Saturday, December 22, 2012

Critical Stages: Publishes Volume Seven

Yun-Cheol Kim, president of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC), announces the latest edition of Critical Stages has been posted. For this seventh volume of critical perspective from around the world, editor Patrice Pavis focused the Special Topic section on performance theory, which offers work regarding the nature of spectatorship from such scholars as Pavis, Matthew Reason, Peter M. Boenisch, Christopher Balme, Rachel Fensham, Hans-Thies Lehmann.

The Performance Review section, edited by Matti Linnavuori, features seventeen reviews from across the globe including a fascinating piece by Mihail Baykov on a Swedish production of Strindberg's Miss Julie presented in Bulgaria last summer. Baykov's discourse on Anna Pettersson's self-directed performance is appropriately titled "Beyond the Cliches of Miss Julie" and features a few arresting images of Pettersson's multimedia exploration in which "all characters merge—not only those of Julie, Jean and Christine, but also that of Anna Pettersson herself, who comments on the other roles."


The Essay section, edited by Maria Helena Serôdio, continues its mission of enhancing critical discourse by providing essays and reviews by five established authors, who are encouraged to move freely from essay to review, and from review to essay, often with relevant references to cultural theory. The Critics on Criticism section presents essays by critics Mark Brown and Andrea TompaSections highlighting InterviewsBook Reviews, and Conference Papers are also filled with insight on international performance and performers.

TURKEY: Letter From Theatre Critics

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, center, joins artists protesting a move by Istanbul's mayor to take over decision-making in the Istanbul theatres in April 2012. (AP Photo)
The following letter was forwarded to AICT-IATC Secretary General Michel Vaïs by Hasan Anamur of the Turkish section of the International Association of Theatre Critics:

The Executive Committee of the Turkish section of the IATC wishes to inform you of the critical situation facing the theatre and artistic communities in Turkey since the 2000 rise to power of a political party that is trying to create conditions aimed at controlling all kinds of theatrical creations, to close down all state theatres, as well as municipal theatres in order to establish what they refer to as “a conservative art” of which no one knows the real meaning. Oppression from this party on the life of theatre has become more and more stifling. We ask that the following press release be shared with all the sections of the IATC.
Best regards,
Hasan Anamur
Turkish Section, IATC

FROM THE TURKISH SECTION OF IATC
The Turkish Section of the IATC wishes to announce that Turkey is presently undergoing measures taken by the political party in power against artistic events in general, and theatrical activities in particular.

Just to give some examples, we can mention the situation of the Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul, which has venues for opera, ballet, concerts and theatre, as well as a gallery for exhibitions. It is closed since June 2008, first under the pretext that it was being restored, then demolished for a reconstruction. But nothing was done to date and the city of Istanbul, among the three cities elected to be a World Cultural Center in 2010 by UNESCO, was deprived of it for all that time. The restoration was recently questioned, and there are still no signs that it will begin.

As for the town council of Istanbul, without any notice, at the end of the 2011–12 theatre season, it imposed a new regulation to the Istanbul Municipal Theatre—which is 98 years old—and cancelled all the rights of the artistic director to transfer them to bureaucrats of the town hall who are incompetent in this field. This decision and its application have caused strong protests and large popular and artistic demonstrations in Istanbul and throughout Turkey.

Recently, the town hall of Beyoglu (Pera) in Istanbul, following the Istanbul town hall and with the same excuse of restoration, has closed down the Karaca (Karadja) Theatre, founded in 1955, just before the opening of the 2012–13 season, without even informing the dozen of companies which were sharing this hall.

Lately, the Ministry of National Education has forbidden the renting of theatre venues in schools to professional theatre companies.

This is the situation in Turkey. We can only add that political power is transient, while theatre is eternal.

HUNGARY: Arts Crisis Continues

This video may be "read" in English
through YouTube's caption function.

Colleagues in Hungary tell a story of funding cuts to independent companies in Hungary due to budgetary maneuvers and bureaucratic delays. At this point, the FESZ Secretariat says, it appears there will be no funding in 2012, which has led to the suspension of work by companies such as Pintér Béla Company, Krétakör, and Sputnyik under the direction of Viktor Bodó. FESZ is an acronym for an independent theatre association. A video released on YouTube by the FESZ Secretariat recounts the difficulties of companies and the impact on individual artists. Spoken in Hungarian, the video has captions available through YouTube's caption service.

Readers of this site may recall postings from 2010 that addressed the ongoing crisis in Hungarian theatre. The press release from FESZ is reprinted below, in shortened form. Szilvia Nagy may be contacted for more information at fesz2012@gmail.com.


BLEEDING INDEPENDENT THEATRES
DRY IN HUNGARY

The Hungarian independent performers’ scene has been facing serious hardships every year as subsidies received from the state have been erratic or delayed.

Organizations still waiting for subsidies for 2012 had to face the fact that cuts announced by the Hungarian Department of Economics on October 5 also endanger their regular yearly support.
On November 8, the official government website announced that there would be further cuts from the already adjudged (and already decreased) operational subsidies.

Up to this date, the companies concerned still have not received any official declaration on the rate of these cuts. A short announcement let independent performers know that this rate would be even higher than the one mentioned on the government’s website: instead of by one third, support will be cut by 36.51 percent.
By now, most of the independent companies are on the verge of not being to function any further: according to FESZ’s (Association of Independent Theatres) survey, almost half (45 percent) of the organizations waiting for support have no reserves. If subsidies are not awarded by the end of the year, the proportion of independent companies without reserves will grow to 90 percent. One third (32%) of the companies have already had to take out loans in order to be able to carry on with their operations.

The Hungarian government’s unlawful course of action, through the delays and cuts in funding, one-sidedly impairs the freedom of artistic expression and also violates citizens’ constitutional right to self-education, access to culture, and the possibility to choose from a palette of different cultural products and experiences.

In our grave situation, we ask for the solidarity of the international public. Publish and broadcast it through your media, let your audiences know, that post-Soviet Hungary’s most lively and progressive artists, who have therefore also been the most ardent supporters of a democratic value system, are forced to discontinue their operations from January 2013.