I shall be thinking of you during the XIIth World Congress of the International Federation for Theatre Research. I am honoured by your invitation to attend, but regret that reasons of health prevent me from doing so. After almost twenty years of political darkness in the former Czechoslovakia, which prevented me from attending meetings organized by the Federation, finally, when I would have been able to go other complications (which I hope will be temporary) have made it impossible. I ask, therefore, that you accept my sincere apologies for my absence at what for me is such a significant moment. I greatly appreciate the honour which you have conferred upon me, although I am not sure whether I deserve it. Even though my period of office with the Federation was short, I have always been convinced of the importance of co-operation among theatre researchers from around the world, in order to develop their subject and its methodologies and for the mutual exchange of research findings.