Director and scholar Richard Schechner is the 2010 recipient of the Thalia Award, presented by The International Association of Theatre Critics.
According to IATC President Kim Yun-Cheol of Korea, the award is given “to a scholar, theatre critic or theatre practitioner whose writings have significantly influenced critical thinking about the art of theatre.” The prize includes a specially designed theatrical memento contributed by the Romanian national IATC centre and the Craiova “William Shakespeare” Foundation, and full expenses to attend the award ceremonies which will take place in in Yerevan, Armenia in June.
Schechner was among the leading experimental theater directors of the 1960s and founded the Performance Group (which later became The Wooster Group), and more recently founded and ran East Coast Artists. This past December, he directed writer/performer Lián Amaris’ Swimming to Spalding. He is a University Professor at New York University, teaching in the Department of Performance Studies. He has also been the editor of TDR (The Drama Review) for roughly 30 years. Among his published books are Environmental Theatre (1973), Between Theatre and Anthropology (1985), The Future of Ritual (1993), and Performance Theory (2003).
