From 5th to 11th October 2017, an International seminar for young theatre critics, organized by the IATC was held in the city of Iaşi (Romania),  within the framework of the International Theater Festival for Young Audiences. A group of six young critics from four countries (Turkey, Georgia, Hungary and Romania), monitored by experienced critic Aglika Stefanova-Oltean (from Bulgaria) met to discuss the challenges faced by the theatre criticism today, in the conditions of emerging new media and new publics which ask for a new theatre criticism as well.
In the first two sessions were marked some fundamental (practical and theoretical) questions about the position of the theatre critic in professional field. One session was dedicated to presentations of contemporary theatre and theatre education in the participants’ countries. Those discussions were very interesting and animated.
The rest of the sessions were centered around analyzing the festival performances and writing critical texts for the bulletin of the festival. Participants saw a rich program of theatre performances for children (in the morning) and performances for young spectators in the afternoon and evening. There were performances from Brazil, Vietnam, Australia, New Zeeland, Italy, UK, Spain, Poland, Greece, USA. One of the best known Romanian actors and theatre directors presented their newest productions: Radu Afrim, Gigi Caciuleanu, Geanina Carbunariu, Bobi Pricop, the actor Florin Piersic Jr. All performances were intellectually provocative and of a very high quality. There were also some students’ performances that give hope for the future of Romanian theatre. The whole team of Luceafarul Theatre from Iaşi demonstrated extraordinary professionalism during the festival. We would like to say special thanks to festival director Oltita Cintec for the hospitality.

Aglika Stefanova-Oltean