We are delighted to announce publication of the first issue of the European Journal of Theatre and Performance, the journal created by the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP). The association was established in 2017 in order to bring together researchers and theatre practitioners and to share knowledge about the various approaches and research methods employed in theatre and performance (www.EASTAP.com). The journal is an essential part of this enterprise whereby we are seeking to develop the academic discipline through exploring new avenues of research. The association aims to encourage ongoing dialogue between theory and practice, and to be a place where the theatre can reflect on itself in relation to the world around us. It also aspires to develop critical thinking about the concepts that lie at the heart of aesthetic and theatrical activity in Europe and beyond.
The journal is produced under the joint editorship of Agata Łuksza and Didier Plassard, and it will be published once a year. Each issue will consist of 4 sections: an Essay section based on a specific theme for each issue, a Focus section dealing with the work of a particular director, an Archive section that will make available previously unpublished or poorly distributed documents, and finally a Book Review section that will focus on recently published scholarly books. While the principal language of the publication is English, the journal also welcomes articles written in other European languages. The editors are supported and advised by an Editorial Committee composed of Maria-João Brilhante, Nancy Delhalle, Milija Gluhovic, Lorenzo Mango and Aldo Milohnic. Non-members will have to pay for access to articles for the first year but thereafter the journal will be available on open access.
The first issue of the journal, which has just been published, is concerned essentially with the question of Europe. The Essay section is entitled Spectres of Europe: European Theatre between Communitarianism and Cosmopolitanism, and consists of articles selected by Aldo Milohnic and Agata Luksza. These explore the relationship between theatre practice and issues of communitarianism and cosmopolitanism, paying particular attention to the ways in which artists and theatrical institutions have intervened critically in debates concerning national, European or civic identity. The authors of the eight selected articles (Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Rosaria Ruffini, Jasper Delbecke, Dick Zijp, Simon Bell, Anna Maria Monteverdi, Tom Nicholas and Kathrin-Julie Zenker) analyse some of the many contradictions at the heart of these debates, and highlight the critical and progressive role played by artists and theatre companies in contemporary Europe.
The Focus section is devoted to Milo Rau and brings together unpublished texts and interviews as well as a selection of photographs from a number of his productions.
From the Archives contains the text of an unpublished play by director and theorist Edward Gordon Craig. The play was written in 1916, and is entitled The Skeleton. It is accompanied by two epilogues, dated that same year. In his introduction, Didier Plassard discusses how this attempt at “realistic” theatrical writing, something of a paradox in relation to the rest of Craig’s work, contains features that foreshadow the poetics of postdramatic theatre practice.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our warmest gratitude to all the contributors to this issue, to the photographers, as well as to the institutions that have shown confidence in us and authorised us to publish documents in their possession, in particular the International Institute of Political Murder, the Edward Gordon Craig Estate, and the Institut International de la Marionnette.
A detailed table of contents for the issue is set out below. Access to the journal is free of charge for members of EASTAP. Simply log in with your name and password. For non-members, access to a given article will cost 3 euros. A tab will guide you to the payment module. It is also possible to access the entire issue for 25 euros (http://eastap.com/journpress/eastap-journal/).
Josette Féral Didier Plassard and Agata Luksza
EASTAP President Journal editors-in-chief