{"id":398,"date":"2020-05-10T07:51:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T07:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/?p=398"},"modified":"2020-05-10T07:52:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T07:52:58","slug":"introductory-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/introductory-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Introductory Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Yana Meerzon<\/strong><a href=\"#end\" name=\"back\">*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dear reader,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we prepare the June 2020 issue (#21) to be released, we find ourselves in a new world of social distancing, self-isolation and developing anxieties for our health and economic wellbeing. This is the world that we could not imagine or anticipate even a few months ago, when the work on this issue began. But in theatre, technological innovations and digitalization of communication have been slowly but steadily changing its performative language and techniques for the past several decades. Because theatre has been using different means of technology, including life video streams, projections, interactive surtitles, augmented reality and immersive digital content, it was able to, relatively fast and often masterfully, adapt to its new performance spaces, including different internet platforms and interfaces, and it continued speaking to its audiences across geographical barriers and across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Part One<\/strong> of the Essay Section predicts and reflects on some of these challenges. Although it is based on the conversations that began in the spring of 2019, when, together with my colleague Dr. Peter Kuling, I organized the international interdisciplinary conference <em>Mediating Performance Experiences,<\/em> at the University of Ottawa, Canada, the five articles that make Part One of the Essay Section offer this conclusion: theatre is always at the frontlines of technological and artistic innovation. Even today, despite being put into an impossible situation of confinement, away from its habitual spaces and spectatorship, theatre continues to experiment with new technologies seeking better and faster ways to reach its audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conference <em>Mediating Performance Experiences<\/em> was dedicated to similar questions as well. It brought together international scholars, performance artists, and media developers to discuss the challenges and advantages of interpersonal, political, cultural and performative dialogues produced because of radical changes in communication technology. Our goal was to try to generate an interdisciplinary dialogue on the political, social and emotional impact digital and internet technologies have in making theatre arts. The conference posited theatre and performance arts at the vanguard of cultural performance, interrogating the influence, power and liabilities of cultural and technological mediations. But it also wondered what we lose through technological mediation when trying to communicate with each other through multiple digital platforms and across cultural and linguistic boundaries? Five articles of Part One address these issues too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Part Two<\/strong> of the Essay Section focuses on the questions of theatrical encounters in traditional theatre spaces, not digital platforms. The articles by Peter Farbridge, Manuel Garcia Martinez, Rick Cousins and Dena Davida examine questions of intercultural encounter both on- and off-stage, in theatre practices instigated by the experiences of global migration. Bahee Hadaegh and Zeinab Karimi focus on theatre as a place of cultural mediation and pedagogy, using theatre for young audiences in Iran as their primary case study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Essay Section of the journal <em>Critical Stages<\/em>\/<em>Sc\u00e8nes critiques <\/em>remains dedicated to urgent issues related to theatre and performance making, ways of thinking and writing about theatre and performing arts, ways of viewing and reflecting on practices, pedagogies of performance and text analysis, practices of dramaturgy, transcultural approaches and digitalization of communication practices in theatre and cultural performance. Its aim is to offer a broader practical, aesthetic, historical and theoretical outlet to those interested in recent developments in theatre and performance across national and disciplinary boundaries. To this end, I hope the articles featured in this issue will appeal to a very diverse readership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This work would not have come to its fruition without generous support of Dr. Janne Cleveland, Carleton University, who provided extensive commentary and editorial help in my work on Part One of this section. I\u2019m also very grateful to Aisling Murphy, who helped to shape and edit Part Two of this collection.<a name=\"end\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As always, I continue looking forward to new and exciting articles to be featured in the future editions of this section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a name=\"end\" href=\"#back\">*<\/a><strong>Yana Meerzon<\/strong>&nbsp;is Professor at the University of Ottawa. She has published on theatre of exile and migration, cultural and interdisciplinary studies. Her books include&nbsp;<em>A Path of the Character: Michael Chekhov\u2019s Inspired Acting and Theatre Semiotics<\/em>&nbsp;(2005) and&nbsp;<em>Performing Exile \u2013 Performing Self: Drama, Theatre, Film<\/em>&nbsp;(Palgrave, 2012). She has also co-edited several book collections and special issues of journals on these topics. Yana is the editor of the \u201cEssay Section\u201d of <em>Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/notes-on-light-the-musicality-of-light-and-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":0},"title":"Notes on Light: The Musicality of Light and Theatre","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"June 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Amy Chan* Abstract Light is a major visual element in theatre but remains subordinated to texts in dramatic theatre. With the development of the concept of postdramatic theatre, the potentialities of light in theatre, particularly the musicality of light, open up. In this paper, I examine the interrelationship among light,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Special Topic&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/featured-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/featured-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/featured-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/featured-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/argentina-never-abandon-the-theatre-even-in-the-toughest-situations\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":1},"title":"ARGENTINA: \u201cNever Abandon the Theatre, Even in the Toughest Situations\u201d","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"May 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Halima Tahan Ferreyra* Most theatres in Argentina, both big and small, are offering a variety of online programmes, including not only their past shows, but also their new activities. Moreover, the greatest theatres, such as Col\u00f3n Theatre and Nacional Cervantes Theatre, are keeping their workshops working fully. The employees at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Covid&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Covid","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/covid\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/argentina.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/bugged-critics-criticism-and-critical-categories\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":2},"title":"Bugged (Critics, Criticism and Critical Categories)","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"May 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Don Rubin* Two decades ago, the German scholar Hans-Thies Lehmann theorized what he called \u201cPost-dramatic Theatre,\u201d and today the term describing what is essentially non-text-based theatre is ubiquitous. But what about something that he mentioned only in passing: \u201cPre-dramatic Theatre\u201d? Has anyone really theorized that notion? In Toronto, during the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Critics on Criticism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Critics on Criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/critics-on-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/image1-3.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":875,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/a-pandemic-theatre-album-of-first-reactions-%ce%b1n-introduction\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":3},"title":"A Pandemic Theatre \u201cAlbum\u201d of First Reactions: \u0391n Introduction","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"June 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Savas Patsalidis* Pandemic: from the greek words \u201c\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd=all\u201d and \u201c\u03b4\u03ae\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2=people.\u201d A disease that has spread across a large region, multiple\u00a0continents\u00a0or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. People talk of \u201cWar.\u201d Definitely not a Third World War but, as it turns out to be, a huge War nevertheless. This is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Covid&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Covid","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/covid\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/covid-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/covid-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/covid-featured.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/covid-featured.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":742,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/a-town-remembered-and-recreated\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":4},"title":"A Town Remembered and Recreated","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"April 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Maria Z\u0103rnescu* Our Town (A mi kis v\u00e1rosunk). Written by Thornton Wilder. Translated by Marcell Benedek. Adapted by Vladimir Anton and R\u00e9ka D\u00e1lnoky. Directed by Vladimir Anton. Set design: Eranio Petru\u015fca. Costumes: Bogl\u00e1rka B\u00edr\u00f3. Music: Attila P\u00e1l. Lighting design: Istv\u00e1n To\u00e1s\u00f3. Sound Design:\u00a0 Hunor-Lehel Boca. Produced by the Tomcsa S\u00e1ndor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Performance Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Performance Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/performance-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/PER-Ourtown8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/PER-Ourtown8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/PER-Ourtown8.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/06\/PER-Ourtown8.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":490,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/theatre-is-always-alive\/","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":5},"title":"ROMANIA: Theatre is Always Alive","author":"Yana Meerzon","date":"May 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Octavian Saiu* Report from the Romanian Section of IATC \u2013 Theatre Studies \u201cTheatre is always dying\u201d is the bewildering statement once made by David Mamet. Yet, we all know, or at least hope, that theatre can never die! This paradox seems to be most suitable for describing the recent processes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Covid&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Covid","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/covid\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/image1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/Meerzon.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}