{"id":887,"date":"2019-06-22T08:18:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T08:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/?page_id=887"},"modified":"2020-12-28T10:07:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T10:07:17","slug":"editorial-note","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/editorial-note\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL NOTE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Savas Patsalidis<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has, from the very outset, been part of the mission of Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> to nurture young scholars, help them develop and give them a platform to express their views. We want them with us because we believe in them, we count on them. This issue, like every issue of our journal, <\/em>confirms our continuing commitment to seeking out and disseminating the work of young scholars and researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the articles published under the \u201cpuppetry\u201d special topic have reached us through the open-submission process. The two editors, Margareta S\u00f6renson and Jean Pierre Han, have selected papers that cover contemporary puppetry practice and theory from a range of different perspectives. Why have we chosen to run this special topic? A basic principle of the journal\u2019s editorial policy is to bring to people\u2019s attention genres, subgenres, issues and topics that we consider important in relation to the future development and enrichment of the field; and puppetry is a case in point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nit has been part of many countries\u2019 artistic landscape for centuries, there are\nmany societies in which it has been considered unimportant or, at best, a mere\nchildren\u2019s pastime. Things have changed recently, however.  In the age of CGI and 3D films, puppetry is\ngaining more visibility and public attention. It has experienced a renaissance in\nresponse to the emergence of modern technological forms within our culture.\nInterest in avatars, the virtual world and social media has helped increase the\nappeal of puppetry. As Cariad Astles, one of the contributors to this\nspecial topic, suggests, puppetry \u201cis, in its essence, a hybrid of the visual and\nperforming arts; hybrid in its construction and conception: alive and\nnot-alive; anthropomorphic, but not human; straddling worlds, cultures and\nidentities.\u201d  Puppetry forms arise and are born from\ncultural narratives and politics, which explains their heterogeneous, ever-changing\nand everlasting character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essays that make up this special topic stress\nthe close relation between the puppet, the puppeteer and the cultural context.\nIn the words of a leading artist of the field, Ilka Sch\u00f6nbein, \u201cwith puppetry, you can\nexpress all the characters you have within you.\u201d  The consideration of puppetry in this edition\nof the journal is by no means exhaustive. It was never meant to be. Its main\naim is to foreground a small part of what is going on now in the field, to show\nits diversity and cultural relevance by featuring a range of critical\nperspectives on the larger context of its creation and production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the special topic the current issue carries an in-depth response to the collection of\narticles on the Shakespeare Authorship Question that appeared in the last issue\nof this journal (Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em><\/a>, no. 18<\/a>). Dr Luke Prodromou claims that, read together, those\narticles not only confirm that there really is a case for reasonable doubt\nabout the Stratford man as the author of the works, but also that they suggest\nthat pursuing this question can actually be an effective critical tool for a\nbetter understanding of the \u201cShakespeare\u201d plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that very same Essay Section, there are three more interlinked essays, by Michel Va\u00efs, Nele Wynants and Maaike Bleeker et al, which open windows onto the intricate paths of performance practice and study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe National Section we have a survey of the contemporary theatre life of all\nthree Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania), plus, among other\narticles, short surveys of contemporary theatre life in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan\nand Lebanon. As we always stress, it is our aim to provide a platform for theatre\ncultures that are not necessarily well presented in international theatre\nstudies. We pursue that goal in every issue because we consider it important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sum up: we have in #19 of our journal 38 articles altogether from 25 countries (including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Japan and Hungary, among others), plus two special pages which are constantly updated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our next issue, scheduled for publication in\nDecember 2019, will focus on a major problem many countries face nowadays;\nnamely the issue of an aging population and its impact upon theatre. Yun Cheol\nKim, former president of IATC, will be the guest editor, with the assistance of\nManabu Noda from Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2020 we have already circulated the two special\ntopics which will keep us busy in the months to come: the first (due in June\n2020) will focus on the \u201cTheatricality of music, and the musicality of theatre.\u201d\nIt invites papers that examine the relationship between these two complex universes in the\ntwenty-first century, a century of unprecedented changes.  How is this\nrelationship affected by the new technology and the new media? To what extent\nis it influenced by the current social, economic and political developments of\nthe world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second special topic is on \u201cArab Theatre and\nPerformance.\u201d The purpose of this special topic is to \u201creorient\u201d Arab theatre and\nperformance in light of the radical transformations shaping the Middle East and\nNorth Africa both aesthetically and politically.  We look forward to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to thank Don Rubin and Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, who are, respectively, Managing Editor and Executive Editor of our journal, for their strong support and commitment to what we are doing. I owe many thanks to Matti Linnavuori for his professional editorial work in the Performance Review section. My special thanks also go to the language editors for their meticulous reading of all articles. I should also like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the authors of this issue whose contributions open\u00a0Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques\u00a0<\/em>to new perspectives and new theatre worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last, but not least, a big and very special thank you note to Jeffrey Eric Jenkins and his Theatre Department in Illinois University (Urbana) for their most valuable financial support. We are also grateful to Ms Jin Xing and her Dance School for their generous donation of 10,000 dollars. As a free access, non-profit publication, Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques <\/em>depends on your help. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\"\"\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Savas Patsalidis <\/strong>is Professor of theatre and performance history and theory in the School of English (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki), the Hellenic Open University and the Drama Academy of the National Theatre of Northern Greece. He is also a regular lecturer on the Graduate Programme of the Theatre Department at Aristotle University. He is the author of fourteen books on theatre and performance criticism\/theory and co-editor of another thirteen. His two-volume study, Theatre, Society, Nation<\/em> (2010), was awarded first prize for best theatre study of the year. His latest book-length study Theatre & Theory II: About Topoi, Utopias and Heterotopias<\/em> was published in 2019 by University Studio Press. In addition to his academic activities, he works as a theatre reviewer for the ejournals lavart<\/em>, parallaxi<\/em>, and thegreekplay project. <\/em>He is currently the president of the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics, member of the curators\u2019 team of Dimitria Festival and the editor-in-chief of Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>, the journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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