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The International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT/IATC) announced today that Professor Emerita Maria Shevtsova, the renowned scholar on Russian theatre, past and present, will receive the 2026 Thalia Prize on 22 May 2026 at its World Congress in Craiova, Romania.
The Thalia Prize is AICT/IATC’s prestigious award for outstanding contribution to the field of theatre criticism. It is bestowed on critics, theoreticians, and practitioners who have played significant roles in shaping global understanding of theatre spanning different cultural environments, politics, and aesthetics. The 2026 Thalia Committee was comprised of Manabu Noda, chair (Japan); Halima Tahan (Argentina); Sophie Pouliot (Canada); Savas Patsalidis (Greece); Oana Cristea Grigorescu (Romania); and Daria Fojtíková Fehérová (Slovakia); and Pawit Mahasarinand (Thailand). In a meeting earlier this year, the Executive Committee of AICT/IATC voted to honor Prof. Shevtsova.
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins (USA), president of the association, said, “It is impossible to overestimate the impact of Maria Shevtsova on our understanding of Russian theatre over the past several decades. Beyond Russia, however, Dr. Shevtsova has engaged broadly and deeply with European theatre directors and companies, helping to shine a brighter light on significant performance artists. It is truly a pleasure for us to honor her outstanding work and contributions to the field.”
Previous Thalia honorees include an impressive selection of laureates: Eric Bentley (USA, 2006), Jean-Pierre Sarrazac (France, 2008), Richard Schechner (USA, 2010), Kapila Vatsyayan (India, 2012), Eugenio Barba (Denmark, 2014), Femi Osofisan (Nigeria, 2016), Hans-Thies Lehmann (Germany, 2018), Tadashi Suzuki (Japan, 2020), and Erika Fischer-Lichte (Germany, 2024). No prize was given in 2022 due to the global pandemic.
Professor Emerita Maria Shevtsova (Goldsmiths University of London) is renowned internationally for her teaching, research and scholarship on Russian theatre, past and present, contemporary European theatre directors and companies, and the interdisciplinary theories and methodologies of the sociology of the theatre, which she has established, and which underpins her entire work. Her more recent books notably include Rediscovering Stanislavsky (2020), Robert Wilson (second, updated edition 2019), The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Directing (2013, co-authored), Directors/Directing: Conversations on Theatre (2009), Sociology of Theatre and Performance (2009), Fifty Key Theatre Directors (2005, co-ed), and Dodin and the Maly Drama Theatre: Process to Performance (2004).
Prof. Shevtsova is the author of more than 150 chapters in collected volumes and articles in refereed journals. Her books and prominent book chapters and journal articles have been translated into fifteen languages. Apart from keynote addresses and other contributions to university conferences, invited series of seminars (as at Nanjing University in China), research centers and cultural institutes in Europe, and acting schools and conservatoires (in English, Russian, French and Italian), Shevtsova gives public lectures at major international theatre festivals across the world, leads post-performance public discussions as well as conversations with theatre actors and directors, serves on the juries of festivals (also as president of the jury of the Belgrade International Festival of Theatre, BITEF) and undertakes other outreach and multimedia activities that include online talks and radio and television broadcasts in the UK and abroad. Shevtsova is a member of Academia Europaea. She is the editor of New Theatre Quarterly and on the editorial teams of Stanislavsky Studies and Critical Stages.