Since our online General Assembly in May 2021, I have had the honor of serving as the 14th President of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT/IATC). During the past several years, working with our General Secretaries and successive Executive Committees, we emerged from the global pandemic to face increasing challenges to free artistic, journalistic, and academic expression.

Beginning in the summer of 2021, we created a working group of international theatre critics that eventually spanned 13 countries and 5 continents to reconsider the structure of our organization. From that work, AICT/IATC developed a thorough overhaul of our statutes aimed at building on the strengths of our past while leading us into a future populated by the next generation of thought leaders in the performing arts. As a result of that forward-facing work, the Executive Committee elected at the 2024 World Congress in Brno, Czechia, featured six new leaders along with four veteran members.

During the current mandate, the association has built international connections with theatre artists and critics, advocated for free expression, and spoken in the spirit of unity for greater understanding of the human experience. IATC has engaged, as a founding member, with more than a dozen organizations that are deeply concerned with the crisis facing the performing arts on a global scale. The group, known as Global Arts Pact, has the mission of building “consolidated global opposition to attempts to determine or censor our content, curtail research collaborations, exhibitions, cancel grants or international initiatives on ideological grounds, and install policies that discourage or restrict qualified students from admissions, financial support, or fields of study.”

In our 70-year history, we have accomplished much and surmounted many challenges. The work ahead will require more Young Critics’ Workshops and more international conferences while working to build bridges among our cultures. We must work together to expand our association, to continue enhancing Critical Stages, and to create new opportunities for our global membership. The turbulence of international discord, authoritarian threats, and challenges to free expression may slow our progress—but we must continue undeterred.

If you feel AICT/IATC has made progress and is moving in a positive direction, I humbly ask for your support to be re-elected President of the association. Thank you for your consideration.

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
Professor and Chair of Theatre Studies | Director of Graduate Studies
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Executive Editor | Critical Stages/Scènes critiques