to look at violence in the theatre, and the critic’s response to it.
What makes violence on stage today so sexy? Until quite recently, violence for its own sake was the prerogative of B-feature films and junk mystery novels. What made theatre follow suit? What is the impact of the theatre of violence on the audience? Doesn't it actually make them conformists?
Is there still a place for humanism among all the post-modern “isms”, including post-human or meta-human theatre? What is the relationship between violence and the aesthetics of ugliness? How does theatre stand against the right of might (and the ensuing violence) which has become a norm today on the stage of the world? And how can theatre and theatre critics help preserve humanistic values on and off stage? Should they even try?
We invite papers dealing with these and like questions, with examples from the theatre of your own country or of the world.
==
INVITATION

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria

XXIV World Congress
of the International Association of Theatre Critics
Sofia, Bulgaria, 15-19 April 2008

In the framework of the First Showcase of Bulgarian Theatre

For contact:
e-mail: k_filipova@abv.bg; tel.: +359 02 987 89 22; fax: +359 02 980 49 88
Krasimira Filipova, Director of Theatre, Varity and Circus Department
Ministry of Culture of The Republic of Bulgaria

The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Prof. Stefan Danailov, takes great pleasure in inviting the International Association of Theatre Critics to hold its XXIV Congress and General Assembly in Sofia from 15-19 April 2008.

Congress Theme:

“Theatre and Humanism in Today’s World of Violence”

At a time when human life is becoming more and more devalued and human beings more and more disposable, the XXIV Congress of the International Association of Theatre Critics proposes to look at violence in the theatre, and the critic’s response to it.

What makes violence on stage today so sexy? Until quite recently, violence for its own sake was the prerogative of B-feature films and junk mystery novels. What made theatre follow suit? What is the impact of the theatre of violence on the audience? Doesn't it actually make us conformists? Is there still a place for humanism among all the post-modern “isms”, including post-human or meta-human theatre? What is the relationship between violence and the aesthetics of ugliness? How does theatre stand against the right of might (and the ensuing violence) which has become a norm today on the stage of the world? And how can theatre and theatre critics preserve humanistic values on and off stage? Should they even try?

We invite papers dealing with these and like questions, with examples from the theatre of your own country or of the world.

Deadline for Papers:

Those who want to present a paper in the two-day symposium are required to submit an abstract of 400 words or less by September 1st 2007 and the final paper by December 31st. Each speaker will be given 20 minutes for presentation. If there are too many applications, papers will be selected by their relevance to the theme and geopolitical considerations.

Congress Participation:

Members are reminded that each IATC section which has paid its membership fee for 2007-2008 is eligible to send two delegates, in addition to any officer or existing members of the Executive Committee, and those individual members who have paid their membership fee. All hotel accommodation, local transportation, and meals for delegates for the period of 15-19 April 2008 (arrival April 14, departure April 20) will be paid by the organizers, as well as theatre tickets and airport transfers. Delegates are responsible for their own travel costs to Sofia.

Practical Notices:

1. Registration forms will be sent out later this year. Delegates should fill in the registration form and send it by January 1st 2008, either by e-mail or fax (see the info in the beginning).

2. Accompanying persons of delegates and non-delegate participants will be required to pay for their accommodation, airport transfers, local transportation, theatre tickets, and meals. Information about these costs will be provided with the registration form.

I am looking forward to welcoming the IATC delegates in Sofia in April 2008,

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Stefan Danailov
Minister of Culture

A symposium will take place in Salonika, during the activities of the Europe Prize for theatre, on 26 April, just after the opening ceremony. You are all welcome.

PRIZES: WHO NEEDS THEM?

In our success-driven world, awards have become one of the most common expressions of “making it”, but they have also come to epitomize the superficiality and transience of success. Do the juries, boards and academies who select the winners cater at times too obligingly to fashion, shallowness and the temporary? In other words, hasn’t the very spirit of our time devalued the traditional meaning of awards as recognition for ground-breaking achievement?

Yes, prizes still open doors and change lives. But do their winners change the lives of their addressees — the audience? Do juries mistake acts of pure speculation for strokes of genius, spectacular but shallow tricks for innovation, causing further estrangement between the audience and the art? Literary awards given with great fanfare to totally unreadable books have certainly had this effect. What’s the situation in the theatre?

And how does theatre stand in comparison with the world of cinema, where awards (and their ceremonies) have quite frequently served as an antidote to outrageous political acts and tendencies? Some theatre awards have gone counter to negative criticism, causing real reversals of a show’s fortune. But don’t they more often cause swollen heads, in the case of the young, and a feeling of being “untouchable”, in the case of the more mature?

Resting on old laurels, never getting the laurels one deserves, or having to look to one’s laurels may be equally challenging.