Nils Riess, Ohio Northern University professor of communications arts, director of media communication services and performing arts, and chair of the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, will serve as chairman of the international judging committee at the 2012 Estonian Theater Drama and Baltic Theatre Festival in Tartu, Estonia, beginning Sept. 3.

“It is an honor to be recognized and selected to judge in my homeland. It gives me an opportunity to engage with other theatre dignitaries from other countries, view works being done in Europe and, hopefully, bring some of my experiences back to ONU,” Riess said.

Riess will serve as the chairman of a jury that includes Russian theatre critic Yulia Kleyman, Latvian cultural critic and director Linda Ģībiete, Lithuanian theatre critic Jūratė Grigaitienė, and Estonian literary scholar Aare Pilv.

This year, the theatre festival DRAMA is organized together with the Baltic Theatre Festival – the joint original dramaturgy festival of the three Baltic countries that take turns to organize the festival. According to the statutes, each country submits two plays based on original dramaturgy, and an international jury evaluates the plays.

The Baltic Theatre Festival is the legal successor of the Baltic Theatre Spring, which was organized in 1956, 1957 and 1958 and united the Baltic countries. The festival was revived in 1984, but the tradition stopped again until 2005 when it was revived by the Baltic View festival in Riga. Estonia has hosted the festival twice – in 2006 and in 2009.

The program of this year’s Baltic Theatre Festival consists of Bloom (Estonian Drama Theatre) and Price of Honey (Ugala Theatre) from Estonia, Unė (Lithuanian National Drama Theatre) from Lithuania, and The End (Latvian National Theatre) and Poetry Butterfly (Picture Theatre) from Latvia.