New Theatre Words
Preface may 1998
The first edition of Theatre Wordsñwhich included the five Scandinavian languages and Englishñwas published in 1975 by the Nordic Theatre Union, NTU. Ingrid Luterkort was the main force in the creation of the book, as well as the succeeding editions.
As a direct result of the success of that first edition, a second appeared in 1977 adding German and French to the lexicon.
In 1980, a nine-language edition was published which included English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Hungarian, Czech and Russian. OISTAT took part for the first time in the compilation and editing of Theatre Words. Financial support from UNESCO helped that edition become a reality. The third edition went through three printings (with a few minor editorial changes) and was distributed by ìEntréî, the Swedish theatre magazine and publishing house.
The process of creating this edition of New Theatre Words was initiated following an OISTAT Publication and Communication Commission (PCC) meeting in Tblisi, Georgia, in 1988. The demand for a new, more up-to-date vocabulary was universally expressed. It seemed natural to try to create this book using todayís computer technology which would allow for the compilation of as many languages as there was interest for. The Swedish OISTAT Centre and Sttf took on the challenge of co-ordinating this immense revision project. Over the next six years, representatives of the OISTAT PCC, working in co-operation with the Swedes, went through the exhausting and time-consuming process of revising, editing and translating a new version of the international theatre design and technology lexicon.
The completely revised New Theatre Words has been proven to work and since autumn 1995 plans and work has been done for two additional language editions.
All editions include 1258 revised words in English, French and German and each word is numbered with a unique index number to make all editions easy to use together. Also included are 250 new illustrations with index numbers. Additional languages to the basic edition were Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese.Additional languages to New Theatre Words: Central Europe are Dutch, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Russian and Serbian.
Additional languages to New Theatre Words: Northern Europe are Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian.
There are also plans for a future Internet publication of New Theatre Words in a computerized hypertext format as well as a complete dictionary with explanation of every word in New Theatre Words.
We hope you will find these additional editions of New Theatre Words to be of same genuine value as the basic New Theatre Words as our international theatre community grows closer and closer together. Our sincere thanks to Olle Söderberg, Tony Helinsky, the Swedish Centre OISTATñthe Sttf, the Bildcentrum, the members of the OISTAT PCC and everyone else who contributed to the success of this publication.
Richard Durst, OISTAT President
Eric Fielding, OISTAT PCC Chair
Please send email to order@theatrewords.com if you
would like to inquire or order any of the printed New Theatre Words
dictionaries (including the Basic edition).
We hope that we will be able
to provide you with a computerized version at some time,
if you would like to be notified please send email to database@theatrewords.com
Sincerely Theatre Words staff
Provided by Helitera AB