Editor's Note

By Jim O'Quinn

If you're a television news junkie like I am, you've probably heard Fareed Zakaria or Christiane Amanpour or some other international-affairs commentator lamenting that the global economic downtown is likely to have a particularly debilitating effect on the well-being of Eastern Europe. Nations in this historically fraught but artistically rich region, we know, are still struggling with the sweeping political changes of recent decades: What will be their place in the world order taking shape around them? Can the theatrical and cultural aspirations of their artists be reconciled with the stark economic realities (and, in some cases, regressive political policies) they face today?

As different as they are, the places explored in this issue's special section on international theatre—Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland and Serbia—seem to be striving, each in its own way, toward some coherent sociocultural identity, an identity that invariably draws upon the deep-rooted performance traditions that wend like brightly colored ribbons through the often somber fabric of their related histories. We've labeled this provocative cluster of interconnected articles "Europe's Wild Wild East."

Internationalism—also represented in our annotated annual preview of summer theatre festivals around the world "Festival Hunting"—is not the only theme running through these pages. Critic Frank Rizzo's revealing interview with Hartford Stage's Michael Wilson offers insights into how the taste and personality of a company's artistic leader can be parlayed into long-term programming initiatives that ripple through an entire region of the country and beyond. Another critic, Karen D'Souza, generously but frankly analyzes the conundrum facing a playwright and her collaborators when the initial production of a highly anticipated work—in this case, Amy Freed's Roman-flavored romp You, Nero—doesn't live up to its "stratospheric expectations." A pair of articles by arts reporters Eliza Bent and Sam Hurwitt about organizations that foster new work—New York City's Clubbed Thumb and the Bay Area's PlayGround, both networking hotbeds for young theatremakers—are filled with names you may be hearing for the first time, but will surely come to know better in months and years to come.

This issue invites you to explore both the terra incognita of theatre on Europe's eastern frontier and the terra firma of theatre happening now across the U.S. Travel well.