Jean-Pierre Han

Jean-Pierre Han is a journalist and drama critic. He is an editor of Lettres françaises and director and editor of Frictions, théâtres-écritures. He publishes in various french and international magazines and journals. He is a lecturer at Instituts d’Etudes théâtrales de la Sorbonne-nouvelle (Paris III), Nanterre (Paris X) and Evry. His last literal work Derniers feux, essais de critique received award as the best theatre work published, 2009. He is a vice-president of IACT.

"A Few Questions Concerning the Place of Modern Theatre Criticism" by Jean-Pierre Han addresses a broader definition of modern theatre criticism examined in the light of the external-internal dichotomy. Is a critic part of the creative theatre nexus or simply an external observer? Contemporary staging has undergone major formal changes and is approached as a proposal or a work in progress rather than as a material phenomenon. How does a critic deal with such a changing and elusive subject of study? The audience itself has become highly differentiated; while once it was a community, today it is composed of individuals watching one or more actors, and even the actors are sometimes absent and replaced by virtual substitutes. What are the implications of such circumstances for criticism?