Dear colleagues and friends,

I have the great pleasure of announcing that the EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE (EASTAP) was created on 7 October 2017 in Paris on the occasion of a general meeting where colleagues from 25 countries were present.

EASTAP GENERAL ASSEMBLY 7 OCTOBER 2017- PARIS

You will find below the names of the elected members of the Executive Committee as well as the members in charge of the task forces, who have the responsibility of launching the Association and guiding it into the future. Should you wish to join any of these task forces, you are most welcome.

This is a challenging undertaking and we intend to make the best of our disciplines (theatre, performance, dance, opera, circus, puppet theatre…), speak up for our field, promote and ensure a variety of approaches to theatre and performance (from performance studies to aesthetics as well as historical perspectives), collaborate with other national as well as international associations, organize international events and commit ourselves fully to our aims. We will have conferences and small events, as well as an online journal. We welcome scholars, artists, students, theatre directors, actors as well as institutions (theatres, conservatories, specialized librairies…).

We intend ambitiously to allow for a dialogue between theory and practice, in order to highlight the variety of methodologies and theoretical approaches to our field that can be applied to our field. We will also work to allow a range of languages to be used within the Association and its events.  English and French will be used more often, to facilitate communication. We also intend to help the publication and translation of books in different languages. Above all, our goal is to create a rich network of relations and links across Europe and beyond Europe.

I would like to seize this opportunity to thank all those who have given us their support during this year of discussions and meetings, or who have written to me enthusiastically with words of support. EASTAP definitely meets a need. We will continue to lay its foundations at a further meeting in Venice on 26 and 27 January 2018. More information will follow on this as well as on our first conference, which will take place in Paris in autumn 2018.

Some 250 members have already pre-registered. If you wish to do so, here is the link: https://goo.gl/VnKnBf.
No payment is required yet. Please spread the word. The more we are, the more impact we will have.

I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Josette Féral