Mise en Abyme
International Journal of Comparative Literature and Arts
Vol. VII, Issue 1
January-June 2020
Special Monographic Issue – Make a Move
(Published in April 2020)
General Editors
Armando Rotondi – Institute of the Arts Barcelona
Elisa Sartor – University of Verona
Issue Editor
Armando Rotondi – Institute of the Arts Barcelona
Editorial Office
Elena Dal Maso – University of Venice Ca’ Foscari (Italy); Giulia Ferro Milone – University of Verona (Italy); Renzo Miotti – University
of Verona (Italy); Anita Paolicchi – University of Pisa (Italy); Valentina Temussi – Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John
Moores University (Spain/UK); Freya Treutmann – Institute of the Arts Barcelona (Spain); Alessandro Valenzisi – University of
Strathclyde (UK); Ida Libera Valicenti – University of Bucharest (Romania)
Advisory Board
Beatrice Alfonzetti – University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy); Raffaella Bertazzoli – University of Verona (Italy); Alessandra De Martino
Cappuccio – University of Warwick (UK); Joseph Farrell – University of Strathclyde (UK); Srecko Jurisic – University of Split (Croatia);
Gaetana Marrone – Princeton University (USA); José María Micó – Pompeu Fabra University (Spain); Mariantonietta Picone – University
of Naples “Federico II” (Italy); Elena Pîrvu – University of Craiova (Romania); Pasquale Sabbatino – University of Naples “Federico II”
(Italy); Antonio Saccone – University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy); Álvaro Salvador – University of Granada (Spain); Roxana Utale –
University of Bucharest (Romania)
Mise en Abyme Logo
Nicoletta Preziosi
Proof Reader/Editor for this Issue
Julia Battersby
Publisher
Mise en Abyme/IDEA
Academic partnership with
Institute of the Arts Barcelona
Contact information
Armando Rotondi: a.rotondi@iabarcelona.es
Elisa Sartor: elisa.sartor@univr.it
Submission of contributions and material for review purposes
journal.abyme@gmail.com
Web address
www.journalabyme.com
“Mise en Abyme” is officially recognised as an academic journal by ANVUR and is indexed on the following indexing sources: WorldCat
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All work in “Mise en Abyme” is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Non-Commercial International License.
ISSN: 2284-3310
ISBN: 9791280081001
All works are blind peer-reviewed.
This publication was developed as part of the Make a Move – An
Art Incubator for European non-institutionalised and independent
theatre project and co-founded by the Creative Europe Programme
of the European Union. The Make a Move – An Art Incubator
project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which
may be made of the information contained therein.
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
Debating Independent and
Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
Edited by Armando Rotondi
Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
About MAKE A MOVE – AN ART INCUBATOR FOR CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN
NON-INSTITUTIONALISED AND INDEPENDENT THEATRE
The Make a Move project executed and tested an innovative Art Incubator program. This program was designed particularly for
non-institutionalised theatre practitioners and small independent cultural operators, primarily from the field of contemporary
movement-based theatre. The first group of 10 full-time resident artists and collectives included, in total, 15 individual resident
artists, as well as 30 local and regional artists from twelve (12) European countries (Austria, Croatia, Ireland, France, Northern
Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain). These artists had the opportunity to develop their
artistic and professional skills, and grow their production proposals through co-creation processes in collaboration with
international group of artists. The Art Incubator was implemented in 2019 across three cities: Galway (April / May), Rijeka
(September) and Târgu-Mureș (December). The project produced – to various stages of development – 22 new contemporary
theatre productions, 14 of which were presented as work-in-progress presentations to audiences in three of the project partners’
countries: 12 scratch pieces in Ireland including several 360 videos as Last Person Standing by Anne Corté, The Worm by Liza Cox,
Shipwreck by Ivana Peranić, Meditations by Gráinne O’Carroll, From a Distance by Rodrigo Pardo and Eva Maria Hofer – a piece that
combined the distant view of someone in a faraway field, with very intimate audio on loneliness through headphones, Riot by
Nicole Pschetz – a choreographed interactive performance, Next to Me by James Riordan with Nicole Pschetz – an intimate audio
installation, Whispers of Synge by Cathal McGuire and Anja Kersten – a bi-lingual audio-visual performance lecture, The Game by
Sébastien Loesener, Yucef Zraibi, Dmitri Rekatchevski, Eileen McClory, Sandra González Bandera, Conor Geoghegan and
Orlaith Ní Chearra – a projection an digital mapping performance in a handball alley, Choose a Side by Jony Rogers – Kinect
motion sensor and audio interactive performance, Lost in Translation by Maria Gill – a performance using voice-translation
technology, and Mud and Iron by Deise Nunes – a short video performance, some of which were presented at a public showing in
Galway City on May 3rd 2019; 4 site-specific works in Croatia: durational performance I’m Listening in a shop window, Rijeka’s
Roof performance that took audiences to the roof of the shopping mall, Last Summer a minimalistic performance in a shop
window, and And Then There Was a Space, fragments of a transformation inspired with the space of the Opera (Teatro Fenice) that
was opening its doors to the general public for the first time after almost three decades on 17 th September 2019; 6 contemporary
theatre pieces in Romania: post-talk show on series of overheard conversations in public transport I can‘t talk/ Nu pot vorbi/ Nem
tudok beszélni, sound exploration performance The Blue Mountains Are Always Walking, live cooking performance Minor Chefs, mime
parody The added value of mime for intercultural conflicts, a living breathing installation of personal and collective mythology Clouds
Passing By and a sound piece Perspectives.
The project identified more than 10 new cooperation opportunities and initiated applications to sources of funding producing a
target of several theatre productions for display at European Capital of Culture occasions in Rijeka (Croatia) and Galway (Ireland).
The initiator and leader of the project is an arts organisation – Creative Laboratory of Contemporary Theatre KRILA from
Rijeka, directed by Ivana Peranić. The main partners of the project are the Galway Theatre Festival (Ireland), the Institute of Arts
Barcelona (Spain), the University of Arts Târgu-Mureș (Romania). The associate partners are ACTS (Oslo, Norway), MOVEO
(Barcelona, Spain), Platform 88 (Montpellier, France), Poulpe Èlectrique (Arcueil, France), ToTum TeaTre (Barcelona, Spain) and
Workinglifebalance Ltd. (Graz, Austria).
The project has been co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, RIJEKA 2020 LLC, Ministry of
Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Kultura nova Foundation, City of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski kotar County, Austrian Cultural
Forum Zagreb, the European Capital of Culture Galway 2020, the Galway City Council, the Arts Council of Ireland, the
Ajuntament de Sitges and the French Institute Barcelona. The Make a Move project has been developed under the European
Capital of Culture programme – Rijeka 2020: Port of Diversity, project “Unreal Cities”.
Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface: How this work is structured
Armando Rotondi
p. 7
Introduction: An overview of the definition
of the theoretical-historical framework
of “non-institutionalised” or “independent” theatre
Valentina Temussi
p. 9
PART I – ESSAYS
Mapping definitions of independent and non-institutionalised theatres
Daria Lavrennikov
Institute of the Arts Barcelona
p. 13
A business model for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 39
PART II – CASE STUDIES
Spectacular ad hoc structures as a further step
in the collective creation: The Make a Move project
Eugen Păsăreanu
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
p. 69
Tappeto Volante and the site-specific as an event
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 73
Teatro de Los Sentidos and the “theatre of experience”
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 79
Wild Theatre and the establishment of a non-institutionalised
theatre company in an emergency extra-EU context
Lyudmyla Honcharova
University of Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo
p. 83
Rimini Protokoll and the use of digital
Freya Treutmann
Institute of the Arts Barcelona
p. 89
Frantic Assembly versus Le Vieux Colombier theatre model
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 95
Table of contents
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
PART III – FOCUS
How do European theatre creators take
the audience into consideration?
Raluca Blaga
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
p. 101
An understanding of terminology
and the need of a specific glossary
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
Shaping devised theatre creation with keywords
Traian Penciuc
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
p. 113
p. 119
PART IV – MAPPING
A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 139
A selection of market events for performing arts
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 157
A selection of Europe-based companies/artists
Valentina Temussi/Daria Lavrennikov
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 161
A selection of Europe-based research and training centres
in the field of non-institutionalised, independent,
physical, and movement-based theatre
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 181
A selection of Europe-based international networks,
websites and cross-regional bodies (private and public)
for performing arts funding
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 185
A selection of national European institutions involved
in the promotion of culture, including performing arts,
through support, advocacy, funding and grants information
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona/Liverpool John Moores University
p. 197
Table of contents
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
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7
Preface:
How this work is structured
Armando Rotondi
As an academic and practitioner I have always considered research and best practice as a mix of
theoretical and practical elements that complement each other. To use a metaphor, I have always
considered books and articles as the bricks with which, as professionals, we build our practice. At
the same time, our practice forms the foundations for new frameworks.
For this reason, I firmly believe it is essential not only to work with practical advice and
information, but also to have a strong grasp of the theory that may be applied to the practice.
This work has been developed with both aspects in mind, mapping practice onto theory. It is
divided in four main parts.
Part I refers to the theoretical framework pertaining to non-institutionalised and
independent theatre, addressing the following main aspects: 1. Artistic Excellence; 2. Business
Model (including Audience development).
These aspects are investigated in accordance to the ones defined by the Make a Move project
steering committee members: non-institutionalized theatre practitioners from 5 European
countries (Croatia, France, Norway, Austria, Spain) that sketched out the target group needs
during the three Make a Move project development workshops (Rijeka, December 2016, June
and October 2017) and proposed the topics of Artistic Excellence, Business, and Audience
Development.
The Artistic Excellence section first considers the definitions of non-institutionalised and
independent theatre, seeking a definition that works across Europe’s many different geographical
and cultural contexts. At the same time, the goal of this section is to propose potential
parameters of artistic excellence in terms of social and philosophical – as well as aesthetic –
terms. This section also includes an analysis of the needs of the target group.
The Business Model section, which dovetails with elements of Audience Profiling and
Development, proposes a possible approach that moves away from the perspective of the
experiential economy and marketing. Here I think it is important to propose a specific model –
Armando Rotondi
Preface: How this work is structured
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
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8
that can be of course criticised or not completely considered by the target group –, applied within
the chapter to theatre realities. In this section there is also a profile of the audience that,
according to the business framework, is categorised using different terminology: audience, visitor,
client, user, consumer and customer.
Part II and III include specific case studies and further analysis of the themes addressed to
date.
Part IV maps the international environment onto a specific selection list in order to facilitate
the work of fundraising and partnership. The list focuses on festivals, companies/artists, research
and training centres, private and public bodies involved in performing arts funding, performing
arts market events and national institutes that support performing arts abroad.
Armando Rotondi
Preface: How this work is structured
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
9
Introduction:
An overview of the definition of the theoretical-historical
framework of “non-institutionalised” or “independent” theatre
Valentina Temussi
In terms of theatrical history, for the 20th century is considered the golden age of the mise en scène
(which literally means ‘to place on stage’) which emerged during the last twenty years of the
previous century.
By creating the Théâtre Libre in March 1887, André Antoine positioned himself as the
first director of modern times and placed the issue of the mise en scène at the centre of every
theatrical challenge. From this point on, the director became aware of his specific role in the
process of theatre making – a role that helped to lend more weight to the theatrical process and
permit less dependency on the text.
At around the same time, during his work staging a Wagnerian opera, Adolphe Appia had
just outlined a first theory of the mise en scène. Appia defined this as the art of projecting into space
what the playwright could only conceive in time.
Jacques Copeau, with his theatrical, took the definition to a higher level, emphasising the
meaning and importance of the mise en scène, even further, declaring it to be “an ensemble of
technical elements” that make possible the transition from the world of the ideas and the written
text to the concrete life of the scene.
As the 19th century progressed, a range of different theories and practices of staging
continued to emerge. These included:
1. Copeau and the Cartel (Dullin, Jouvet, Baty, Pitoeff) promoting harmony between the
text and the staging, for a theatre at the service of the public.
2. Appia and G. Craig becoming the prophets of the modern mise en scène, where the idea
of a total theatre takes root (the order of priority for Appia is actor-space-light-colour).
3. Artaud, unhappy with the work done in collaboration with the Cartel, coming to the
conclusion that the mise en scène, alone, is the most theatrical part of the performance.
Valentina Temussi
Introduction: An overview of the definition of the theoretical-historical framework
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
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10
4. The advent of Expressionism, especially in Germany, which took the form of using
the scene to express and symbolise its theoretical idea of the unconscious.
The golden age of staging came to an end in the early 1950s – but the mise en scène
revolution, while it lasted, had a significant impact on many other aspects of the theatre. Not least
of these was the concept that the space is not only expressed by the scenography – but also by
the movement of the actor on stage and his relationship with the space around him.
It is important to point out that many theatre practitioners of the beginning of last
century, – for example, Stanislavski, Mejerchold, Craig, Appia, Copeau and, later, Artaud – plus
other pedagogues/creators, like Laban, Dalcroze and later Decroux, were grappling with similar
issues. These included: a. The work of the actor on stage; b. The role of the actor in the creative
process; c) The relationship between actor, text, space and rhythm.
Since 1945, the mise en scène has no longer been just a matter of giving life to the text on
stage. The director does not like to be limited to the role of adapting a classic text to the scene.
Instead, he sees his role as one of critical re-interpreter of the text and increasingly as a
dramaturgist, rewriting or writing from scratch, reinforced by all the technical and practical
aspects of the scene.
This work is done either by assembling texts from various sources, or by producing an
original text – as seen in the work of Grotowski, Robert Wilson and Peter Brook. There are also
collaborations on the part of companies, such the Living Theatre or Ariane Mnouchkine and her
Théâtre du Soleil.
A new dramaturgy model influences the work of the actor who must learn to become
more and more creative in the work of devising and/or staging a performance. The notion of an
ensemble, so dear to Copeau and Lecoq, is fundamental in a theatre that no longer relies on
written text, but is driven by the practical and tangible elements of the scene, including the actor’s
body. One sign of this is the diversification of the theatre spaces, or the complete disappearance
of the theatrical space in its classical meaning. Increasingly, towards the end of twentieth century,
we begin to see
the performing arts industry play a fundamental role in the change and
diversification of the theatre space – and this, in turn, influencing the role of the audience.
Valentina Temussi
Introduction: An overview of the definition of the theoretical-historical framework
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
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Essays
Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
13
Mapping definitions of independent
and non-institutionalised theatres1
Daria Lavrennikov
Institute of the Arts Barcelona
Abstract: The following contribution integrates the research and mapping process of some
foundational aspects characterising, conditioning, and transforming the transitory and evolving
field of movement based independent theatre in Europe today. The material is simultaneously
analytical, critical and didactic, directed towards independent performing arts makers and
collectives, as well as operators, working both locally and internationally throughout Europe. We
move between theory and practice, placing the themes of process based art making, producing,
teaching, curating, managing, international entrepreneurship and performing arts studies, in
dialogue. This allows us to reveal and understand the interdependence of these practices and
roles for the emerging fields of the performing and live arts that harbor movement based theatre.
The objective is to offer an accessible and evolving tool box for reflection and action in this
transdisciplinary field.
Keywords: Independent theatre, non-institutionalised theatre; physical theatre, movement-based
theatre, parameters of artistic excellence, participation, new practices, post-dramatic.
*****
1. A preliminary statement
As a result of the desk research released at the conference organised by the Institute of the Arts
Barcelona in February 2019, and as part of the Make a Move Creative Europe 2 research process
(team), we came to some open ended conclusions and questions, including:
The contrinbution will also appear, with some minor changes, in PERANIĆ, Ivana, PUPIĆ-BAKRAČ, Marta eds.
(2020) Make a move – An Art Incubator for contemporary European non-institutionalised and independent theatre Handbook,
Rijeka: Make a Move.
2 Also referred to in the Make a Move project as non-institutionalized theatre
1
Daria Lavrennikov
Mapping definitions of independent and non-institutionalised theatres
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
1.
14
What we are, in fact, talking about here is potentially more suitable, in this day and
age, to refer to as “inter-dependent theatres” instead of “non-institutionalised” or
“independent theatres”. This means, we recognise that it is a field that incorporates
the independent, the collective, and the private, public and cooperative categories of
structures, institutions and sectors.
2.
One of the greatest challenges of this research is to insist on finding ways of making
the discussion relevant, without it being generic, for the wide diversity of humanscapes and landscapes, physical and psycho-geographies and cultures, and sociopolitical and economic realities that make up what we call contemporary Europe.
3.
The notion of and percentage of dependence, interdependence, and independence
from private and public institutions, – and what is referred to as institutionalised and
non-institutionalised – greatly varies depending on the region of Europe. This
includes the use of a wide range of funding formats: crowdfunding, sponsorship
from the city, region, government, private funders, as well as a diversity of new
entrepreneurial models that include start ups and the creation of pedagogical, artistic
and production structures, networks, centres and festivals.
4.
This diversity is also reflected in the requirement to abide by different criteria set by
the Ministry of Culture and/or multinational companies. It is likewise affected by the
history and structure of its public arts policy, traditional work models, and
performing arts administration and management.
5.
These models are being transformed and becoming hybrid by virtue of growing
numbers of artists and operators studying, working, networking and traveling abroad,
sharing, expanding, exporting, importing and adapting knowledge, models and
knowledge about international artistic entrepreneurship, cultural and artistic
management, collaborative creative process, and curatorial approaches throughout
Europe.
Throughout this work we contribute to the mapping process of the phenomenon, tracing
the paradigms, fields, agents, formats, key features and terminology that accompany and aim at
describing and encompassing the new, highly diversified and quickly evolving practices, processes
and products that we refer to in this paper as “independent contemporary movement-based
theatres” across Europe. To do this requires a cross-pollination and polyphony of perspectives
Daria Lavrennikov
Mapping definitions of independent and non-institutionalised theatres
January-June 2020
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ISSN: 2284-3310
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and experiences, drawn from all disciplines – from artists and critics to theoreticians, managers
and curators.
This mapping process develops its depth of field over time and space, while accessing and
identifying the tendencies, potentials, and necessities of independent artists and collectives of a
transient contemporary theatre movement spanning an entire continent.
Many of these artists and collectives describe themselves as committed to developing
innovative, critical and quality work in the field of contemporary theatre, via experimenting,
researching, networking, collaborating and sharing artistic tools and knowledge. Independent
artists often struggle with a range of issues and desires, at the same time needing to mature and
grow in terms of capacity building, furthering professional and artistic skills and grappling with
the multiple stages of production – from the initial idea, to pre-production, creation, production,
communication and distribution.. Additionally there is the imperative to reach a larger audience,
whether that be by way of international or socio-economic or cultural diversity.
From the beginning of this research process, a central challenge has been to define this
transient notion of contemporary movement based independent theatre within the context of
Europe. There is a broad assortment of past and present manifestations in the diverse countries,
cultures and quickly shifting political-economic realities and performing arts institutions that
make up Europe today. Independent artists, companies and collectives of the movement based
theatre field, work collaboratively with a range of arts, cultural, political and economic institutions
and individuals. These artists, collectives and companies demonstrate a tendency towards
hybridisation, intersections, crossovers, and diversions of artistic disciplines. They also exhibit
varying degrees of dedication to critical thinking and micro political acts of dissent in response to
contemporaneous states of crisis on a number of fronts. They are often directly or indirectly in
dialogue with those working in the movement based fields of dance and performance.
Many of these approaches, practices, and processes likewise identify with and/or fit into
the categories of live, visual, performance and media arts. The following elements characterise the
performing arts that seep into, and remain, in the blurred sector of movement based independent
theatre, and its many subcategories - manifested in different aesthetic forms:
1.
The body as a driving force and central instrument for creation in its diverse states of
presence and absence.
Daria Lavrennikov
Mapping definitions of independent and non-institutionalised theatres
January-June 2020
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2.
16
A commitment to and/or development of training and preparation practices and
methods, many of which are rooted in movement (body) based techniques and
approaches developed in the 20th century throughout Europe. This includes
exchange and fusion with approaches and techniques from different parts of the
world beyond the West, that engage and shape a versatile and creative performeractor.
3.
A search for a broader range of venues for, and formats of, presentation, ranging
from theatres to alternative spaces including museums and the streets – this search
extends to site-specific, immersive, work in progress, durational formats of
presentation etc.
4.
An exploration of diverse emerging dramaturgical approaches of a heterogeneous
nature, that question, break down and drive innovation in dramatic conventions.
5.
The creation and promotion of a multi-sensory, synesthetic and participatory
aesthetics and experiences for the audience.
6.
An interest in collaborative, collective and devised theatre making processes, with
varying scales of hierarchical and horizontally oriented roles.
7.
An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach that seeks to establish innovative
partnerships with the visual, media and sound arts, as well as other human and hard
sciences.
8.
Auto-didactic, self and group induced capacity building in the full creative and
production cycles of each project, part of which is self-taught and collectively
managed through start up phases of attempting, failing and succeeding.
9.
A varied level of interdependency with public and private local, national, European
and international funding bodies and institutions, including grants, resources,
empowered fundraising, and support at all levels of the creative and production
process. This is the case regardless of an artist’s or company’s self-proclamation or
position as an independent artist, independent of established performing arts and
government institutions and establishments.
10. A commitment to building a diverse and authentic local, national and international
professional and creative network (both within and beyond the performing arts) that
acknowledges strength through interdependency and inter/trans culturalism.
Daria Lavrennikov
Mapping definitions of independent and non-institutionalised theatres
January-June 2020
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11. Intercultural and transcultural collaborations of artists responding both to a growing
global mobility and precariat in terms of labour, geographical inequalities and
instability, as well as an interest in and commitment to diversity (in terms of culture,
gender, race, age etc.). This becomes a generator of creative potential and micropolitical reflections on the state of the contemporary world.
12. A varying interest in – and innovative responses to – the emergence of new
technologies and a hyper mediatised global environment via digital practices.
13. The growing precariat in the field of the performing arts, in conjunction with a
greater capacity to access a wider, more diverse range of funding and fundraising (via
public, private, national and international) strategies. Additionally, there is more
access to an alternative arts economy (crowdfunding, co-ops, etc.). This includes a
consumer based economy within the cultural industry. All these factors directly affect
and expand who sets and determines the criteria and parameters for defining and
evaluating artistic quality. Diversifying the range of sponsorship and support directly
affects the nature of interdependent and independent relationships with community
and sector.
Each of these elements is part of a greater collective imagining, researching, testing and
projecting of future alternative models (economically, socially, culturally and ecologically) for the
arts that are more sustainable for artists, workers and the community. In other words, we are
talking about a long term commitment to re-imagining and gradually transforming the established
capitalist hierarchies and power structures into a more culturally based politics and economics.
This new system is one where individuals have a fairer opportunity to benefit and participate in
the form of direct actions, co-organisation and innovation, collaboration between sectors and
closer interaction between artist and cultural operators. It gives rise to the potential for
exchanging viewpoints, solving challenges and sharing tasks and responsibilities.
As this list illustrates, over the last century there has been a constant commitment to
collective experimentation and the construction of unique and innovative artistic languages and
experiences for audiences. This has chiefly been achieved via diverse modes and methods of
movement (and body) based artistic investigation in conjunction with aesthetic direction.
Despite shared concerns and struggles, contemporary independent theatre is a
phenomenon that is in flux. This is because it is a phenomenon that is sustained, characterised
Daria Lavrennikov
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and enriched by artistic processes, forms and trajectories which, in our experience and
conceptualisation of them, persist in their transience and hybrid nature. As with the body, it is a
field of forces and relations in a continuous state of change. That is to say, that there is growing
plurality, multiplicity, mobility and synchronicity in the way that independent theatre artists,
collectives, companies, and performing arts associations and centres understand, practice and
delineate movement based theatre. This is the case not only throughout Europe, but globally.
This is poetically illustrated by Peter Brook, in The Empty Space (1968) with the famous statement
“Truth in the theatre is always on the move”.
Additionally, this is a phenomenon and field in a constant state of emergence in dialogue
with – and in response to – the economic, political, social, environmental, and technological
changes that transform human modes of existence. This in turn influences our modes of
thinking, creating, producing, communicating, making and sharing art.
In one of the most recent books published on independent theatre in Europe – the
outcome of an extensive research project organised by Manfred Brauneck and managed by the
German Centre of the International Theatre Institute – structural changes in European theatre
since the 1990s were investigated in depth. Brauneck begins the book Independent Theatre in
Contemporary Europe: Structures, Aesthetics, Cultural Policy (2017), considering the role of independent
theatre, in relation to other theatre forms. He defines its transgressive and dissident nature over
the last century as follows:
Independent theatre takes place outside the established institutions, the repertory theatres or, as
Otto Brahm called them, the ‘permanent stages’. It emerged as an alternative and in opposition to
such theatres. In most European countries, it still represents a separate theatre culture, in its
beginnings – in the 1960s – a preponderantly politically virulent, and sometimes even a subcultural
sphere. Yet it always calls for contemporaneity and explores new paths, even transcending
boundaries and conventions […] Above all, the independent theatre creates production conditions
which make it largely independent of government subsidies, but also of commercial constraints,
and in this way allow it to maintain a certain autonomy. At least, that was the original idea of the
independents (Brauneck 2017: 13-17).
For both independent, as well as non-institutionalised theatre, we can identify the key
elements as being:
1.
A call for contemporaneity;
2.
A transgression of boundaries and conventions (disciplinary, cultural, political,
social);
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A desire and urgency to reinvent freedom and autonomy.
Brauneck describes the notion of contemporaneity as the engagement and
experimentation with new approaches, methods and modes of theatre making, taking us beyond
conventional understandings and practices, and entering into a field of blurred boundaries in
terms of disciplines, categories and creative process. This concept also includes experimentation
with new approaches and methods in teaching, curation and entrepreneurship, interlaced with
theatre making.
It also directly connects with the concept of the artist or company building a nonconventional yet coherent strategy and vision around the following key questions:
1.
Why are you doing it?
2.
Who are you doing it for?
3.
What is your structure?
4.
What is the local and international context you are dealing with (festivals, residencies,
networks)?
This strategy affects the direction and decisions one takes and makes with preproduction, production, and post production (communication, distribution).
Independent theatre has always operated in dialogue with other fields of arts and
humanities, resulting in a common transgression of boundaries, conventions, and established
norms, structures and aesthetics:
The independent theatre also helped to ensure that the boundaries between different art forms
became more permeable or even blurred. The relationship between art and everyday life was also
under discussion; new forms of production and communication were tested. Even if
developments in the fine arts were almost a decade ahead of those in the theatre, the direction they
took was the same one. New visual and hybrid genres emerged whose action character shared an
interface with the theatre […] above all when conceiving new space for performances. Essential to
these new stage aesthetics was the reception of performance art, object and action art, pop art,
happenings and those media interdisciplinary hybrid forms which have led to a kind of
‘theatricalisation’ of the fine arts. […] If a more or less stable consensus had existed up to the
1950s as to what art – what theatre as art – was, and what importance art and theatre should have
for society, this consensus was revoked in connection with these dramatic changes, almost all
aesthetic paradigms were scrutinised, and the social function of art was redefined and expanded
(Brauneck 2017: 19).
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Brauneck emphasises that, owing to changing circumstances of the times, independent
theatre has constantly been in a state of transitivity, due to its permeability and critical dialogue
with everyday life and contemporaneity in its artistic orientation and social positioning (2017: 14).
It is important to recognise that what was once considered as “rebellious work” has now
made its way into the international art market. Today we are witnessing that transgressing
conventions and subverting social norms in certain contexts and cultural industries also sells well.
In the book’s introduction, Brauneck points out how the structural and aesthetic changes
in independent theatre in Europe have evolved in relation to shifting conventions and tendencies
(2017: 14-18), as follows:
1.
A growth of alternative venues now both institutionalised and independent.
2.
Evolution of artistic training of actors and directors, with an increase in highly
professionalised and versatile performers.
3.
Varying approaches to spectatorship and developing the notion of an “active
audience”, audience diversity and development.
4.
Critical thinking and an awareness of the socio-political reality, with positions varying
from highly politicised towards a tendency to de-politisation, or micro-political
approaches such as a “politics of perception” and “politics of participation”.
5.
An increase in groups and artists locally, regionally and globally most typically in large
cities.
6.
Varying theatro-cultural circumstances throughout Europe, for example in the Soviet
era, those governed by dictatorship until the 1970s, and those with a longer history
of being “democratically governed”.
7.
A multitude of artistic directions.
8.
A growing commitment to working with specific social groups and social
transformation exploring the social role of theatre.
9.
The shifting socio-economic and labour conditions of independent artists, and in
most European countries, an increase in unstable conditions and mobility.
The perspectives of freedom and autonomy explored by – and so important to –
independent theatre as a political statement have likewise evolved in different ways, in different
parts of Europe. Initially the word ‘free’ comes about in European theatre history at the end of
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the nineteenth century in the Théatre Libre in Paris, which was founded in 1887 by André
Antoine: “The wish to be free or independent was at this time a declaration of war” (2017: 26).
This was both owing to political circumstances as well as economic limitations due to the
focus on economic success of commercial theatres which were run by private businessmen, fully
opposed to innovation.
However, the post war 1960s saw a broader concept of freedom emerge, reaching beyond
aesthetic perception and positioned firmly at the centre of independent theatre artists’ ideologies.
An important point of distinction is the public perception of theatre as an institution in Socialist
countries versus. Central Western European countries, which was radically different (2017: 38).
This would lead to the prevailing term of non-institutionalised theatre that still exists in postsocialist countries today, even after its adaptation to the Western economic system and the
restructuring of cultural and daily life:
From the perspective of those working in this realm, the independent theatre’s claim to freedom
may indeed be primarily a claim to artistic freedom, a personally motivated claim, as well as a
socially critical and often political claim. Thus, the impulses which move the independents are also
quite diverse. For young people, work in the independent scene is a way of life, although not
necessarily one which will be pursued for an entire lifetime. It is a decision in favour of collective
working, largely free of hierarchies, together with like- minded persons, usually in a group which is
homogeneous with regard to age structure and which shares the same political and artistic
perceptions and mind-set. This may be considered the rule, and it is also true for groups whose
members are of different cultural and ethnic origin [….] This may well be one reason why the
relationship between official cultural-political institutions and the independent theatre is still
strained (2017: 18).
In certain European countries the political-cultural relationship with independent theatre,
as well as the notion of “live arts”, is still characterised by friction and misunderstanding. This is,
as a direct result of it challenging the conventional understanding of theatre and the stage, not
upholding traditional artistic standards, as well as denying a politically and ideologically “neutral”
concept of culture. This is in stark contrast to other European countries, such as Germany and
the Netherlands, where independent theatre has recently been discussed as more economically
viable to support, due to their low budget and flexible productions, as a result of political cultural
cutbacks and a dedication to reforming theatre systems:
Not without good reason, the more flexible production structures of the independent theatre or
the free productions are frequently the subject of discussion – as in Germany – when it comes to
considering a fundamental reform of the theatre systems, not least for reasons stemming from the
pressure of fiscal policy plans. In the Netherlands, independent groups are virtually the sole
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remaining representatives of public theatre – especially after the massive political-cultural cutbacks
by the Dutch Parliament in 2011[…] In that, the independent theatre today hardly differs from the
“permanent stages” (2017: 18).
It is in these countries that independent theatre has received more consistent support and
been able to grow, while remaining committed to experimentation and the discovery of new
theatre forms. According to Wolfgang Schneider, who has examined the cultural policy for the
independent theatre across a diverse range of European countries with the help of artists working
in the independent sector, cultural policy makers and theoreticians, we must collectively work to
adopt a new policy for theatre throughout Europe (2017: 41).
It is therefore important to highlight that contemporary independent theatre in Europe is
a phenomenon sustained by the collective, shared and individual cultivation and development of
an ethics-aesthetics. That is, constantly evolving attitudes, value systems, (social-environmental)
engagements and dispositions – ethically and aesthetically – which remains in dialogue with the
shifting world system and reality.
The ethics-aesthetics of an artist, company or collective – also what we might refer to as
one’s artistic mission or vision – are what determines the choices made in terms of production
cycles, artistic process, content, form and audience development. One’s political, aesthetic and
ethical values determine the business plan and criteria for artistic excellence. In short, the
parameters and criteria to evaluate a work change depending on the values that drives them - and
also how these are promoted by a company, artist or collective.
For example, is one’s focus on educational, artistic, entertainment, profit making, social
engaging, self-promotional, networking, or multi-directional aspects? It is important to develop
clarity with one’s ethical-aesthetic mission by prioritising, articulating it, sharing it with others,
and receiving feedback from a diversity of sources in order to rework it.
It also means moving away from a universalised and generalised approach, towards a
refined, singular sense of consistency with one’s proposal both for artistic projects as well as
within one’s artistic trajectory. This is done by way of clarifying one’s personal and group
priorities, in the sometimes complex constellation of labour, life and art. This includes developing
one’s personal leadership, and recognising, mapping and engaging with the full potential of one’s
resources, expertise, limitations, and extensive network. This allows one to take further advantage
of their passion, creativity, productivity and longevity in one’s artistic trajectory. This also means
designing a short, mid and long term plan that is constantly being renegotiated and re-evaluated,
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based on the realities of one’s circumstances and passions.
There is no one recipe for a business model and artistic criteria. Rather, there are different
directions to be taken. In order to be coherent with one’s values and mission, one must study and
map the possible pathways that correlate. This extends to the terminology one uses to describe
one’s work and their field. The reflection on ethics aesthetics is likewise directly related to the
glossary that we are currently formulating.
We are working to map and build a common, wide-ranging language in the field of
contemporary theatre. How we relate to vocabulary, and how we select, understand and define
certain terminology is a choice, determined by socio-political, economic and different cultural
circumstances and affinities.
To this end, the glossary on which we are now working will indicate how the same thing
can be named in different ways, or how the same name can have different meanings in different
contexts, from different perspectives. “Visibilising” the power of language means taking into
account the ideology and political choices, and the choice and use of certain terminology.
As quoted by Roland Barthes, “Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It
is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles
with desire” (Barthes 1978: 73).
Our choices of words are not, and cannot be, random – which is why we are
constructing and refining a comprehensive glossary for use in the field of contemporary
independent theatre. For example, choosing the words “experience” and “participation”, and
thinking critically in regards to the terms “entertainment” and “consumption”, is an ethicalaesthetic choice that we are acknowledging as researchers and practical theoreticians. This also
means, to take into account terminology that is country and culture specific, such as the term
“non-institutionalised theatre”.
As an independent theatre maker or collective, whether this happens intuitively or more
systematically there is a process of identifying, questioning, transgressing and “destabilising” what
we understand and perceive as dominant or even repressive models and systems of order within
the arts. In other words, the terminology used reflects the standards of measures and power
relations within the field of theatre.
This goes hand in hand with the desire to generate and activate new paradigms and value
systems, new possibilities for communication and being and creating together new working and
living conditions. It also incorporates the desire to generate an innovative incubating
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environment for capacity building, sharing knowledge and practices as independent theatre
practitioners and theoreticians.
All this must be sustained and accompanied by the development of collective critical
thinking as practical theoreticians and theoretical practitioners. It departs from acknowledging a
shared work-life-art condition, in its diversity of manifestations depending on each artist’s varying
history, background, perspective, culture and work and living conditions. Thus, it is paramount to
configure an ethics-aesthetics that transcends clear frontiers between art and life.
Mikhail Bakhtin, in the book Toward a Philosophy of the Act, provides us with a very relevant
discourse on answerability in relation to the human being’s approach to his artistic and theoretical
practice (Bakhtin 1990).
Bakhtin proposes that we must cultivate an answerable unity of thinking and performing
action – that is, actions that engage multiple territories (subjective, relational and ecological). He
introduces concepts such as “action-performing thinking” and “participative (un-indifferent)
thinking”, developed in his philosophy of the answerable act or “deed”. In the participatory
presence of others – in the artistic incubator or laboratory - we are more likely to engage in taking
responsibility for our thoughts and actions.
He argues that the human being has no right to a “non alibi in being”, that is, to an
evasion of the unique answerability which is constituted by the never repeatable, place of Being,
what he refers to as the once-occurring answerable act which one’s whole life must constitute.
In what ways can we respond to constructing a unity, a fusion and penetration, between
life and art practice, actualised in the self? We, “must become answerable through and through
[…] I have to answer with my own life for what I have experienced and understood as art” (1990:
1-2). How can we filter through this to articulate it in our vision and artistic mission? This means
that the constitution and verbalisation of our ethical aesthetic vertebrae is continuous, always in
progress, and in a continual state of relation to others. Therefore to exist on the borders and
fringes of multiple disciplines of the arts, outside the norms of established institutionalised
theatre, requires the independent artist to commit to emerging aesthetic-ethical alliances and
networks for the purposes of survival and sustainability.
As multi-taskers and multi-professionals, independent theatre artists learn to promote
both themselves as well as their artistic collaborators, colleagues and allies. As part of the process
of collaboration within contemporary independent theatre arts, in all phases of the production
process – from the artistic idea to its staging, performance and promotion – there is a tendency
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towards sharing tasks, responsibilities, and moving between roles and functions. Such multitasking and endless responsibilities can be regarded as a handicap, in terms of time management.
Yet, if the work is divided and shared in an intelligent and rotative manner, this provides
the collective or group of artists (regardless of their legal status) with political freedom and
independence from the criteria and parameters that government and private institutions might
impose.
2. Parameters of artistic excellence
The discussion around artistic excellence can offer tools and encourage the development of
instruments for a co-creative environment, instead of proposing “measures of excellency”. This is
in order for artists to feel comfortable contributing their own abilities and experiences, while
being offered strategies for co-creation, and being challenged to articulate their experiences,
discourses and ethics.
Parameters of artistic excellence are interrelated with one’s vision. The capacity to selfevaluate and co-evaluate peers and artists that are working in the surrounding context is central in
constructing a collective and mobile discourse around artistic excellence, while recognizing its
subjective branching and rooting.
The intention and challenge is to elaborate a critical discussion around the existing and
evolving parameters of artistic excellence in the field of contemporary independent and noninstitutionalised theatre practices. It is imperative that these move beyond the criteria dictated by
large cultural institutions and conventional notions of officially established theatre.
The parameters of artistic excellence defined by large cultural institutions vary from
country to country, and region to region, interlaced with a “performance measurement”
framework in the performing arts sector, arts management, and the creative industries,
traditionally focused on economic and social measures.
More recently, the intention has been to expand towards further non-financial indicators,
as a result of practitioners and academics insisting on questioning the relevance of this evaluation
system and offering alternatives (Labaronne 2017).
Likewise, it has to do with a diversity of subjective aesthetic, ethical, political and cultural
preferences and dispositions of those in positions of power (curators, programmers, directors,
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ministers of culture, funders etc.) within the large cultural and artistic institutions and industries.
These institutions typically communicate their understandings and definitions of artistic
excellence in a more generic – as well as a sometimes nationally focused – way.
For example, the notion of artistic excellence is defined on the website of the Arts
Council England as follows: “[…] deliver[ing] artistic work and cultural experiences that
represent the height of ambition, talent and skill. We want to demonstrate England’s status as a
world centre for cultural excellence, as well as helping artists to export their work internationally
to showcase the best of our country abroad”.
For the purpose of elaborating a critical and alternative discussion, we return to the
elements introduced in the theoretical-historical framework and definition of independent and
non-institutionalised movement based contemporary theatre within this report – and in dialogue
with the pluralities of structural and aesthetic approaches to contemporary movement based
independent theatre across Europe.
Simon Murray and John Keefe, authors of the book Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction,
provide us with a useful set of initial parameters for looking at the relationship between the
physical-visual, scenographic, vocal-aural sign systems which make up the mise en scène of
contemporary theatre. This “three point relationship” and “three qualities required for success”
are suggested as being:
1.
Fantasia: surprise, unpredictability, imagination, flair.
2.
Furbizia: cunning, slyness, bending the rules, trickery, gamesmanship.
3.
Tecnica: technique, highly developed core skills.
We could apply this system of criteria in looking at, discussing and reflecting on the
artistic quality of a piece of theatrical work and process.
3. Staging and a shift towards participation: collaboration and sharing knowledge
Moving to look at things from the perspective of Hans-Thies Lehmann, we might want to
consider Postdramatic Theatre as referring to :
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[…] theatre after drama. Despite their diversity, the new forms and aesthetics that have evolved
have one essential quality in common: they no longer focus on the dramatic text [...] a new theatre
landscape [...] Approaches that have preferred to call these new theatre forms ‘postmodern’ or
more neutrally “contemporary experimental” or “contemporary alternative” (Lehmann, 2006, p.
2).
Lehmann specifically considers these developments in the landscape of new theatre forms
and aesthetics to be:
1.
An inventive response to the emergence of new technologies;
2.
A historical shift from a text-based culture to a new media age of image and soun;
3.
A development in the relationships between aspects of text, space, time, body, media;
4.
Creation of performance text;
5.
A turn to performance – in other words, a turn towards the audience.
Contemporary independent theatre’s condition as a zone of synergies, hybrids and
pluralities of knowledge, forms and aesthetics feeds off – and nurtures – the other arts – moving
and moved by their experimental, porous and innovative qualities and potentials.
Likewise, there is an engagement and dialogue with the social (as well as more recently the
hard) sciences, with the growing tendencies in artistic research and experimentation in the
performing arts. This is both with the objectives of inventing new languages, alternative
dramaturgical methods and processes, as well as continuing to question and propose forms of
understanding the mediums of theatre, performance, dance, as well as live, media and visual arts.
The performances and products created through research, and process based practices, as
well as those devised collaboratively, must be approached with different criteria of artistic
excellence. Moreover, there has been a growing tendency towards participatory practices in the
arts, including movement based contemporary theatre. This has been a recurrent theme in
specific periods of the 20th century, witnessed in the form of a growing shift towards
participation.
This is a theme that is explored by, and from, a historical and critical perspective by Claire
Bishop in her book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (2012).
Within the context of movement based contemporary theatre as well as the other arts
disciplines, the artist questions his social function and his multiplicity of possible roles – such as
proposer, transgressor, host, facilitator, co-creator, performer, engager, etc. – in the process of
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what has been expanded to refer to as “world-making”, “relation-scape building” and
“environmental art” from different practice-theory perspectives within the contemporary
performance, dance, theatre, and cultural theory and practices.
These issues are all useful and relevant when thinking about, writing, questioning,
generating dialogue, and elaborating on a critical and alternative discussion around the evolving
and multi-perspective criteria of artistic excellence within movement based independent theatre.
It is part of a growing engagement of experimental artistic languages in collaborative,
social and collective practices in the contemporary art world. These tendencies resonate with the
amplification of the notions of co-authorship and spectatorship towards the agency of a new
protagonist-participant. They also provoke epistemic changes in the formats of creation – which
are no longer based on products, but on collective processes.
This research and process based quality responds to a need arising from contemporary
society to displace the centrality of the artistic field, and move towards new ways of activating
other modes of being and creating together. Also toward other possibilities of social
interlocutions. This change is aligned with the emergence of new ethical aesthetic paradigms
active in a hybrid zone between symptoms and intuitions. This is a zone where artists are
confronted by, and engage in, collective practices, with an intention to reconfigure the
relationship between practice and theory in their contemporary reality.
It is crucial to remember that the field of contemporary independent theatre “can only be
adequately understood in the context of the entirety of theatre-cultural structures and traditions
of the individual countries” (Brauneck 2017: 14).
Each country – and, furthermore, each region and locality – has its own circumstances,
structures, traditions and definitions which all affect the way theatre is understood, evaluated,
experienced and analysed. Within an increasingly globalised context, it is important to give
attention and recognition to local perspectives. This means interweaving them with the global
and international theatre and performing arts movement. In this way we will generate a more
coherent, multi-perspective and sustainable dialogue that recognises the particularities and
pluralities of diverse perspectives, practices and experiences.
To achieve this requires developing a healthy habit of self and group evaluation and,
therefore, adopting a constructively critical and active stance in order to avoid:
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Entering a state of stagnation and victimisation in response to working and living
conditions that one is confronted with within the sector of Independent theatre.
2.
Naively and simplistically importing models of organisation and excellence from
other countries, institutions or theatre companies without mapping the unique
circumstances and resources under, and within which, one works and to which one
might have access.
3.
Getting pulled into, distracted and influenced by fears, insecurities, trends and
fashionable language that takes one’s attention away from what is most ethicallyaesthetically important to one’s work and mission.
What is important to focus on is a passionate, collaborative and consequential position
regarding themes such as:
1.
Being coherent and self-critical, with the language, vocabulary, and terminology one
uses in describing one’s creative process, conceptual framework, lineage, sources,
resources and references. This includes the way one understands relationships and
partnerships with – and dependency on – government and non-government
institutions.
2.
Generating strategies for gathering, recycling, sharing, reinventing and adapting the
tools, working methods and central principles that serve us in the rapidly changing
times (in terms of the full cycle of creative, production, promotion process).
3.
Developing ways of sharing and questioning one’s strategies, methods and materials
with others locally, regionally nationally and internationally.
4.
Mapping and tracing pathways, resources, contacts and networks can help navigate
us through an unknown future – in dialogue with a complex present – made up of
established and alternative economic, artistic, cultural and social models and modes
of working and creating.
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4. The physical in theatre
In response to what has been spoken and written about one officially established theatre art, we
are interested in the pluralities of movement based theatres that have existed, been developed and
named in a search for articulating, affirming and recognising their evolving methods, principles
and practices. Amongst others, these include names such as “third theatre”, “holy theatre”, “total
theatre”, “theatre of cruelty” and “poor theatre”.
Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction by John Keefe and Simon Murray is, as indicated
earlier in this work, an important reference for mapping the pluralities and diversities of
movement based theatre practices, both in historic and contemporary times. That is, what we
refer to as ‘physical theatres’ and ‘the physical’ in theatre.
According to Keefe and Murray the “One Theatre” – which has taken on a powerful
authority and influence – has dominated by way of its culturally, politically awarded status, as well
as its promotion and presence in published and preserved texts. In this book, part of their
approach is to speak about a diversity of forms, practices, styles and languages of movement
based theatres. That is, to map and promote the emergence of a plurality of theatre practicetheory-history.
It is in an attempt to reach beyond a dominant or hegemonic set of theatre conventions
in synchronicity and affinity with this research, the authors bring to the table the key terms –
“physical theatre”, “total theatre”, etc. – as dialectical frames or lenses through which we can
look at and understand particular practices and ideas.
The notion of “performance text” or “production text” are also useful terms that Murray
and Keefe introduce in their book as important theatre vocabulary for discussion and
investigation:
Our grounding premise: that ‘physical theatre’ as a term, idea or concept captures the aims of
certain movements in the 19th and 20th centuries to confront the continuing hegemony of a
theatre defined by its literary and verbal dimensions […] such theatre must be contextualised
within the historical and ongoing practices we call the ‘physical in theatres’ which are found in all
theatres as centered on the (moving-speaking) body. These practices are mimetic in manifestation,
playing to the empathetic and cognitive receptivity of the spectator gathered as audience; what
Susan Bennett calls ‘interpretive communities’. ‘Physical theatre’ then traces its origins in our
contemporary sense to those ideologies and manifestos which sought to reverse a dualism and
hierarchy of word over body. As such, ‘physical theatre’ is a construction of forms, beliefs and
dispositions which takes its place alongside other and continuing suspicions of the Word as the
embodiment of Enlightenment reason (Murray; Keefe 2007: 6).
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Throughout the book, the authors map, trace and traverse this ambiguous and
amorphous field, offering case studies as well as analysis and reflection on its traces from the past
as well as its influences on contemporary performing arts practices.
Murray and Keefe point out their subjective, but also critical, position in relation to the
terminology of physical theatre. Both began their theatre careers at a point when this terminology
was being articulated and spread throughout Europe during the 1980s. Yet they inquire into
whether the cultural moment of physical theatre has moved on, and highlight:
Whether the term can continue to describe and encapsulate renewal and innovation in theatre and
performance is open to question…What the “it” of physical theatre is, and whether the “it” has
substance beyond shadow and phantom, disguising (by renaming) otherwise unremarkable
performance events we will investigate (2007: 2-3).
This is regardless of the fact that there is still a reasonable amount of physical theatre
being generated, performed and experienced throughout the Western world. Paradoxically, it is
also strongly ingrained in the language of educationalists, actor trainers and their students in
European, North American and Australian theatre landscapes.
Their modules, courses and perspectives on “physical theatre” proliferate in training
education programmes. Although written in 2007, these two books continue to be an important
and relevant reference for movement based practitioners, theoreticians and artists. In short, the
books offer one of the first comprehensive overviews of non-text-based theatre, ranging from
traditional mime to performance and experimental dance.
Murray and Keefe insist that “physical theatres” and “the physical” in theatre continues
to be present both in the language of performance, as well as in a variety of diverse contemporary
theatre practices, permeated by a shifting social, philosophical, political and ideological context.
5. Staging in relation to text and drama
Another important theatre researcher and scholar, and a key reference for international
discussions in the field of contemporary theatre, is the aforementioned Hans-Thies Lehmann. He
has developed what is considered to be a ground breaking study on new theatre forms, including
movement based theatre, that have developed since the late 1960s.
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In his internationally renowned book, Post-dramatic Theatre (2006), Lehmann discusses a
diversity of new forms and aesthetics that all share the common denominator of no longer
focusing on dramatic text. Departing from the perspective of Lehmann, it is possible to say that,
Post-dramatic Theatre refers to theatre after drama. Despite their diversity, the new forms and
aesthetics that have evolved have one essential quality in common: they no longer focus on the
dramatic text [...] a new theatre landscape [...] Approaches that have preferred to call these new
theatre forms “postmodern” or more neutrally “contemporary experimental” or “contemporary
alternative” (Lehmann 2006: 2).
He considers in the specific these developments in the landscape of new theatre forms
and aesthetics to be:
1.
An inventive response to the emergence of new technologies.
2.
A historical shift from a text-based culture to a new media age of image and sound; a
development in the relationships between aspects of text, space, time, body, and
media.
3.
The creation of performance text; a turn to performance – otherwise known as a
turn towards the audience.
His research is highly relevant to our investigation on movement based independent
contemporary theatre, in that we are likewise referring to a phenomenon of theatre beyond
dramatic text, “after drama”.
6. Trans-disciplinarity and spectatorship
One of the central demands for artists and collectives working in independent theatre is to
amplify one’s fields of dialogue, action, collaboration and contagion both in artistic exchanges as
well as in building relationship with institutions, curators and scholars of partnering artistic fields,
and the seemingly more distant arts, sciences and business areas. These are strategies to both
expand one’s knowledge and tools to renew and amplify one’s creative approaches, as well as to
step outside of one’s field and perspective of mastery and experiment with alternative visions of
composition spectatorship, authorship and collective process, as well as to expand and reach out
to new publics.
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As highlighted by Lehmann, the developments in new forms of theatre practices have
been interconnected with the discussions and transformations and that have occurred in visual,
performance and live art throughout the last century.
Claire Bishop, in her text Participation (2006), reflects on, inquiries into and enters in
dialogue with invited contributors from the arts and philosophy. She emphasises that the
dialogues and latest artistic innovations throughout a diversity of fields, artistic practices and
theoretical and philosophical discussions have been evolving around the shared theme and
interest of participation.
Bishop points out that there is still a gap where important work needs to be done to
connect the history and present experiences of participation in the visual arts with that of the
history of participation in theatre, architecture and pedagogy, as well as art history and
anthropology (15).
Moreover, a major conflict which continues to circulate within theatre studies and
creation in relationship to spectatorship, is between showing and watching, actors and audience.
It is still rare to find perspectives and work which both take into account production and
reception, according to Steven De Beider.
De Beider’s research is focused on the way the body is embodied and perceived
scenically. But it also looks at how the perception of the spectator – also connected with
corporeality – is typically ignored.
7. Ethics and aesthetics
Lastly, an important parameter that we would like to discuss in relation to artistic excellence, is
the capacity to elaborate, explore and stage critical questions, experiences and discourses. In
short, to adopt an ethic-aesthetic position in response to the greater theatre industry as well as in
dialogue with contemporary local and global reality.
The focus here is the growing innovative and critical capacity of independent artists to
ethically and aesthetically situate and orient themselves in response to the social, political,
economic, cultural, ecological, local and global realities. This is fundamentally owing to the
interdependence that has arisen between the contemporary theatre and dance practices and
critical performance and cultural studies.
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Therefore, we are not talking about the judgement of which position has been taken, but
rather the capacity to engage in critical thinking and doing, by way of staged, dramaturgical,
experimental and conceptual choices.
Contemporary theatre has been greatly influenced by the developments in performance
practice and performance studies. The ontology of theatre is therefore configured and
reconfigures itself, locates and dislocates itself, as it enters in dialogue – and, at times, collides –
with the ontology of performance as well as other performing and visual art forms.
Much of the focus and intentions of performance and live art, arising from both visual
and performing arts communities and their hybridisation. At its height during the 1960s and
1970s, this hybridisation results from the attempt to reconsider and dissolve the durable
‘immortal’ materiality of the art object. Instead, another kind of ephemeral and immanent
materiality of performance has been generated. This version has other forms of resonances and
residues, recycled and rematerialised through different logics (ontological and epistemological).
Peggy Phelan – a popular performance studies theorist, amongst other thinkers,
practitioners and artists – was radically interested in finding ways to resist the ‘relentless
acquisitive drive of capitalism’ and the production of alienated “capitalist subjectivities”.
Phelan insisted that:
Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of
representations. Once it does so, it becomes something other than performance. To the degree
that performance attempts to enter the economy of reproduction it betrays and lessens the
promise of its own ontology (1993: 146).
Performances focuses on activating inter-subjective experience, varying from the most
simple to the more complex expressive structures and environments. In its ephemeral,
disappearing, inter-subjective essence, Phelan describes this as a “radical critique of commodity
culture” with the potential to radically disturb the neo-liberal capitalist model, while
simultaneously infiltrating and dialoguing with this system.
Phelan likewise reinforces the importance to localise and contextualise performance, due
to its cultural specificity and variations from community to community in terms of enactment
and reception. Performance is a live art practice of the here and now (hic et nunc), a system of
learning and transmitting embodied knowledge and memory. As contemporary theatre
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practitioners, regardless of shared or diverging positions, one’s relationship with this legacy needs
to be acknowledged.
Therefore, the capacity to generate discussions and engage in dialogue on the complexity
of the sector of independent theatre is essential. There has to be a recognition of the conflicts,
contradictions and paradoxes that surround the pluralities of independent contemporary theatre
practices today.
Moreover, although the focus of the contemporary theatre practices we are looking at are
in Europe, it is relevant to point out that these new forms of theatre takes place within, and are
influenced by, the socio-economic and political context of Integrated World Capitalism (IWC),
examined by the philosopher and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari.
Guattari critically defines this state of post-industrial capitalism as the global politicaleconomic terrain characterised by intense techno-scientific transformations, that tends to
decentralise its sites of power, works through the capitalisation of subjective power, functioning
through the production of signs, syntax, and subjectivity, via control over the media, advertising
and option polls, etc.
This is the context within which independent artists and collectives are working and by
which they are conditioned today. In response, Guattari proposes that artists and activists
develop new ethical aesthetic paradigm that generate dissensus through practice. (Guattari 2000:
47).
Along with other political philosopher, theorists and activists, many come from the
Autonomist tradition. This was an Italian Marxist movement which emerged in 1960s and
involved Antonio Negri, Paulo Virno, Franco Bifo Berardi, Giuseppe Cocco and Michael Hardt).
In parallel with the Situationists, Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze map some of the
symptoms and conditions that characterise and infiltrate the current dominant existential
territories (part of a global system that Guattari describes as ‘WIC’) in which we are working and
living, and by which we are conditioned. The process focuses on what territories and relations of
power are we resisting, destabilising, reproducing, and ignoring through our work – and why?
In the already mentioned Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe, Brauneck focuses on a
Europe going through change as a result of the creation of the European Union, which has
affected: “international production, networking, digitalisation, project-based work and
hybridisation of forms, as well as leading to the economisation of more and more areas of life
and the commercialisation of the public sphere” (Brauneck 2017: 5).
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In response, in dialogue and in dissensus, the independent contemporary theatre
movement, through different tactics,
such as what Lehmann refers to as a “Politics of
Perception”, generate experiences and “ecological praxis” which runs “counter to the normal
order of things”. This resonates with the definition of aesthesis, as described by Claire Bishop in
her book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship: “an autonomous regime of
experience that is not reducible to logic, reason or morality” (2012: 18).
Therefore, the structure of the experience proposed generates a singular interchanging
environment in which conventionally perceived divisions between the intellectual, the sensory,
the emotional, the ideational, the imaginative and the practical are overruled and blurred. This
means that conventional regimes of logic and reason becoming stretched and destabilised.
Configuring new maps of existence and action for the independent theatre sector means
working on developing a new ethical aesthetic paradigms, restructuring movement across three
dimensions of ecological praxis.
These three ecological registers are:
1.
The environment;
2.
Social relations;
3.
Human subjectivity.
This categorisation does not set out to separate the registers into three dimensions but
rather to emphasise how they are interdependent, and at times differentiated through practice
(Guattari 2000).
In light of these paradoxes, there is a responsibility – plus a huge potential – in new
theatre practices that self-define themselves as independent theatre, to build awareness and
sustainability in the interdisciplinary collaborations and networks of which they are part.
To this end, it is necessary to engage the “general intellect”, a commitment to practicing
and researching other modes and forms of being, thinking and creating together, through
dialogue, interrogation and exchange in the format of the artistic incubator.
Paolo Virno, an Italian philosopher, semiologist and a figurehead of the Italian Marxist
movement, considers the “commune”, or general, is not something that is encountered in
someone, but something which occurs and passes between us in constant flux. In our practices of
exploring new forms and methods of communication, theatre and artistic creation, we are
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brought to explore a diversity of existing and invented languages – both verbal and non-verbal –
in the constant recognition and reactivation of its ‘general’ quality, through particular and singular
propositions.
The difficulties that emerge comes with the following tendencies on the part of
artists/collectives:
1.
Coming to a laboratory environment with a predestined goal and priority of selfbenefit and an attitude of protectionism and privatisation of their tools, practice
and language;
2.
Becoming disillusioned by collaboration;
3.
Looking to create a universal language that is profitable.
For Virno, language serves as a model for the general that only exists in relation between
individuals, and cannot exist in the absence of this relationship.
This exploration and play with languages (verbal and non-verbal), brings us to experience
and observe its mobile, mysterious and powerful nature, beyond a static immobile quality, as both
a source of communicating and transmitting, as well as transforming and transcending its
function and norms.
Virno adds:
Now I think that in modernity, the general in both art and philosophy is involved in a complex
emancipatory struggle to get away from the universal. This is also how I interpret “other
globalisation” or “new global” movements: they represent the dimension of the general that
criticizes the universal...What aesthetic and political experiences can we develop to transfer from
the universal to the general without consequently destroying the particular? Or take what
philosophers call the ‘individuation principle’, meaning the valuation of everything that is unique
and unrepeatable in our lives. Speaking of individuation implies that you consider the individual a
result, not a starting point. The individual is a result of a movement that is rooted in the
‘communal’ and yet is, or is becoming, particular (Virno in Lavaert-Gielen 2009: 19).
Here Virno considers the general as something pre-individual, a general consciousness, a
“we”, a general pre-individual that exists before the individuation develops, rather than the sum
of all, and is opposed to the concept of the universal. Universalisation, on the other hand, is a
process he describes as mobilised by the state and its post-Fordist machinery.
Therefore, what all of us in the theatre and cultural sector must be cautious of, is the
tendency of general intellect to be turned into a source of financial gain – and of social
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collaboration and virtuosity to be turned into patterns and structures of post-Fordist production.
So – given we have movement-based theatre practice – in the context of the artistic
incubator, how is it that we can generate environments that will produce other modes of
knowledge and forms of alliances that are difficult to universalise?
Virno argues that the key is “formal investigation”. This responds to the “crisis of the
standard of measure” and generates new ways of living and feeling. This, in turn, results in new
standards and criteria, against which to measure cognitive and affective experience and touching
upon social and political reality. Virno concludes that this is where aesthetic and social resistance
meet - and also what brings the artistic avant garde close to the radical social movement.
In short, this point represents the common ground where a new society is anticipated,
now identifying social prosperity with ‘general intellect’ rather than labour time, within the
domains of language, intelligence and collaboration referencing.
Bibliography
BAKHTIN, Mikhail (1993), Toward a Philosophy of the Act, Trans. Vladim Liapunov. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
BARTHES, Roland (1978), A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, New York: Hill and Wang.
BISHOP, Claire (2006), Participation, Cambridge: MIT Press.
BISHOP, Claire (2012), Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London: Verso.
BRAUNECK, Manfred (2017), Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe: Structures, Aesthetics,
Cultural Policy, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
GUATTARI, Félix (1989), The Three Ecologies, London: The Athlone Press.
LABARONNE, Leticia (2017), “Performance Measurement and Evaluation in Arts Management”,
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy/Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement, Vol. 3 Issue 1, pp.
37-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2017-0103
LAVAERT, Sonja, GIELEN, Pascal (2009), “The Dismeasure of Art. An Interview with Paolo
Virno”, in Pascal Gielen and Paul de Bruyne (eds.), Arts in Society, Being an Artist in Post-Fordist
Times, Rotterdam: NAi Publisher, pp. 17-44.
LEHMANN, Hans Thies (2006), Postdramatic Theater, translated b. Karen Jurs-Munby, LondonNew York: Routledge.
MURRAY, Simon, KEEFE, John (2007), Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction, London-New York:
Routledge.
PHELAN, Peggy (1993), Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, London-New York: Routledge.
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A business model
for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona /Liverpool John Moores University
Abstract: This research moves from the perspective of the sociological paradigm as theorised
by Domenico De Masi in relation to industrial and post-indutrial society, and from the seminal
work by Pierre Bordieu, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, that defines the
cultural production or product – including theatre – as belonging to the so-called market of
symbolic goods.
Moving from De Masi and Bordieu, the investigation aims at applying and adapting concepts
from “tourism marketing and management” to theatre. In this perspective, I am analysing forms
of cultural products – theatre and performing arts – and the passage from most traditional forms
of consumptions, based on simply attendance to theatre to ones based on the experience.
Borrowing the expression Site & Monument approach from the cultural and tourisms economics, it
is possible to notice a swop from a Theatre Product Consumption approach to an Experience-based one
that provides forms of experiential consumption.
Keywords: Site & Monument approach, theatre product consumption, experience, “E”s,
experiential marketing, systemic goods, audience profile and development, Realms of the
experience.
*****
1. A preliminary consideration: a paradigm for theatre
Italian sociologist Domenico De Masi developed the so-called paradigm that, in our opinion, can
be easily applied to the development of a business model for non-institutionalised and
independent theatre (cf. De Masi 2000, 2007 and 2013).
De Masi developed his own paradigm, inspired by the thinking of masters such as Alexis
de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Frederick Taylor, Daniel Bell, André Gorz, Alain Touraine and
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Agnes Heller. Thus he created original material based on research and which focused, above
everything else, on the world of work.
The essential elements of this paradigm are:
1.
Post-industrial society and its socio-economic aspects;
2.
Emerging needs;
3.
New social subjects;
4.
Creativity;
5.
Work;
6.
Teleworking;
7.
Creative idleness;
8.
Leisure time;
9.
Social and business paradoxes.
For the purposes of this work, we will consider only the useful elements in our discussion
on independent theatre. Specifically in relation to “emerging needs”, within the context of
industrial society, there were gradually established trends related to:
1.
Rationalisation;
2.
Efficiency;
3.
Specialisation;
4.
Synchronisation;
5.
Productivity;
6.
Economy of scale;
7.
Hierarchical structure in organisations, urbanism and consumerism.
However, in post-industrial society, values emerge such as intellectualisation, creativity,
ethics, aesthetics, subjectivity, emotionality, androgyny, the deconstruction of time and space,
virtuality and the quality of life.
In this context, according to the quantitative needs of power, money and success, others
are comprised of a more qualitative nature, connected to introspection, solidarity, friendship,
love, play, beauty and conviviality.
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De Masi defines creativity as a “synthesis of fantasy” (with which new ideas are
elaborated) and of concreteness (with which new ideas are translated into reality). He defines a
creative person as having a strong imagination and – at the same time – a strong concreteness.
Moreover, that – being rare individuals – their role can be played by creative groups with very
fanciful personalities (even if not very concrete) and by very concrete personalities (even if not
very imaginative).
In order for the concrete and the imaginative to collaborate creatively, it is necessary for
them to share the same mission, stay motivated to reach it and that they are guided by a
charismatic leader capable of impressing the group.
In the industrial factory, the work – mainly manual – absorbed all the physical energies
of the worker, was subjected to strict controls by the leaders and was clearly separated from free
time. In the post-industrial society, two-thirds of workers carry out activities of an intellectual,
often creative kind. In many of these activities, the quantity and quality of the product do not
depend on the control exercised on the worker – but more on its motivation and ability to
operate in that happy condition that De Masi provocatively calls “creative idleness”.
This “creative idleness” is not a matter of laziness or disengagement, more a state of
grace. It is common to many intellectual activities determined when the fundamental dimensions
of our active life – work to produce wealth, study to produce knowledge, play to produce
wellbeing – hybridise and get confused allowing both the act and the creative product.
2. General considerations on cultural consumption
As stated by Pierre Bordieu in The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (1984), the
cultural production or product, including theatre, belongs to the so-called market of symbolic
goods.
Bordieu points out:
Symbolic goods are a two-faced reality, a commodity and a symbolic object. Their specifically
cultural value and their commercial value remain relatively independent, although the economic
sanction may come to reinforce their cultural consecration (1984: 3).
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As a matter of fact, the extent to which consumption of symbolic goods depends upon
the educational level of consumers, markedly varies from one sector to the other.
Whatever properties are assigned to a cultural good, they cannot be assimilated to
intrinsic characteristics. In theatre, one case study might be the experience of Swiss director Milo
Rau, who – during his academic career studying sociology, languages and literature – was a pupil
of Bordieu as well as of Tzvetan Todorov. In particular, Rau applies the concept of symbolic
good to theatre practice, working on the genius loci – an economic and sociological expression
taken from De Masi. He creates site-specific work that plays on the relation reality-fictiontransformation, in altering the traditional mechanisms of identification and representation.
To focus again on the main topic of cultural consumption, including theatre and
performing arts, we re-seeing this a widespread phenomenon increasingly shifting towards a
dimension of identity exploration. This renders its meaning not only significant at an individual
level, but brings in new elements such as the need of individuals to integrate and identify
themselves in groups within which it is possible to share their vocation.
The fascination generated by the less exploited places of culture – such as alternative
theatre spaces or site-specific venues – made up of the so-called “minor” centres that respond
well to the need for short journeys, and to the search for the quality of life that characterises
today’s cultural customer, has contributed to these phenomena.
This is certainly a significant aspect since, for short periods of time, the value of a cultural
product as perceived by the cultural customer, is closely related to the overall intensity of the
experience. As such, thanks to the range and quality of the opportunities offered in such a short
time span, the experience is able to offer increased emotional and cultural awareness.
As for the types of cultural attractions involved, we are not just talking here about theatre
and performing arts – but also historical sites and archaeological finds accessed via museums, art
galleries, cinemas, theatre, music and literature.
Therefore, typically there is an urban context linked to the complex of the attractions of a
specific environment, from the monumental, architectural or museum to the performing arts.
The progressive extension and diffusion of cultural offerings has shaped competitive
advantages in many areas. However, there have also been negative impacts, essentially owing to
the phenomenon of cultural homogenisation. This is because many environments have
developed artificial attractions that are not representative of their culture and identity.
Alternatively they have not been able to make the customers discover and/or experience another
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culture. The result is a heated competition, leading to a downwards spiral, driven by cost and
price reduction, rather than quality.
This has led to the emergence of new forms of cultural offerings – including both the
theatre and performing arts – and the identification of increasingly specific demand profiles. In
recent years there has been a general evolution from the most traditional forms of experiences,
based on simple attendance at a theatre or, alternatively, visits to museums and monuments or to
more dynamic venues.
Borrowing the expression Site & Monument approach from the culture, tourism and
economic fields, it can be said that – in the sphere of in theatre and performing arts – these
changes accompany the transition from a theatre-product consumption approach to an experience-based
one. Here the latter provides forms of experiential consumption which encourage personal
development by audiences.
This “experience based approach” can be clarified using three different examples:
1.
The previously mentioned case of Milo Rau who uses site-specific theatre as a way to
act on reality, in order to reconstruct and transform it (also in a meta-theatrical way).
2.
Teatro de los Sentidos, which considers theatre as a sensorial experience.
3.
Punchdrunk, that transforms the site-specific in a very particular kind of immersive
theatre, delivering an individual and unique journey for the active and dynamic
spectator.
All these points will be considered in detail in the next section.
3. Non-institutionalised and independent theatre: an experiential economical
approach
The combination of theatre practice and experience is not new in studies looking at both theatre
and economical phenomena. In fact, many scholars use the term “experiences” to describe the
process of using cultural services or the concept of cultural product from the consumer’s
perspective.
A clear example of the relationship between performing arts and experience – using the
meaning as applied by economists – and seen from the artistic perspective, is the experience of
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the “happening”, as Allan Kaprow describes it. Alternatively the concept is seen in Augusto
Boal’s theatre practice and – with specific regard to theory of economics – in flash mobs.
These are all very different types of performance practice. However, they all share a
common element in that the experience is more significant than the product. Cases where the
product is more central in terms of value include Cirque du Soleil, Punchdrunk or La Fura dels
Baus. In all of these, the role of the experience is the predominant factor in terms of the impact
of the performance.
In an interesting study into this phenomenon, Carbone and Haeckel state that “the
experience is given by the immediate impression that is formed in consumers when they relate
with goods and services, a perception that is formed when human beings consolidate sensory
information”.
Focusing more in detail on the economy of experience, Pine and Gilmore (1998) –
probably the most important scholars in this specific field – claim that the main features of the
experience are uniqueness and personalisation/customisation. This applies whenever companies
stage an experience that touches customers in a particularly personal and worthy way.
From the same perspective, but taking a more philosophical approach, we might refer to
the work of Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic. In Benjamin’s
eyes, experiences are based on personal experience and provide sensory, emotional, cognitive,
behavioural and relational values that replace functional ones.
Even the most banal operations can be transformed into memorable experiences for
customers. Therefore, the company that decides to enrich its offer in order for it to be perceived
as unique, will have to turn into “director of experience” in a theatrical meaning. In other words,
the offer in question will need to be able to involve individuals on an emotional, physical,
intellectual and even spiritual level. Experiences are indeed prepared, lived, remembered and
shared with others.
In this context, symbolic and emotional dimensions acquire more and more importance
and the concept of experience becomes central in the approach to consumer marketing. Even
traditional products can be commercialised by an increased emphasis on their experiential
content. One example of this is the car market, where advertising campaigns – rather than
focusing on the technical qualities of the components of the engine – promote the driving
experience.
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From purely theatrical and historical perspectives, the business role of “director of
experience” considered from an emotional, physical, intellectual and even spiritual viewpoint is
not so different from the experience and the practice of masters such as Antonin Artaud, Jerzy
Grotowski, Alejandro Jodorowski and in the Metaphor à l’envers of Decroux’s method.
4. Theatre as a systemic product
Theatre products must be considered as systemic products. They are composed of numerous
heterogeneous elements that must constitute a coherent unit; moreover, they can be fully defined
only considering the aspects of production and consumption – process that involves, with roles
and modalities that can vary, both the consumers and the producers and the whole of the
actors/stakeholders working on the supply side.
There are two significant aspects of the theatre product:
1.
The theatre experience emerges from the interaction between a specific individual, a
product, a venue, and the actors working on it. From this assumption it can easily be
inferred that the level of participation and involvement of the cultural consumer
significantly determines the quality of the service. The degree of participation of the
individual may vary according to the type of experience sought, but in any case, the
necessity of the involvement of the same remains absolute. The global theatre
product is, in fact, above anything else, something experienced by the individual, who
therefore cannot in any way miss, or make use of, a third party. Furthermore, the
consumer/customer must not only be physically present, but must actively
participate.
2.
The theatre experience is systemic-dynamic, since it is created thanks to a plurality of
goods, services, experiences offered by individual tourism companies, other
economic operators, Public Administration offices, the resources present in the
environment and interactions with other individuals.
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Following this logic, the subjects that are part of the theatre offer should not be
considered independent elements directed and regulated by market forces alone, but
interconnected units within a complex relational system.
The industry insiders and the scholars in the field of the experience economy consider the
personal involvement of the consumer/customer to be the basic element of this new economy.
They also strongly affirm that staging experiences not only means entertaining customers, but
involving them. The producer of tourist experiences – in order to design, implement and supply
this new economic offer – must therefore know how to structure an experience as a whole.
In this regard, Pine and Gilmore have schematised the process of involvement of a
client/guest using the two most important dimensions of the experience, in the model of “areas
of experience”.
The first dimension of the areas of experience concerns the level of participation. This is
divided into:
1.
Passive participation: in which customers do not act or directly influence
performance. Examples are those people attending classical music concerts and who
experience the experience simply as listeners. It is possible to assume that
conventional institutionalised theatre falls mainly into this area.
2.
Active participation: in which customers personally take part in the performance or
event providing the experience, such as the performers and the audience members in
the creation of their experience during a site-specific performance.
The second dimension describes the type of connection or the degree of environmental
involvement that unites customers with the event or the performance and is characterised by the
following:
1.
Absorption: experience “penetrates” the person through the mind - for example,
watching television or a film in a theatre auditorium.
2.
Immersion: the person “enters” the experience by taking physically or virtually part
of the experience, such as watching a film in the cinema with other viewers, or using
virtual reality simulators or other digital devices. Alternatively, they might participate
in a site-specific or immersive theatre performance.
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January-June 2020
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Bringing these four dimensions together gives rise to the four different realms within
which the experience is developed, defining the overall level of customer involvement, These
realms are referred to as the four “E”s:
1.
Entertainment;
2.
Education;
3.
Evasion;
4.
Aesthetic experience.
Source: Pine and Gilmore 1998.
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A business model for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
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The four realms are mixed together in different sizes and proportions, depending on the
type of experience and the host involved, contributing to the creation of unique, personal and
unrepeatable events. The degree of final involvement of the client/guest depends either on the
propensity to be involved or not in any given event, or on the organisation that organises it. The
richest and most engaging experiences incorporate aspects of all four areas.
At this point, it is possible to predict different audience experiences that take account of
the following dimensions as an integral part of guests’ experience:
1.
The aesthetic dimension (being there): this is the most important, as it is what makes
guests want to take advantage of a certain product.
2.
The dimension of entertainment (entertained): entertainment is one of the key
components of recreational offers. It is important not to overlook this in cases where
complex and demanding experiences are being staged. Even under these
circumstances, we must never forget to create relaxing and leisurely moments, which
absorb the guests’ attention and leave them with good memories.
3.
The dimension of evasion/escapism (to try): to manifest this, it is necessary to ask
oneself what the guests are interested in trying and experimenting,taking account of
all the elements that allow people to escape from their routine reality. The aim here is
to be able to involve consumers/customers more deeply in the experience via
participation “without obligation”. Bear in mind that the gratification of the guest
does not reside in having done one thing well, but in having tried to satisfy them.
Good examples of this are site-specific and immersive theatre.
4.
The dimension of education (to learn): this is the component less overtly identifiable,
especially in commercially oriented theatre. Education is at the same time one of the
implicit elements of the theatre experience. One example might be a specific form
of alternative performance such as “edutainment”, as found in the work of the Ashe
Company or Renato Carpentieri’s Progetto Museum. Many forms of site-specific theatre
can be found in is category, such as documentary theatre based on history, and
forms of preventative theatre such as Galli Theatre in Germany.
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A business model for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
January-June 2020
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Pine and Gilmore’s structure shows how the construction of the theatre experience
should not only be based on the aesthetic dimension, but must also be enriched with elements
from the other three dimensions.
The four “E”s are important in order to understand the passage between conventional
marketing/economy based on the producers’ perspectives to an individual one focused on the
client (in this case, the audience). For example, this is the passage from the generic four “P”s
definition, as expressed in relation to the marketing mix in experiential economy based on the
four “C”s. To explain further, the “marketing mix” is frequently the foundation used by an
organisation in order to achieve its marketing goals and objectives. In its original formal, as
known, the definition of the four “P”s devised by Jerome McCarth (1960) is as follows:
1.
Product;
2.
Price;
3.
Place;
4.
Promotion.
Since being originally defined, these four elements have been reinforced by a further
three, so now total seven, with the additional elements being:
1.
Physical evidence;
2.
People;
3.
Process.
However, in experiential marketing, a preferred model was developed by Robert F.
Lauterborn in 1990. Known as the four “C” levels, this model incorporates:
1.
Consumer wants and needs;
2.
Cost;
3.
Communication;
4.
Convenience.
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A business model for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
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Additionally, an alternative model based on four – subsequently increasing to seven –
“C”s, has been developed by Koichi Shimizu (1989 and 2003).
In terms of theatre production, one of the main problems is the focus on the producer
and not on the user. The use of an experiential model focuses on the needs of the theatre
company in relation to the needs and the four “C”s in a perspective of business improvement
and audience development.
5. Elements to be considered in non-institutionalised and independent theatre as an
event experience
The event experience varies according to objective characteristics (which concern the event
object of experience) and subjective characteristics (which instead concern the person).
At the objective level – that is, with reference to the nature and characteristics of the
event itself, there are various types of experience of usage:
1.
Cultural celebrations;
2.
Festivals and carnivals, sacred and religious ceremonies;
3.
Pilgrimages;
4.
Political and state events;
5.
Artistic or entertainment experiences;
6.
Competitions and sports performances;
7.
Exhibitions;
8.
Conventions and meetings.
On a subjective level – that is, with reference to the people involved, there are various
factors upon which the event depends. These are as follows:
1.
Personal characteristics, such as age, sex, culture, attitudes, interests and values;
2.
The contingent state of mind;
3.
Any similar experiences of past events;
4.
The role that the person plays in relation to the event.
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Owing to the nature of the type of event and the specific subjectivity, it is possible to attribute
different interpretations using evaluation criteria.
We can therefore distinguish between four forms of meanings:
1.
Social: as concerns what an event can represent for a group or a community, or its
function of developing a sense of community or place.
2.
Cultural: connected to the contents of the event.
3.
Economic: related to the capacity of the event to attract investments, financing,
tourists and consumption.
4.
Personal: giving consideration to the meaning that each subject attributes to their
event experience.
This last point turns out to be particularly important, as it regards the theatre experience
particular to each individual in relation to the event in which he or she participates. This
experience is shaped according to individual subjectivity – and is the integrated result of
cognitive, emotional and sensory factors that are difficult to separate.
The relationship between person and theatre event is not limited only to the fruition of
the event in the strict sense, but develops from the antecedent phase subsequent to it.
Therefore the identification of the relevant moments of the event experience can take
place in relation to its different phases. This theme will be further explored later in this work.
6. Audience development: a model according to experience economy
In order to better define this model, it is first of all necessary to make a distinction between the
various possible categories. Looking at this from the perspective of Josep Ejarque (2003), we
would like to propose three options:
1.
Collectors of knowledge for whom culture is an additional element of the interest
that simple entertainment can arouse.
2.
Culturally inspired people who try to follow and understand events. They are
generally people between the ages of 25 and 45, of medium/high social class, living
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A business model for non-institutionalised and independent theatre
January-June 2020
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in urban and suburban environments. Often these people are collectors and they
travel for many different reasons – nonetheless, they always include cultural events in
their weekly schedule.
3.
Culturally motivated people who show a true passion for everything that has to do
with culture. The age of this cohort ranges, on average, from 35 years upwards.
These individuals tend to belong to a high social class and live in urban areas. Often
they are informed culture/theatre specialists who want to deepen what is an already
quite high knowledge level.
Another possibility is De Masi’s paradigm - he identifies two classes of customer (but also
workers) according to the division between new ‘digital’ subjects and old ‘analogic’ subjects:
1.
Digital: the digital cohort is more optimistic about the destiny of the planet and are
satisfied with the ubiquity allowed by information technology. They feel that they are
‘citizens of the world’ and they readily accept gender equality, birth control, multiraciality, inter-culturality and globalisation. Convinced that one lives only once, they
tend to live well in the here and now. They are attentive to ecology, they do not
differentiate too much difference between day and night, or between holidays and
weekdays. Additionally they communicate by means of linguistic and aesthetic “new”
channels, and; they have a relaxed attitude towards sexuality. Most interestingly, they
combine nomadism with permanence.
2.
Analogics: the analogics, on the other hand, are wary of novelties, and afraid of
demographic development, immigration, and multi-raciality. This is a cohort that
mistrusts new technologies and reject interculturality, birth control and euthanasia.
This cohort considers violence, corruption and wars as inevitable – in fact they
regard them as growing scourges. Another key characteristic is that they tend to fear
the future and mythologise the past.
Independent and non-institutionalised theatre should also consider a further school of
thought. Namely, the research into consumer behaviour conducted by Eric J. Arnould and Linda
L. Price (1993) whose theory assigns audience experience into four categories:
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January-June 2020
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Anticipated consumption;
2.
Purchase of the experience;
3.
Consumption of the experience;
4.
The memory of the consumption experience and associated nostalgia.
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In relation to theatre events it is possible to distinguish four phases of the experience of
fruition:
1.
The first is the pre-event, when the consumer collects information that creates
interest and pushes him to deepen its knowledge about the event, contributing to the
formation of expectations. Since this first phase we find important elements for the
overall quality perceived by the customer: the quality of information (about
programs, parking lots, facilities, services, transport, et cetera), the accuracy of details,
the language used, the image, the reservation system and the prices.
2.
The second phase is the arrival at the venue of the event, when the first impressions
of the spectator are determined by factors such as the physical environment and the
atmosphere, the signs, the presence of reception staff and the general state of the
facilities.
3.
The third moment is the performance, engaging in the event, which represents the
moment of truth.
4.
The last phase is the post-event, during which the organiser should listen to visitors’
feedback in order to drive improvements. Negative feedback in the form of
complaints, suggestions and any adverse comments should be welcomed – only by
knowing what went wrong can a better audience experience be achieved. This phase
is very significant and should not be omitted, as often happens, because it is an
integral part of the overall experiential supply.
With reference to composite events – which incorporate different moments of choice,
purchase and use of individual events – it is more appropriate to itemise three phases of the
experience of value of the overall event and to identify, for each of them, the relevant elements
for evaluation purposes.
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In the first phase, the so-called expected event, preceding the moment of the beginning
of the event itself, there are already relevant aspects, for the purposes of the assessment,
concerning the emotional intensity with which the expectation and the way of forming the
judgment are experienced.
These elements are as follows:
1.
The ways in which the event is known, for example – the memory of previous
editions, word of mouth and institutional communication in its various forms.
2.
The feelings and emotions with which the experience is lived.
3.
The search for information, and therefore its quality and type and related sources.
4.
The ex-ante perception of the event on the basis of the information available and the
judgments, the emotions and the sensations that derive from it.
5.
The planning, or not, of the forms of participation in the event, such as motivations,
personal programme, organisation, possible reservations.
In the second phase, following the actual realisation of the event itself - these are the
relevant aspects apply to the emotions experienced, the senses involved, the knowledge acquired
from the arrival on the spot right through to the end of the event:
1.
Contact with the environment/atmosphere of the event;
2.
Information on the performance of shows/attractions;
3.
Participation in shows/attractions;
4.
The peripheral services that are used - such as catering, parking and shopping.
In the third phase, the remembered event, following its completion, takes shape in the
memory of what has been done, or what has been witnessed - in the form of:
1.
The benefits achieved;
2.
The proposals for future participation, in case of repeated events;
3.
The feelings about the event itself;
4.
The perceived significance of the event.
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The most relevant aspects of the above concern the impressions that the visitor takes
away, in terms of emotions, sensations and judgments.
This type of marketing has been theorised and elaborated since the 1980s by Bernd
Schmitt of Columbia University. According to Schmitt (1999 and 2015), the primary objective of
this strategy is to identify what kind of experience will best enhance the product. Also according
to Schmitt, there are five different types of experience, which he called SEMs, or Strategic
Experiential Modules:
1.
Sense and sensorial experiences – ie: experiences that involve sensory perception.
One example is The Blind Theatre developed by Shiva Falahi, Edy Poppy, Narve
Hovdenakk, Veronika Bökelmann and Kate Pendry. Its mission is to turn the body
into the stage of a sensorial theatre, as stated in the mission of the company, creating
a half hour long dive into a different sensorial reality.
2.
Feeling and emotional experiences – ie: that is experiences that involve feelings and
emotions. This is the case, for example, of the one-to-one theatre proposed by
companies such as Ontoerend Goed from Belgium. Additionally, performances and
productions focused on openly playing with the feelings of the audience need to be
considered, such as, historically, the performance of Teatro Panico and others.
3.
Thinking and cognitive experiences – ie: creative experiences. Examples of this are
the documentary theatre, the productions of verbatim theatre practice, Morenobased psychodrama.
4.
Active and physical experiences – ie: experiences that involve physicality. site-specific
theatre, specifically the promenade type, that focus on act experience, among others.
Additionally, performance in “conventional” theatre can be considered as act
experience. It is the case of, for example, Dignità Autonome di Prostituzione by Luciano
Melchionna. This is one of the most successful theatre productions in recent time in
Europe, as described in its performance description: “[…]Actors are portrayed as
prostitutes, protected at the mercy of the spectator; they can be chosen, examined,
and exchanged for their art or for their heart. Dressed in their robes or dressing
gowns, they hook clients or they allow clients to pick them up while a ‘strange family’
who runs the ‘bordello has the arduous task of negotiating the prices of each
performance. Following this negotiation, the clients – comprising of one or two
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people or even a small group - go with the prostitute to a place where the theatrical
performance happens. Hence the performance is a monologue, a dance or an
installation that lasts ten to fifteen minutes”.
5.
Relational experiences – ie: experiences that result from being in relationship with a
group. Examples of this are the experience of Business Theatre as first developed in
Canada by Christian Poissonneau and which then spread into France, Germany, Italy
and other European countries. This thinking also extends to the form of theatre
experience based on, for example, Jacob Levi Moreno – a, leading social scientist and
Romanian-American psychiatrist, psycho-sociologist and educator – who was the
founder of psychodrama and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy.
The customer experience, that is the experience that the customer lives, is considered a
useful reference in the management of marketing for companies in all sectors, and this rule is no
exception. The underlying principle is that the generation of value through events is strongly
correlated with the ability to involve people on a cognitive, affective and sensory level. This
offers them the opportunity to live experiences according to their needs and desires, in a manner
consistent with their expectations.
The impact of such an event on the community that hosts it is connected to the
commercial, touristic, financial and logistic flows that it manages to create. These, in turn, are
influenced to a large extent on the degree of user involvement. This then depends on the
potential that the event offers them to live satisfying experiences. The impact can be assessed
considering its ability to generate market, economic-financial, socio-cultural and environmental
value.
Regarding the market value, we must consider that today the creation of events is one of
the most important components of the territorial strategies that aim to ‘import customers’ in the
market – in this case the theatre market – rather than to export products. In this context we
should also contextualise independent theatre.
In terms of market value, a further impact of the successful event on the host location is
the growth of its level of notoriety and of the information that flows on it, generated by word of
mouth of visitors and by the attention of the media.
The economic impact and the theatrical event itself can be summarised as follows:
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Direct – concerning the total expenses incurred by all the subjects taking part in the
event.
2.
Indirect – deriving from the distribution of financial resources in the local economy
as a result of the demand that the companies involved in organising and sponsoring
the event turn to their suppliers instrumental goods and financial resources.
3.
Induced – which means generated over time thanks to increases in consumption
levels, employment, income, production and added value triggered by the realisation
of the event. These effects are chained together and dispersed in space, as well as in
time, and therefore are difficult to qualify.
Looking at the physical environmental impact of theatrical events – especially in
independent theatre – it is imperative to make the most of the time event specific services and
infrastructures. An excellent example is can be found in different variations of site-specific
theatre which may be defined as follows:
1.
Study/stage based productions: these cannot be considered as genuinely site-specific.
2.
Studio as site: when using theatrical space in an unusual way, such as acting in the
corridors. However, this cannot yet be considered site-specific.
3.
Site as contextual container: when a location is chosen for the characteristics of a
given representation, for example staging William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s
Dream in a forest.
4.
Site generic: based on the use of a particular and unusual type of place, such as a
soccer field.
5.
Site responsive: based on the use of a specific resource for the show, for example a
representation on the stern of a merchant ship.
It is therefore necessary that the system of offering the event is managed using a logical
framework of territorial marketing that focuses on the following points:
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To intercept the new needs related to leisure time, to structure an innovative
proposition value of the event, and ultimately be able to satisfy a high-value demand
profile.
2.
To focus on the overall experience of the user in order to stimulate and involve him
in many ways.
3.
To seek an extreme coherence of the theme of the event with the identity and
vocation of the territory. It is therefore necessary to conceive, plan and manage the
event drawing upon the effort of fostering relations and interactions between the
different actors of the territory, stimulating social cohesion, strengthening the sense
of identity and, consequently, reinforcing the level of consent and involvement with
respect to the event.
4.
To effectively manage the network of relationships that are created with and among
the various actors taking part in the event, against a logical backdrop of total
relational marketing.
5.
To manage the socio-economic repercussions of the event in such a way that the
transfer of value to the benefit of the territory favours the increase in levels of
satisfaction, consensus, trust and commitment on the part of the many stakeholders
and policy makers involved.
To this end, strategies can be based on the following critical foundations, bearing in mind
that the first and the last two are closely related to non-institutionalised and independent theatre
practice:
1.
Iconic structures: the realisation of events so that they become a symbolic element of
the territory.
2.
Mega-events: the propensity to organise events lies in their lower cost compared to
physical infrastructures - such as a new museum - and the possibility of being able to
vary them every year. It is clear in this case, for example, whether the activity of
companies that started as non-institutionalised and nowadays are purely commercial
and expert in mega events, such as La Fura del Baus.
3.
Thematisation: consisting of a focus on a specific theme, connected in an authentic
way to the aforementioned genius loci.
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Re-evalation/use of tangible/intangible heritage. Many theatre groups, such as
Rimini Protokoll in Germany, are basing their image on the revaluation of cultural
heritage/identity, creating a specific site-specific performance and theatrical
experience.
7. Preliminary elements in theatre and social media communication
Because theatre organisations have direct contact with the public, they are interested in using
social media communication. However, it is important to point out that communication via social
media requires avoiding too much commercial content and the typical language of advertising
communications, in order to have a message that is effective and positively received.
Specifically, this means that:
1.
The messaging should indicate clear benefits for the user (whether educational,
entertaining or informative).
2.
The tone should be respectful, never official or institutional, preferably light, but
without ‘overdoing’ it.
3.
Interaction should be frequent: opening a channel of communication through social
media is easy and fast, but it has to be monitored and regularly updated, otherwise it
will become ineffective or even counterproductive.
The choice of the type of social media used also depends largely on the characteristics of
the target. The Forrester Research Institute classifies people as follow according to their level of
activity on the web:
1.
Inactive (they do not do anything);
2.
Spectator (they read blogs and forums, watch videos);
3.
Participant (they are active on Facebook and social networks);
4.
Collector (they vote and watch video and news);
5.
Critic (they comment blogs and forums, review books and products);
6.
Conversationalist (they write on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others);
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Creator (they publish blogs and websites and upload videos andor podcasts).
The main consequence of the advertising channels on the web is to create promotional
campaigns that are not perceived as invasive by the reader/user. More, they are perceived as
advice relating to their cultural choices. This creates a virtuous circle, both for the image of the
promoter of the oal of the campaign.
This having been said, the three main reasons for investing in social media are as follows:
1.
Reaching a specific target;
2.
Achieving a remarkable economic saving;
3.
Permitting a different perception of the advertising message.
For example, regarding live tweeting both past and present, let us regard the impact of an
Instagram story broadcast, bearing in mind that live social media takes the form of the storytelling of an event. It allows one to give visibility to a happening, and to share it with those who
are not participating in the first person. Its use is important to companies during off-line and
online events in order to extend their reach and integration with online followers and
communities.
Another example is advertising platforms, such as Google Ads (and, until July 2018
AdWords). Google Ads is the advertising platform of Google that permits the analysis of the
publication of text ads, images and videos on search results pages and on sites of the Google
content network. Since its inception in the form of AdWords, it has represented a real innovation
in online advertising. This is because its diffusion among the search marketing tools is clear, and
– at the same time – that the notoriety of Google as a search engine, has contributed to the
popularity of its advertising platform. This this route offers many opportunities in terms of
visibility, not least because advertisements can be published as text, images and videos in the
form of two main options:
1.
Keyword targeting: ads are displayed according to selected keywords, both when they
are searched on Google and when they are relevant to the page content of one of the
Google content network sites.
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Placement targeting: ads appear on sites that are part of the integral content network,
based on those words specified when setting up the campaign.
The use of social media within the advertising campaign is therefore a fundamental
weapon for renewing the image of theatre companies and attracting different targets.
The main challenges lie in creating an interesting page and making the continuous and
constant effort to take care of it and manage it. The content must always contain topics
concerning the main interest of visitors, plus there needs to be photos, videos and news on all
events and initiatives. According to experts, to interact effectively with Facebook fans means to
consider the page as if it were a “VIP room”. In other words to think of it as a private room
where the best customers are entertained in an exclusive relationship, allowing them to read and
view content that feels like it has been created especially for them. Additionally this ‘VIP room’
can be used to issue invitations to previews and keep followers informed about sales, special
offers and promotions.
The advantages are many allowing the brand to approach its audience through the most
widespread social network, according to patterns of viral trending and coverage.
8. Media planning and performance
Assuming a plan is formulated that is clearly aimed at optimising the impact of communication
and advertising activities, it is important to remain aware that the following points are key to
maximising ongoing publicity coverage:
1.
A well-structured, carefully co-ordinated presence on social media is fundamental
for achieving the most effective impact from theatre publicity. Social networks are an
essential and privileged means of communication, even more for targets such as
young people, who are often not easy to reach.
2.
Social media seen from a two-pronged perspective: at the same time “showcase” and
an “access gate”. The main objective is to address the target with non-traditional
languages and – above all – to ensure it is accessible. For example Instagram stories,
photos, videos, music files, tweets and mobile apps all allow you to present events,
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shows and initiatives from multiple points of view, diversifying communication and
extending its reach.
3.
Looking at things from a long-term perspective, the goal is certainly to increase and
enhance an innovative and effective communication system, but also to put it ‘at the
service’ of the theatre company with the objective of continuing to expand and retain
public attention.
The main objectives to be achieved are:
1.
Cognitive objectives: a campaign on social networks succeeds effectively, with lower
investments compared to traditional media, to launch a new brand or to promote
brands and repositioning. Even the classic communication objectives such as
memory and recognition, familiarity and relevance find a privileged and relevant
drive in the participatory media. Cognitive objectives are: awareness, knowledge,
recognition, familiarity, diversity, relevance, memorisation and mental association.
2.
Emotional goals: brand image and reputation are increasingly moving on the web, as
well as the need of people to be involved through direct experience with the brand.
Emotionality involves a judgment (positive or negative). The emotional objectives
are: reputation, esteem, evaluation, judgment, preference, attitude, influence, trust
and involvement.
3.
Behavioural objectives: each campaign involves a specific call-to-action pragmatic,
modulable and detectable. There are quantitative indicators (from the number of
products sold up to the Net Promoter Score to analyse word of mouth), and
qualitative indicators (such as the analysis of feedback and conversations through
matrices with performance variables). Behavioural goals are: action, purchase, loyalty,
word of mouth, conversation, feedback, co-creation, relationship.
The goal of a media plan is to increase the purchase of tickets, preferably online, and
through especially created applications. Ultimately this means that all the theatre performances
offered by the company will increase levels of participation on the part of young people in the
cultural activities promoted. This can be secured thanks to a greater presence on the net which
will improve brand awareness, and create emotional bonds, retention and buzz.
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Methods of implementing such a project include:
1.
Creating a greater number of blogs and communities, in order to encourage
exchanges of opinions and “participated confrontation” in the virtual environments
frequented by the target audience.
2.
Focusing on using social media like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo.
Additionally, create a range of online blog and communities to stimulate virtual
dialogue and conversations.
3.
Developing specific applications for i-phones and other smartphones, in order to
reach the largest possible percentage of the target market.
4.
Purchasing advertising space.
The main target is represented by young people ranging from 18 to 25 years, with a
secondary – and growing – market of people aged 25 to 35 years. The retention target market, on
the other hand, is the adult-age audience aged 35 and over.
In conclusion, the main ways of communication – including the traditional ones – to be
used for public promotion are the following: posters, posters and leaflet, press; radio (no doubt
still an important channel for the dissemination of a message, given its high ratings) and the
internet.
Not to be underestimated is the use of unconventional marketing and events – for
example: experiential marketing could be useful to experience ‘virtually’ via a small piece of
emotion deriving from the stage but adapted, such as seen in the live stories posted on Instagram.
Bibliography
ARNOULD, Eric J., PRICE, Linda L. (1993), “River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the
Extended Service Encounter”, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 20, 1, June, pp. 24–45.
BAXTER, Lisa (2010), “From Luxury to necessity. The changing role of qualitative researching the
arts”, in Daragh O’Reilly and Finola Kerrigan (eds.), Marketing the Arts, London-New York:
Routledge, pp. 121-140.
BORDIEU, Pierre (1993), The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (1984), edited
and introduced by Randal Johnson, New York: Columbia University Press.
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CARBONE, Lou, HAECKEL Steve (1994), “Engineering customer experiences”, Marketing
Management, 3, pp. 8–19.
CAUSEY, Matthew (2007), Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture, London-New York: Routledge.
DE MASI, Domenico (2000), L’ozio creativo, Milano: Rizzoli.
DE MASI, Domenico (2007), Il futuro del lavoro, Milano: Rizzoli.
DE MASI, Domenico (2013), La fantasia e la concretezza. Creatività individuale e di gruppo, Milano:
Rizzoli.
DE MASI, Domenico (2016), Una semplice rivoluzione. Lavoro, ozio, creatività: nuove rotte per una società
smarrita, Milano: Rizzoli.
DE VEREAUX, Constance ed. (2019), Arts and Cultural Management: Sense and Sensibilities in the State
of the Field, London-New York: Routledge.
EJARQUE, Josep (2003), “Destination Revolution”, Le pagine di Risposte Turismo, vol. 2, pp. 20-26.
EVERSMANN, Peter (2004), The experience of the theatrical event, in Vicki Ann Cremona, Peter
Eversmann, Hans van Maanen, Willmar Sauter, and John Tulloch (eds.), Theatrical Events. Border,
Dynamics, Frames, Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, pp.139-174.
HANSEN, Louise Ejgod (2014a), “Behaviour and attitude. The Theatre Talks method and
audience development”, International Journal of Cultural Policy e-pub. ahead of print.
HANSEN, Louise Ejgod (2014b), “The democratic potential of Theatre Talks”, Nordic Theatre
Studies, 25, pp. 10-21.
HAZELWOOD, Emma, LAWSON, Rob, AITKEN, Rob (2009), “An essential guide to audience
development”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 27, 6, pp.789-804
KAWASHIMA Nobuko (2000), Beyond the Division of Attenders vs. Non-attenders: a study into audience
development in policy and practice, Warwick: Centre for Cultural Policy Research.
LAUTERBOM, Bob (1990), “New Marketing Litany. Four P’sPasse. Four C’s Take Over”,
Advertising Age, 61, 4, pp. 26-32.
LINDELOF, Anja Mølle (2015), “Audience Development and its Blind Spot”, International Journal of
Cultural Policy, vol 21(2), pp. 200-218.
McCarthy, Jerome (1960), Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach, Homewood: Richard D. Irwin.
PEARSON, Mike (2010), Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,.
PINE, Joseph B., GILMORE, James H. (1998), “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard
Business Review, July-August, pp. 97-105.
RADBOURNE, Jennifer, JOHANSON, Katya, GLOW, Hilary (2010), “Empowering Audiences to
Measure Quality”, Particip@tions, 7(2), pp. 360-379.
REASON, Matthew (2010), “Asking the audience. Audience research and the experience of
theatre”, About performance, 10, pp. 15–34.
SAUTER W. (2000), The Theatrical Event. Dynamics of Performance and Perception, Iowa City: University
of Iowa Press.
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SCHMITT, Bernd (2010), “Experience Marketing: Concepts, Frameworks and Consumer
Insights”, Foundations and Trends in Marketing, vol. 5, 2, pp. 55–112.
SCHMITT, Bernd (2015), “Experiential Marketing: A New Framework for Design and
Communications”, DMI, vol. 10, 2, Spring 1999, republished in 40th Anniversary Issue, pp. 19-26.
SCHMITT, Bernd, SIMOSON, Alex (1997), Marketing Aesthetics: The strategic management of brands,
identity, and image, New York: The Free Press.
SCOLLEN, Rebecca (2008), “Bridging the Divide. Regional Performing Arts Centres and Nontheatregoers introduced”, Applied Theatre Researcher/Idea Journal, 9, pp. 1-13.
SCOLLEN, Rebecca (2009), “Talking Theatre is more than a Test Drive. Two Audience
Development Methodologies under Review”, International Journal of Arts Management, 12(4), pp. 413.
TRIGG, Andrew B.. (2001), “Veblen, Bourdieu, and Conspicuous Consumption”, Journal of
Economic Issues, Vol. 35, No. 1, Mar., pp. 99-115.
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ISSN: 2284-3310
Case Studies
Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
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Spectacular ad hoc structures
as a further step in the collective creation:
The Make a Move project1
Eugen Păsăreanu
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
*****
1. Introduction
Paradoxically, the performing artist has always had a dual nature: on the one hand, having his
own searches – aesthetic, technical, sensitive, and on the other hand as a member of a group – as
a stage partner through which those artistic pursuits are fulfilled, either on a reflective level – as a
member of a community through which the world around him is measured or understood. Thus,
the artist has always been not only in the position of the creator, but also in one of a negotiator –
with himself, with the stage partner, with the public, with the funder, in the process of
materialising his scenic creed.
2. Co-creating techniques: a historic perspective
In different stages of the history of theatre, the artist has been dependent and influenced by the
others and by the space in which it had to manifest itself. For example, the performing space can
be for the artist a place that delimits and frames the sacred (Ancient Greece and Rome).
Alternatively, it can be a delimitation and a framing of the expression (in the realist, naturalistic
theatre), to reach with the 20th century a place that generates its own stories (the ‘site-specific’
theatre) or a space that is virtualised in 21st century (a space created using immersive video
The contrinbution will also appear, with some minor changes, in PERANIĆ, Ivana PUPIĆ-BAKRAČ, Marta eds. (2020)
Make a move – An Art Incubator for contemporary European non-institutionalised and independent theatre Handbook, Rijeka:
Make a Move.
1
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January-June 2020
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projections). Within the same structure of interdependence we can also see the relationship
between the artist and the stage partner – real, imaginary or virtual – or between the artists who
create by the devised method.
If we think of the troubadours of the Middle Ages or the traveling groups of
improvisation theatre, such as those of commedia dell’arte, we can see how the connection between
a formed structure, space and artist can be flexible, the artist being the one who populates the
performing space, relatively little dependent on the geography of the place. Naturally, in the case
of the commedia dell’arte, the artists adapted their typical scenarios according to the last stories of
the place where they performed, but these elements remained rather ornaments to attract the
public, rather than substantial modifications of the performed material. Things change with
advent of the 18th and 19th centuries, when the various forms of patronage – such as protectorate
and funding granted to artists – are institutionalised either in the form of national theatres or in
other forms of subsidy, reaching a special diversification in the 20th century and at the beginning
of the 21st century.
To prove relevant to the public, independent theatre companies have developed their
own techniques and methods, one of these being the devised technique or the collective creation,
in which “the work was originally created through democratic processes of exploration using
many forms of improvisation” (Prendergast 2009: 18). Thus, the group of artists jointly explores
a problem and democratically decides the steps in the artistic processing of the case. In turn, the
collective creation can be directed to an applied theatre form – such as if we think about the
forum theatre, for example, or the different forms of theatre in education. Alternatively, it may
have a scenic destiny, for example, a documentary theatre performance. Positioning itself as a
rather aesthetic exploration, or claiming from the theatro-social practices of Augusto Boal, in
which the dramatic art is used rather as an instrument for raising awareness of social problems,
the collaborative creation remains anchored by the desire of the group that uses it. Two famous
20th century examples include The Living Theatre and Rimini Protokoll. As Olivia Grecea points
out
Collective creation becomes a synecdoche of the paradigm of globalisation, new technologies,
intelligent systems and humanity that is redefining itself by referring to the accelerated changes of
the last decades. However, it also becomes a topos of the rehabilitation of the contemporary man:
by confronting with the otherness and by creating a context in which the individual is put in
relation to the structures he belongs to, which define him and which he permanently influences
through his behavior and decisions (2017: 290).
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Devised or collective creative practices become, in this way, forms of the contemporary
ethos – an ethos dominated by collective responsibility, interactivity and technology.
3. Contemporary applications of the co-creation/devised technique: the Make a
Move project
In the case of the European Make a Move project, carried out between 2018 and 2020, ten artists
from different cultural spaces came to collaborate for ten days in co-creation laboratories to
finally show theatrical work-in-progress moments. The laboratories were held in Galway
(Ireland), Rijeka (Croatia) and Târgu-Mureș (Romania), and ended with public presentations of
various “snapshots” of moments. The project took the devised technique further in the risky
direction to bring together artists not seeking an aesthetic or practical affinity, or to unite around
a social or ideological desire, but simply following the selection of a jury, depending on the
artistic quality – defined by innovative practices and with a certain impact among the public. The
artists signed up for the project following a public call, knowing that they would work with other
independent artists in the area of movement-based theatre.
With different backgrounds, artists thus came to generate their own aesthetic and
semantic negotiation in order to achieve a theatrical moment – a negotiation that also included
the exploration of space, the moment and the abilities to communicate in multicultural contexts,
and less aligned with political or aesthetic affinities of the participants. In the case of financing
these art forms, we can see that ad hoc spectacular structures are formed, which, unlike the
theatre groups that use the devised technique, do not have as their common denominator a
direction of aesthetic or social search, but become sufficient through themselves.
Liberated from the repetition of a repertoire performance, of the work and routine within
a company, the artists are given the opportunity of a unique exploration, together with other
creators with no tangents, in a discovery of the other by common negotiated methods, in rather
neutral spaces – Galway, Rijeka, Târgu-Mureș. These spaces do not belong to a group or a
majority that decides the direction of the approach, as the artists do not create together for
common ideological reasons. Thus, these spectacular ad hoc structures may co-exist with
traditional theatrical institutions, with independent artists having the advantage of the uniqueness
of the context and of the ad hoc group formed. If we are to consider Prendergast’s definition of
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democratisation within the process of collective creation, democratisation becomes even more
pronounced in this case, through the mix of participants and the inclusion of artists from
different places of the world – regardless of the degree of democratisation of the space from
which they belong.
We can say that the workshops of collective creation in which the artists do not know
each other and do not work together in a previously defined approach, in a neutral space, form
ad hoc theatre structures that can arouse a special interest both from the point of view of
theatrical praxis, as well as managerial or public impact.
4. Conclusion
The element of perishability by the very nature of the ad hoc structure can confer a unique aura
of the unique experience to which the participants (both creators and spectators) participate.
Here the difference between the structures consecrated in the form of companies or theatre
groups that approach the devised techniques and the spectacular ad hoc structures, born through
such projects: the ad hoc structures become vehicles of regeneration of creative energies in artists
through the nature of international exchange of practices and through common approaches,
positioning itself as a step against the routine and the theatrical recipe, generating mobile human
forms, dependent on the meeting between different artists in that neutral space. Thus, the degree
of negotiation and the need for tolerance can be higher in such newly-created structures, than in
a theatre group or company united by the form of practice, with performers who know each
other and who usually act together.
If the devised technique breaks down the previous hierarchies into spectacular practice,
by flexing the relation of performer-director-public, the laboratories that generate common
creation between artists that do not know each other, performed on neutral ground, succeed a
more extensive democratisation and negotiation.
Bibliography
GRECEA, Olivia (2017), “Teatrul devised (Creația teatrală colectivă)”, Utopie, instrument și teatru
politic, București: Eikon.
PRENDERGAST, Monica, SAXTON, Juliana, eds. (2009), Applied Theatre. International Case Studies and
Challenges for Practice, Bristol: Intellect.
Eugen Păsăreanu
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Tappeto Volante
and the site-specific as an event
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
1. Profile of the company
Tappeto Volante s.r.l. is a theatre company that specialises in the creation, design, production,
organisation and implementation of major site-specific performative events of an artistic,
spectacular and cultural nature. It is directed by Domenico Maria Corrado, and appears to be one
of the very few Italian companies specialising in the field of site-specific theatre and territorial
revaluation.
Corrado started his activity in this field in 1995, with the aim of finding a valid alternative
to conventional theatre. According to Corrado, film and television have inflated the habits of the
public by modifying the theatrical languages, with times of staging much smaller than in the past,
because the public is no longer used to keeping the times and rhythms of the canonical spectacle.
Conventional theatre nowadays today has the need to bring on stage the so-called “renowned” or
“famous” performer (“Star”), well-known personalities that allow to have a large number of
spectators thanks to their celebrity. This element causes, for Corrado, a fractionation of the
theatrical offer, both culturally and qualitatively.
Tappeto Volante’s first show, Plauto nei luoghi e nei tempi degli antichi pompeiani was staged in
1995, in the excavations of Pompeii with the purpose of allowing the audience to attend an event
that would let them experience the place and, at the same time, a theatrical representation. The
most famous scenes of some plays by Plautus were extrapolated then performed in specific part
of the excavations of Pompeii, such as the Basilica, the “Casa di Venere in Conchiglia”, the Gym
of gladiators, etc. The audience was accompanied by an actor who played Plautus and was
therefore projected into a surreal dimension.
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The success of this initiative was such that the Pompeii Archaeological Superintendence
made the request to design a similar project for the following summer. In 1996 the show L’ultima
notte di Pompei was created, inspired by the texts of various ancient authors, such as Plautus and
the Greek Menander. In this context, the element the most attracted the audience was the
opportunity to experience the ruins in the evening. Many other similar projects were created,
such as L’ultima notte di Ercolano, staged from 1998 to 2000, with the need to raise and re-evaluate
the place, in agreement with the Ministry of Culture.
The prerequisite for the birth of new shows is always the same: to identify a monumental,
environmental, historical, archaeological site and to hypothesise a show to enhance the place
through this way of experience theatre.
Corrado himself affirms that the protagonists of his shows are the performance and the
place, and not the famous actor. The component of the imagination, of the charm, of the
suggestion is given by the place.
The offer of Tappeto Volante, through the years, has been divided into shows in different
locations all with the same register. Examples are:
1.
L’Inferno di Dante in Pertosa Caves, Province of Salerno;
2.
Il Paradiso di Dante at the Arechi Castle in Salerno;
3.
L’Orlando Furioso at Stabian Castle of Rocca Imperiale, Calabria;
4.
L’Eneide di Virgilio in the Paestum ruins;
5.
L’Aulularia di Plauto in the Pompeii ruins;
6.
Romeo e Giulietta in Caserta Vecchia;
7.
Il Purgatorio di Dante in Chartreuse of Padula, Province of Salerno.
This programming demonstrates the high specialisation of the company in the sector of
site-specific theatre as a dynamic system with local stakeholders over the long term.
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2. Example of performance
L’Inferno di Dante alle Grotte di Pertosa has been probably the most famous performance produced
by Tappeto Volante, taking place in the Caves of the Angelo di Pertosa in the province of
Salerno – a location that attracts thousands of tourists every year who choose it for different
aspects ranging from naturalistic interest.
The first edition of the show dates back to 2006, and its peculiarity lies in the fact that
there are no wings or backdrops, but it all takes place in the prehistoric scenario of the caves,
about 35 million-year old. The same spectators move within the scene going towards the various
characters. The path of this promenade site-specific, in fact, winds along a route of about a kilometre,
in tunnels dug into the bowels of the mountain, characterised by the succession of large cavities
adorned with imposing stalact-stalagmitic groups and extraordinary morphologies of concretion
that almost completely cover the ground.
It is a show that aims also at rediscovering and enhancing the history, culture and heritage
of the territory in which it is staged, having also elements of edutainment.
The performances are held every Friday morning and Saturday night, with the aid of a
poignant and unreleased soundtrack written by Enzo Gragnianiello, fifteen installations of
contemporary art, a hundred infernal images reproducing, damned and lost souls, multimedia
reconstructions of the infernal groups, and thirty between actors, dancers and extras, but above
all with the poetry of Dante. Elements such as these that make it a show that is unique and
exciting.
The audience is divided into groups of 30/35 units and entrusted to a “Dante” who
welcomes it at the entrance and after having recited the entire first canto of the Inferno,
introduces its own group of spectators/visitors in the caves. Near an artistic installation, two
metres high and one metre point four wide, which reproduces the image of Beatrice, Dante
describes the meeting of Virgil with Beatrice – sometimes using the language of the Supreme
Poet other times a dramatic, incisive and descriptive summary.
Through the door that bears the famous words “per me si va nella città dolente”, the
audience with Dante sits on a boat, piloted by Charon, with whom you cross the Acheron. Here
there was no need to resort to artifice because the caves are crossed by the underground river,
Negro, that generates a pond and a waterfall, entering the bowels of the earth until arriving on
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the bank of the first circle. Here Dante sums up the function of the circle and indicates Homer,
Ovid and Lucan.
Overcoming the reluctance of the “Diavolo Minosse”, the audience arrives in the second
circle where he meets Paolo and Francesca, where Dante recites the poetic verses of the fifth
canto. Then the third, fourth and fifth circles are crossed, meeting the various devils: Cerberus,
Pluto and Flegias, guarding each of the circles, and the souls of the sinners who suffer their pain
within them.
Near the sixth circle, a host of devils, with a “tarantolata” pantomime, blocks the passage
to the Dante and his group, preventing him from continuing until the arrival of an angel, which
opens the door of the Dite and allows the group to continue. In the sixth circle, set in the socalled “Great Hall”, the audience meets Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, who
entertain the Dante reciting the verses of the Comedia. Following audience meets Pier delle Vigne,
transformed into a tree of Pruno, Ulysses and Diomedes, Count Ugolino and, finally, Lucifer.
3. Business elements
L’Inferno di Dante alle Grotte di Pertosa – then L’Inferno di Dante alle Grotte di Castelcivita and L’Inferno
di Dante nel Museo del Sottosuolo di Napoli – presents an experiential concept, which offers
opportunities for fun and entertainment but also for evasion and education (cultural enrichment)
through an aesthetic experience. In particular, the two aspects, spectacular and cultural, have the
aim of strengthening the overall appeal of the event and supporting its underlying mission: to
generate value in a broad sense, beyond the income from ticket sales.
The atmosphere of the show not only allows the satisfaction of the individual aesthetic
pleasure of the guest, with the possibility of visiting the routes of the caves, but it is also
interesting in the opportunity given to spectators to start a path of cultural learning, through the
possibility of interaction with the actors of the event.
From this point of view, a distinctive aspect of the event is the total absence of barriers
between actors and the public: the empathic relationship and the physicality of the relationship
that develops between spectators and actors is indeed very strong and highly engaging, both on
the cognitive level and the emotional one.
The development of this interactive process is therefore oriented towards generating a
thought experience, stimulating the intellect of the individual and activating creative and cognitive
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experiences. In this sense, the show – even if it is covered by hyper-real components – can be
conceived as an event that meets the need for identity research of the individuals participating in
it. At the same time, the specific historical roots of the host can be conveyed to the spectators via
a sense of collective identity in a world characterised by continuous transformation.
The connotations at the base of the event concept affect the development of the host
territory also with a view to long-term growth. In general, going beyond the proceeds of the
tickets sold, which basically ensure the operation of the event, it can be said that this had:
1.
Positive effects of image: the success of Dante’s Inferno is contributing to the
development of Pertosa’s reputation in the provincial, regional and interregional
context. The show is deeply linked to the image of the place that hosts it, having
become a real symbol and an essential component of the city of Pertosa, which has
thus been able to initiate a significant process of reconverting its image.
2.
Impacts on the local receptive stakeholders thanks to the show.
In general, it can be stated that the event has been able to trigger a virtuous process
between positive repercussions, satisfaction of stakeholders and policy makers, creating a
dynamic system between private alternative company and local public institutions.
Bibliography
CARBONE, Lou, HAECKEL Steve (1994), “Engineering customer experiences”, Marketing
Management, 3, pp. 8–19.
EJARQUE, Josep (2003), “Destination Revolution”, Le pagine di Risposte Turismo, vol. 2, pp. 20-26.
EVERSMANN, Peter (2004), The experience of the theatrical event, in Vicki Ann Cremona, Peter
Eversmann, Hans van Maanen, Willmar Sauter, and John Tulloch (eds.), Theatrical Events. Border,
Dynamics, Frames, Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, pp.139-174.
HANSEN, Louise Ejgod (2014a), “Behaviour and attitude. The Theatre Talks method and
audience development”, International Journal of Cultural Policy e-pub. ahead of print.
PEARSON, Mike (2010), Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,.
PINE, Joseph B., GILMORE, James H. (1998), “Welcome to the Experience Economy”, Harvard
Business Review, July-August, pp. 97-105.
SCHMITT, Bernd (2010), “Experience Marketing: Concepts, Frameworks and Consumer
Insights”, Foundations and Trends in Marketing, vol. 5, 2, pp. 55–112.
Armando Rotondi
Case Study #2 – Tappeto Volante and the site-specific as an event
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
78
SCHMITT, Bernd (2015), “Experiential Marketing: A New Framework for Design and
Communications”, DMI, vol. 10, 2, Spring 1999, republished in 40th Anniversary Issue, pp. 19-26.
SCHMITT, Bernd, SIMOSON, Alex (1997), Marketing Aesthetics: The strategic management of brands,
identity, and image, New York: The Free Press.
SCOLLEN, Rebecca (2008), “Bridging the Divide. Regional Performing Arts Centres and Nontheatregoers introduced”, Applied Theatre Researcher/Idea Journal, 9, pp. 1-13.
.
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Teatro de Los Sentidos
and the “theatre of experience”
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
Teatro de Los Sentidos is an international group of artists-researchers based in Barcelona with
twenty years’ of experience under the artistic direction of the company’s founder, Colombian
anthropologist and dramaturge Enrique Vargas. They are developers of games researching upon
the poetics of the senses.
They have developed a methodology that connects the sensorial languages, the poetics of
games and theatrical creation. They make experiences, which blur the usual line between audience
and actors in traditional theatre schemes, to foster an interactive and creative participation of the
audience. The audience is invited to explore their labyrinthine spaces as if it was participating in a
big game.
Looking closely to the experiential work of this company it is easy to see a possible
connection with the art form of the Happenings: “The line between art and life should be kept as
fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible” (Kaprow 2002: 260).
As for the Happenings, the way the performances of Teatro de los Sentidos are conceived
is far from the usual theatre habits. Nothing is taken for granted, not even the space, which is not
a single performance space as in the conventional sense. In Teatro de los Sentidos a performance
often takes place over several locales. Thus, the audience experiences a completely different
feeling of space. This is not exclusive anymore but more close to a fluid effect, whereas a single
space is considered static. This can be called the landscape effect more common in modern
paintings or even in the way space is often organised in dreams.
The result is that the audience is not looking anymore for a construction of the
performance based on the chronology of the events, but starts to use all the senses to find a
personal route inside the experience.
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This type of theatre is the perfect example of what Peter Brook calls the “Theatre of the
Invisible-Made-Visible”. The “Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible” is related to the notion
that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear has a deep hold on our thoughts. We are
all aware that most of life escapes our senses. One powerful explanation of the various arts is that
they talk of patterns which we can only begin to recognise when they manifest themselves as
rhythms or shapes (Cf. Brook 1990).
The organisation and perception of time follow closely that of space. With the
organisation of the performance over multiple spaces, the movement of the audience will directly
determine time. The collective audience is now split into individuals and each individual has a
journey inside the performance that is dictated by his or senses and, therefore, by his or her
personal perception.
A big difference with the Happenings is the fact that Teatro de Los Sentidos is a theatre
company organising theatre performances that are repeatable. The possibility of repetition of the
performance is granted by the existence of a detailed frame in which the fluidity of the events is
collected.
The company sets up a unique pattern that allows the audience to feel independent whilst
the experience is organised into a specific time sequence, usually working like a journey. There is
never any possibility of going back and there are a series of turning points that are collective.
Individuals are driven through a series of events that only happen in a specific order.
The audience of Teatro de Los Sentidos is engaged in the performance both as a single
individual and as a crowd. When the audience is engaged like a crowd, it follows a pattern similar
to the epic theatre. The audience becomes, therefore, a collective in crucial places of the
performance. In these points the theatrical action, likewise the epic theatre, is easily recognisable
as something that we all have experienced in every day life, for instance an orchestra band
walking down the street.
The experience of watching a music event in the street is something that the audience
recognise and to which it can easily relate without struggling to make an interpretation. This
sensation of something known, for an audience is very relaxing. The relaxed audience is then
ready to accept an individual and more intimate approach from the actors who cn now include
their audience in actions that are much more inspired by the dreamy realm.
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The audience lives an experience that is both personal and unique inside a safe, collective
context. This approach to time is also similar to the epic theatre because of the organisation of
different collective moments throughout the performance:
Epic theatre is in league with the course of time in an entirely different way from that of the tragic
theatre. Because suspense belongs less to the outcome than to the individual events, this theatre
can cover the greatest spans of time (Benjamin 2014: 65).
The experiential theatre is granted by the total absence of a hero in the story. This is the
story of the events the audience live both as a single guest and as a collective crowd. The
collective experience gives a concrete value to the single one even though this last one belongs to
the world of dreams, the world of the “Invisible-Made-Visible” one.
Bibliography
BROOK, Peter (1990), The Empty Space (1968), London: Penguin Books.
KAPROW, Allan (2002), “Assemblages, Environments and Happenings”, in Michael Huxley and
Noel Witts (eds.) The Twentieth- Century Performance Reader, London-New York: Routledge, pp. 260270.
PAGLIARO, Maria (2016), Todo ya está aquí aunque no se vea : Enrique Vargas y el Teatro de Los Sentidos,
Barcelona: Corre La Voz SL.
Valentina Temussi
Case Study #3 – Teatro de Los Sentidos and the “theatre of experience”
January-June 2020
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Wild Theatre and the establishment
of a non-institutionalised theatre company
in an emergency extra-EU context
Lyudmyla Honcharova
University of Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo
*****
There were no massive changes in Ukrainian Theatre till Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity
(Euromaidan Revolution) in 2014. Before this, theatre was distanced from current issues of
society and was not connected to the needs of modern World. In other words it was in a state of
stagnation. Moreover, the problem was not only in theatre repertoire or the way of staging – but
also that the Ukrainian audience was not ready to accept experiment and boldness in theatre.
The most important issue to consider is how Revolution of Dignity altered Ukrainian
Theatre arena. During Euromaidan, conversations were started between theatre practitioners and
critics as to how this revolution could change Ukrainian Theatre. This gave rise to a chance to
eliminate apathy on the part of both actors and audience alike, as people were now experiencing
the authenticity of a genuinely united act.
As a result, a new independent theatre company Wild Theatre was founded in Kyiv in
2016 by Yaroslava Kravchenko. An independent theatre company, Wild Theatre began to talk
with audience only about themes which were sharp, relevant and related to current social issues
and themes.
This company has a reputation of both creating provocative theatre and making news.
They talk about problems in a blatant, frank and direct way. For European countries these things
might seem common and unimpressive. However, for Ukrainian Theatre, this represents a big
step forward. For this reason, Wild Theatre might, in certain regards, parallel The Living Theatre
for the Ukraine.
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The first generic element shared between these experimental companies is that both of
them had no government support or financial founding support. Furthermore, the governments
of both countries pro-actively put obstacles in the way of their progress:
You realise that the only thing standing between you and work you want to do is the money
system. And it is no long before you realise that the entire economy is stifling most of the creative
efforts of all men. The work you do in the theatre becomes in all its part an attempt to get men to
do away with the whole system (Beck in Marrs 1984: 39).
The Ukrainian system is built in the way that it is impossible or hard for independent
theatre companies to use state theatre facilities as the conditions under which they could use the
space would be inconvenient and non-refundable. In addition, there is no alternative theatre
spaces in which independent theatre companies such as Wild Theatre can perform without any
impediment.
The vast majority of state theatres in the Ukraine do not stage politically provoking and
experimental productions – but at the same time they do not allow the opportunity for other
companies do the same, fearing it will cause a decrease in the numbers of audiences.
Thus, conservatism and complacency on the part of some Ukrainian theatre practitioners
stopped development and killed experimentation in Ukrainian theatre. For this reason, Wild
Theatre productions are very flexible and can be presented in various spaces.
Additionally, the Living Theatre experienced problems and inconveniences regarding
finding a permanent theatre facility base during the course of their production The Brig. After this,
Beck stated that The Living Theatre would never go back to the confines of working in a theatre
facility on a permanent basis, nor would it return to the production of plays that did not have a
political message.
Robert Edmond Jones gave advice to both Judith Malina and Julian Beck about creating
theatre that would be independent from theatrical space:
I wish you had no money at all, because then you can create something. I tell you nothing will come out of
the large commercial theatres. You should not go into any theatre. You should have a room, make your sets
of scraps of paper, and that way you will be able to drive through and find something (Jones in Marrs 1984:
19).
Another key point is detachment from reality in drama which is presented on the
Ukrainian Theatre stage. Frequently, this drama is dated and irrelevant. Modern European and
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Ukrainian drama was left behind till The Revolution of Dignity. Revolution triggered changes in
theatre by inspiring to make another attempt to create an Independent Theatre platform. The
Wild Theatre repertoire is based on the best contemporary European and Ukrainian dramatic
texts. By the same token, The Living Theatre was largely responsible for introducing an American
audience to the best European drama.
Wild Theatre should become the same motivating factor for Ukrainian play writers and
poets. This is based on the assumption that national contemporary drama will develop only when
there can be a systematic depiction and understanding of reality of one’s own country. As a
matter of fact, in both theatre systems, there was originally a gap between acute drama and
theatre: “Drama where the invisible becomes visible, where ideas are translated into correct
images of reality, where the problem is expressed in flesh and blood, where anguish is a living
presence, an impressive witness” (Bigsby-Brown 1967: 7).
Theatre is a social and political battlefield and its significance cannot be overlooked.
Julian Beck said that “The theatre is the wooden horse by which we can take the town’. In
addition, The Living Theatre have rejected traditional theatre on the grounds they perceive it as
fake, and convinced that honesty in the theatre could effect a change in people and that those
who were transformed could change the political structure and ultimately improve life.
The Wild Theatre company adopts exactly the same aims, trying to effect change in their
audience and transform the stage from a battlefield. To this end, they make their audience aware
of the danger of the current political situation and that people need to adopt an active position in
life.
For example, Iphigenia – The Terrorist’s Bride is one of the Wild Theatre’s most provocative,
relevant and political oriented productions. Themes raised include globalisation, worldwide
terrorism, the identity of the Ukrainian nationality and the place of the Ukraine in the worldwide
arena. After the performance, the audience people started questioning themselves about themes
that were brought up and began to revise their way of thinking.
However, the fact that independent theatres have no financial support has been having a
direct influence on its price rates, making it more expensive to attend performances by pushing
up prices, therefore making the experience less accessible for the majority of people. As a result,
ticket prices for performances are higher than in state theatres and cannot be afforded by the
lower and middle classes.
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Again, one solution here might be to follow the example of Living Theatre who were
highly perceptive in inferring that it was not the middle class that would lead the revolution –
since they have plenty to eat – instead, it was the poor and the young generation who must be
reached.
In the Ukraine, the situation is slightly different as it is hard to distinguish between the
poor and middle classes as they virtually share the same low level of living conditions. Bear in
mind, it is common for former Soviet countries to classify people as either ‘poor’ or ‘rich’ - since
the concept of the existence of a middle class is entirely absent.
With reference to the Revolution of Dignity, it must be borne in mind that the majority
of creators and participants of revolution have all largely been younger people and/or with a low
level of living conditions and young generation. Ultimately, Living Theatre found the solution
how to reach poor and young people: “The poor could not go to the theatre, so it was for the
theatre to go to the streets. Only on the streets could the theatre bring about the non-violent
anarchistic revolution” (Beck in Marrs 1984: 146).
However, to arrive at the conclusion that revolution can be non-violent is hard, especially
in Ukrainian society – because not using violence from one side cannot prevent the violence
being adopted by the opposite side.
Wild Theatre needs to get closer to people who cannot afford to buy tickets for their
performances by supporting the idea that theatre should go to the streets – ideally on a daily
basis. In short, people should not wait until for the peak of unsatisfactory, economic and social
crisis is reached. In this way, possibly a non-violent, anarchistic revolution can be brought about
crucially via theatre – particularly, the kind of theatre that Julian Beck and Judith Malina believe
in: “Life, revolution and theatre are words for the same thing: an unconditional NO to present
society” (Beck in Marrs 1984: 7).
Another level of some Living Theatre productions is audience participation – although
the same cannot be said about Wild Theatre as yet.
This element was particularly apparent in Living Theatre’s production of Paradise Now.
During performances, spectators were forced by performers to make a significant choice. This is
an option which the creators of Wild Theatre should possibly take into consideration to generate
reactions and to inspire audiences to make posiive changes in society. This is borne out by Beck
who maintains that, only with audience participation can the spectator be taken to such an
intense level of emotional involvement that he or she would be forced to react. Beck was a firm
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believer in the theory that emotional involvement will result in strong feelings: “When we feel, we
will feel the emergence: when we feel the emergence, we will act: when we act, we will change the
world” (Beck in Marrs 1984: 139).
However, theatre companies need to know their audience inside out in order to trigger
this level of emotional involvement. For instance, when performing in Brazil, the Living Theatre
company was at the same time collecting data among local people as they wanted to be aware of
their specific view of the world and become aware of their needs. How else can theatre reach,
influence or touch their audiences’ hearts? Even living and creating in one’s own country does
not mean theatre companies can necessarily really know their compatriots and their needs in
depth.
Theatre creators need to be focusing more on collecting data about their audiences’
interests, needs and worries. One example of such practice in the Ukraine has been demonstrated
by independent Ukrainian Theatre practitioner Sashko Brama. At the time of going to print,
Brama is currently walking from the western part of Ukraine to the first security checkpoint on
the eastern border. His aim is to collect data and to get to know Ukrainians and all their various
traditions, needs, interests and problems in order to inform his new theatre project. Hopefully,
this theatre project will be helpful to Wild Theatre and other local theatre practitioners in order
to better understand Ukrainian audiences better and in more depth.
Bibliography
BIGSBY, C.W.E., BROWN, Kenneth (1967), “The Violent Image: The Significance of Kenneth
Brown’s The Brig”, Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, 8(3), pp.421-430.
MARRS, Terrel W. (1984), The Living Theater: History, Theatrics and Politics, Lubbock: Texas Tech
University Press.
NASADYUK, Evgen (2016), “Ukrainian Independent Theater can be competitive”, Ukrainian Truth
of Life, 10 June,online, http://life.pravda.com.ua/culture/2016/06/10/213593/view_print/ [Last
access: 11 March 2020].
OLIYNYK, Evgenja (2013), “Український театр: без права на експеримент”, Радіо Свобода
(Radio svoboda), 23 September, online, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/25100678.html [Last
access: 11 March 2020].
RAHMANIN, Sergij (2008), “Andriy Zholdak:Ukrainian culture needs blood to go”, Радіо Свобода
(Radio svoboda), 8 March, online, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/1112444.html [Last access: 11
March 2020].
Lyudmyla Honcharova
Case Study #4 – Wild Theatre and the establishment of a non-institutionalised theatre company
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Rimini Protokoll
and the use of digital
Freya Treutmann
Institute of the Arts Barcelona
*****
1. Profile of the company
The internationally operating German theatre collective, Rimini Protokoll, is famous for its
innovative, multi-faceted approach on research projects via conceptual performance. Its three
theatre makers – Daniel Wetzel, Helgard Haug and Stefan Kaegi – started to work together in
2000 at the University of Giessen in Germany at the Department for Applied Theatre Studies
(McKechnie 2010: 75).
The collective sets out to to create performances that are, most of the time, clearly
recognisable as the Rimini Protokoll brand - even though their creative process and use of media
and forms is very diverse, in alignment with the “model of productive dissent, of questioning and
discussion” (Le Roy 2012: 153) instead of focusing on a “unified voice”.
What clearly draws attention to the Rimini Protokoll work is their participatory nature
and the overlapping roles of performers, authors, dramaturgs, directors and spectators – plus,
also the understanding of a theatre code (2012: 155).
In this way, the audience is not only the recipient of a performance, but lives an
experience where they become part of the performance itself. This crucial element is enhanced by
virtue of the fact that, for project-based and, often, site-specific performances, the collective
usually does not work with professional actors, “but with people they call experts of the everyday”
(2012: 154).
Understanding Rimini Protokoll’s projects as research practice through performance, as a
symbiosis between “aesthetic practices and the study of them” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 2008: 46),
these experts of the everyday might in many cases be compared to a focus group.
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For example, the audience gets the chance to experience an insight into the lives of these
“experts”, being part of a mediated and scripted reality in the framework of the alienation of a
performative theatre context.
Rimini Protokoll also demonstrates elements of documentary theatre (cf. Le Roy 2012:
153) – but cannot be limited to this genre. In particular, the diverse use of technological media
indicates this as they are “a primary factor in the transmission of knowledge […] because means
of replication and simulation are used to capture and reproduce what really happened” (2012:
153). Nevertheless, Rimini Protokoll is more interested in exploring how to mediate reality and –
as co-creator Haug points out – in the “struggle between theatre and reality” (2012: 155).
The collective aims for a theatricalisation of the daily life – working, for example, with
forms and structures of conversations and communication that are analogue to reality but
become performance because they are mediatised and put into a theatrical context (McKechnie
2010: 75).
Apart from the use of digital media – such as video, audio and projection in performative
installations – Rimini Protokoll also places a strong focus on developing the potential of the radio
play. Haug, during one interview, points out that “[t]he paradox of radio plays is that on the one
hand the amount of people you reach outnumbers the audience in a theatre, while on the other
hand it is a very personal medium because it allows for very direct address” (Le Roy 2012: 158).
Rimini Protokoll operates worldwide, addressing social and political topics in various
cultural contexts often directly through its site-specific nature – but also taking advantage of the
possibilities of digital (online) media.
2. Examples of performance
Deutshland 2 (2002)
What happens when voters take the place of the politicians? What happens when politics for
once really just are theatre (Rimini Protokoll 2018: online)?
Deutschland 2 was the first
performance of the three co-creators after graduating from university. While the 27th of June,
2002 in the Berlin Reichstag Building a sitting of the German Parliament was happening, Rimini
Protokoll created a live copy of the event (2018: online.), simultaneously speaking the words they
received via headphones that were spoken in the Reichstag Building, replacing every single
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present parliament member with a performer in their location in Bonn. President of the German
Bundestag of this time Wolfgang Thierse refused to let the performance take place in the old
plenary chamber in Bonn which “triggered a discussion about the freedom of art, the relationship
between politics and art and the boundaries of drama and reality” (2018: online.).
Hauptversammlung/Annual Stareholders Meeting (2009)
Hauptversammlung is one of Rimini Protokoll’s most lavish productions. In this performance the
Investor Relations Team of the Stuttgart corporation Daimler became the director, while Rimini
Protokoll put in scenery their annual shareholder’s meeting. The collective invited audience
members to buy shares in form of theatre tickets which then made them official shareholders and
allowed them to take part in the meeting that normally even is not allowed for journalists to
attend (Rimini Protokoll 2018: online). They “went and simply watched what normally cannot be
watched” (Le Roy 2012: 156).
With further, additional actions of Rimini Protokoll – such as creating a programme and
organising small discussions in the foyer – the stakeholder meeting became a theatre
performance. It was not the intention of the collective to interrupt the meeting itself, only to be
present. Anyway interestingly interruptions happened by other people in the audience which
made them become actors as well (Rimini Protokoll 2018: online).
50 Aktenkilometer/50 Kilometres of Files (2012).
50 Aktenkilometer is a walk-in radio play where the audience downloads a GPS based app that
leads them to different places in Berlin to experience content of old Stasi files brought to
presence: “A strange picture-puzzle is created for the users, who have the everyday life familiar to
us now in view and original recordings from that time in their ears” (Rimini Protokoll 2018:
online).
The radio play tries to recreate the mistrust of the Cold War era by giving instructions
that arouse suspicion towards locations, using original recordings of people who experienced that
time. The project was initiated in 2012 but the radio play can still be downloaded on the website
and can take place any time.
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3. Rimini Protokoll as a brand and the use of digital media
As pointed out before, the collective achieved to create a name that makes people go to the
performances because of a recognisable Rimini Protokoll experience with a unique, often
participatory, immersive style.
Focusing on site-specific performances – because theatre “can move beyond the
designated theatre space to infuse reality with theatricality” (Le Roy 2012: 159) – their
performances become “permeable events: not only does the reality of the everyday fill the theatre
space, theatricality also leaks into reality” (2012: 156).
This on one hand can draw in audience members simply for the effect of experiencing
something new, less known, especially in a society that due to media influence becomes more and
more interactive, but on the other hand because it also holds the potential of being personally
relevant to the individuals.
Using the experts of the everyday can create a different emotional connection to an audience
member, than can be achieved by interacting with an actor. This is because actors are known to
work in the hypothetical “as if”, while – for example – a truck driver in a Rimini Protokoll
performance also in real life is a truck driver.
Rimini Protokoll “focuses on strategies for both mediating and mediatising actual people
and places in an intermedial performance setting” (McKechnie 2010: 75), which works as to
create an alienation effect of reality to point out specific problematics.
This approach also brings the potential of addressing different target groups. Apart from
a community that generally is interested in performance art and theatre, every single project
points out a specific reality of a specific group of people that might be interested in a project
because of a connection to the people performing, their profession, social or historical
circumstances or the location.
Rimini Protokoll shaped in a significant way the idea of documentary forms of theatre
and research through performance:
There is a hybridity between the roles of director, dramaturg, researcher, adaptor and editor in
these Theatrerecherche projects, which take impulses from documentary theatre and film practice
[…]. Performing statistics, staging pro- and con- debates about ongoing issues and at the same
time looking into the way decisions are made, Rimini Protokoll has contributed significantly to the
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debate surrounding documentary forms and applications, as well as to new approaches to political
theatre (McKechnie 2010: 75).
The collective actively uses different forms of digital media – In many instances, these
form part of the creative process itself, but, at the same time, they also support the contribution.
The inclusion of live performances – and also of on-demand online content in their
repertoire as well as still maintaining a unified Rimini Protokol brand – unmistakably holds the
potential of reaching out to the a widely spread audience. A radio play, for example, can be
broadcast worldwide – which, in turn, may then lead to the recognition of the brand of and
developing an interest in live performances as well.
It is significant that the location of Rimini Protokoll should also be taken into account.
Even though they work internationally, their main office is located in the HAU Theatre (Hebbel
Am Ufer) – an established and renowned venue of Berlin’s “freie Szene”, the well-known
independent theatre scene.
Being locally connected to this scene and also taking part in different theatre festivals
such as Berliner Theatretreffen is helpful to the collective to create an identity that reaches a specific
audience. Rimini Protokoll has won prizes, for example, in categories of theatre, political theatre,
an audio book and a radio play.
Bibliography
BIAL, Henry, ed. (2008) The Performance Studies Reader, London-New York: Routledge.
KIRSHENBLATT-GIMBLETT, Barbara (2008), “Performance Studies”, in Henry Bial (ed.), The
Performance Studies Reader, London-New York: Routledge, pp. 43–55.
LE ROY, Frederik (2012), “Rimini Protokoll’s Theatricalization of Reality”, in Robrecht
Vanderbeeken, Christel Stalpaert, David Depestel, and Boris Debackere, Bastard or Playmate?
Adapting Theatre, Mutating Media and Contemporary Performing Arts, Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press, pp. 153–160.
LEEKER, Martina, SCHIPPER, Imanuel, BEYES, Timon (2017a), “Performativity, performance
studies and digital cultures”, in Martina Leeker, Imanuel Schipper, and Timon Beyes (eds.),
Performing the Digital, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, pp. 9–18.
LEEKER, Martina, SCHIPPER, Imanuel, BEYES, Timon, eds. (2017b), Performing the Digital,
Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
MCKECHNIE, Kara (2010), “Instance: Rimini Protokoll, Mnemopark (2005)”, in Sarah BayCheng, Chiel Kattenbelt, Andy Lavender, and Robin Nelson (eds.), Mapping Intermediality in
Performance, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 75–82.
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VANDERBEEKEN, Robrecht, STALPAERT, Christel, DEPESTEL, David, DEBACKERE, Boris, eds.
(2012), Bastard or Playmate? Adapting Theatre, Mutating Media and Contemporary Performing Arts,
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Website
Rimini Protokoll , online: www.rimini-protokoll.de [Last access: 31 February 2020].
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Frantic Assembly
versus Le Vieux Colombier theatre model
Valentina Temussi
Liverpool John Moores University
*****
1. The company ethos: their background, their needs, their audience
The nature of how we came to be has been a massive influence on our drive to make our work
accessible. It has informed all our efforts in education and training (Graham-Hoggett 2009: 1).
Frantic Assembly company directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, always point out in
their talks, workshops and writings how important it was their own story as a company. Their
background has totally influenced their choices both in the educational field and in their artistic
one.
They built their working strategy on a needs’ analysis for their launch, their strategy to
find a voice of their own - but mostly to find an audience responsive and interested for their
work. It is highly probable that their very successful trajectory – from a business point of view –
is a clear example of how the creation of a personal style in theatre should include the idea of
creating an audience.
This concept takes us back all the way to the roots of Physical Theatre in theatre history.
If we consider the work of Jaques Copeau as the point in time where the very first seed of
Physical Theatre was planted, we have to take in consideration how important the audience was
for him, right from his very first theatre manifestos.
A theatre revolution was impossible and unnecessary for him without an audience
education. The mission of the transmission to the audience was at the core of his desire for
theatre renovation.
To establish a personal relationship with the audience, Frantic Assembly built an
education system that, for a time in their story, came even prior to their touring and work
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presentations. They understood that they were creating a style of work, a style of creating, that
had a lot to do with a personal approach to composing. To teach their working system meant to
create expectation and a potential audience interested to witness what they had tried in person
and something they felt that they could read into because they knew the “secret codes”.
The members of the company consolidated on their “discoveries” and worked in a way
immediately transmissible to a potential audience. To do so, they engaged in a series of
workshops for specific sectors of society. They still adopt this approach to the audience and
dedicate part of their work to touring around England giving workshops that have the function
of auditioning young actors to create specific performances.
Another way of building an audience is to build a higher level of anticipation and
expectation for the unexpected. Every performance, therefore, has a surprise element which is
called the “pre-show”. Taking the form of an introduction, the “pre-show” is specific to each
different performance and undertaken with the purpose of setting up the appropriate atmosphere
before the story:
In creating a pre-show we felt we achieved two vital factors. One was the claiming of the space.
From the moment each audience member entered the auditorium, they were instantly made aware
that the space was ours, had been claimed by Frantic. No matter that they were long-serving
season ticket holders, used to swinging through those doors twice a month. […] The pre-shows
varied from piece to piece but the underlying principle was (and still is) to create the idea that
something has already started (Graham-Hoggett 2009: 21).
As a result, and as has been witnessed, the audience goes to the theatre expecting to live a unique
experience which they feel creates special and intimate moments between the company and the
audience.
2. Building an enterprise
The description that Mark Evans gives of Jacques Copeau’s work in his article The French Ensemble
Tradition: Jacques Copeau, Michel Saint-Denis and Jacques Lecoq (2013) is incredibly close to the way
Frantic Assembly operates:
Jacques Copeau (1879-1949), through his work as a critic, through his ensemble theatre companies
Le Théâtre du Vieux Colombier and Les Copiaus, and later through the influence of his students
and disciples, was to provide one of the most significant and long-lasting challenges to the
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commercial system dominating theatre in Paris in the early twentieth century. In his work at the
Vieux-Colombier in Paris and with Les Copiaus in Burgundy, he developed a model of the theatre
ensemble that redefined the notion of the professional actor through its emphasis on continual
training, physicality, rhythmic play, improvisation, collaboration and creativity (Evans 2013: 111).
.
The members of Frantic Assembly felt a strong commitment to the creation of a
company that included, right from the very beginning, capable of finding a functioning system
that allows them to dedicate time to rehearsals and communication.
As pointed out: “We had decided that our approach to building the company would be all
or nothing” (Graham-Hoggett 2009: 2), organising themselves collectively and applying to an
Enterprise Allowance scheme meant that they “would not get part-time jobs so that we could
concentrate fully on Frantic” (2009: 2). For Frantic Assembly the business of creating a company
was a collective enterprise. The ensemble style of their performances corresponds to an ensemble
way of conducting the business.
Similarly, but at a different moment in time, is the development of the Vieux-Colombier
company who spent long periods of time together as an ensemble dedicated solely to is preparing
and training for performance. The first of these periods took place before the company’s first
season in 1913. The company exclusively lived and worked together for the duration of this
“retreat” – an experience that greatly enhanced the ethos of the ensemble. This “retreat” was
also driven by the economic necessity to reduce the actors’ living expenses in order to be able to
dedicate all their energy to their artistic work.
3. Mentorship
The directors of Frantic Assembly recognise how important is for their company’s story to have
found from the very beginning a mentor, in their case another company (namely, the Volcano
Theatre Company), that encouraged them and promoted their work artistically. This is also why
they decided to dedicate part of their educational training to mentoring young artists.
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Bibliography
EVANS, Mark (2013), “The French Ensemble Tradition: Jacques Copeau, Michel Saint-Denis and
Jacques Lecoq”, in John Britton (ed), Encountering ensemble, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 111-125.
GRAHAM, Scott, HOGGETT S. (2009), The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre, London-New
York: Routledge.
Valentina Temussi
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Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
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How do European theatre creators take
the audience into consideration?
Raluca Blaga
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
*****
1. Introduction
Every existing body moves in space and time. If we think about this two mediums, space seems
to be the one medium that we can perceive as more concrete.
Space appears to be something inseparable from the matter – and we, as human beings,
can touch with our senses its objective and universal shape. Through its three dimensional
exposure, space reveals the world and its objects and we can set their position, distance, size,
shape and length.
Using all the above stated properties, a body moves easily in all the world’s spacial
dimensions. On the other hand, we almost never perceive time as a solid medium, although it is
suchlike space. We can measure its duration using seconds, minutes, days and so on, however
one always has to return to something more objective, such as facts, in order to sense its
embodied action.
Facts speak about actions, phenomenons and events. Turning our gaze towards them, we
can touch the body of time. Trying to find a definition of time, I remember one of Tom’s lines in
Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie: “time is the longest distance between two places”
(Williams 1996: 75).
This defining equation supports the statements asserted above. In order to be perceived,
time turns its head towards something tangible – in this quotation, to space, Time is the longest
distance between two places will become our workshop’s main theme.
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A more reduced version of this quotation (the distance between two places) will become the eye
glass we will wear in order to talk about the strategies that five European artists use when it
comes to establishing the relationship between their artistic products and audience.
In order to talk about time, the two places that I will talk to are the scenic space of the
performance and the social space of the spectator.
The scenic space of a performance, dependent on the theatrical event we refer to, is
defined by the sum of two different spaces: the dramatic space of the play (if there is any play
that the artists appeal to) and the scenic space that the performance makes use of. More often,
these two spaces are never in unison. On the other hand, the social space of the spectator is,
usually, very much the same, no matter the performance we are taking into consideration.
The social space of the spectator is defined by that place destined to seeing and to
absorbing the theatrical event. The bridge that connects these two distinct places is time, as
theatre happens here and now.
So, we witness coming on stage the theatrical space that unites these two different places.
Therefore, the main question that I want to raise is the following: how do theatre directors
manage to gather in the same point those two distinct places (that of the performance and of the
spectator) in order to give birth to a joint space and time?
To be more explicit, I need totake into consideration the spectator’s social time. Before
entering the theatre hall, the spectator wears a unique time of their own.
Maybe they just decided to come to the theatre or maybe he or she bought the tickets a
long time ago. Maybe the spectator comes from work, from home or just had a drink with
friends before the performance; maybe he or she thinks about an important job assignment.
Maybe the spectator’s mind is still connected to an unfinished talk with a family member, maybe
he or she is eager to watch this performance that friends talked so much about or maybe he or
she knows nothing about this company and this artistic product.
The list of poential examples could go on indefinitely – this is because it is more than
clear that each member of the audience brings the here and now, into the theatre hall, and into his
or her own social time.
I consider that in order for a performance to work, all those that find themselves gathered
for the performance, should start their evening from the same point – that long distance
existence between two different places should be levelled.
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One way to remove this spacing is to take into consideration the power of time. This is
precisely the focus point of a workshop carried out by in Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment),
Krzysztof Warlikowski, Rodrigo García, Oliver Frljić and Romeo Castellucci. All of whom use
diverse theatrical techniques in order to bring us all in that golden area: the here and now of the
performance.
While in Târgu-Mureș for the onename project, Roman Pawłowski – assistant of the artistic
director of TR Warszawa – held a lecture about the Polish theatre’s mission. During his lecture
he stated the following: we (TR Warszawa) don’t serve the audience. This powerful sentence still stays
with me.
To serve someone implies to be useful, to be assigned with a precise role and a goal.
Restaurants, where one goes to, have the precise role and goal to satisfy our hunger needs. Based
on their offer we serve ourselves with their products. Almost always we are aware of their offer
and, based on our cravings, we pick up a dish or other, dependent on what we know and like.
At the same time, to serve might refer to assist someone. In this case, to assist implies
patience and joint effort in order to arrive at the same point. This implies a different role than the
one restaurants have, as the satisfying of needs is not the main purpose. Such was described the
mission of TR Warszawa when Roman Pawłowski talked about the audience needing time in
order to serve themselves with René Pollesch’s uncomfortable performances. I’ve mentioned this
powerful statement because these five theatre directors we’ll talk about today, seem to be guiding
themselves by the same patterns.
Another common denominator of these five artists and their performances regards the
closed artistic product that they confront us with. The World in Pictures (Forced Entertainment),
(A)pollonia (Krzysztof Warlikowski), Agamennone (Rodrigo García), Damned be the Traitor of his
Homeland! (Oliver Frljić) and Inferno (Romeo Castellucci) are all insular artistic objects that do not
use participatory techniques in order to exist (interaction, direct participation nor do they modify
the course of action - to name only a few participatory mechanisms). All these performances are
offered to us and our mission as audience is, here and now, to contemplate and absorb with our
gaze and with our presence their features. These performances are served to us and, when the
evening at the theatre ends, we do not go home with a message in our hands, but rather, our
mind’s pockets are “assisted” with questions about us and how we can define ourselves while
stepping in the space and time of our world.
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So, to return to the main theme, I would like to tquote Hans-This Lehmann’s definition
of theatre: “Theatre means the collectively spent and used up lifetime in the collectively breathed
air of that space in which the performing and the spectating take place” (Lehmann 2006: 17).
This collectively lifetime that we share in the theatre stall has to be build somehow, as I have
mentioned the audience members come to watch a performance and bring with themselves, at
this meeting point, their own personal social space and rhythm. How can we us all connect and
breathe the time using the same pace, in order for the long distance between those two places to
be leveled?
2. The power of a theatrical moment: Tim Etchells & Krzysztof Warlikowski
Forced Entertainment was established in 1984, in Sheffield. A group of six artists, Tim Etchells,
Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor, decided to
place themselves at the margins of the British theatre scene in order to generate a unique and
every time diverse theatrical experience. In the very conservative British theatre, a stage
dominated by the authors and the respect for the written word, Forced Entertainment generate
performances labelled as experimental. The British group attempts with every performance to
challenge the classical rules of the stage. Sometimes the stage is expected to entertain, to amuse
and enjoy.
In Forced Entertainment’s case the part related to diverting the spectator is a forced
action. This toughness applied to something meant to relax, translates on stage in a diverse
matrix of theatrical elements. They develop their performances using the techniques of devising
theatre. The construction of each performance is like a laboratory field: interviews,
improvisations, discussions. Tim Etchells wears the role of the artistic director and is the one
who polishes the rough material born during rehearsals. The starting point of a performance can
be really anything: a film, a song theme, an article read in the paper and so on.
Forced Entertainment is generating performances that speak about the world we live in.
Such is the case with The World in Pictures, a performance created in 2006. This performance sets
to bring on stage the history of the world and mankind. Its point of departure is related to the
history of cavemen and its point of arrival is sometime in our contemporary surroundings.
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Comedy, mockery, nostalgia, ideas regarding our short moment in time all these can be
found in The World in Pictures. The empty stage at the beginning of the performance fills with
anything imaginable, resulting a theatrical space defined by kitsch and lack of order. In all this
chaos that governs the stage, one can detach an almost ontological idea: we, as human beings, can
not perceive anything but the moment we live in, as the great scale of humanity’s time remains
something untouchable. Being aware that the audience members come at the theatre with their
own personal pace of time, Forced Entertainment generates with every performance distinct
mechanisms so that all of us plunge in the stage’s world from the same direction.
All of these techniques revolve around the power of a moment. As Tim Etchells states,
their goal with each performance is “to measure the moment. Let this moment be empty. Let it
be full. Let it be nervous. Funny. Confident. Problematic. Let the moment be nothing.
Everything. Let it be all the possibilities of the moment” (Etchells 2001: online). This algorithm
also applies to The World in Pictures.
At the beginning of the performance: an empty stage; all the actors in the cast are here.
They encourage and give advice to Jerry Killick, who leads onthe opening monologue. Alone on
the bare stage, Jerry begins his 20 minutes talk appealing to the audience’s imagination; his
monologue, in part dull, in part entertaining, tells the story of someone wondering the streets of a
town until reaching the top of an apartment building. There, that someone, confronted with the
height of the building, imagines his own death. Such a long and uncomfortable monologue
creates dullness, fidgeting, maybe attention. Once ended it seems not to be related with the rest
of the performance. However, its purpose was to set in the minds of everyone in the public the
idea of our own death. This is the departing tone of the performance. Such a technique and such
a long theatrical moment was meant to gather us all in the here and now of the show’s scenical time
and place. From now on, if we let ourselves in that state of contemplating and absorbing the
artistic product entitled The World in Pictures, we will go across different moments, measured, as
Tim Etchells stated, with different degrees of entertainment: emptiness, fulness, nervousness,
amusement, nothingness, “everythingness”.
Krzysztof Warlikowski also exploits the power of a theatrical moment. Warlikowski,
together with Grzegorz Jarzyna, marked the Polish theatre stage of the 1990s. After 1989
historical moment, the Polish theatre stage faced with the lack of audience and the impossibility
of adapting to the new realities of those successful theatre directors that dominated the stage
during Communism. Students of the renown Krystian Lupa, Warlikowski and Jarzyna’s names
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were linked at that time with TR Warszawa. Their theatrical voice managed to build up new
audiences and to speak to the younger generations. Their theatrical formulas seemed fresh, actual
and contemporary as they managed to fill their performances with taboo subjects and images
never on stage before them. Now, Krzysztof Warlikowski is the artistic director of Nowy Teatr,
an institution that came alive in 2008, having the financial support of the Warsaw’s mayor of that
time. Nowy Teatr is set in a neighborhood now very posh (Mokotów) and, as one passes the
building apartments, cafés and restaurants to get there, one senses that being so in the heart of a
neighborhood, Nowy Teatr addresses a special community. It has its own ensemble, mostly
compounded by Warlikowski’s collaborators. Over time, Nowy Teatr became a cultural centre.
The first performance built for this new venue was (A)pollonia, precisely our focus for this
meeting, a performance that opened in the late spring of 2009. (A)pollonia is emblematic for
Krzysztof Warlikowski’s theatrical endeavour.
In a talk with Piotr Gruszczyński, a closed collaborator of the director, Warlikowski states
the duties of the spectator when he or she comes to watch his performances: “He or she has
responsibilities – to forego cell phones, listen to the words and – after the performance, to think”
(Gruszczyński, 2010: 59).
In order to make such claims, Warlikowski is aware that he has to construct a theatrical
space that gathers in the same point and atmosphere all the members in the audience. That is why
his performances start and end in slow motion, with a calm tone, something like not to be aware
that a performance is about to begin. This is precisely what happens in (A)pollonia, a four and a
half hours long performance, that debuts with an hour concert performed by Renate Jett.
The concert before the performance is intended to install the same pace and a similar
situation for everyone in the audience. The concert, while it unfolds, gathers all the energies in
the hall in the same direction and also has the mission to give birth to an organic community: the
audience and the artistic ensemble together in the here and now of the theatre.
Only after living in such a congruent state, we can begin to talk about sacrifice and its
collision with the family’s cell. Using as text based material literary products from different times
and cultures, mixing texts of Aeschylus, Euripides, Hans Christian Anderson, Jonathan Littel, J.M
Coetzee and many others, Warlikowski and the creative team of the performance address
uncomfortable questions such as:
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Is it really our own conscious decision to sacrifice for the loved ones such a sacred
and sanctified endeavour?
2.
How do the guilty ones justify their reasons?
3.
What role does forgiveness play in this equation?
4.
What is the role of history, and all its mechanisms, in this situation?
In order to touch and feel the body of our own guilt, no matter if we were or not part of
this historical moments that the performance refers to, we must be in the right state so that to
think about this issues. That is the reason why Warlikowski never forgets to unstretch such
intense points. Sometimes he does all this by tearing apart theatrical moments with fragments of
a concert. Other times he makes us watch how a character is getting ready for the next scene,
helped by the wardrobe lady. In other cases, using props such as a lipstick, he colors in red tones
the traces of a murder. (A)pollonia is flooded with techniques as those stated above all having the
same mission: to remind us that we are in a theatre hall and that, after consuming intense
emotional moments, we must use our reason when thinking or relating to the performance that
we witnessed.
3. Breaking in: Oliver Frljić & Rodrigo García
Oliver Frljić is probably the most offcast European theatre director of our time. Festivals that
have him as an artistic director abruptly lose financial support, some of his performances do not
see the light of the premiere evenings as groups of Catholics and, sometimes, actors react with
violence in the face of his artistic subjects and creative working process. Scandals seem to gather
around him all over the places, as conflict is one of the techniques he uses to generate theatrical
material. Being born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, studying in Zagreb and coming on the theatre
stage from the door of the performance art, Oliver Frljić’s social and cultural background
imprints in every of his performance. As he uses at least two opposing forces to talk about each
subjects, he leans on political matters are often the lenses he applies to approach plays and
themes. Be it Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Damned be the Traitor of His Homeland! politics, always a
sensible issue that inflames spirits, is set on the table with almost each of his performances.
Oliver Frljić is well aware that a single man can not change an entire spirit, but all this doesn’t
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stop him to bring on stage violent and powerful images that are meant to shock and shake up
contemporary sensibilities. That’s the reason why he was labeled as a “theatrical terrorist”.
Damned be the Traitor of His Homeland! is a performance produced by Mladinsko Theatre
from Ljubljana, in 2010. The performance traveled not only in the countries of former
Yugoslavia, but also in other European venues. The performance uses devising theatre methods
as its construction mechanism and, embracing Oliver Frljić’s favorite conflict scheme, addresses
issues such as the power of theatre to make us aware of the cultural and national differences
between those who share the same borders: actors or individuals part of a certain ensemble or
nation. The conflicts such as those between Slovenians, Croatians, Serbians are mixed with
disputes inside the ensemble of a theatre institution. What’s impressive about the Croatian
director’s technique is how he manages to draw together all the audience members so that they
connect directly and sharply at the theatrical time and pace. Damned be the Traitor of His Homeland!
opens with a very smooth and calm atmosphere: most of the actors in the cast are lying down on
the stage floor, performing at different musical instruments an easy-going tune; no voices, just
the low music floating on stage. This is the only moment when time seems to stay still on stage.
The rest of the performance abounds in songs, played out loud, and also very violent are the
sounds of guns used on stage (so loud that Mladinsko Theatre’s officials offered us ear-plugs to
use during the performance). The first text-based scene of the performance mixes reality and
fiction when constructing the biographies of the actors that come and present themselves to us.
This mélange between real and fiction is something Oliver Frljić uses not only to generate a
protection over the personal truth of the actor, but it is also a mechanism designed to temper
down the violence and the conflict that accumulates on stage. Such a theatrical fabric also
contributes at the stage assuming itself as a fiction space or the actor as an entity who works at
the margins of reality and truth, but also it serves as a matrix where reason dusts away the
theatrical illusion that is about to flood the stage.
Making the audience aware of its duties and responsibilities, namely to think critically
about the events presented on stage, is precisely the task of Primož Bezjak’s monologue: this
direct and violent addressing to the public changes every time the performance is presented. For
instance, while at the Sibiu International Festival in 2014, the artistic crew of the performance
documented the Romanian political and social realities and the above mentioned monologue was
delivered based on such information. Appealing at direct and raw emotions, disturbing props
(such loud guns and knives), nakedness of the actors and ripping boldly the stage illusion are all
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strategies meant to break in the soul and mind of the audience, and once the shock fades away,
remains just time to judge the uncomfortable topics that Oliver Frljić faces us with.
There was a time when chairs from the audience landed on stage as a negative reaction to
Rodrigo García’s performances. At that time, the Argentinian theatre director and a few
collaborators produced performances under the name of La Carnicería Teatro (Butchery
Theatre), a company based and founded at the end of the 1980s in Madrid. It was a time when
finances where coming from state funds and Rodrigo García managed to develop his theatrical
language in the area of experiment. Once this financial abundance ended, García didn’t give up or
change his desire for experiment. After being invited for a theatre festival in Greece, with the
performance After Sun, the Spanish theatre director saw how the doors of major European
festivals opened and he was embraced by the French curators and academics (Delgado- Rebellato
2010: 299-316). Since then, he is commissioned by numerous institutions to create his unique
performances and in 2009 he won the Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities.
Agamennone is a performance created in 2003 by La Carnicería Teatro in association with
Teatro Stabile and Orestiadi di Gibellina. Agamennone talks about how tragic can be felt today, in a
world that swims in consumerism. Rodrigo García’s play sees tragedy as part of the industrialized
society, directly linked with the quest for money and food. Today, the Spanish director states that
tragedy revolves around issues such as AIDS, hunger, dictatorship, atomic bombs. When faced
with the image of the seven economical and political powers of the world, the only remaining
solution in Rodrigo García’s case is hope. Such a strong political and social attitude might very
easily fall into propaganda’s shoes or in those of didactic theatre. However, García bypasses
didactic theatre precisely because he intensifies every sign, object or body that steps on the stage.
This precise artistic product, Agamennone, uses only mechanisms that break the theatre’s classical
codes, icons of today’s popular culture and the body of the actor is employed as a canvas,
inscribed with diverse consumerist products. What results on stage is a very clear-cut, critical,
which doesn’t support any kind of eco-talk, visceral theatre. That stage is filled not just with all
these adjectives and nuances stated above, but it is literally invaded by all the materials that
resume our current consumerist age. In Agamennone water, flour, french fries, roast chicken,
Italian food, plastic bags, small American flags, small coffins, images about today’s wars and
leisure activities, images with politicians, images from the supermarkets and so on invade the
stage. All these symbols of our world of today are exhibited on stage, without any commentaries,
just the one set out by the play that García wrote for this project. We plunge in this scenic world
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suddenly, without any forward notice, as it happens in this performance, when accompanied by
the rock music we witness the ‘hell’ of the stage unfold. The spectator has no time to breathe all
the images on stage, as more and more pour down onto the audience. The only time destined for
taking a mouth of fresh air is when the play text is delivered by one of the actors. The message
and everything on the stage is hyperbolised at extreme rates so that, in the end, it fades away.
What results is such an intense and overwhelming experience that stays with you long time after
the performance ended. The spectator can only react in a very personal and genuine manner.
He or she has been instigated and his or her own truth and reality must enter the stage.
What surprises me every time I watch Rodrigo García’s performances is the incredible poetry that
sparks from all this chaos. The human bodies colliding with all the materials in the fictive reality
of the stage, give birth to a poetry that uses the spectator’s emotions and reactions as words are
used in poetry to construct images and situations.
4. Speaking directly to the spectator’s encephalon: Romeo Castellucci
In 1981 Romeo Castellucci founded together with Chiara Guidi and Claudia Castellucci Socìetas
Raffaello Sanzio. Their theatre company has a distinct hallmark when one it comes to talking
about theatrical realities. With each performance a new language is built forthe stage and – what
is more impressive – is the fact that the actual time dedicated to rehearsals resumes to just a few
days.
As a conceptual artist does, Romeo Castellucci also grounds his theatrical endeavour on
the idea, on the concept. The audience has to find a new rhythm for his or her reception channel
and recalibrate his or her decoding mechanisms. For Castellucci, everything on the stage has new
coordinates: the dramaturgy, the gesture, the presence of the body, the space and the time.
“Uncomfortable” or “unfamiliar” might be words one would use for the first time when
encountering his theatrical products.
On Romeo Castellucci’s stage there almost is never staged a story with intrigue and
climax. His work revolves instead around dialogue and based more energies and sensuous
experiences. The most elaborate parts of the performances are dedicated to conceiving the
theatrical apparatus for the stage (sound design, video design and the arrangement of space).
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In an analysis of his Tragedia Endogonidia project, I have cited the collocation
“performative paintings” (Blaga, 2013: 105) in order to describe his works and its new aesthetic
properties. One of his statements speaks to the kind of theatrical experiences he designs: “It’s the
spectator’s encephalon that is interesting here, not his soul (that comes later)” (Castellucci 2007:
36).
Inferno is part of his Divine Comedy project commissioned among other institutions by
Festival d’Avignon and constructed for three of the Festival’s venues. I shall refer here just to the
first part of this project, that is Inferno. The performance took place at Cour d’honneur of the
Popes’ Palace in Avignon. Inferno looks at our most dreadful fears – regardless of whether we are
renowned artists, children or random members of the audience. These fears encompass the loss
of our dear ones, the sense of tragedy in a society in which individual alienation is a norm,
nostalgia for one’s childhood and the loss of innocence.
The performance is a summation of numerous images – some are iconic (as in the
references to Andy Warhol), while some are extremely powerful (as in the one with a piano in
flames). For this performance, as is the case in many others, Castellucci did not use just
professional artists, but also non-actors. He himself is the person who comes on stage in at the
debut of the performance.
Protected by specially designed clothes to protect his body, Romeo Castellucci moves to
the centre of the stage, states his name (‘My name is Romeo Castellucci’) puts himself at the
mercy of a pack of dogs.
By choosing to expose himself in this way, Castellucci offers the audience members a
portal through which to enter the performance. The spectators watch how the dogs approach
and attack him – and, instantly, their most visceral emotions are set into motion.
We, as the audience, know that from this starting point on must place ourselves in the
shoes of everybody we see onstage.
The scene immediate following, reveals an actor climbing the wall of the Cour d’honneur of
the Popes’ Palace. This action is let to unfold in a theatrical time considered by many to last
longer than the classical norm. In this way, Castellucci manages to bring every member of the
audience in the same place and time, in order to contemplate and absorb his performative paintings.
No narratives are used to accompany the images, just short sentences, delivered by the
director himself. At the same time, we are offered numerous images, carefully guided by
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enhanced sound designs, that target and lead our encephalon in order to trigger those precise
emotions that Romeo Castellucci wishes to elicit.
Death seems to lurk in every corner of the stage (above the glass where a group of young
children gather in the uniforms worn by paramedics, above the top of the building that a man is
climbing) and the words (“stars”, “you”) inscribed on televisions that fall apart once touching the
ground remind us that it is on the stage where we face our own personal Inferno.
Summing up how to be here and now in the theatre, all five of these European theatre
directors – each coming from a different cultural and artistic backgrounds, and each with his
unique and special theatrical voice – remind us that the distance between those two places (the
scenic space of the performance and the social space of the spectator) is not such a long road.
Time is a very powerful weapon. If iexploited on stage, it can contribute to bringing in
that collectiveness that Hans-Thies Lehmann talks about – ie: the two entities required in order
for theatre to happen: the audience and the theatrical event.
Bibliography
BLAGA, Raluca (2013), “Romeo Castellucci’s Eleven Utopias: Tragedia Endogonidia”, Symbolon,
volume XIV, no.25, pp. 103-111.
CASTELLUCCI, Romeo (2007), The Theatre of the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, London-New York:
Routledge.
GRUSZCZYŃSKI, Piotr (2010), Krzysztof Warlikowski şi Teatrul ca o rană vie, postfaţă: George Banu,
traducere din limba franceză: Monica Grădinaru, Bucureşti: Fundaţia Culturală „Camil Petrescu”
prin Editura Cheiron.
DELGADO, Maria M., REBELLATO, Dan (2010), Contemporary European Theatre Directors, LondonNew York: Routledge.
LEHMANN, Hans-Thies (2006), Postdramatic Theatre, translated and with an introduction by Karen
Jürs-Munby, London-New York: Routledge.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee (1996), The Glass Menagerie, introduction and questions by Maureen
Blakesley, Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Other source
Forced Entertainment/Tim Etchells, First Night/And the thousandth night.../Instructions for forgetting,
https://www.kfda.be/en/program/first-night—and-the-thousandth-night---instructions-forforgetting-2.
Raluca Blaga
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An understanding of terminology
and the need of a specific glossary
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or
fingers at the tip of my words (Roland Barthes).
Words mean. Words point. They are arrows. Arrows stuck in the rough hide of reality. And the
more portentous, more general the word, the more they also resemble rooms or tunnels. They can
expand, or cave in. They can come to be filled with a bad smell. They will often remind us of other
rooms, where we’d rather dwell or where we think we are already living. They can be spaces we
lose the art or the wisdom of inhabiting. And eventually those volumes of mental intention we no
longer know how to inhabit will be abandoned, boarded up, closed down (Susan Sontag).
The question of terminology is really at the heart of the critical analysis of movement praxis and
the choice of terms is central to the identification of styles and genres in the contemporary
theatre panorama. The terms used by the different theatre practitioners are in fact also emblems
of their very personal visions on theatre practice. Words can express and transmit different
practices of creation; they also take different meanings according to the ways of engaging of
different theatre practitioners in their vision of theatre. Words take forms and these forms
become practices. The choice of terms is ample, but two are crucial for our research because they
are at the heart of the history of movement praxis: body and space.
Susan Sontag defines words and their use in her her famous spech The Conscience of Words
– part of the her posthumous collection of essays and speeches At the Same Time (2007). she
begins by weighing the elasticity of language and the way in which words can expand meaning, as
much as they can contract it. Sontag’s reflections, in her essay, imply a notion of history, and we
would like to follow this example in this research.
In theatre, through history, terminology has evolved together with the forms it expresses.
With the word ‘forms’, we intend the elements and the way in which in the theatre practice were
first of all organised, and then also conceptualised and analysed.
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Adolphe Appia places at the very beginning of his book Music und die Inscenierung a
quotation by Friedrich Schiller: “When music reaches its noblest power, it becomes form”.
The linguistic issue also becomes a historiographic issue because the question of the roots
of different theatre practices and their foundations is complex and implies also the critical
analysis applied a posteriori to the different events.
The complexity lies in the difficulty of identifying the exact historical coordinates of
some theatrical phenomena such as, for example, the birth of physical theatre, but also in the
recognition of the conceptual categories within which to place them.
In theatre we start seeing an interest in actors’ training and on the actor’s body in
connection with the birth and the growing role of the director. What happened in these years,
between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, can be
analysed and explained in different ways. It depends in fact, as much on the capacity of tracing
the successions of events, as on the critical reading of the above.
The central role of the director in theatre practice is connected to the transition between
one mode of theatre and another. One interesting historiographical question is to recognise the
changes in theatre practices that happened because of this transition and, moreover, what are the
events by which it has been triggered by it, and to which it is are related to it.
In the complex pattern of development of mise en scène throughout the twentieth century
there are two major strands: on one side, there is a slow change of the usual concept of directing
seen only as an interpretative art at the service of a text. On the other side, there is a shift of
emphasis from the theatre conceived primarily as an aesthetic manifestation towards a more
socially-motivated conception of theatre’s role.
For the purposes of our study it is particularly interesting to look at the events produced
by these strands. One of the consequences is the realisation and organisation of the role played
by the actors in the performance. A second realisation is the fact that the actors start to take an
important place in the creative process of the performance.
These two events are connected with the affirmation of the necessity of an actor training
and the consequent planning and organisation of it, which lead to the awareness and study of the
body and its movements. The unity of the representation that the new directors were always
pursuing, was also possible thanks to the role that the actors could play in this new artistic vision.
This goes along with a new conception of the theatrical space also in relation to the awareness of
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how the performance should be presented, according to the directors’ vision, and it is perceived
by the audience.
Constantin Stanislavskij, Gordon Craig, Adolphe Appia, Jacques Copeau, Antonin
Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Vsevolod Mejerchol’d are among those who introduced the role of the
director in a radically new vision of theatre - both in its mode of production and in its linguistic,
and even ethical, essence.
This theatre renovation has the shape or the idealistic aspect of a theatre reinvention.
Three elements and aspects are deeply touched by this renovation/reinvention: the organisation
of space, the awareness and analysis of the actor’s movements and the relationship with the
audience.
Theatre practice at this stage and in all its aspects, concerning the artistic and the
production part, starts from a vision, which is an idea of theatre that implies a strong sense of
unity. This sense of unity is advocated and realised thanks to the new place dedicated to the actor
in the practice and in the conceptualisation of the practice. The role of the actor is integral to the
concept and the use of the theatrical space.
The definition of space starts to include different meanings related to different domains.
It combines the stage on which the actors walk whilst performing, the spatial organisation of the
actors’ movements to express the ideas of the performance, and the technical elements that can
be used to create the visual and the emotional landscape. If we look at the three father figures of
the twentieth century – Constantin Stanislavskij, Adolphe Appia and Gordon Craig – we can see
these different views and uses of space.
In his works, Stanislavskij pursues a unitary vision of the performance to which it is
necessary to relate all the single components. The central problem and motor for him was the
need to prevent the actor from acting in a crystallised way. For him, reality no longer had to be
merely a representation of a social environment, at the beginning, however, he assigns to the
design of the scene a strictly utilitarian vision.
Later, he hopes for the advent of a type of plastic set design, remaining open in his long
career to welcome and put into practice new solutions. Interesting in this regard to mention this
quote on the black background, where even if he is still working with the illusion of a confined
bi-dimensional space, he is also thinking in terms of space as an element that alone can be
evocative and creative:
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Just think, we had found a background, which, like a black paper, could give the stage the
appearance of having only two dimensions, width and height, for with the presence of the black
velvet, which would cover the whole stage, its sides, its ceiling and its floor, the third dimension
would disappear entirely and the velvet would pour itself into one plane. On such a tremendous
black sheet one could draw in various paints and lights all that the human mind could conceive
(Stanislavskij 1996: 490-491).
Appia goes further and was the first to construct a kind of set that separates itself from
every previous example. While accepting the assumption of theatre work as a union of all the
arts, he rejects the realism of the staging. He radically transforms the principles of traditional
scenography, and in contrast with the pictorial naturalism he proposes an ideal abstraction in
order to emphasise the rounded contours of the human body and its movements. In this way, the
scene gains plasticity, becoming a three-dimensional structure:
The challenge is to capture the mobility of life for his own use. Space by itself is like a canvas next
to an empty palette. The canvas requires colours – and with regard to life, such colour is
movement, which is to say, time (Appia 1993: 126).
Thus, while for Stanislavskij the contact between scene and actor took place through the
physical actions inspired by reality and dictated by the intentions inherent in the text, according
to Appia, the actors’ movements give the space an ever-developing form and volume. This
extends to his thinking around the element of time and how it might be shown in space.
Among the greatest technique of Appia is Craig, in line with his strong anti-naturalism, is
the representation of a bare scene where the audience can take the role of the creator thanks to
their imaginary mental projections.
The theatrical space becomes an element that has a fundamental role and a great impact
in the choices connected to the staging and analysis of the performance in the creation process.
The creative autonomy of the scenic language owes much to the investigations and studies of
Adolphe Appia and Gordon Craig. Craig advocated for design and space to become integral parts
of the dramatic scene. His opinions and ideas around the architectural construction of the space
at the service of theatre, and on the possibility and necessity of speaking to the audience’s sensory
intelligence are incredibly innovative.
They are also ideas that promote a method of executing theatre that seeks to favour the
imaginative work of the spectators. These are all concepts destined to be used later on in the
second part of 20th century, with different scenography results.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, this new spatial awareness led also to the rethinking
of the actor in relation to its place in space and the relationship with his physical movements and
displacements.
Craig specifically spoke about the connection between space and movements giving
priority to the space as the element creating and carrying the meaning, and therefore, dictating
also the actors’ movements. Despite Craig’s wish to create a hierarchy in this new theatrical
vision, the awareness of the expressive possibilities of the scene combined with the study and
organisation of the movements of the actors lead inevitably to the autonomy of the scene. In this
way, the scene gains the complexity of a language. The actors’ movement possibilities become a
new vocabulary.
Thinking and rethinking theatre at the beginning of the 20th century implies also an
awareness of the impact of theatre in society. This can be witnessed in the form of various new
forms of organisation and production techniques that are coming to use.
The organisational aspect takes account of, for the first time,a concern and a
consciousness around the training of the actors. This is because this new theatrical vision also
incorpoates an awareness of its potential future role in society. This awareness takes the form of
an attention to create a nourishing experience – not only for actors but for anyone wanting to
participate in actor training for different reasons. Also for everyone watching a performance. This
kind of awareness is very clear in the work of Jacques Copeau:
Copeau’s emphasis on the physical training of actors was thus an integral part of his mission to
rejuvenate the theatre. It was also thoroughly modern in that it was in line with the contemporary
public interest in physical culture, movement analysis, expressive gymnastics and modern dance.
Yet at the same time, the extent to which attitudes to the body and its physical education had
changed rapidly over the early decades of the twentieth century, reflected a deep concern over the
ways in which modern life was increasingly alienating people from nature, and from a more
‘natural’ and organic engagement with their physical life (Evans 2017: 63).
And again, this ethical approach starts from a rethinking of the theatrical terms and
forms, and implies a change in the organisation of the theatre performance itself. “Space” for
instance, becomes the place where the performance and the audience can meet. The idea behind
it is important, is the research for an organic theatre experience where organic means both the
need for the unification of all the parts involved in the creative process, and also the connection
with its natural source.
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The natural source is the relationship with to the nature of the human, as apparent both
in the performance itself and in the creative process. One example of this is Copeau’s training
system for actors. Copeau was particularly interested in helping actors develop their own
creativity, to be as “natural” as possible. This for him meant to be connected to the organic laws
of nature.
This way of intending theatre aims at bringing those who do theatre and those who
witness the performance in a communicative atmosphere where the assembly of spectators
becomes a community. This communicative commitment should be present also in the work of
the actors who, through their training process, should have gained an awareness of themselves, as
well as the other actors on stage, in connection to their role of transmission to the audience.
A recurrent theme in theatre at the time wsa to find the capacity of representing a play
with a strong sense of unity through an ensemble work that included also the use of technical
elements like scenography, lighting and costumes.
The ultimate goal was for theatre to become an art form that could effect a powerful
influence on the audience via the process of a work of reunification, aligning every single element
of the performance into a common rhythm. To this end, it has been fundamental – within every
aspect of the work – to recognise and draw attention to the materiality of the scene.
Bibliography
APPIA, Adolphe (1993), Texts on Theatre, London-New York: Routledge.
BARTHES, Roland (1978), A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, New York: Hill and Wang.
EVANS, Mark (2006), Jacques Copeau, London-New York: Routledge.
SONTAG, Susan (2007), At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, edited by Paolo Dilonardo and Anne
Jump, New York: Farrar, Starus and Giroux,
STANISLAVSKIJ, Constantin (1996), My Life in Art, London-New York: Routledge.
Valentina Temussi
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Shaping devised theatre creation
with keywords
Traian Penciuc
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
*****
1. Scope
The enquiry and evaluation was focused of the artistic module continued in the creation and
production of the performances aiming to emphasize the co-creative dimension of a diverse
artistic group and its potentiality to add intercultural value to creation. The enquiry is related and
internally evaluating the Inside Out – Positioning Non-Institutionalised Theatre Practices in a Critical
Journalistic and Business Context art incubator organised and delivered by University of Arts in
Târgu-Mureș which is focused on the “added value of interculturality” and containing:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1
Different artistic practices, approaches, creative processes and methodologies of co-creation.
Exchange of knowledge, skills and experiences among local, regional and international
participants on subjects of artistic excellence and audience development.
Working with different focus groups such as students and university staff.
Preparation and work on shorter project ideas in co-creation with international, regional and
local artists.
Work-in-progress presentations for local audiences, media and relevant local and national
1
cultural policy makers and stakeholders.
“Lab 3”, Make a Move Project, makeamoveproject.eu/art-incubator/lab-3/ [Last access: 18 January 2020].
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2. The groups
The group is formed by ten UE residential artists2 and ten local artists from Romania3. Its
composition is very diverse: the residential artists come from France, Spain, Portugal, Finland,
Ireland, Austria and Poland. More than that some of them have come to EU from other cultural
and theatrical spaces like Brazil, Argentina and Russia. Romanian artist have Romanian but also
Hungarian nationality. Besides the local cultural background there is also an experience variety:
renowned artists work together with BA and MA students.
3. The productions
The artists grouped and realized six performances. The cast of the performances are diverse in
componence and numbers. Many artists contributed to more than one performance. The
performances are:
I can’t talk/Nu pot vorbi/Nem tudok beszélni
Soap opera in public spaces, based on Demons by F. Dostojevski.
Performed by Barko Judit Reka, Anne Corté, Kovacs Irisz, László Otília, Marka Anette, IoanAntoniu Nica, Püspöki Adél, Dmitri Rekatchevski, James Riordan.
Concept by Janaina Tupan, Johannes Schrettle.
The beginning of a choreographic soap opera in European public spaces. Loosely based on the
Dostojevski’s “demons”, the plot tells the story of the descent of a European city, triggered by the
sinister activities of a mysterious new political movement.
See their bios on “Resident Artists and Collectives”, Make a Move Project, makeamoveproject.eu/resident-artists-andcollectives/ [Last access: 18 January 2020].
3 See their bios on “Târgu-Mureș – Local & Regional Artists”, Make a Move Project, makeamoveproject.eu/targumures-local-regional-artists/ [Last access: 18 January 2020].
2
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The Blue Mountains Are Always Walking
Sound explorations.
Devised by Maria Gil, James Riordan and Zselyke Kenéz Aletta.
Performed by James Riordan, Zselyke Kenéz Aletta, Ivana Peranić, Dimitri Rekatcevics, and
Anne Corté.
It is a collaborative exploration whose starting point was the role of the arms in the walking process.
We start from this very simple movement to explore ideas of listening, breathing,
individual/collective relationship and healing processes.
Minor Chefs
Something’s cookin’ in Transylvania...
Performed by Rodrigo Pardo and Sanna Toivanen.
Production by Püspöki Adél.
Collaboration by Paula Dalea, Nicoleta Butnaru, Zselyke Kenéz Aletta, Otília László, Kovacs
Irisz, Adrian-Iustinian Rus (musical consultant).
The added value of mime for intercultural conflicts
Can classical pantomime help us to conceive some complex moments of our contemporary
times?
Performed by Dimitri Rekatcevics, Ivana Peranić, Marka Anette, Razvan Târnovan, Anne Corté.
Through looking at the recent interethnic conflicts in our regions, we will savour together the
peaceful moment we are in.
Clouds Passing By
Facilitated by Julianna Bloodgood.
Ensemble with Kenéz Aletta Zselyke, Püspöki Adél, Delia Dușa, Barkó Judit Réka, Pálffy Zsófi,
Răzvan Târnovan, Lászlo Otília.
Clouds Passing By is a living breathing installation of personal and collective mythology. A place where
body memory can live and individuals can meet.
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Perspectives
A sound piece.
Original idea and direction by Nicole Pschetz.
Texts written by Anette Marka, Kovacs Irisz, László Otília, Raluca Sarca, Talán Vanda, Varga
Tomás.
Voices by Püspöki Adél, Delia Duşa, Ioan-Antoniu Nica, Kovacs Irisz, Janaina Tupan, Maria Gil,
László Otília.
Voices recorded at UAT Târgu-Mureş
Editing by Nicole Pschetz.
Technical support by Joseph Jaouen
This piece is based on sharing and exchanging. These stories you will hear today have been written in this
city. They will travel and will be continued by someone else in another country. They might be transformed
or might inspire new stories.
4. Data collected from the questionnaires
Q1. Which from the seven themes (keywords) concluded in the discussions led by Patkó
Éva did you find more important from a personal artistic perspective?
□
Home
□
Healing
□
Stereotypes
□
Background
□
Tradition
□
Collective memory
□
Otherness
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Results
Collective
Home
Nicole
Pschetz
Stereotypes
Tradition
Otherness
1
1
1
1
Healing
Background
memory
1
1
Anne Corté
Rodrigo
Pardo
Janaina
Tupan
James
1
1
Riordan
1
Sanna
Karolina
1
1
1
Toivanen
Dmitri
1
Rekatchevski
Julianna
Bloodgood
1
Maria Gil
1
1
1
1
1
Johannes
1
1
1
1
1
1
Lederhaas
1
1
Delia Dușa
1
1
Marka Anette
1
Pálffy Zsófia
1
Total
5
1
4
4
5
1
1
1
6
6
5
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Comments:
Anne Corté: I don’t really rely on keywords, I think what feeds most of our work is the
understanding of the Hungarian/Romanian kind of relationship through the
conversations with students and local artists. [She will change her mind, see q. 5]
Rodrigo Pardo: There is no way for me to rate these different subjects, they are just different
subjects and points of interest
James Riordan: I was interested in the healing properties of the Bells and the release given to
participant and audience members in the repetitious swinging and ringing of the
bells along with the healing qualities of the sound. Individually I was interested in
Otherness and Tradition also and explored this more in the focus group.
Sanna Karolina Toivanen: I was influenced and touched by the themes of home and otherness
during the focus group but this is why I also distanced myself from these themes
because they were so emotional and I felt like in this short time I couldn’t touch
these themes, but for sure they will continue with me. I felt like instead of diving
deep into these themes I would rather talk about the themes in a comic way,
because it is a strong way to talk about even difficult themes, and also to talk about
the themes from my own experience here in Romania, from my point of view as an
artists (instead of “using” the students stories as if they were mine).
Dmitri Rekatchevski: C’est plus en rapport avec les projets sur lesquels je pense actuellement.
Julianna Bloodgood: Actually, I used all of them because my piece was very much about identity.
Personal and collective identity and we included all of these keywords in our
process as the work was based on personal stories, memories and ancestors and
that covers Home, Tradition, Background. Because we looked straight at the
participants lives the theme of Otherness also came up. I don’t think we directly
worked with Stereotypes. Healing became a by-product of the process and several
participants told me of what particularly felt “healed” to them.
Johannes Lederhaas: I think, many of the terms refer to more or less the same thing, but
“Healing” carries for me more a positive idea that embraces the notion that artistic
processes can not only reflect and criticise on society, but also give a glimpse of
hope and healing, which I find more and more important in these times.
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Marka Anette: Healing, because I think it is important to find what we need to express and also
what is needed to be received. We need to heal ourselves as an artists and the
people around us
Pálffy Zsófia: I find it really important as a local artist to use the conditions that we are living in
as a resource for creation. We really need to reflect on everything around us and as
a Hungarian from Romania I feel like I am in a special position - though I didn’t
realize this before. I spent some time abroad which added up to this feeling of
appreciating the circumstances and intercultural environment that I am coming
from. I tended to feel weak because of being a member of a minority but now I
know that this could be a legitimate mission: to express myself through this aspect
of myself which is a strength rather than a weakness. I really want to redefine and
reframe my perception of home, of tradition and collective memory – the latter
mostly because of the defining event of the Hungarian and Romanian community,
the Black March in 1990, when we were fighting against each other by virtue of
being of who we are. I find this event still unspoken and I can still feel the
blockages between the two nations that we don’t want to talk about. This is why
this whole project is really important for this community: we need different,
outsider perspectives in order to be able to finally talk about our collective
memories and heal from the past.
Q2. Which from these seven themes (keywords) do you consider shaped the creative
process of the performances? Please fill the following table, only for the performances
you were involved in, writing “m” if you consider that is the main or defining theme
(subject) of the performance, “o” if you remarked it appearing occasionally or/and
“p” if you feel it personally influenced your creative process in that production.
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Theme
Home
Stereotypes
m
4o
m
o
126
Tradition
Otherness
3o
3m
3o
Healing
Collective
memory
Performance
I can’t talk
The Blue Mountains Are
Always Walking
o
Minor Chefs
The added value of mime for
intercultural conflicts
Clouds Passing By
p
m
2o
2m
o
o
p
3m
2o
o
p
4o
2m
2o
m
2o
p
4o
o
m
4o
m
o
p
3m
o
2m
p
2m
m
4o
p
m
o
p
5m
2o
p
3m
o
m
2o
Perspectives
2p
Comments
Anne Corté: Now I realized that these keywords were presents in all processes.
Johannes Lederhaas [about I can’t talk]: In a way, all the topics apply to the performance, but
since the Târgu-Mureș chapter was a special part of the work, that was dedicated to
the research on this very city, I would put “home” as main topic for this work.
Rodrigo Pardo [about Minor Chefs]: Cooking traditions are interesting for me at this moment and
the performance was a good excuse to find out some details about this subject
related to Romania and Hungarian tastes.
James Riordan: I found all performances spoke to different themes and the mix of approaches
was inspiring. Clouds Passing By I found particularly striking in themes.
Pálffy Zsófia: I cannot properly detect the elements of this chart. I was involved in the Clouds
Passing By exclusively, and I found all the themes were personally influencing me,
with a stronger accent on home, tradition, collective memory. I guess these three
topics were the main defining ones at the same time.
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Sanna Karolina Toivanen [about Minor Chefs]: I was influenced and touched by the themes of
home and otherness during the focus group but this is why I also distanced myself
from these themes because they were so emotional and I felt like in this short time
I couldn’t touch these themes but for sure they will continue with me. I felt like
instead of diving deep into these themes I would rather talk about the themes in a
comic way, because it is a strong way to talk about even difficult themes, and also
to talk about the themes from my own experience here in Romania, from my point
of view as an artists (instead of “using” the students stories as if they were mine).
Q3. Please describe the process for extracting stories used in your group during the focus
group with Romanian and Hungarian students, on 11th December – morning. What
was your contribution?
Nicole Pschetz: I have shared with them a selection of photos of Târgu Mureş and invited them
to follow a few guidelines in order to write fictional stories.
Anne Corté: I chose an open conversation that I led with several questions about how people
feel to belong or not to a community/region/country.
Rodrigo Pardo: The group accorded the common subjects and I was leading the physical warmup that helped a soft immersion into the vocal exercises
Janaina Tupan: We did games, asking them to mime characteristics of their culture, then drawing
on the wall. In a second part, we did a work in couples using the words that had
come up in the first part in order to build a choreographic dialogue. I would
consider my contribution in leading them to express their contrasted feelings with
their bodies, creating a more poetical approach of the matter.
James Riordan: I was interested in extracting popular culture stories as a way into how the
students viewed their surroundings. We spoke about stereotypes and symbols from
the inside of the country, from the outside and in simple movements. We also
explored scandals that were known throughout Romania. I was the lead artist in
exploring all these avenues. In the second half we explored in duets what otherness
can mean in movement, led by another artist.
Sanna Karolina Toivanen: It was a very beautiful and important encounter with the students and
the locals and I really enjoyed it. However I felt like I couldn’t use their stories for
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my own creation so much but I could use what it made me feel or think about the
themes and use this for my creation. I offered a warm up for the body and to
connect with the space in which we were working on and to each other. Then I
offered a guided visualization exercise and after that we shared our experience and
stories which was very beautiful and I was very grateful for this.
Dmitri Rekatchevski: J’ai filmé les interview avec mon ordinateur, et Maria les enregistré sur le
dictaphone. On a demandé des participants de raconter des histoires en s’inspirant
des son de clochettes, qu’est-ce que cela leur évoquait, à quoi cela leur fait penser?
Julianna Bloodgood: We used writing prompts, meaning the first sentence is given as a prompt
for beginning and one is asked to write from three minutes without filtering
oneself. We used prompts such as the Hero of my family is… And the Black Sheep
of my family is… We shared our stories and wrote down keywords that inspired us.
We also worked with traditional songs that had personal connection to the
participant. These songs also had stories attached to them. It was interesting
because I didn’t ask the participants to share the story of their song but they all
wanted to and so we heard very touching memories of specific moments.
Maria Gil: It was a great session. We devised an exercise from the bells so students could
sharing their stories regarding bells.
Johannes Lederhaas: I developed an exercise of 10 writing tasks that in total would result in a
fragment of an imaginary piece of art.
Delia Dușa: We started with a movement exercise in which we could know each other by having
non-verbal interactions which was the way we wanted to create a safe and open
space. Then we had a writing exercise based on collective memory in which we
created some standard-sentences which the participants had to fill in with their own
experiences. The last part of our focus-group activity was about personal songs
which come in our minds from our childhood. There could be traditional songs,
lullabies etc. but should be related to a member of our families. My contribution
was helping with ideas for what our focus-group documentation should be about.
Marka Anette: I was in the writing group. We did some writing exercises with the students. I
came with this exercise: when I said the word, they had to start to write without
stopping until I said STOP. The word was HOME. I enjoyed the experience,
because I participated in the other exercises with my group mates. For example,
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Nicole told us to find a picture which inspires us and to write a letter or a text. The
pictures were made by herself. Johannes came with an interesting exercise also. He
made little books made of two A4 papers in which he asked us to write our
answers. In the end, this culminated in each of having a different story written by
each of us.
Pálffy Zsófia: We were applying to storytelling of the participants extracting their personal
stories with the technique of free writing. My personal contribution was bringing up
the concrete questions which were referring to their family backgrounds and
collective memories. The second part of our investigation was making people sing
their songs, which they would come up at the moment, linked somewhat to their
childhood/family.
Q4. What creative elements (stories, memories, emotions, songs, etc.) which emerged
during the 11th December morning focus group did you recognise in the final six
performances. Please answer as detailed as possible.
Nicole Pschetz: Emotions in The Blue Mountains Are Always Walking . Emotions, stories and songs
in the performance Clouds Passing By. Emotions, stories in the sound piece
Perspectives.
Anne Corté: I was really touched by a Hungarian local artist story on her experience of ice
skating. She explained us how she has been suffering of discrimination several
times cause of her Hungarian name and ethnic appartenance.
Rodrigo Pardo: Minor Chefs was shaped by folkloric songs and traditional recipes gathered with
the local participants, Sadly, because this performance went at the beginning and
the end of the night it was not possible for me to see all the other works. I
recognized that Clouds Passing By and Perspectives were directly fed by local stories,
real or fictional, while the Mime, Bells and I can’t talk groups had a structure not
that dependent on the local information gathered on the lab, even when it was
inspired by it.
Janaina Tupan: Tradition, healing, home, identity conflict, background.
James Riordan: I moved into a different group with a different theme, using the bells so the
information we had extracted didn’t become as relevant to the final piece.
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Sanna Karolina Toivanen: I recognize stories that were told in many ways (video, writing). Also
recipes, personal experiences and stereotypes, background (cake), history (mime),
songs, even Romanian music (songs and cake), etc. Almost all the themes appeared
in many ways, some more deep and personal and some more from our
(international) point of view.
Dmitri Rekatchevski: Les histoires racontées pendant le stage de 11 décembre, ainsi toutes les
conversation avec des artistes locaux et le séminaire sur l’histoire de Târgu-Mureș
nous a poussé a raconter les conflits qui nous avons vécus dans nos pays respectif:
URSS et Yougoslavie.
Julianna Bloodgood: We used stories that emerged. We found new songs for the presentation.
We also found more memories and stories with the new participants, plus poems
and lyrics with symbolic meaning. And this subject matter has deep emotions that
began during the focus group and only carried on and deepened for the
performance.
Maria Gil: Every performer’s personal story and the object – bells.
Johannes Lederhaas: many stories from the writing exercises. A song. Some step with the bells.
some mome-movements. A discourse about issues in this city, such as the bilingual
situation, the fertilizer factory or the status of religion in Romanian society.
Delia Dușa: I noticed in all six performances that there was used a common creative theme:
stories. Every team worked with finding, creating or remembering personal or
other’s stories. Based on this theme, all the groups used the other elements
(memories, emotions, songs etc.) to build the performances and I think that
without these elements, the stories couldn’t be illustrated, even if there was a verbal
or a non-verbal performance.
Marka Anette: I recognized the stories that were written by us and the students when we had the
meeting with them. They appeared in Nicole’s voice presentation.
Pálffy Zsófia: Some part of the storytelling and free writing exercise actually became part of the
show. The research we did on the student with song also triggered the idea of
implementing live sang songs during the show (we didn’t use those of the student’s
though).
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Q5. How would you describe the theatre-making method of the productions you were
involved in? (Please mention the title.)
□
staging a script.
□
devising lead by a director.
□
collective devising.
□
recording/filming and post production.
□
other (please mention it).
Results
Theme
staging a
devising lead
collective
recording/
other (pleas
script
by a director
devising
filming and
mention it)
Performance
post
production
I can’t talk
X
x
The Blue Mountains
Are Always Walking
Xxx
Xxx
X
Xx
The added value of mime
(b)
(g)
Minor Chefs
Xx
xxx
(d)(e)
x
for intercultural conflicts
(a)
Clouds Passing By
xx (c)
Perspectives
X
xx
x
(f)
X
Comments
(a) Anne Corté: [about the added value of mime for intercultural conflicts]: When it was decided to work
on ethnic eastern European conflicts, each member of the group researched a war
and was in charge of producing a summary. We started staging these as experienced
mime artists, Dimitri and Ivana shared with the local artist some technical trainings.
Everyone was free to propose their ideas on improvisation sessions and we all
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feedback on what we were producing. As an objective outsider. I was able to tke
some important impartial decisions.
(b) Johannes Lederhaas: the first step was the construction of a plot and then writing
monologues which were then rehearsed and confronted with movement patterns
that emerged from the talking body. The results were carried out as little invisible
scenes in the public space and filmed with hidden camera.
(c) Julianna Bloodgood: It was collective devising in a sense because it was everyone’s stories
involved but it was directed from a clear concept and vision of the director.
(d) Rodrigo Pardo: The practicality of solving the cooking problem as something very concrete
was shaping a big part of the dramatic structure of the piece, the co-creation
developed framed into this very concrete parameters.
(e) Sanna Karolina Toivanen: Collective devising, In Minor Chefs we worked together from our
own point of view of our experience in Romania and during the lab, also
interviewing the locals and from their stories, their experiences. Also we collected
recipes and stories from the locals and their mothers, got also from the volunteers
and also did a lot of research online (recipes etc).
(f) Pálffy Zsófia: Collective devising, storytelling/free writing, improvisation. During the work-inprogress we did for finding the form of our presentation Clouds passing by/Vital
Space we were mostly working with the tools of the devised theatre-making in the
sense that all the elements of the show came from private stories and impressions,
reflections of the participants. There were very few fixed points and the material we
brought on stage was completely personal and grew spontaneously during the
meetings. Julianna was following a step-by-step method, she was always leading us
in the moment, adapting to the new things and ideas which were appearing in this
vital space we were trying to build during this short time. Her strong but flexible
vision and our personal agendas made this process such a safe circumstance that I
guess nobody was feeling the stress of completing a task according to a director’s
will – we managed to feel present and go with the flow – which I honestly never
experienced before as a non-actor. There was something about Juliana’s method
which made us simply present and focused.
(g) Maria Gil: It was devised by two directors from an external, pre-determined starting point.
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5. Interpretation: themes and keywords framework
During the planning of the creative work led by Patkó Éva, the artists were asked to propose
some keywords in order to narrow the thematic focuses of the performance into powerful and
specific strong and valuable subject areas.
Finally, the artists agreed to seven keywords:
1.
Home;
2.
Stereotypes;
3.
Tradition;
4.
Otherness;
5.
Healing;
6.
Background;
7.
Collective memory.
These keywords shaped the next stage which was a focus group aiming to gather
inspirational material for the productions.
In order to assess the role of this method in the co-creation artistic choices and creative
process we interrogate the artists through the questionnaire. One question (no. 4) was about the
themes they personally chose or considered more important. Every artist ticked the themes he
considered defining and some explained their choices in commentaries. Two artists did not find
precise enough to define their preferences.
We sum up the numbers of choices for each theme in the last row in the table figuring
the artists inclination to the themes (question 4).
Collective
Total
Home
Stereotypes
Tradition
Otherness
Healing
Background
memory
5
4
4
5
6
6
5
If one value would be significantly higher than we could infer a major importance for the
group. If one value would be significantly low, or lower, than we could infer that the theme has
less importance for the group. The results (values between 4 and 6) show no major differences
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between their importance. Choosing the right theme brought an axiological cohesion to the
group. The fact that they give the same importance and attention to the themes smoothed the
creative decision.
The reasons for choosing the themes are heterogeneous and we will present some, which
were shared by the artists:
1.
Aesthetic choices. Sanna Karolina Toivanen moved to stereotypes aiming to achieve a
comical perspective as a result of her own experience in Romania.
2.
Some adopted or suggested the themes because they were already part of their
creative programme. Dmitri Rekatchevski was already thinking along the lines of
stereotypes, otherness, and background. Julianna Bloodgood included all (but less stereotypes)
of them as part of her performance on identity. Her team processed personal stories,
memories and ancestors covering home, tradition, and background. Because we were
looking so intensely at the participants’ lives the theme of otherness also came up. Plus
healing emerged as a by-product of the process and several participants told her “of
what particularly felt ‘healed’ to them”. Johannes Lederhaas integrates them in a
larger undefined concept, but healing is a “more a positive idea” by giving hope.
3.
Having a practical creative solution (Maria Gil wanted to explore “the healing
properties of the Bells”).
4.
Attraction caused by (re)discovering it. Maria Gil explored Otherness and Tradition in
the focus group.
5.
Personal and community needs creation gaining the dimension of self-transforming,
self-expressing, or-self healing Marka Anette chooses healing from the need to heel
herself and the people around. Pálffy Zsófia wanted to redefine and reframe her
perception of home, of tradition and collective memory. She also wanted to speak
about issues “still unspoken”, “blockages between the two nations”, hoping that
different, outsider perspectives about the communities collective memories can heal
from the past.
6.
Exploring but not developing themes in the production: Sanna Karolina Toivanen
was influenced and touched by the themes of home and otherness during the focus
group, but because she found them very “emotional” and felt production time too
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short for valuable development, she decided to approach these themes in later
creations.
Another question (no. 8) was about their interactions in the creative process, and the
individual questioned have been asked to choose between three items or to give, in their own
words, comments regarding their own vision of the creative relationship. The four given
possibilities were:
1.
Classic theatre of staging a script;
2.
Devising lead by a stage director:
3.
Collective devising;
4.
Filmic method of editing recorded material.
The answers corroborated in the following list showing the perception of the artists on
the staging method:
I can’t talk – of course filming and editing, the leaders having worked by some script and devising
the scenes. Although some actors feel the freedom of collective devising.
The Blue Mountains Are Always Walking – collective devising.
Minor Chefs – collective devising.
The added value of mime for intercultural conflicts – devising lead by a stage director, but actors felt the
freedom of collective devising.
Clouds Passing By – was staged by directors devising using ensemble’s improvisations.
Perspectives – besides recording, collective devising.
The most frequent perception was on being used methods close to devised theatre,
collectively created or integrated by an artist who had the role of director or capo comico.
The result was an open and permissive working atmosphere which elicited, in a very short
time, the highly inventive artistic solutions we saw in the performances.
But did the seven themes somehow shape the performances? Even if the creators did not
follow them on purpose, did the topics somehow subliminally influence what happenend?
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An answer might be inferred from the feedback to question five. Here the artists were
asked to identify the seven themes in the production they were involved in considering three
forms. One was identifying the theme as personal influence in the creative process, and we added to
only help the artists to identify the other two more objective. They also identified the theme as
one only appearing occasionally in the production, and were asked to judge if there were specific
themes that shaped the entire performance.
One of the outcomes was that artists who declared that they did not deliberately follow
any theme on purpose still recognised certain key leitmotifs in their interpretations,
demonstrating that there remained an unconscious influence of those keywords.
Other conclusions can be drawn observing the distribution in the perception of themes in
performances. There are performances where almost all creators share the same themes. The Blue
Mountains Are Always Walking is perceived mostly as being imbued by the healing process, Minor
Chef is about stereotypes and traditions, The added value of mime for intercultural conflicts though
satirising by caricaturising stereotypes speaks about traditions versus otherness, and Perspectives
speaks about otherness.
On the other hand, there are performances where the themes mix, or ‘integrate in some
deeper meaning’ how Johannes Lederhaas says. Here, the artist’s perception is scattered and
subjective. In I can’t talk, all themes identified leave some artists finding them only as occasionally
apparent, while others assign them give the significance of the main theme. We found the same
perception with regard to Clouds Passing By – a fact confirmed by the stage director Julianna
Bloodgood.
6. Conclusion
Accepted them or subject of the performance which becomes a creative mission. Even not
followed strictly or on purpose, it shapes the performance at a conscious or unconscious level. In
the pan permissive environment of the collective devising, the theme could act as goal and
landmark fostering strong theatrical and artistic choices and an aesthetic and ideatic homogeneity.
Traian Penciuc
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Mapping
Special Monographic Issue
Debating Independent and Non-Institutionalised Theatres in Europe
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
139
A selection of
European theatre and performance festivals1
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
The festivals selected in this section have been chosen considering specific parameters:
1.
Coherence with the area of interest of the research and of our target groups;
2.
An active profile of the festivals;
3.
An international profile of the festival and intention of mapping Europe (including
extra-EU Countries);
4.
Presence of call for applications, call for artists or other openly declared way of
production selection for the programme.
Festivals who are no longer active have been excluded – as well as festivals with no
internet pages. Some festivals on this list are very generalist. However – owing to their
importance and the fact they have specific sections for independent theatre (physical, mime,
street, site-specific etc.) – they have been included.
*****
1
All the info, contact mails and telephone numbers are public on the website of the different festivals. No
personal/private nor sensitive contacts/data have been provided (GDPR).
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
140
Altofest – International Contemporary Live Arts
Naples – Italy
Period of the year: June/July
www.teatringestazione.com/altofest/altofest/
Contact: +39 320 0304 861, info@altofest.net
Core practice: alternative theatre practice, international artists, site-specific theatre, independent
theatre, residencies.
Ana Desetnica – Street Theatre Festival
Ljubljana – Slovenia
Period of the year: July
www.anamonro.si/steber/ana-desetnica/
Contact: +386 41 723 146, goro.anamonro@gmail.com
Core practice: street theatre, site-specific performance, clown, physical theatre, children’s and
youth theatre.
Berliner FestSpiele – Stückemarkt des Theatretreffens
Berlin – Germany
Period of the year: February
www.berlinerfestspiele.de/stueckemarkt
Contact: + 49 30 254 89 200, stueckemarkt@berlinerfestspiele.de
Core practice: innovative theatre idioms, competitions, theatre market, journalism and critics,
residencies.
B-FIT in the Street! – International Street Theatre Festival
Bucharest – Romania
Period of the year: June/July
www.fitsb.ro
Contact: + 40 21 795 36 02, email: pr@arcub.ro
Core practice: national and international artists, experimentation and new artistic expressions,
workshops.
Bitef – Belgrade International Theatre Festival
Belgrade – Serbia
Period of the year: September
www.bitef.rs
Contact: +381 11 32 49 442 or + 381 69 899 24 00, blagajna@bitef.rs
Core practice: latest theatre trends, events in global theatre, experimental forms, avant-garde
explorations.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
141
Brighton Fringe Festival
Brighton – United Kingdom
Period of the year: May/June
www.brightonfringe.com
Contact: +44 1273 764 907, takepart@brightonfringe.org
Core practice: alternative theatre, independent productions, street theatre, non-mainstream
theatre, site-specific performances, dance, music and comedy.
Budapest Fringe Festival
Budapest – Hungary
Period of the year: April
www.budapestfringe.com
Contact: szervezes@budapestfringe.com or pr@budapestfringe.com
Core practice: non-mainstream theatre, dance, music and comedy.
Camden Fringe Festival
London – United Kingdom
Period of the year: July/August
www.camdenfringe.com
Contact: admin@camdenfringe.org
Core practice: alternative and independent theatre, physical theatre, site-specific theatre, improv,
small-scale projects.
COS Reus – Festival COS Internacional de Moviment i Teatre Gestual
Reus – Spain
Period of the year: October
www.cosreus.cat
Contact: festivalcos@reus.cat
Core practice: physical theatre, movement, object theatre, mime.
Demoludy in New Europe Festival
Olsztyn – Poland
Period of the year: November/December
www.demoludy.art.pl
Contact: +48 89 527 59 59 or +48 89 527 59 58, a.stawisinska@wyrazsiebie.org
Core practice: international theatre, physical theatre, new writing.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
142
Dublin Fringe Festival
Dublin – Ireland
Period of the year: September
www.fringefest.com
Contact: +353 1 6706106, hello@fringefest.com
Core practice: alternative and independent theatre, physical theatre, site-specific theatre, smallscale projects.
Dubrovnik Summer Festival
Dubrovnik – Croatia
Period of the year: July
www.dubrovnik-festival.hr/en
Contact: +385 20 326 100, info@dubrovnik-festival.hr
Core practice: site-specific, tradition and modernity, local, national, and international creativity,
intercultural exchange.
dunaPart: Hungarian Showcase of Contemporary Performing Arts
Budapest, Trafó and other venues – Hungary
Period of the year: November (almost biennial – next in 2019)
www.dunapart.net
Contact: info@dunapart.net
Core practice: new works by Hungarian dance and theatre professionals, independent critics of
contemporary performing arts.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Period of the year: August
www.edfringe.com
Contact: +44 131 226 00 26, participants@edfringe.com
Core practice: un-juried performing arts event, cabaret, children’s shows, comedy, dance, physical
theatre and circus, events, exhibitions, music, alternative musicals and opera, experimental works.
European Festival of Performing Arts – Romanian Drama Festival
Timişoara – Romania
Period of the year: May
www.tntimisoara.com
Contact: + 40 256 499 908, tntm.office@timisoara.com
Core practice: national and European performance artists, street performances, one-man shows,
dance-theatre.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
143
EUROTHALIA – European Theatre Festival
Timişoara – Romania
Period of the year: November/December
www.eurothalia.ro
Contact: +40 256 201 291, secretariat@dstt.ro
Core practice: current trends in European theatre, classical theatre, contemporary drama,
contemporary dance.
FEDU
Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina
Period of the year: May
www.fedu.ba
Contact: +387 61 337-407, ino@fedu.ba
Core practice: children’s and youth theatre, puppetry, street theatre, physical theatre, clown.
Festival d’Avignon
Avignon – France
Period of the year: July
www.festival-avignon.com
Contact: +33 4 90 27 66, festival@festival-avignon.ecom
Core practice: visual and performing arts, ensemble theatre work, exchanges and encounters,
reinvented classic and modern texts.
Festival d’Avignon OFF
Avignon – France
Period of the year: July
www.avignonleoff.com
Contact: +33 4 90 85 13 08, agnes@avignonleoff.com or regie@avignonleoff.com or
gabrielle@avignonleoff.com
Core practice: independent theatre companies, alternative theatre, site-specific performance,
street theatre, puppetry, diversity, plural composition.
Festival de Almada
Almada – Portugal
Period of the year: July
www.ctalmada.pt
Contact: +351 21 273 93 60, geral@ctalmada.pt
Core practice: national and international theatre groups, street theatre, dance performances,
exhibitions, discussions
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
144
Festival de Marseille
Marseille – France
Period of the year: May/June
www.festivaldemarseille.com
Contact: +33 491 99 02 50, info@festivaldemarseille.com
Core practice: dance and general performing arts, including physical performance and sitespecific.
Festival International de Théâtre de Rue
Aurillac – France
Period: August
www.aurillac.net
Contact: +33 4 71 43 43 70, festival@aurillac.net
Core practice: European street performances and theatre.
Festival Maribor
Maribor – Slovenia
Period of the year: October
www.borstnikovo.si
Contact: +386 2 250 62 27 or +386 2 250 61 00, info@borstnikovo.si
Core practice: national and international theatre, state/institutional and independent theatre
productions.
Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes
Charleville-Mézières – France
Period of the year: September
www.festival-marionnette.com
Contact: (+33) (0)3 24 59 94 94, festival@marionnette.com
Core practice: puppet theatre, creation and research, indoor and outdoor events, site-specific
performances.
FiraTàrrega Teatre al Carrer
Tàrrega – Spain
Period of the year: September
www.firatarrega.cat
Contact: +34 973 310 854, info@firetarrega.com
Core practice: street arts and non-conventional venues, different stage disciplines, up-and-coming
talents, national and international creative avant-gardes, theatre market.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
145
Fira Trapezi Reus
Reus – Spain
Period of the year: May
www.trapezi.cat
Contact: +34 977 010 651, oficina@trapezi.cat
Core practice: circus, site-specific theatre, physical theatre, clowns, aerial theatre, street theatre,
theatre market.
Fringe Festival Praha
Prague – Czech Republic
Period of the year: May/June
www.praguefringe.com
Contact: +420 602 549 008, steve@praguefringe.com
Core practice: international artists, alternative theatre, dance, music.
Fundamental Monodrama Festival
Luxembourg – Luxembourg
Period of the year: June
www.fundamental.lu/fr/asbl
Contact: + 352 691 88 75 12, info@fundamental.lu
Core practice: monodrama, theatre and drama, exhibitions and performances in relation to visual
arts, performing arts and literature
Galway Theatre Festival
Galway – Ireland
Period: May
www.galwaytheatrefestival.com
Contact: +353 91 509700, workshopsgtf@gmail.com
Core practice: national and international theatre and dance companies, performing arts, music,
visual arts, impro, talks.
GREC Festival
Barcelona, Spain
Period: July
www.lameva.barcelona.cat/grec/es
Contact: Core practice: international artist, physical theatre, site-specific theatre, outdoor and indoor
productions.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
146
Helsinki Festival
Helsinki – Finland
Period of the year: August/September
www.helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi
Contact: +358 9 6126 5100, info@helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi
Core practice: multi-arts festival, theatre, music, dance, art exhibitions, circus, movies, children’s
programs
HIGH FEST International Performing Arts Festival
Yerevan – Armenia
Period of the year: September/October
www.highfest.am
Contact: +374 10 53 62 33, info@highfest.am
Core practice: international and national performing arts, alternative theatre, street and sitespecific performances, puppet theatre, dance, music.
Holland Festival – International Podiumkunste Amsterdam
Amsterdam – Netherlands
Period of the year: June
www.hollandfestival.nl
Contact: +31 20 788 21 00, info@hollandfestival.nl
Core practice: performances and concerts from around the world, established names and new
talents, new types of venues and forms of theatre, innovation in art.
Imaginarius International Street Theatre Festival
Santa Maria da Feira – Portugal
Period of the year: May
www.imaginarius.pt
Contact: +351 256 370 887
Core practice: physical theatre, street performance, mime, clown, circus, workshops.
INTERFERENCES International Theatre Festival
Cluj – Romania
Period of the year: November
www.interferences-huntheatre.ro
Contact: +40 264 431 986, email: office@huntheatre.ro
Core practice: topical editions, theatrical and dance performances, exhibitions, concerts, aftershow talks.
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #1 – A selection of European theatre and performance festivals
January-June 2020
Vol. VII, Issue 1
ISSN: 2284-3310
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International Festival of Monodrama and Mime
Zemun – Serbia
Period of the year: June/July
www.festmono-pan.org.rs/en/
Contact: +381 11 269 1715, milovan.zdravkovic@festmono-pan.org.rs
Core practice: mime, monodrama, independent theatre.
International Istanbul Theatre Festival
Istanbul – Turkey
Period of the year: November/December
tiyatro.iksv.org
Contact: +90 212 334 07 77, info@iksv.org
Core practice: new topics and works in performing arts, educational programmes, coproductions, social theatre.
International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra
Nitra – Slovakia
Period of the year: September-October
www.nitrafest.sk
Contact: +421 37 652 4 870 or +421 903 55 44 75, nitrafest@nitrafest.sk
Core practice: national and international events, drama/play, dance, music, puppet theatre, visual
theatre, non-traditional theatre, innovative scenic theatre, new tendencies.
Kilkenny Arts Festival
Kilkenny – Ireland
Period of the year: August
www.kilkennyarts.ie
Contact: +353 56 7763663, info@kilkennyarts.ie
Core practice: new works, theatre and dance, music, street art, literature, visual arts and craft.
Kunstenfestivaldesarts
Brussels – Belgium
Period of the year: April/May
www.kfda.be
Contact: +32 2 226 45 79, charline@kfda.be
Core practice: international artists, contemporary theatre, dance, performance, visual arts,
workshops.
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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La Mostra de Igualada – Children and Youth Theatre Festival
Igualada – Spain
Period of the year: April
www.lamostraigualada.cat
Contact: +34 93 806 69 45, info@lamostraigualada.cat
Core practice: children theatre, youth theatre, circus, street theatre, puppetry, street theatre,
physical theatre.
La Strada Theatre Festival
Graz – Austria
Period of the year: July/August
www.lastrada.at
Contact: +43 316 69 55 80, info@lastrada.at
Core practice: street theatre, site-specific performance, clown, physical theatre, children’s and
youth theatre.
Le Printemps des Comédiens
Montpellier – France
Period of the year: June
www.printempsdescomediens.com
Contact: +33 4 67 63 66 67, printemps@printempsdescomediens.com
Core practice: contemporary performing arts, avant-garde, and classic theatre, plastic arts.
LIFT – London International Festival of Theatre
London – United Kingdom
Period of the year: May/July
www.liftfestival.com
Contact: +44 20 7968 6800, info@liftfestival.com
Core practice: global scope, performances, talks, installations and events, intercultural exchange.
LÓKAL – International Theatre Festival
Reykjavík – Iceland
Period of the year: November
www.lokal.is
Contact: +354 895 6871, lokal@lokal.is
Core practice: cutting-edge drama, local and international artists, storytelling, technology and
performing arts.
Armando Rotondi
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London International Mime Festival
London – United Kingdom
Period of the year: January/February
www.mimelondon.com
Contact: +44 20 7637 5661, anna@annaarthurpr.com
Core practice: mime, physical theatre, workshops.
LUDI – International Theatre Festival of Chamber and Mono Performances
Orel – Russia
Period of the year: June
www.teatr.orel.ru
Contact: +7 4862 764698 or +7 4862 761212, teatrCP@oyandex.ru or lama124@yandex.ru
Core practice: various types of performing arts events, multidisciplinary perfromances.
Malta International Arts Festival
La Valletta – Malta
Period of the year: June/July
www.festivalsmalta.org
Contact: caroline.c.agius@festivalsmalta.org
Core practice: physical theatre, micro-theatre production, interdisciplinary productions,
independent theatre, street theatre, site-specific performances.
Malta International Theatre Festival
Poznan – Poland
Period of the year June
www.malta-festival.pl
Contact: +48 61 62 31 866, office@malta-festival.pl
Core practice: site-specific theatre and performances, contemporary performing arts, workshops,
discussions, experiments, global scope
Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival
Edinburgh – United Kingdom
Period of the year: February
www.manipulatefestival.org
Contact: +44 131 341 4314, info@puppetanimation.org
Core practice: visual theatre, puppet theatre, object theatre, alternative theatre practice.
Armando Rotondi
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Mess Sarajevo Festival
Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina
Period of the year: September/October
www.mess.ba
Contact: +387 33 200 392, info@mess.ba
Core practice: local, European and world production, small and experimental theatre works.
Mezinarodni Festival Divadlo
Pilsen – Czech Republic
Period of the year: September
www.festivaldivadlo.cz
Contact: +420 378 038 414 or +420 378 038 415, festival@divadlo.cz
Core practice: national and international productions of drama, music, dance, puppet and street
theatre, modern theatre trends in Europe and globally, international collaboration.
Milano Clown Festival
Milan – Italy
Period of the year: March
www.milanoclownfestival.com
Contact: +39 02 91 70 50 29, info@milanoclownfestival.it
Core practice: clown, mime, physical theatre, street theatre.
Mime Fest
Prague – Czech Republic
Period of the year: September
www.mimefest.cz
Contact: +420 777 002 069 or +420 777 947 430, physicalmime@gmail.com or
mimefest@gmail.com
Core practice: mime, physical theatre
MITEM – Madách International Theatre Meeting
Budapest – Hungary
Period of the year: April
www.mitem.hu/en
Contact: +361 476 68 00, melinda.szuts@nemzetiszinhaz.hu or ami.muranyi@nemzetiszinhaz.hu
Core practice: independent the theatre, communal experience, post-performance conversations,
roundtables, workshops
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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Napoli Teatro Festival
Naples, Italy
Period of the year: June/July
www.napoliteatrofestival.it
Contact: +39 81 18199179, info@napoliteatrofestival.it
Core practice: international, observatory section, physical theatre, workshops, dance.
OFF Sytuacje
Poznan – Poland
Period of the year: May/June
www.studio-aktorskie.pl/offsytuacje
Contact: akademiapapa@gmail.com
Core practice: alternative theatre practice, micro-theatre, solo performance, training, seminars and
workshops.
Online Performance Art Festival
Online
Period of the year: December, February, April/May, August (four editions per year)
www.onlineperformanceart.com
Contact: info@olineperformanceart.com
Core practice: alternative theatre practice, micro-theatre, digital theatre, live streaming.
Paris Fringe
Paris – France
Period of the year: October
www.parisfringe.org
Contact: info@parisfringe.org
Core practice: alternative theatre, independent productions, street theatre, non-mainstream
theatre, site-specific performances.
PASSAGE International Street Theatre Festival
Elsinore and Helsinborg – Denmark and Sweden
Period of the year: July/August
www.passagefestival.nu
Contact: +45 53 86 08 11, assagefestival@helsingor-teater.dk
Core practice: street theatre, site-specific performance, physical theatre, intercultural exchange.
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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PIF – International Puppet Theatre Festival
Zagreb – Croatia
Period of the year: September
www.pif.hr
Contact: +385 1 66 01 626 or +385 1 66 92 574
Core practice: puppet exhibitions and shows, national and international performers, adult and
children plays, seminars.
Porsgrunn International Theatre Festival
Porsgrunn – Norway
Period of the year: June
www.pitfestival.no
Contact: +47 35 55 66 88, post@pitfestival.no
Core practice: national and international theatre performances, street performances, seminars and
workshops
Reading Fringe Festival
Reading – United Kingdom
Period of the year: July
www.readingfringefestival.co.uk
Contact: info@readingfringefestival.co.uk
Core practice: alternative and independent theatre, physical theatre, site-specific theatre, smallscale projects.
REFLEX International Theatre Festival
Sfântu Gheorghe – Romania
Period of the year: May
www.reflexfest.ro
Contact: +40 267 351 886, office@tamasitheatre.ro
Core practice: physical theatre, theatre classics in up-to-date versions, artworks.
Reykjavik Art Festival
Reykjavik – Iceland
Period of the year: June
www.artfest.is
Contact: +354 561 2444, artfest@artfest.si
Core practice: international artists, multidisciplinary works, new commissions, creative
intersection of the arts, performances of contemporary works, cultural diversity.
Armando Rotondi
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Roma/Europa Festival
Rome – Italy
Period of the year: September/November
www.romaeuropa.net/festival
Contact: +39 06 45553050, email: romaeuropa@romaeuropa.net
Core practice: international and local networks, Italian and European performing arts, theatre,
visual arts, digital media, dance, contemporary music.
Roma Fringe Festival
Rome – Italy
Period of the year: January
www.romafringefestival.it
Contact: info@romafringefestival.it
Core practice: alternative theatre, independent productions, site-specific performances, nonmainstream theatre.
Sibiu International Theatre Festival
Sibiu – Romania
Period of the year: June
www.sibfest.ro
Contact: +40 269 210 092, tnrs@sibfest.ro or vicentiu.rahau@sibfest.ro or dan.bartha@sibfest.ro
Core practice: local and foreign performance artists, theatre, dance, and music, platform for nonformal education through performing arts, performing arts market.
Sirenos Festival
Vilnius – Lithuania
Period of the year: October
www.sirenos.lt
Contact: +370 61497424, email: sirenos@sirenos.lt
Focus: European theatre artists, modern trends in theatre.
SPRING - Festival aan de Werf
Utrecht – Netherlands
Period of the year: May
www.festivalaandewerf.nl
Contact: +31 30 231 5844, +31 30 231 5355, info@huisaandewerf.nl
Core practice: international companies, recent development in theatre, dance, visual arts, and
performative installations indoor and outdoor, alternative venues.
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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Step by Step International Theatre Festival
Rezekne – Latvia
Period of the year: September
www.teatris.rezekne.net
Contact: +371 646 22066, teatr59@inbox.lv
Core practice: national and European theatre groups, different genres and forms.
Subotica International Festival of Children’s Theatres
Subotica – Serbia
Period of the year: September
www.lutfestsubotica.net
Contact: +381 24 554 600, ivona@openunsubotica.rs or lutfestsubotica@gmail.com
Core practice: children’s and youth theatre, puppetry, street theatre, physical theatre, clown.
Tampere Theatre Festival
Tampere – Finland
Period of the year: August
www.teatterikesa.fi
Contact: +358 3 222 8536, info@teatterikesa.fi
Core practice: national and international, professional and amateur theatres, dance theatre, street
performances, club and restaurant shows, workshops, seminars, exhibitions and meetings.
Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre
Tbilisi – Georgia
Period of the year: September
www.tbilisiinternational.com/en
Contact: +995 32 295 59 66, tina@tbilisiinternational.com or nutsa@tbilisiinternational.com or
nato@tbilisiinternational.com
Core practice: international cultural events, global dramatic and performing arts, cultural
cooperation and exchanges
Teatr Lalki i Aktora w Łomży
Łomża – Poland
Period of the year: June
www.teatrlomza.hi.pl
Contact: +48 86 216 59 55, teatrlomza@hi.pl
Core practice: international and national participants, puppet theatre, educational activities,
children and youth theatre.
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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Thealter International
Szeged – Hungary
Period of the year: August
www.thealter.hu
Contact: +36 30 9959229, maszk@maszk.hu
Core practice: independent art groups, innovative and non-mainstream theatre.
Theatretage am See Festival
Friedrichshafen – Germany
Period of the year: March/April
www.theatretageamsee.de
Contact: auffuehrungen@theatretageamsee.de
Core practice: children’s and youth theatre, clowns, circus, physical theatre, educational
programmes.
TESZT – Euroregional Theatre Festival Timişoara
Timişoara – Romania
Period of the year: May
www.teszt.ro
Contact: +40 256 434 814, office@tm-t.ro
Core practice: national and international companies and artists, contemporary theatre, non-verbal
performances, puppets and marionette theatre, experiments and research, collaboration,
multiculturalism.
TILT Festival
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Period of the year: July
www.tiltfestival.com
Contact: +44 121 6430022
Core practice: aerial and physical theatre, national and international circus artists, outdoor and
indoor performance, masterclasses, theatre market.
Tollwood Winterfestival
Munich – Germany
Period of the year: November/December
www.tollwood.de
Contact: +49 89 383 85 00, info@tollwood.de
Core practice: international works, performance works, concerts.
Armando Rotondi
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January-June 2020
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V/A Fest – International Theatre Festival Varna Summer
Varna – Bulgaria
Period of the year: June
www.viafest.org
Contact: +359 2 988 44 82, bat@omega.bg or r.nikolova@vaifest.org
Core practice: international artists, street theatre, puppetry, workshops.
Visual Theatre Fest NuQ Treff
Tallinn – Estonia
Period of the year: May
www.nuku.ee/en/festival
Contact: +372 6679 555 or +372 6679 542, leino.rei@nuku.ee or annika@nuku.ee
Core practice: interdisciplinary performance, puppet theatre, dance, drama and music concerts,
communication for practitioners, meetings and workshops, post-performance talks.
Wiener Festwochen
Wien – Austria
Period of the year: May/June
www.festwochen.at
Contact: +43 1 589 22 0, festwochen@festwochen.at
Core practice: multidisciplinary creations, international artists.
Zürcher Festspiele
Zurich – Switzerland
Period of the year: June
www.festspiele-zuerich.ch
Contact: +41 44 269 90 90, info@festspiele-zuerich.ch
Core practice: general performing arts, cross-sectoral programme, interdisciplinary performances.
Armando Rotondi
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A selection of
market events for performing arts
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
Due to the very specific typology of event, this survey will consider a selection of performing
arts market at international level and not only in the European context. It is also important to
point out that many festival previously selected, even if not organised as a market, has also
specific section for buyers, programmers and distributors (e.g. Avignon OFF).
*****
CINARS International Exchange for Performers (Canada)
According to the CINARS’ mission: CINARS is a not-for-profit organization whose mission
is to promote and support the export of the performing arts. Its main objectives are to:
Encourage cultural creations emerging from the performing arts sector; Promote commercial
discussions between organizations specializing in production and those specializing in show
presentation; Make Montreal a worldwide hub of performance art networking.
Period: biennale
www.cinars.org/en/biennale
FiraTàrrega
FiraTàrreg is the international market for performing arts that takes place every year in Tàrrega
during the second weekend in September. Founded in 1981, it is a great showcase of what is
going on in performing arts, with an eclectic programme that includes indoor shows and places
special emphasis on street arts, visual and unconventional shows.
Period: September
www.firatarrega.cat
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #2 – A selection of market events for performing arts
January-June 2020
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Internationale Kulturbörse Freiburg (Germany)
The IKF is a trade fair and international industry event. Promoters, producers and event
professionals have the opportunity at the IKF to experience numerous different productions and
artists live in a concentrated form over the course of just a few days. At the same time, the artists
themselves or the agencies representing them can introduce themselves with a stand in the
exhibition hall, regardless of whether they are also presenting a live performance. It is currently
possible to apply to the IKF with live performances in the following categories: Performing arts
(theatre, acrobatics, variety, storytelling, cirque nouveau, cabaret, comedy, puppet theatre,
pantomime, dance, media art, etc.); music (world music, jazz, a cappella, singer-songwriter, pop,
rock…); street theatre (performances and walkabout acts).
Period: September
www.kulturboerse-freiburg.de
La Mostra d’Igualada (Spain)
La Mostra d’Igualada is a major showcase for the best productions, attracting around 36,000
spectators and 700 professionals. Considered a strategic Catalan marketplace, its purpose is to
strengthen children’s theatre programmes around the country and beyond. From over 600
applications received to take part in the festival, the artistic direction has selected around fifty
productions for their quality, contemporaneity, originality and capacity to incorporate new
languages and to adapt to unconventional spaces. The event encompasses all performing art
genres (theatre, magic, circus arts, clowning, puppetry, dance, music, multi-disciplinary arts, etc.),
both in theatres and on the street.
Period: April
www.lamostraigualada.cat
Performing Arts Market Seoul (South Korea)
The primary objects of PAMS are revitalization of rational distribution and exportation to
oversee markets. Through the diverse programs of PAMS as showcases of selected performing
arts, booth exhibitions for the promotion of art works and artistic groups, varied symposium and
networking programs, all the performing arts experts are able to share the information of field
and global trends for encouragement of creation and provision of performing arts.
Period: October
www.en.pams.or.kr/
Sibiu Performing Arts Market (Romania)
Since its first edition in 1997, the Sibiu Performing Arts Market has developed and has become
an important cultural network, facilitating connections between festivals and artists, performing
arts, independent companies or public institutions. Every year, more than 300 participants all
over the world, representing various cultural organizations (artistic management agencies, NGOs,
public institutions, independent companies, etc.), meet in Sibiu and establish connections and
possible future partnerships.
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The Sibiu Performing Arts Market – an associated structure of the Sibiu International Theatre
Festival (FITS) – is the product of the Festival's need to grant equal opportunities to all artists,
cultural operators, performing arts institutions or cultural networks to meet important producers
from all over the world.
Period: June
www.sibfest.ro/bursa/bursa-en.html
TPAM Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama (Japan)
TPAM Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama is a space where professionals from various places
in the world who explore the possibility of contemporary performing arts exchange through
performance and meeting programs to gain information, inspiration and network for the
creation, dissemination and vitalization of performing arts. Established in 1995 as Tokyo
Performing Arts Market and moved in 2011 to the “Creative City” Yokohama. Reinforcing its
focus on Asia and having started to involve itself in Asian co-production, TPAM is
internationally recognized as one of the most influential performing arts platforms in Asia.
Period: February
www.tpam.or.jp
Armando Rotondi
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A selection of
Europe-based companies/artists1
Valentina Temussi / Daria Lavrennikov
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
The companies and artists selected in this section have been chosen as examples of possible
partners in the field of independent and non-instutionalised theatre practice. The list is a
subjective attempt and it does not want to be a complete list. In the selection some parameters
has been used in order to exclude some possible institutions. Specifically companies that can be
considered as “institutions”, “institutionalized” or critically “canonized” – even if working in the
areas of physical theatre or movement-base practice and alternative theatre – have been not
considered: it is the case of DV8, Forced Entertainment, Societas Raffaello Sanzio or other
companies that have reached big dimensions. Same parameter of exclusion has been used with
companies focused more on the commercial aspects (e.g. Circo de los horrores). Companies that
have been considered for specific case studies in this report have been also excluded, due to the
information already given previously (e.g. Rimini Protokoll).
*****
A Estructura (Porto, Portugal)
A Estrutura was founded in 2009 by Cátia Pinheiro e José Nunes and has developed the creation
and production of performances of theatre and interdisciplinary projects, as well as parallel
programming and educational activities. The work of A Estructura focuses on the creation of
projects that enter in dialogue with the reality of contemporary thinking (its artistic,
philosophical, social and political dimensions), promoting artistic experimentation and a
1
The following descriptions are faithful reproductions of the information, data and style of the websites of the
selected companies and artists. Only few minor changes were made.
Valentina Temussi / Daria Lavrennikov
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collaborative logic, where they regularly invite other artists to share the creative process, such as
was the case with Rogério Nuno Costa, Pedro Zegre Penim, António MV or André Godinho.
www.estrutura.pt
ACTS – Laboratory for performance practices (Oslo, Norway)
ACTS – Laboratory for performance practices is an artist-run organization for practical research
in the field of contemporary performance. Based in Oslo, Norway, ACTS was founded in 2011,
and it is driven by the artistic directors Fernanda Branco and Luanda Carneiro Jacoel. The
foundation of ACTS work is on bridging interdisciplinary art forms in Norway, to foment
development through the actual exchange between artists from different artistic backgrounds.
ACTS focus on local and transnational artists to expand notions of local-global and vice-versa
from the perspective of being in long durational transit. Within the contemporary sociopolitical
context of increased and accelerated global mobility, ACTS positions itself as a mobile
organization that promotes mobility between art forms. ACTS seeks to collaborate with various
cultural locations with a temporarily and site-specific approaches to it.
www.actspractices.org
Andcompany&Co. (Frankfurt, Germany)
The collective andcompany&Co. was founded by theatremaker and scientist, author and
performer Alexander Karschnia, theatre-maker, author and performer Nicola Nord, and
musician, performer and composer Sascha Sulimma. In the spirit of its founding ideas, they
create their work collaboratively with all members, co-directing, co-writing and co-producing the
pieces. National and international artists from various disciplines that andcompany&Co. regularly
collaborate with also become equal co-combatants in the projects they are involved with. Now
based at the HAU in Berlin, the collective’s creative network is therefore continually growing.
This includes Flemish director and author Joachim Robbrecht, visual artists Noah Fischer and
Jan Brokof, musicians Reinier van Houdt and Simon Lenski, among many others. As statedin
their website: “It take history personally. History, herstory, our story. As tireless space travellers
through past and future ideologies, theories and utopias, they fight the present’s attack on the rest
of time. Behind Walter Benjamin’s angel, they sweep up the shards and stick the fragments back
together in prisms that refract the big Cs of the epochs: communism, capitalism, colonialism.
Always with the inferred autobiographical question in mind: isn’t everything political?”
www.andco.de
Andrès Corchero (Barcelona, Spain)
Between 1980 and 1985, Andrès Corchero studies theatre, contemporary mime and clown,
working at the same time in different theatre and circus performances. He continues training with
Albert Vidal , Odin Teatret, Shushaku and Dormu Dance. Fascinated by the body language and
its expressive possibilities, in 1985 he encounters Butoh dance and travels to Tokyo to study with
Kazuoh Ohno and Min Tanaka. Between 1986 and 1995 he is a member of the dance company
Mai-Juku, directed by Min Tanaka, touring in Japan, Europe and United States. In 1991 he starts
Valentina Temussi / Daria Lavrennikov
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working as a choreographer in Barcelona with the performance A un poeta futuro, the first of a
long collaboration with the poet Feliu Formosa. Between 1993 and 2012 he directs with Rosa
Muñoz the prestigious company Raravis, together they develop an intense work on creation and
pedagogy. Andrés Corchero works and collaorates with many artists and art forms: the visual
artist Jordi Rocosa, the pianist Agustí Fernández, the musician Joan Saura and the japanes dancer
Oguri. Together with Oguri they performed and toured a piece based on their artistic dialogue
and encounter My neighbor sky. Recently he worked with Pep Ramis, Enric Ases and Piero Steiner
under the direction of María Muñoz on the performance La Sed y la Revolución. Since 2005 he has
taught at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático and the Conservatorio Superior de Danza of
the Instituto del Teatro de Barcelona.
www.andrescorchero.blogspot.com
Atalaya TNT (Sevilla, Spain)
Atalaya has become an unmistakable reference of theatre investigation in all Spain, which has
been underlined by the most prestigious critics and like that was pointed by the judges that
awarded it with the National Prize of Theatre 2008: “For the Creation of an original space for
exhibition, production, education, and theatrical deliberation, as the result of a long professional
career”. It focusses on three main aspects: Pedagogy, production and programming. The first
one has been its watchword from the very beginning through the International Laboratory that
has been realized seventeen times, inviting almost a hundred of pedagogues and teachers arriving
from all theatrical traditions around the world. Since 2014 The Laboratory has been carried out
on a Laboratory-school format that lasts two years.
www.atalaya-tnt.com
ASSéDIO (Porto, Portugal)
ASSèDIO is a structure for creation that has developed an exceptional trajectory in the context
of Portugal. A theatre approach that explores categories of tragedy in contemporaneity, an
embodied physical and poetic language, history as an experience of the future. As stated in the
website: “It is an artistic collective that is able to secure its own artistic autonomy and identity.
Today with the shifts in physical, economic, and social conditions we take on a new cycle of
projects, innovating our artistic language and expanding our public. The maturity of the collective
comes both with the experience of the artists that compose is as well as with the construction of
a trajectory made up of strong complicity due to artistic and human collaborations and the
cultivation of a dialogue about theatrical practices”.
www.assedioteatro.com
Boundless Theatre (London, UK)
“Boundless Theatre creates exhilarating, relevant new plays with and for audiences of 15-25 years
old and curious others, touring across the UK and internationally. We empower, inspire and
invest in future audiences and artists now and promote conversation, collaboration and exchange
across the UK, Europe and internationally… We aim to make theatre a vital cultural and social
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part of young people’s everyday lives.We will discover, champion and produce the best new plays
for a diverse generation across the UK and internationally... We will become a destination for
adventurous audiences, artists and ideas.” Additionally, Boundless Theatre announces Extended
Universe, a two year project funded by Creative Europe where they will partner with three
European theatre companies to develop new young independent theatre audiences across
Europe. Boundless Theatre will lead the project partnering with four politically-engaged,
outward-looking theatres from across Europe, Teater Grob (Denmark), Entropia (Greece)
and Sala Beckett (Spain) with the shared aim of connecting more with young audiences and
maximizing digital developments for storytelling. The partners have connected through
conversations about recent social, cultural and political shifts in each country; together they will
explore ideas around power, utopia and youth culture offering a platform to young adults and
their perspectives. The four companies will each work with a theatre-maker (to be announced
shortly) and 15-25 year olds over the next two years to co-create a narrative for multiple
platforms (including live theatre), adopting a transmedia approach to storytelling. Work will be
presented in Copenhagen, Barcelona, Athens and online (created in London) in May 2020.
www.boundlesstheatre.org.uk
Chiara Bersani (Italy)
Chiara Bersani is an Italian artist working in the performing arts. Her formative path takes place
mainly in the field of theatrical research with influences from contemporary dance and
performing art. Suffering a moderate form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta, she is interested in the
political meaning that a body can just take with its own image when interacting with the society.
As an outcome of this considerations took place the inquiry path on the Political Body, started in
2013 and divided into Goodnight, peeping Tom (performances for 5 spectators), Miracle Blade (Film),
Tell Me More (performance with a chorus of 8 male voices). The collaborations with other artists
are one of the key features of her artistic career. Other major collaborations were with the
Madrid-based company La Tristura, with the French choreographer Jérôme Bel and with the
Argentinian director and playwright Rodrigo Garcia.
www.chiarabersani.it
Collective Ma’louba (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany)
Collective Ma’louba is a Syrian, Arabic-speaking artist and theatre collective, which is currently in
residence at the Theatre an der Ruhr in. In its theatre productions, Collective Ma’louba questions
the political and social condition of the Arab world against the background of recent rebellions
and penetrates the taboos of Syrian and Arab society. Further artistic projects of thematic
relevance such as installations, exhibitions and workshops accompany the theatre productions.
The artists’ collective would like to create temporary, transnational, multilingual spaces of
encounter at the national and international level. In order to maintain ties to the Arab cultural
region and integrate artistic feedback into the project, the organizers will set up a second
production venue at the Théâtre National Tunisien in Tunis, where Fadhel Jaibi, one of the most
influential theatre artists in the Arab region, works as a director. Its core members – the Syrian
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director Rafat Alzakout, Syrian author Mudar Alhaggi and Syrian actress Amal Omran – will
work with artists from the Arab region to develop various interdisciplinary projects which focus
on producing Arab-speaking theatre performances. The project will create comprehensive,
multifaceted works of art which could include elements of drama, dance, film, music, readings
and workshops. The cultural traditions, legends, and stories of the past and present in the Arabicspeaking region will comprise a significant portion of the content. Furthermore, the artists wish
to investigate the cultural similarities and differences between Europe and the Arab world. The
projects will be developed, rehearsed and produced at the Theatre an der Ruhr in Mülheim.
www.collective-malouba.de
Compania Sincara (Leipzig, Germany)
Compania SIncara is a theatre collective founded in 2016 with a base in Leipzig. The name
Sincara (from Spanish sin cara, “without a face”) alludes to the special theatrical work with masks
and figures that distinguish the company. Each piece is worked out in a collective work process
and makes invisible worlds become visible, full of figures and stories that tell something about
being human. In her playful handling of new and old, experimental and historical ways of playing
and narrating, Compania Sincara creates theatre experiences full of enthusiasm and poetry.
www.companiasincara.com
Creative Laboratory of Contemporary Theatre KRILA (Rijeka, Croatia)
Creative Laboratory of Contemporary Theatre KRILA has in its name the basic guidelines for its
work. These are a development and practice of creativity as an artistic, social and personal value;
fostering educational, research and laboratory approach to theater and performing arts;
questioning the methods and ways of creating, performing and learning; encompassing,
connecting and experimenting with different manifestations and tendencies in nowadays diverse
theatre and performing arts practices. Key activities are production of contemporary theatre
performances such as collaborative and devised theatre, physical theatre, dramatic corporeal
mime and participatory performances; creation and organization of a regular educational program
for children, youth and adults; organization of master classes for the professional development of
contemporary performing artists, developing collaborations with local artists, students,
associations, schools, institutions, and networking and collaborating with international artists and
organizations in the field.
www.krila.org
D’As Entranhas (Lisbon, Portugal)
An independent theatre company and cultural association that promotes cultural interventions in
the domain of theatre performance. Developing an innovative artistic language and collaborative
artistic process, they research audiovisual, multimedia and visual arts techniques. From its
beginnings up until today they have been focused on developing an experimental dramaturgy,
with a creative process that is developed in partnership with the performers.
www.dasentranhas.com
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DAH Theatre (Belgrade, Serbia)
DAH Theatre is the only professional and experimental theatre group, independent nongovernmental, in Serbia that exists and has created nationally and internationally for over 20
years. Directors Jadranka Andelic and Dijana Milosevic formed DAH theatre out of a need for
profound experimental work. In 2003 DAH Theatre enlarged its activities by founding DAH
Theatre Research Centre (DTRC) to deliver an ongoing program of workshops, lectures,
seminars guest performances and festivals. DTRC is a venue that has grown into a significant
spot on the cultural and artistic map of Belgrade and Serbia. The work of the centre is aimed
towards a constant Exchange of knowledge, experience and ideas amongst artists and participants
from various theatrical and national traditions.
www.dasentranhas.com
Demo (Coimbra, Portugal)
DEMO (Dispositivo Experimental, Multidisciplinar e Orgânico) was establishes in 2010, from a
group of six performers who have had individual training in many different academic areas but a
shared common studies in theatre made in and by CITAC (Círculo de Iniciação Teatral da
Academia de Coimbra) between 2004 and 2011. Since then, they have been developing projects
in performative and visual arts. The artists that compose DEMO come from visual arts, graphic
arts, communication design, theatre – stage direction/interpretation, primary teaching,
international relations and European studies. They develop projects that combine and interlace
theatre, performance, sound art and visual art.
www.demo.pt
Dewey Dell (Cesena, Italy)
Dewey Dell is an Italian company born in 2007 and now based in Cesena/Italy, Berlin and
Vilnius. The four members are Teodora, Demetrio, Agata Castellucci and Eugenio Resta. They
have strong skills in different areas. This took each of them to give priority to a specific aspect of
the work, without giving up a collective modeling of materials. Since 2007 Dewey Dell has
created different works: à elle vide (2007), KIN KEEN KING (2008), Baldassarre (2009), Cinquanta
Urlanti Quaranta Ruggenti Sessanta Stridenti (2010), Grave (2011/12), Marzo (2013) and various forms
of live concert. In 2017 Dewey Dell created “Sleep Technique”, in collaboration with Massimo
Pupillo from the band Zu for the creation of the score, and a solo dance work, entitled ‘Deriva
Traversa’. In 2018 they present the diptych I am within’ & ‘I am without. The name Dewey Dell is a
tribute to Faulkner and to the young girl of As I lay dying, under whose look the company
prepares itself to wander towards the abyss.
www.deweydell.com
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Eddita Braun (Salzburg, Austria)
Editta Braun company’s work is opposing the meshes of network of systemically legitimised
constraints, that is gradually creeping into our everyday lives, by exposing themselves to
conditions of production in the so called third world. Artistic productions and collaborations in
India, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Senegal, Greece: this is not just the experience of a reality “outside” – it
is also the bringing-back of these experiences into the increasingly hermetic space of our
societies. The process of creating emphasizes on the equal collaboration of artists from different
disciplines. In this way dancers, actors, musicians, light-designers, visual artists join the company
to collaborate under the same umbrella.
www.editta-braun.com
El conde de Torrefiel (Barcelona, Spain)
Led by Pablo Gisbert (Ontinyent, Spain, 1982) and Tanya Beyeler (Lugano, Switzerland, 1980),
El Conde de Torrefiel is an artistic project whose stage works possess a visual and textual
aesthetic that combines literature, plastic arts and choreography aiming to transcend the
parameters of verbal language. El Conde de Torrefiel configure their works as chapters along a
broad path of investigation; projects that approach theatre from an immediate time-frame,
formulating hypotheses that can provide an answer to the mysteries put forward by this 21 st
Century and the ways of representing them on stage. It is one of the main representatives of a
new Spanish contemporary theatre internationally. The company’s professional career began in
2010 with the premier of La historia del rey vencido por el aburrimiento. Additionally, El Conde de
Torrefiel is part of the artistic team of La Veronal dance company, and signs the textual and
dramaturgical composition of their pieces.
www.elcondedetorrefiel.com
Eugenio Ravo (Italy)
In 1980-85, Eugenio Ravo studies Corporeal Mime in Etienne Decroux’s school. He then
becomes teacher and assistant in the same school. He is currently teaching, researching and
creating through different workshops mainly in Italy and with the work of his international
company Compagnia Esule Teatro. Its pedagogic and creative work is based on what he calls
“the sense of the awakening and rebirth through the movement”.
https://it.linkedin.com/in/eugenio-ravo-328a1a90
FC Bergman (Brussels/Antwerp/Gent, Belgium)
FC Bergman was founded in 2008 by six actors/theatre-makers/artists: Stef Aerts, Joé Agemans,
Thomas Verstraeten, Marie Vinck, Matteo Simoni and Bart Hollanders. Simoni and Hollanders
have since left the core team and now work on an ad hoc basis with FC Berman. The company
quickly developed a theatrical language all of their own, which apart from being anarchistic and
slightly chaotic, is essentially visual and poetic. In their shows the floundering, ever-striving
human being has often taken centre stage.
www.fcbergman.be
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Federica Porello/Xavi Moreno (Barcelona, Spain)
For years, Federica Porello and Xavi Moreno have been developing a specific method for staging
the relationship between bodies and objects. To make it a reality, they have developed what they
call a “basic vocabulary” – a lexicon that allows them to articulate a joint language involving both
physical and inanimate objects with actors and dancers. The “objects” with which they work with
have been chosen for their material properties and neutral forms: objects without history, without
connotations. The wood props are relatively nondescript, but in combination with other wood
pieces or with the surrounding human forms, they shape concepts and ideas through movement.
It is a laboratory designed as a creative space in which participants dialogue through dance and
object manipulation. They explore how objects can help us perceive the materiality of gestures
and how through our movements we can play with the ideas evoked by each object.
Intended for dance, physical and visual theatre students, and also those of other disciplines
(always bearing in mind that movement is at the core of the project).
http://ifbarcelona.cat/programacio/laboratori-wewood-dansa-dobjectes-federica-porello-xavimoreno/ / www.federicaporello.com
Guerassim Dichliev (Sofia, Bulgaria)
As stated in the website: “Everything started for me in Bulgaria in 1989… On 10 of November,
the Berlin Wall fell, a few mounts later, I left the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University and
started, as a joke, to study the pantomime. In the beginning I started as an amateur (Mimе-Studio
Alba) and then at the National Academy of Theatre and Cinema. And so, I gradually learned the
craft. On the streets and theatre scenes of Sofia I met my first real audience. Then I came to Paris
in 1993 to continue my education at The International School of Mimе in Paris ‘Marcel Marceau’.
Upon my graduation in 1996, Mr. Marceau, invited me to become his assistant and teacher in the
school. I worked at the School until it was closed in 2005. In parallel I joined the Company of
Mime Marceau and so I’ve toured with him in France and internationally. My direct references
are: Marcel Marceau, Etienne Decroux, Jacques Lecoq, but also Grog, Victor Borge, Slava
Polunin and Peter Shub, Théâtre de l’Ange fou and Cirque du Soleil. My favourite universes: the
physical and corporeal theatre, the commedia dell arte, the circus, the opera, the theatre clown”.
www.guerassimdichliev.com
Guillermo Weickert Compañia de danza (Sevilla, Spain)
Guillermo Weickert Cia. is a structure formed in 2007 with the complicity of El Mandaito
Producciones S.L. with the intention of creating shows that unite the rigorous and daring
research of the scenic languages with the artistic quality. Guillermo Weickert is a stage director,
actor, dancer and choreographer. If there is a common element in all his productions, it is the
interest in the interpreter as a geographical centre of their creations. All the scenic devices that
constitutes each one of his pieces is sustained around this figure as the central axis.
www.guillermoweickert.com
Hijinx and Blind Summit (Cardiff, UK)
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As stated in the website: “We are a professional theatre company based at Wales Millennium
Centre in Cardiff who tour small scale theatre throughout the UK and Europe. What makes us
different is that our casts always include actors who have learning disabilities. The ability of these
effortlessly talented performers is at the heart of every show we produce, creating work that is
utterly absorbing, surprising and provocative. We call it inclusive theatre because it makes much
of the skills and raw talent of people who often get overlooked in today’s world and gives them a
platform to make and perform stunning theatre alongside actors who don’t have disabilities”.
www.hijinx.org.uk
Hippocampe (Paris, France)
Hippocampe, was created in 1997, with the aim to develop and transmit knowledge related to the
practice of Corporeal Mime. Developed by Étienne Decroux, one of the reformers of theatre in
France in the 20th century, this discipline offers an in-depth approach to body movement. Today,
no one doubts the importance of body preparation work for actors. However, the inclusion of
adequate education is still very neglected in theatrical training, whether directed to an amateur or
professional audience. At Hippocampe the mime is envisaged as an essential tool in the
formation of the actor.
Hippocampe offers courses and workshops on corporeal mime and its repertoire.. Outside of the
courses, research workshops are organized where Corporeal Mime is confronted and set in
collaboration with other artistic practices. Hippocampe regularly invites artists from other
disciplines to participate in regular classes, or offers courses open to all audiences. All these
experiments provide materials for reflections and practical elements that enrich teaching and
inspire creative work.
www.mime-corporel-theatre.com
Horman Poster (Bilbao, Spain)
Horman Poster is a collaborative project aimed at developing artistic and educative projects
within the performative arts. Since 2010, they have developed a practice with an innovative and
critical spirit, with the intention of creating a aesthetics in contact with a community and cultural
diversity.
www.hormanposter.eu
Kellie Hughes (Dublin, Ireland)
As an ensemble member of Blue Raincoat Theatre Company for seven years, Kellie created a
number of new works with the company including The Poor Mouth, At Swim Two Birds, The Third
Policeman, The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, The Hollow in the Sand and Sanctuary. Directing
credits for Blue Raincoat during this time include The Cat and the Moon, At the Hawk’s Well and
remounts of The Bald Soprano and A Brief Taste of Lightning. Kellie Hughes has assisted director
Mikel Murfi on a number of projects including B for Baby (Abbey Theatre international tour), Bird
by Julie Feeney (Dublin Theatre Festival In Development programme) and Manchán Magan’s bilingual play Focal Point. She trained at Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique, London and at the
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Roy Hart Theatre of the Voice, Maleragues and holds a first class BA honours in Theatre and
History and an MA honours in Physical Theatre. She is currently Director in Residence at
University College Dublin and Artistic Director of the UCD Ad Astra Performing Arts Academy.
www.giaf.ie/about/co-producers/kellie-hughes
Key Performance (Lisbon, Portugal)
Marlene Monteiro Freitas, born in Cape Verde, based in Lisbon, is one of the most exciting new
talents of her generation. Her latest creation is a stunningly inventive and positively dazzling
show. A “grotesque ball” of mechanical puppets or stone statues that come to life against a
background of shrill and percussive music, de marfim e carne (of ivory and flesh) reveals a very
personal world filled with references passing by at full speed.
www.keyperformance.se
La Ribot (Madrid, Spain – Geneve, Switzerland)
Born in Madrid and resident in Geneve, La Ribot is an artist whose projects are based on the idea
of movement, bodies and plastic arts. Starting from the beginning, the shows used a mix of video
elements, languages, words, installations, and relational works.
www.laribot.com
La Tristura (Madrid, Spain)
La Tristura investigates the limits between presentation and representation, showing their interest
on contemporary theatre, and compromise with the intuition that intimacy and poetry essentially
are political concepts. During these years La Tristura collaborates with contexts like Festival de
Otoño in Madrid, Cena Contemporânea in Brasilia, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Las Naves in
Valencia, the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Cracow, Spielart Festival in Munich, El Canto de la Cabra
in Madrid or the FITBH in Belo Horizonte, among others. They also generated contexts such as
Festival Salvaje, the Gran Convocatoria Mundial or the series La tristura 2004-2014. They have
always tried to connect cultural agents and artists, trusting that from those connections,
unexpected and inspiring movements will be born. Their work is still tied with Madrid, the city
where they live and develop their projects.
www.latristura.com
Mal Pelo (Barcelona, Spain)
In January 1989 Pep Ramis and María Muñoz founded the dance theatre group Mal Pelo: “Mal
Pelo, with artistic codirection of Pep Ramis and Maria Muñoz, is a creative group characterized
by a shared responsibility, one of the distinguishing facts of the group, that it has produced more
than 25 performances. Both also are in charge of the design of the scenic space. From 1989, Mal
Pelo has been developing its own artistic language through movement, incorporating the
theatricality with the creation of dramatic arts that include the word, also working with music
composers for the creation of original soundtracks, collaborating with video artists, among
others. The basic activity is the creation of performances, always together with the necessity to
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experience and to develop the main subjects that throughout all these years we have been
developing”.
www.malpelo.org
Miet Warlop (Berlin, Germany – Brussels/Gent, Belgium)
The works of Belgian artist Miet Warlop are described as living canvases with strokes of silent
humour. Her work shifts between the visual arts, performance and theatre. With a Master’s
Degree in Multimedia Arts from KASK (Ghent), she won the Franciscus Pycke Jury Award and
the prize for Best Young Theatre Work 2004 for her graduation project, Huilend Hert, Aangeschoten
Wild. Since then she has presented her work around the world, breaking moulds across all genre.
She lives and works between Ghent, Berlin and Brussels.
www.mietwarlop.com
MOTUS (Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy)
Italian theatre company Motus was founded in 1991. A nomad and independent company, in
constant movement between countries, historic moments and disciplines, the company burst
onto the scene in the Nineties with productions wielding great physical and emotional impact and
has always anticipated and portrayed some of the harshest contradictions of the present day. It
has experienced and created hyper- contemporary trends in the theatre, performing authors such
as Camus, Beckett, DeLillo, Rilke or their beloved Pasolini. They have received several
acknowledgements, including three UBU Prizes and prestigious special awards for their
work. Silvia Calderoni – their tireless protagonist – has worked with Motus since 2005 and is the
winner of many awards that include “Best Italian Actress” honors UBU Prize, Elizabeth Turroni,
Marte and Virginia Reiter Awards. Motus has performed all over the world, from Under the
Radar in New York, to Festival Trans Amériques in Montreal, Santiago a Mil (Chile), the Fiba
Festival in Buenos Aires, as well as all over Europe.
www.motusonline.com
MOVEO (Barcelona, Spain)
MOVEO is a performing arts centre dedicated to the creation, training and investigation of
physical theatre. Founded in 2005 in Barcelona, it houses a permanent company, residencies of
artists, courses, workshops and a variety of activities around the expressive body. Since its
creation, Cia Moveo has been rewarded by various prizes, the latest ones being for Best Show at
the Feria Internacional de Teatro y Danza de Huesca 2015 (Spain), Best Company Award at the
Imaginarius Festival 2016 (Portugal) and Best Premiere of Street Arts at the Fira Tarrega 2017.
Within the creation axe, Moveo specialises in devised shows using the body and the art of
movement as the main elements of expression, both in venues and in the street, mixing various
disciplines and working with artists from different cultural backgrounds.
www.moveo.cat
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Needcompany (Brussels, Belgium)
Needcompany is an international, multilingual and multidisciplinary performance group formed
in 1986 by the artists Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey. This diversity is reflected best in the
ensemble itself, in which on average 7 different nationalities are represented. Over the years
Needcompany has put increasing emphasis on this ensemble and several artistic alliances have
flourished: Lemm&Barkey (Grace Ellen Barkey and Lot Lemm) and OHNO COOPERATION
(Maarten Seghers and Jan Lauwers). Needcompany revolves around the individual artist.
Everything is founded on the artistic project, on authenticity, necessity and meaning. The
medium itself is continually questioned, and there is constant examination of the quality of the
content to be conveyed in relation to the form it takes. Needcompany believes in quality,
cooperation and innovation. Needcompany is a leading voice in the social debate on the urgency
and beauty of art at both a domestic and an international level.
www.needcompany.org
Oliver Pollack (Berlin, Germany)
As stated in the website: “Since two decades I am ‘married’ now to ‘mime corporel dramatique’
[sic]. My formation in physical theatre led me first one year to the Commedia School of
Copenhagen (Lecoq-style), then a year to Paris to the great Master Marcel Marceau and finally 6
very intensive years of apprenticeship at the école de mime corporel dramatique London.
Graduated with diploma, continued in the post-graduate program and the theatre company
Théâtre de l’Ange Fou. There, under the very devoted and stringent direction of Corinne Soum
and Steven Wasson (the last two longstanding assistants of Etienne Decroux) I gained my
substantiated and profound knowledge in this art form. It was here, where my fascination for the
‘strict doctrine’ commenced, it’s manifold possibilities of expression and its inherent beauty.
After 10 years abroad and now 10 years back in Germany, Berlin, I have performed and taught in
this art form very frequently, and extended and enriched my ways of expression and teaching
steadily. Ever since, I was interested in conveying physical performing in general and specifically
this movement technique/art form/stage philosophy”.
http://www.mime.berlin/oliver-pollak/
Out of Balanz (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Out of Balanz was named one of the 13 most innovative physical theatre companies, alongside
such companies as The SITI Company and DV8, in “backstage.com”. Katrina Bugaj and Troels
Hagen Findsen are the co-founders and joint artistic directors of Out of Balanz. Katrina Biugaj
is an American director, performer/creator, writer and researcher-practitioner. Troels Hagen
Findsen is a Danish actor, performer/creator, writer, director and musician. Out of Balanz’s
work is the result of (often long-term) collaborations with an ever evolving ensemble of
international artists and associates. The company’s approach is rooted in devising and ensemble
practice. With an emphasis on rigorous experimentation, playful exploration and exchange, they
seek to further the creation and understanding of artistic expression.
www.outofbalanz.com
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Pere Faura (Barcelona, Spain)
His work is characterized by the appropriation of elements of pop culture, in a multidisciplinary
choreography among all the elements that make up the theatrical gear. Pere Faura graduated from
the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam in 2006, with a piece that wins the ITS
Festival Award, and is selected for the DansClick tour in different cities in the Netherlands. That
same year he entered as a resident choreographer at the Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam and in
2009 he received the prestigious Charlotte Kohler Price. In 2011 he graduated from
the Amsterdam Master of Choreography and returns to Barcelona where he continues to
produce new shows with the collaboration of several creative centers in the city.
www.perefaura.com
Peter Stamer (Berlin, Germany)
Peter Stamer (DE/A) is a theatre maker in the context of contemporary performing arts. In his
projects, he is interested in exploring conditions for discursive and physical empowerment within
given performative, social and narrative apparatuses. Beyond his theatre work and teaching
activities in all of Europe, his performance and theatre projects have led him to China, the USA,
Canada, Egypt or Israel. Next to the performative adaptation of Nietzsche’s essay On Truth and
Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense, among his recent works are to be found the international
building/performance project A Future Archaeology in Berlin, Vienna and Cairo (2012-2013),
which provided the initial impulses for the book How to Collaborate? – Questioning Togetherness in the
Performing Arts (Passagen Verlag) which was published in 2016; his performative installation and
film 26 Letters to Deleuze (EMPAC New York) in 2014; The Circus of Life A-Z (together with Yosi
Wanunu) at Tanzquartier Vienna (2015).
www.peterstamer.com
Pippo Delbono (Italy)
Pippo Delbono is one of Italy’s most unconventional and distinctive theatre artists. He began his
studies of dramatic art in a traditional school that he left in research for a new theatrical language.
He decided to study the principles of eastern theatre, where is central a detailed and strict work of
the actor on the body and on the voice, where theatre and dance meet and merge. At the
beginning of the Eighties, he founded Pippo Delbono Company with whom he represented all
his performances, from Il tempo degli assassini (1987) to La Menzogna (2008). They are not
representations of theatrical texts but entire creations where the actors are part of a stable core
that grows up through the time.
www.pippodelbono.it
Platform 88 (Montpellier, France)
Platform 88 is a contemporary mime company founded in 2009 by Sebastien Loesener and
Janaina Tupan. The body is at the very center of the company’s creative process. Body, source of
an imaginary, who expresses itself not to replace words, but to go beyond and below them. Body
who is at the same time poetic and dramatic. It is at the interface of those two forms that the
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company has designed its mark. Up to today, they have created the shows Platform
88, (Alice), Nina, On n’arrache pas les ailes des papillons si facilement, and numerous short performances
associated to specific researches. The mission of the company is to develop and promote
contemporary mime. The body is what anchors any human to the world. Based on that ethos we
aim to play with its universal aspect and the differences in which it can be expressed,
understanding the body as an entrance door to the being. The goals are, in respect to that, artistic
as much as esthetic, philosophical or political.
www.compagnieplatform88.com
Plexus Polaire (France/Norway)
Yngvild Aspeli’s performances are created between Norway and France, and performed
throughout Europe. She develops a visual universe that mixes sweetness and cruelty. Through
images, sounds and gestures, imagination and matter, Aspeli gives life to the most hidden
feelings. An approach centered around the double presence of the actor, in relation to the
human-sized puppet.
www.plexuspolaire.com
Poulpe Électrique (Arcueil, France)
Poulpe Électrique is an arts association founded in 2015 with the mission to support the work of
multidisciplinary artists, as well as contribute with the development and dissemination of the arts.
It aims to create original and compelling work in France and abroad. Polyglot and multicultural,
Poulpe Électrique focuses on speaking about contemporary themes through a critical and poetic
dialogue between physical expression and the digital arts. The supported artists work on creating
shows but also art installations. Poulpe Électrique’s first production is the physical theatre show
Feminine, but Elastic. It was premiered in 2016 and speaks about women and the media by
questioning and playing with the re-appropriation of female role models. Their second and
current project is a show for the 2019-2020 season on the themes of obsolescence and the
Anthropocene: As I watched the clouds float by, the night came. Parallel to the artistic productions,
Poulpe Électrique provides training to professional artists, amateurs, and any individual or group
interested in developing artistic skills. Through organising workshops on movement and theatre,
and computing for the arts, it also focuses on audience development.
www.poulpeelectrique.net
Projecte Ingenu (Barcelona, Spain)
As stated in the website: “In 2013 a group of young people detected that they didn’t feel
comfortable with the market tempos. Projecte Ingenu was born as a research group about
theatrical practice, with the aim of merging professional work with personal development and
investigation of a possible model for the contemporary actor. We began an actoral training based
on ancient Greek chorus and vocal music experimentation, working on the rehearsal room but
also on non-conventional outdoor spaces. We started to use the concept “slowtheatre” to define
us. The Slow Movement addresses the issue of “time poverty” through making connections. We
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are constantly looking for connections that return us to humanity, to all that relates to life. We
applied this philosophy in our rehearsals: the scene got naked and the actor became the centre of
the piece. Theatre is the relationship between the actor and the audience, hand to hand, in every
word. This experience, this humanity does not have limits, it crosses borders. The aim was to
start a regular job without boundaries between acting, playwriting and directing actors. We
wanted to build a “slow” space, where the rush to solve a scene didn’t fit in our philosophy. The
work sessions organised by themes brought about investigation in different areas: theatre out of
context (theatre space and its limits), theatre and society (social intervention experiences with
theatre as a centerpiece), the theatre performer (actor is able to alter the space-time experience of
the receiver). Gradually we have found the need to materialise in shows our dynamic of working,
trying not to lose the essence of continuous work, regular and wide, although the rhythm of
theatres compels us to talk with the standard tempos of production. So, nowadays we combine
artistic creation with our training activities and research”.
www.projecteingenu.com
Protocol – Lanre Malaolu (London, UK)
As a director, choreographer and performance artist based in London, UK, Lanre is co- founder
of Protocol. His work merges physical theatre with hip-hop & contemporary dance to create
work which aims to enhance and challenge our social and political worldviews. A key element of
Lanre’s work stems from Rudolf Laban’s movement psychology, which he uses to create
dynamic and bold choreography charged with truth. Lanre is also a trained actor, graduating from
Drama Centre London and has worked extensively in theatre and television.
www.lanremalaolu.com / www.protocoldance.co.uk
Quim Bigas (Copenhagen, Denmark – Stockholm, Sweden – Barcelona, Spain)
Quim Bigas Bassart was born in Barcelona and he is an artist working within the fields of
performance arts, information and education. Since 2007 combines performing for other people,
collaborations and his own work. His interest in dance lies in the conversational, the practice and
the encounter. He has a tendency towards working focus on movement research, social
interactions and information procedures. His works are very diverse and are located around
concerns and triggers on the gaze, the idea of experience, the present, performativity and
commitment in an a artistic environment. He uses sources that comes from Popular Culture,
Performative and Theatre Essays, Sociology and Information Science. Quim Bigas currently lives
between Copenhagen, Stockholm and Barcelona where he develops his own work, as well as
collaborating with different artists.
www.quimbigas.com
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Rootless Root (Athens, Greece)
RootlessRoot, co-founded and co-directed by Linda Kapetanea and Josef Frucek. As stated in the
website: “It is a structure that supports our vision and creative ideas. We could describe it as a
white cloud always changing, disappearing, appearing and flowing, as it needs. It is a movement
driven, reflective platform that we have established in order to develop an artistic language that is
accessible, primal, creative and playful. We are movement practitioners that are fundamentally
interested in human emotion and cultural expression. It’s a structure through which we realize
our practical philosophy in order to further expand and discover our artistic capacities and desires
to dive into the emotional landscapes of the human being. RootlessRoot is a meeting point, an
intersection and a threshold where conflicting ideas transform into a journey of sculpturing
events inserted with risk and unpredictability. We are building language of physical expression
that is chaotic, raw, and can stay in opposition to what surrounds us both culturally and
politically. Our approach is born out of belief that the time of heroes is not gone, and the body
can still express our innermost desires, our feelings and our vision. Besides creating, we are
developing training program called Fighting Monkey.”
www.rootlessroot.com
Taldans (Istanbul, Turkey)
Taldans was officially established by Mustafa Kaplan and Filiz Sızanlı in 2003. The partners met
each other and worked on their first project in 1996 at Theatre Research Labratory. Kaplan’s
engineering and Sızanlı’s architectural background have influenced them towards establishing a
common language. Taldans received its name from “Theatre Research Laboratory” (Tiyatro
Araştırma Laboratuvarı) under Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Theatre in earlier times.
Beklan Algan and Ayla Algan, who were administors of works on creative acting and theatre
anthropology, opened the doors of TAL to dance work as Taldans realized its first work there.
Under the supervision of Mustafa Kaplan, the dance work and laboratory theatre’s effect and
contribution turned into free dance courses, dance/movement workshops and exhibitions to
meet the movement needs of dancers and actors/actresses. The partners exhibited their first
work in this studio with the name “Taldans”. Within Laboratory Theatre, the increase of
participants of practices of dance/movement work through “sharing experiences” caused them
to move from Tal Studio to a new space in 2001. The first three years was without any name, but
was full of courses and exhibitions at their new address, Sadri Alışık Sokak No.33 in Taksim;
resulting them to establish ÇATI Çağdaş Dans Sanatçıları Derneği (Contemporary Dance Artists
Association) in 2004 with former and new members’ participation. As one of the founders of
ÇATI Association, Kaplan and Sızanlı continued their work and production as Taldans under this
structure. In 2005, they moved to a new studio space in Tophane and continued Taldans’ and
their own relations and productions with ÇATI Association in the following years.
www.taldans.com
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Teatro de los Sentidos (Barcelona, Spain)
An international group of artists-researchers based in Barcelona with 20 years of experience
under the artistic direction of the Company’s founder, Colombian anthropologist and
dramaturge Enrique Vargas. They are developers of games researching upon the poetics of the
senses. They have developed a methodology which connects the sensorial languages, the poetics
of games and theatrical creation. We make experiences, which blur the usual line between
audience and actors in traditional theatre schemes, to foster an interactive and creative
participation of the audience. The audience is invited to explore their labyrinthine spaces as if it
was participating in a big game.
www.teatrodelossentidos.com
Theatre im Bahnhof (Graz, Austria)
Graz-based Theatre im Bahnhof makes contemporary theatre for the people and deals with the
Austrian identity between tradition and pop culture. It is Austria’s largest independent theatre
company and has been a regular guest at brut, currently with the regular interview
series GUESTS at brut – A Talk-Show Concentrate.
www.theatre-im-bahnhof.com
The Secret Company (Budapest, Hungary)
The Secret Company is an independent theatre group founded in 2010 with the professional
leading of Péter Kárpáti. As stated in the website: “Briefly said, our aim is to blur the boundaries
between playing and reality – border intrusion. The actors form a very intimate and direct
relationship with the audience. They play very close to them, within their reach. In this closeness
it’s hardly possible to lie. If the performance turns out well, part of the audience will believe that
everything was created really there and that time, that is, the whole piece was improvised”.
www.titkostarsulat.blogspot.com
Theatre Re (London, U.K.)
Established in 2009, Theatre Re is a London-based international ensemble creating thoughtprovoking and moving work. Its shows examine fragile human conditions in a compelling,
physical style embracing mime, theatre and live music, and are often described as magical, poetic
and tender as well as disturbing and haunting. The name of the company comes from the prefix
“re-”. It is the “re” of re-discovering and re-imagining, breathing new life into what already exists.
Intimate collaborations with experts in different fields – such as science and public health – and
various community groups throughout the devising process play a crucial part in the
development of the work. Productions have toured widely in the UK but also in France, Brazil,
Peru, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany.
www.retheatre.com
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The Emergency Room (Dublin, Ireland)
The Emergency Room (a necessary space) was created by Olwen Fouéré in 2009 for projects “in
need of immediate attention” and as a virtual holding space for the development of art-based
ideas, relationships and performance contexts. The development phase is followed by a
partnership with an established production company for the full creation and production of the
work.
www.theemergencyroom.ie
Tim Crouch (Manchester, U.K.)
Tim Crouch is an experimental theatre make. His plays include My Arm, An Oak
Tree, ENGLAND and The Author. These take various forms, but all reject theatrical conventions,
especially realism, and invite the audience to help create the work. Interviewed in 2007, Crouch
said, “Theatre in its purest form is a conceptual artform. It doesn’t need sets, costumes and
props, but exists inside an audience’s head”.
Stephen Bottoms, Professor of Contemporary Theatre & Performance at the University of
Manchester, has written that Crouch’s plays “make up one of the most important bodies of
English-language playwriting to have emerged so far in the twenty-first century... I can think of
no other contemporary playwright who has asked such a compelling set of questions about
theatrical form, narrative content and spectatorial engagement”.
www.timcrouchtheatre.co.uk
ToTum Teatre (Barcelona, Spain)
ToTum Teatre is a company based in Barcelona and operating since 2014. It is an organization
dedicated to spread and support physical and visual theatre through performances, educational
work and events. With the idea of an international theatre, “our artistic language is based on
movement, especially on Corporal Mime. ToTum TeaTre organizes workshops and classes for
Universities; Schools and Cultural Centres. The most recent theatre production is RatOn created
in collaboration with the theatre Sala Fenix and the art centre La Miranda, it is officially
supported by InIt (International Network of Italian Theatre). In 2014 ToTum TeaTre created the
show Cuarteto Combinat, ith a residency in the centre for creation NunArt and in the civic centre
Parc Sandaru – Kinètic program. In 2013 ToTum TeaTre with the Italian company Morks
created Inevidenza – Workshop and Street performance”.
www.totumteatre.com
Toxic Dreams (Vienna, Austria)
As stated in the website: “Since 1997 we have been putting on shows that deal with the not
knowing… shows that busy themselves with the slippery nature of reality… shows that refuse
coherent, narrative, through lines… shows that celebrate the ambiguity of everyday’s life…
shows that became more and more fragmented as time went by… We are committed to
ensemble work, we believe that craft and skills still matter to the process of making theatre… we
try to keep rehearsals as long as we can afford, we believe that the show finds itself during the
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work… we resist/object to the importance given to text over other aspects of performance
(actors, set, music etc…)… we think that the best way to view our shows is to accept confusion
as part of the experience of sitting in the theatre… we put shows that ask the audience to make
up its own mind, we don’t know better… We are mind jugglers… vaudeville clowns… film
buffs… popular culture junkies… gertrude stein followers… we like silent movies… godard…
musicals… we are liars… cheap dancers… risk takers… bad gamblers… we love the old
fashioned, big acting style theatre, we don’t know what to do with it… we can still watch
someone slams into a door, it still makes us laugh…”
www.toxicdreams.at
Vincent Dance Theatre (U.K.)
Founded in 1994 and led by Artistic Director Charlotte Vincent, Vincent Dance Theatre (VDT)
produces powerful and engaging dance theatre work accompanied by extensive programmes of
social engagement and professional development work.
Charlotte Vincent is considered “one of the UK’s leading female choreographer/directors” and
“one of the most important feminist artists working in Britain today” (The Observer). VDT is an
international ensemble of multi-tasking collaborators who devise interdisciplinary performance to
challenge conventional values in dance and gender politics.
www.vincentdt.com
WORKINGLIFEBALANCE LTD. (Graz, Austria)
WORKINGLIFEBALANCE LTD. is a partnership under civil law (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen
Rechts), created in 2017 by performer Christina Lederhaas and writer/performer Johannes
Lederhaas. The work mainly focuses on the creation of performances at the interface between
movement and language. Both of them coming from Graz, Christina studied dramatic arts at the
University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, corporal mime (Ècole de mime corporel) in
England and developed and twisted her work through international residencies and guest
performances. Lederhaas’ works on and off stage are at the intersection of stagnation, voice,
dance and clown. She was Stair-Artist-in-Residence in Belgrad in 2015 and was responsible for
the artistic overall concept of the Styrian Cultural Award Show 2016. 2017 she began a new work
with the composer Slobodan Kajkut at the intersection of dance and composition. Currently, she
is working with the composer Reiko Yamada at the same intersection. Johannes Schrettle was
part of several collectives, working for theater in Bahnhof Graz, and Forum Stadtpark among
others. As a writer, he had his texts produced in several theatres in Austria and Germany. In 2007
he was a co-founder of the independent company which he is still working with as a director,
performer, and writer.
www.workinglifebalanceltd.wordpress.com
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A selection of
Europe-based research and training centres
in the field of non-institutionalised, independent,
physical, and movement-based theatre1
Valentina Temussi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
If we take in consideration Marco De Marinis’s reflection on last century theatre we can actually
find a good parameter to choose what is significant today in terms of schools, research centres
and workshops. The choice is wide today, but the best practice lies in the paths open by the great
masters of last century and in the respect of their vision of experimentation and continuous
research. To transmit their ideas one must be open to experimenting, to continue their research it
means to facilitate exchanges between theatre ideas and also different art forms. De Marinis said
in his book Ripensare il Novecento Teatrale (2018) that theatre of the 20th century doesn’t mean the
whole theatre of the 20th century, but it concerns what, in the many and variegated experiences of
last century, has made history, beyond the chronicle, and has contributed to change in depth the
way to do and to think the theatre of the contemporaneity.
The selection proposed here is just an example of movement centres in Europe where
physical/visual theatre is studied in connection to the strong 20th century tradition and the work
is organised and set in order to transmit knowledge and keep experimenting with an open vision
to collect, exchange and collaborate.
*****
1
The following descriptions are faithful reproductions of the information, data and style of the websites of the
selected centres. Only few minor changes were made.
Valentina Temussi
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Antwerpse Mimestudio (Antwerp, Belgium)
Martin Hoevenaars and Luc van Nyvelseel decided to change the focus from training to
performing. Together with visual artist Willemien van Dijke and visual and sound artist Pat Risk,
they collaborate to create performances where different art forms come together. Other activity is
the organisation of special workshops on movement and visual theatre.
www.mimestudio.be
Hippocampe (Paris, France)
Hippocampe was created in 1997, with the aim to develop and transmit knowledge related to the
practice of Corporeal Mime. Developed by Étienne Decroux, one of the reformers of theatre in
France in the twentieth century, this discipline offers an in-depth approach to body movement.
Today no one doubts the importance of body preparation work for actors. However, the
inclusion of adequate education is still very neglected in theatrical training, whether directed to an
amateur or professional audience. At Hippocampe the mime is envisaged as an essential tool in
the formation of the actor. Hippocampe offers courses and workshops on corporeal mime and
its repertoire.. Outside of the courses, research workshops are organized where Corporeal Mime
is confronted and set in collaboration with other artistic practices. Hippocampe regularly invites
artists from other disciplines to participate in regular classes, or offers courses open to all
audiences. All these experiments provide materials for reflections and practical elements that
enrich teaching and inspire creative work.
www.mime-corporel-theatre.com
Mime Centrum Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
As an open space for production, education, cooperation and for international exchange on
dance and theatre, since 2011 the Mime Centrum is part of the German Centre of the
International Theatre Institute. With this cooperation, the existing fields of work of the Mime
Centre Berlin and the ITI have increasingly interlocked and inspired each other. Today the once
separate working areas of the Mime Centre function naturally as formats, projects and areas of
the International Theatre Institute Berlin. The Mime Centrum Berlin, with its focus on
supporting the work of national and international freelance artists in the Berlin area, has made the
International Theatre Institute a vibrant place of collaboration for artists, academics, archivists as
well as students and theatre enthusiasts. Additionally, to collect and to make available audiovisual
documents of the performing arts in the media library of the Mime Centrum is one of its most
important and continuous areas of activity. All media can be watched in the premises of the
media library. In its video studio, the Mime Centrum realizes its own video productions as
a medium of reference and analysis for movement in dance and theatre. The recording of
selected performances is therefore a practical field of work of the media library. The digitalisation
and digital preservation of the collected and self-produced audiovisual media is an essential field
of activity
www.mimecentrum.iti-germany.de/en
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Teatro de los Sentidos (Barcelona, Spain)
An international group of artists-researchers based in Barcelona with 20 years of experience
under the artistic direction of the Company’s founder, Colombian anthropologist and dramaturge
Enrique Vargas. The group is developer of games researching upon the poetics of the senses, and
it has developed a methodology which connects the sensorial languages, the poetics of games and
theatrical creation: “We make experiences, which blur the usual line between audience and actors
in traditional theatre schemes, to foster an interactive and creative participation of the audience.
The audience is invited to explore their labyrinthine spaces as if it was participating in a big
game”.
www.teatrodelossentidos.com
Teatro Dimitri (Verscio, Switzerland)
More than a place for high-quality performing arts, the Teatro Dimitri aims to be a space for
inspiring meetings, a place for shared experiences. The program comprises contemporary theatre,
dance performances, live concerts, family and children’s performances and thematic festivals. It is
completed by shows featuring members of the Dimitri family, as well as students and graduates
of the Accademia Teatro Dimitri, one of four theatre schools in Switzerland.
ww.teatrodimitri.ch
Workcenter Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Pontedera, Italy)
The research currently conducted at the Workcenter involves both extremities of what Jerzy
Grotowski described as “the chain” of performing arts: “Art as vehicle” at one end, and “Art as
presentation” at the other. The core distinction between these two poles of performing arts is
that in “Art as vehicle”, the work on performance structures has as its aim the artist’s work on
him/herself, while in “Art as presentation”, as in theatre for example, the performance opuses
are, by means of the way in which they are structured, oriented towards the perception of the
spectator. The current Workcenter research in its totality explores the living ways in which
influences can shuttle back and forth between the two extremities of “the chain” of performing
arts, discovering new meanings and content in performing. Since 2007 the Workcenter of Jerzy
Grotowski and Thomas Richards hosts two creative teams: Focused Research Team in Art as
Vehicle directed by Thomas Richards, and the Open Program directed by Mario Biagini,
Associate Director of the Workcenter.
www.theworkcenter.org
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A selection of
Europe-based international networks,
websites and cross-regional bodies (private and public)
for performing arts funding1
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
The digital sources selected in this section have been chosen considering the following specific
criteria: 1. Coherence with the area of interest of the research and the target groups; 2. An active
profile; 3. An
international profile; 4. The presence of a direct call for funding or
database/search engine for external call for funding. Information and descriptions are taken and
adapted from the official mission statement of the organisations.
*****
Allianz Cultural Foundation
The Allianz Cultural Foundation is a non-profit organisation established in Munich by the then
Allianz AG (now Allianz SE) in the year 2000. In January of 2012, the foundation moved into the
Berlin Allianz Forum at Pariser Platz 6 along with the Allianz Foundation for Sustainability.
Allianz Cultural Foundation both funds outside projects and runs its own initiatives. It accepts
grant applications on a European scale for projects that comply with the foundation’s funding
guidelines, and it co-operates with international partner organisations and institutions in planning
and development of our initiatives. As a general rule, the foundation funds joint non-profit
projects involving partners from at least three different countries. Aside from demonstrating the
requisite artistic or scholarly qualities, projects must make clear that all co-operating partners are
equal partners, equally responsible for their project’s conceptual and financial planning and
execution. Projects should be designed to create durable connections between the participating
1
The following descriptions are faithful reproductions of the information, data and style of the single websites of
the selected institutions and organizations. Only few minor changes were made.
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actors. Its general focus is on cultural projects – including the performing arts – that promote
exchange and encounters in Europe and around the Mediterranean, as well as discursive events in
the fields of European educational work, contemporary visual and performing arts, literature and
music.
www.kulturstiftung.allianz.de
Anna Lindh Foundation – Euromed
The Anna Lindh Foundation is an international organisation working from the mediterranean to
promote intercultural and civil society dialogue in the face of growing mistrust and polarisation.
The Foundation focuses its intercultural action around three main pillars: 1. Empowering young
voices; 2. Influencing policy makers; 3. Building a movement for dialogue and exchange in the
face of growing mistrust and polarisation amongst societies.
The foundation encompasses 42 Countries drawn from other Mediterranean area and it also
awards grants also for culture, including performing arts.
www.annalindhfoundation.org
Asia-Europe Foundation – Creative Encounters and Mobility First
Creative Encounters: Cultural Partnerships between Asia and Europe supports an existing grassroots demand for ongoing support to co-productions among Asian and European artists.
Throughout this project, professional artists from Asia and Europe are brought together in
creative and collaborative relationships to create new artworks. Focus rests on contemporary arts
disciplines, focusing on limited support available to newer art forms vis-à-vis traditional art
forms. Creative Encounters was launched as a project series in 2010 and nine editions of the
project took place between 2010 and 2016. Selection was through annual competitive open calls
for applications. Having completed a six-year cycle, an evaluation was proposed in 2017 to better
understand the long-term impact of the project series and the suitability of the project format to
support future Asia-Europe co-creation projects in the contemporary arts.
www.asef.org
Barents Euro-Arctic Co-operation (Cultural Programme)
A working alliance in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region was launched in 1993 on two levels:
intergovernmental – as Barents Euro-Arctic Council, and inter-regional, as Barents Regional
Council. Its chief mission to make various financial mechanisms available to support multilateral
project co-operation in the Barents region. The most important funding sources are the national
and regional budgets of the Barents countries, various EU Programmes and the Nordic Council
of Ministers. In addition to this, International Financial Institutions offer financing for
investment projects in the region, hosted by Barents Euro-Arctic Co-operation The aim of the
Joint Working Group on Culture (JWGC) is to strengthen cultural identities, multicultural
dialogue and cultural ties between the Barents countries and the regions. The JWGC
strategy highlights the importance of capacity building and exchange. It also encourages
facilitating and promoting networking, creating different kinds of new cultural meeting places,
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focusing on the strong relationship between culture and cultural and creative industries, as well as
creating new international opportunities for strengthening the competitiveness of the cultural
operators in the Barents region.
https://www.barentscooperation.org
Berliner Theatretreffen International Forum
The International Forum is a 18-day scholarship programme that promotes young theatre makers
from all parts of the world. The open call is aimed at theatre makers up to the age of 35 from the
fields of directing, acting, design, dramaturgy, writing, music, video, performance, choreography
and other artistic disciplines. The International Forum sees itself as a platform for comprehensive
theoretical and practical exchange. The curriculum includes presentation by selected theatre
makers and their aesthetic practice in lectures, the presentation of workshops by renowned
artists, the involvement of experts and scholars drawn from various disciplines, opportunities to
see guest theatre productions invited to Theatretreffen and Stückemarkt. Plus regular open space
events and discussions regularly take place on contemporary art as well as the organisation of
excursions into the diverse cultural landscape of Berlin.
www.berlinerfestspiele.de
Circostrada
Since 2003 Circostrada Network has been working to develop and structure the fields of Circus
and Street Arts in Europe and beyond. With more than 100 members from over 30 countries, it
contributes to build a sustainable future for these sectors by empowering cultural players through
the production of resources and actions of observation and research, professional exchanges,
advocacy, capacity-building and information.
www.circostrada.org
Commission Internationale du Théâtre Francophone (CITF)
Based in Canada, the CITF is financed by the government of France, Belgium and Canada. It
aims to support theatre and performing arts, multilateral projects and diffusion of theatre in
Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland and other francophone countries via regular programme
grants and experimental programme funding.
www.citf-info.net
Creative Europe
Creative Europe is the European Commission’s framework programme for support to the
culture and audio-visual sectors. Creative Europe’s aims are to: help the cultural and creative
sectors seize the opportunities of the digital age and globalisation; enable the sectors to reach
their economic potential, contributing to sustainable growth, jobs, and social cohesion; give
Europe’s culture and media sectors access to new international opportunities, markets, and
audiences.
ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/culture
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Culture Action Europe (CAE)
CAE is the major European network of cultural organisations, artists, activists, academics &
policy-makers. CAE is the first port of call for informed opinion and debate about arts and
cultural policy in Europe. As the only cross-sectoral network, CAE represents all sub-sectors in
culture: from performing arts, literature, visual arts, design and cross-arts initiatives to community
centres and activist groups.
cultureactioneurope.org
Culture & Creativity
The Culture and Creativity website was created in 2015 within the framework of an overarching
EU programme aiming to promote cultural contribution to the social and economic development
of the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova
and Ukraine.
Since then, the website has become a popular and useful resource for professionals of the cultural
and creative industries. After the end of the Programme, the website continues to operate with
funding from the British Council.
www.culturepartnership.eu
FestivalFinder – Europe for Festivals /Festivals for Europe
FestivalFinder is an online search tool that allows audiences to locate all arts festivals, from
music to theatre and street arts to dance and literature across 45 countries in Europe. It helps to
navigate international audiences, festival lovers, festival makers, artists, travellers, academics,
journalists, bloggers, policy makers and city developers through the world of Europe’s diverse
cultural space. It is rooted in, and steered by, the generic festival community with the support of
the European Union.
www.festivalfinder.eu
East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP)
The East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) supports the development of
contemporary performing arts (dance and theatre) in 18 countries of Central and Eastern
Europe. The aim is to facilitate international exchange of artists, professionals, curators and
thinkers in the field of contemporary performing arts in Europe and to develop educational
programs rooted in the context of the contemporary society. EEPAP focuses on 18
countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia,
Slovenia and Ukraine.
www.eepap.culture.pl
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ERSTE Foundation
ERSTE Foundation is the biggest Austrian savings bank foundation. It uses the profit from
its shares to support the development of societies in Central and South Eastern Europe,
including investment in the performing arts. ERSTE Foundation’s funding is focused on three
thematic areas: social innovation, European cohesion and democracy and contemporary culture.
The Foundation works in long-term collaboration with organisations and people who have a
great deal of expertise in their specialist areas. The Foundation also sees its role as a one that
works for the common good in creating a network of various actors in Central, Eastern and
Southeastern Europe and beyond.
www.erstestiftung.org
EURODRAM
Eurodram is a European network for drama in translation, founded in 2001 by the Maison
d’Europe et d’Orient (House of Europe and the Orient). It consists of approximately 300
members organised across about 30 committees. Its main objective is to promote new drama in
translation from Europe, Central Asia and the Mediterranean, making it available both to theatre
professionals and audiences in the region in the spirit of independence, equity and linguistic
diversity. Eurodram operates on a biennial schedule. In even-numbered years, each committee
selects three original plays written in the committee’s own language, and recommends them for
translation into other European languages. In odd-numbered years, committees select three plays
from works translated into the committee’s language, with the goal of having them published
and/or staged.
www.eurodram.org
European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP)
The association is a place in which to develop the discipline as well as search for new paths. It
will stimulate a more intense dialogue between theatre, performance scholars and artists across
Europe.
www.eastap.com
European Cultural Foundation
The European Cultural Foundation nurtures a socially engaged and culturally rooted civil society
across Europe. It is committed to making a tangible impact on civil society, citizen initiatives,
public opinion and policy proposals. Furthermore, it seeks to combat the fragmenting forces
jeopardising peace and social progress across Europe. The European Cultural Foundation
supports cultural change-makers and their projects via grants, exchanges, online platforms and
incubator programmes. It works with a variety of hdifferent programmes and grants such as
Tandem and the STEP Travel Grants for artist mobility.
www.culturalfoundation.eu
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European Festivals Association (EFA)
EFA unites distinguished music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary arts festivals from Europe
and beyond since 1952. Today it connects about 100 festivals and festival associations across 40
countries. EFA members are the core element that make the association such an open,
influential, international place for any festival that wants to be part of a bigger festival
community. The association’s mission is to unite and represent its member festivals across
Europe and the world by contributing to the artistic life of Europe.
www.efa-aef.eu
European Network of Information Centres for the Performing Arts (ENICPA)
ENICPA is a network of specialists from Europe specialising in the field of performing arts
information, documentation and collections. The aim of the network is to train professionals in
the field via thesharing expertise and knowledge. ENICPA consists of 17 member organisations
from 11 different European countries.
www.enicpa.info
European Theatre Convention (ETC)
The European Theatre Convention (ETC) is a network of European public theatres founded in
1988 to promote contemporary drama theatre, to support the mobility of artists and to develop
artistic exchange throughout Europe and beyond. It has become the largest pan-European
network of its kind, representing over 40 member theatres in 25 countries, 8.000.000 theatre
goers, more than 11,000 taxpayers employed by public theatres, thousands of artists in over 20
countries and puts on approximately 16,000 performances and public events per year. ETC is an
artistic theatre collaboration network committed to developing international collaboration and
artistic mobility projects with a focus on multilingualism, artistic education and European citizens
in theatre. It is a professional platform for theatre makers with a mission to encourage
intercultural dialogue, organise meetings, invest in education and training opportunities, and
initiate the production of ongoing research and publications.
www.etc-cte.org
European Theatre Lab
The European Theatre Lab is Europe’s first think tank devoted to researching a digital strategy
for theatre. A pioneering mix of workshops, conferences and theatrical performances across
Europe, it comprises an international group of artists, scholars and scientists from theatres and
research institutions. Conceived by the European Theatre Convention, the Lab increases civic
engagement by bringing theatre to new audiences and sectors.
www.europeantheatrelab.eu
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European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC)
EUNIC is an European Union cultural network supported by the the Creative Europe fund
working in the areas of cultural diplomacy and cultural relations. Its Crossroads for Culture initiative
is aimed at strengthening EUNIC’s capacity to enable cultural players from all EU Member states
to work transnationally as well as to internationalise cultural and creative sectors and further
enhance European influence and appeal inside and outside of Europe.
www.eunicglobal.eu
Fabulamundi
Fabulamundi is a co-operative project among theatres, festivals and cultural organisation
spannng ten 10 EU Countries (ie: Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Austria, Belgium, UK,
Poland and Czech Republic). The network aims to support and promote contemporary
playwriting across Europe, in order to reinforce and enhance the activities and strategies of the
professionals and artists working in the sector and to provide theatre authors and professionals
with opportunities of networking, multicultural encounters and general
professional
development.
www.fabulamundi.eu
International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ)
ASSITEJ unites theatres, organisations and individuals throughout the world dedicated to
creating theatre for children and young people. ASSITEJ is dedicated to the artistic, cultural and
educational rights of children and young people across the globe and advocates on behalf of all
children regardless of nationality, cultural identity, ability, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or
religion. ASSITEJ brings people together so that they can share knowledge and practice within
the field of theatre for children and young people in order to deepen understandings, develop
practice, create new opportunities and strengthen the global sector. Members include national
centres, professional networks, and individuals drawn from around 100 countries across the
world.
www.assitej-international.org
International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM)
IETM arts is a network of over 450 performing arts organisations and individual members
working in the contemporary performing arts worldwide: theatre, dance, circus, interdisciplinary
live art forms, new media. Members include festivals, companies, producers, theatres, research
and resource centres, universities and institutional bodies.
www.ietm.org
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International Network of Italian Theatre (INIT)
INIT originated from the compelling urge, felt by a group of Italian theatre scholars, to become
proactive and visible as an interconnected web of Italian theatre workers. Even though Italian
theatre is studied in different countries and continents, it is presented in a rather isolated manner,
almost as a scene-stealer, or as a prima donna individual performances aimed at catching the
audience’s attention during the fleeting time of the presentation/appearance. The Network’s
vision is to create a platform for mutual support and cooperation among theatre scholars and
practitioners to promote Italian theatre internationally and to make a greater impact on the
community as a whole.
https://www.newinit.org
International Theatre Institute (ITI)
ITI was the joint brainchild of the first UNESCO Director General, Sir Julian Huxley, and the
playwright and novelist, JB Priestley in 1948, just after the Second World War, and at the
beginning of the Cold War, when the Iron Curtain divided the East and the West. The aim of the
founders of ITI was to create an organisation aligned with UNESCO’s goals on culture,
education and the arts, and which would focus its endeavours on improving the status of all
members of the performing arts professions.
The founders envisaged an organisation that created platforms for international exchange and
facilitated engagement in the education of the performing arts – for beginners and professionals
alike – as well as harnessing the performing arts for mutual understanding and peace.
www.iti-worldwide.org
International Visegrad Fund
The International Visegrad Fund is an international donor organization, established in 2000 by
the governments of the Visegrad Group countries – Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – to
promote regional co-operation in the Visegrad region (V4) as well as between the V4 region and
other countries, especially in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership regions.
www.visegradfund.org
Japan Foundation (PAJE – Performing Arts Japan for Europe)
Performing Arts Japan (PAJ) provides financial assistance to Japan-related performing art
projects in Europe (PAJ Europe) wit the objective of introducing Japanese performing arts to
local audiences in these areas, or to facilitate exchange between leading artists in Japan and
Europe.
https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/project/culture/perform/supportlist_perform/paj/PAJ.html#E
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Kultur Kontakt Nord (Nordic Culture Point)
The Nordic Culture Point is a cultural institution located in Helsinki, Finland. Part of the official
Nordic co-operation, it has three primary functions: 1. The day to day administration of four
Nordic grant programmes; 2. The administration of a library and cultural centre in downtown
Helsinki; 3; Organising various events.
The official Nordic cooperation is conducted within the framework of the Nordic Council of
Ministers, where the governments cooperate, and in the Nordic Council, which is the
parliamentarians’ forum for cooperation. The cooperation aims to strengthen Nordic and
regional interests and values, as well as to promote culture.
The Nordic Culture Point annually supports about 500 cultural projects via four cultural grant
programmes that are financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. In addition, the institution
arranges every year hundreds of events in Helsinki and the rest of Finland, as well as runs the
only Nordic-oriented library in Finland and a Nordic cultural centre.
The institution’s most important target audiences are those who work within the field of arts and
culture in the Nordics and the Baltic States.
Nordic Culture Point administers four grant programmes, which are divided into six different
funding options: 1. Culture and art programmes; 2. Network funding; 3. Mobility funding; 4.
Funding for artist residencies; 5. NORDBUK grant programme; 5. Volt (Languages).
All these programmes provide the opportunity to create culture, conduct projects and create
meetings between artists and cultural workers in the Nordic region and the Baltic states.
www.nordiskkulturkontakt.org
German National Association of Independent Performing Arts
The German Association of Independent Performing Arts is the federal umbrella organisation of
all state associations for professional independent performing arts in Germany. Founded in 1990,
it is today one of the largest theatre associations in the country.
www.darstellende-kuenste.de
Nordic Council of Ministers
The Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council are the main forums for official Nordic
co-operation, which involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands,
Greenland and Åland. The Council has a special workstream dedicated to information on
funding for projects, including cultural undertakings (arts, performing arts, literature and music)
and different options for grants, invitations to tender and calls for applications.
www.norden.org/en/funding-opportunities
Nordic Kulturfond (Nordic Culture Fund)
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The Nordic Culture Fund contributes to positive artistic and cultural development in the Nordic
Region by promoting co-operation between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the
Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. It does so by gathering knowledge and information,
building networks and providing financial support. The Nordic Culture Fund’s grants
are financed from the budget of the Nordic Council Ministers which is approved by the Nordic
Council. The fund therefore forms part of the official Nordic collaboration. The Nordic Culture
Fund has, according to its agreement, the potential for taking receipt of other funds for its
purposes. The Nordic Culture Fund allocates grants on three levels: OPSTART which accepts
applications all year round, project funding which has three annual deadlines and priority theme
funding pools with specific criteria and application deadlines. New strategies (2019-2022) for
fund allocation have been published on the official websites.
www.nordiskkulturfond.org
PEARLE Live Performance Europe
Pearle is the Performing Arts Employers Associations League Europe, the European sector
federation of music and performing arts organisations. Pearle represents, via its members, more
than 10,000 managers of theatres, concert venues, theatre production companies, orchestras,
operas, ballet and dance companies, festivals, promoters and other professional organisations in
the performing arts in Europe. It is recognised by the European Commission as the European
employers association to represent management at the European level. Pearle meets the workers
represented by EAEA, the European Arts and Entertainment Alliance which regroups FIA, FIM
and Uni-Mei, at the European sectoral social dialogue meetings for the live performance sector.
It European social partners discuss a variety of themes established in a work programme. The
current work programme (2018-2019) includes items such as: social dialogue, health and safety,
mobility, training and education, the economic situation of the sector, diversity and gender
equality and any other EU initiatives which impact the sector. The European social partner
undertakes several kinds of joint activities. Recent outcomes include: development of European
online interactive risk assessment (OiRA) tools for venues and for production, and guidance for
musicians and ensembles travelling with musical instruments containing protected (CITES)
species.
www.pearle.eu
On The Move
On the Move is a cultural mobility information network with more than 40 members in over 20
countries across Europe and internationally. On the Move mission is to encourage and facilitate
cross-border mobility and co-operation, contributing to building up a vibrant and shared
European cultural space that is strongly connected worldwide
www.on-the-move.org
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Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
OIF represents one of the biggest linguistic zones in the world. Its mission is to embody the
active solidarity between its 84 member states and governments (58 members and 26 observers),
which together represent over one-third of the United Nations’ member states and account for a
population of over 900 million people, including 274 million French speakers. OIF organises
political activities and actions of multilateral cooperation that benefit French-speaking
populations. Its actions respect cultural and linguistic diversity and serve to promote the French
language, peace and sustainable development. It has concluded 33 cooperation agreements with
international and regional organisations and has established permanent dialogue between the
major international linguistic zones (ie: the English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Arab-speaking
zones). Among its activities, in the area of “cultural diversity”, the financial and institutional
support of theatre and performing arts projects.
www.francophonie.org/Industries-culturelles-et.html
OutdoorArtsUK
OutdoorArtsUK is a national membership and strategic organisation that aims to bring together
the many diverse parts of the outdoor arts sector. OutdoorArtsUK celebrates the wonderful
work, amazing talent and tremendous achievements of the brilliant individuals, companies and
organisations working in this most accessible of art forms.
www.outdoorartsuk.org
Roberto Cimetta Fund
The Roberto Cimetta Fund, is an international non-profit making organisation that was created in
1999 to respond rapidly and directly to individual artists and cultural managers wishing to travel
in order to develop contemporary artistic cooperation projects in the Euro-Arab geographical
zone and beyond. It is essentially the mobility fund for artists and cultural operators in Europe,
the Arab world and the Middle East. The fund acts as an intermediary, establishing partnerships
with public or private funders for the travel grants programme. These funders contribute to the
general fund (open to all travel grant requests corresponding to the fund’s criteria, whatever the
destinations, the artistic disciplines or travel routes) or define a specific funding line (specific
criteria or geographic locations). The fund works constantly to renew the funding lines and
develop new opportunities in line with current cultural settings and the artists and cultural
operators’ needs.
www.cimettafund.org
Touring Artists
Touring artists, an information portal for artists and creatives working internationally, provides
comprehensive information on visas/residence, artist status and contracts, transport/customs,
taxes, social security, other insurances, and copyright issues.
Through a joint project of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) and
the Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK), these topics have initially been
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examined for both the performing arts and the visual arts. Since most questions and answers are
relevant regardless of any discipline and the portal is used by different actors of the arts and
cultural industries, the information service is being expanded continuously.
www.touring-artists.info
Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA)
The oldest international theatre organisation in the world, the UNion Internationale de la
MArionnette (UNIMA) is a non governmental organisation (NGO) affiliated to UNESCO. Its
members come from all over the world contribute to the development of puppetry art. Present in
more than 90 countries, UNIMA is a platform to exchange and to share between people who
practise puppetry (amateurs and professional), or who work on this art (researchers, historians et
cetera) or who are passionate about this discipline.
It also supports meetings, conferences, festivals, exchanges and collaborations, opportunities to
co-operate with people in all areas of puppetry (therapy, teaching, training, research,
documentation, collections, exhibitions, et cetera.), and supports collecting and distributing
information and publications about research, courses and workshops.
www.unima.org
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A selection of national European institutions
involved in the promotion of culture,
including performing arts,
through support, advocacy, funding
and grants information
Armando Rotondi
Institute of the Arts Barcelona / Liverpool John Moores University
*****
The digital sources selected in this section have been chosen considering the following specific
criteria: 1. Coherence with the area of interest of the research and the target groups; 2. An active
profile; 3. An
international profile; 4. The presence of a direct call for funding or
database/search engine for external call for funding. Information and descriptions are taken and
adapted from the official mission statement of the organisations.
*****
EUNIC-affiliated institutions
Austria
Österreich Institut GmbH
www.oesterreichinstitut.at
Austria
Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs
www.bmeia.gv.at
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreignpolicy/international-cultural-policy/
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Belgium
Wallonie-Bruxelles International
www.wbi.be
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.wbi.be/fr/page/modes-dappuis-au-secteurculturel#.XB-fClxKjIU;
www.wbtd.be/ (specific about theatre)
Belgium
Flemish Department of Foreign Affairs
www.fdfa.be/en/home
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.fdfa.be/en/culture-science/culture
Bulgaria
Bulgarian Ministry of Culture
www.mc.government.bg
Croatia
Foundation Croatia House
www.mvep.hr/en/special-projects/croatia-house/
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.mvep.hr/files/file/2014/zhk-rules-engl.pdf
Cyprus
Ministry of Education and Culture Cyprus
www.moec.gov.cy
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.moec.gov.cy/en/european_funding_unit.html
Czech Republic
Czech Centres
www.czechcentres.cz
Denmark
The Danish Cultural Institute
www.danishculture.com/
Cultural cooperation and funding: https://www.danishculture.com/what-we-do-2/
Estonia
Estonian Institute
www.estinst.ee/en/about-us/estonian-institute/
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.estinst.ee/en/estonian-culture/estonian-theatre/
(specific about theatre)
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Finland
The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes
www.instituutit.fi
France
Foundation Alliance Française
www.fondation-alliancefr.org
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.fondation-alliancefr.org/?cat=1459 (including Le
Théâtre Alliance Française)
France
French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs
www.diplomatie.gouv.fr
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreignpolicy/cultural-diplomacy/
France
Institut Français de Paris
www.institutfrancais.com
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.institutfrancais.com/fr/theatre;
www.institutfrancais.com/fr/cirque-arts-de-la-rue-marionnettes (bothlinks specific for
theatre and performing arts)
Germany
Goethe-Institut
www.goethe.de
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.goethe.de/en/kul/ser/rep.html (residencies);
https://www.goethe.de/en/kul/tut.html (theatre)
Germany
ifa – Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations
www.ifa.de
Greece
Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs
www.mfa.gr
Greece
Hellenic Foundation for Culture
www.hfc-worldwide.org
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Hungary
Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (via Balassi Institute)
www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.balassiintezet.hu/en/balassi-institute-hq/
Ireland
Culture Ireland
/www.cultureireland.ie/
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.cultureireland.ie/funding
Italy
Società Dante Alighieri
www.ladante.it
Italy
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (via Italian Culture
Institutes network)
www.esteri.it/mae/it/
Cultural cooperation and funding:
www.esteri.it/mae/it/politica_estera/cultura/reteiic.html (on Italian Culture Institutes)
Latvia
Latvian Institute
www.latvia.eu/latvian-institute
Lithuania
Lithuanian Culture Institute
lithuanianculture.lt/?lang=en
Cultural cooperation and funding: lithuanianculture.lt/projects/?lang=en;
lithuanianculture.lt/programs/?lang=en
Luxembourg
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
www.maee.gouvernement.lu/en.html
Malta
Arts Council Malta
www.artscouncilmalta.org/
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.artscouncilmalta.org/pages/fundsopportunities/our-funding-programmes/
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Netherlands
Dutch Culture
www.dutchculture.nl
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.dutchculture.nl/en/residencies (residencies);
www.dutchculture.nl/en/funding (funding)
Poland
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (via Polish Centres/Institutes abroad)
www.www.msz.gov.pl
Portugal
Instituto Camões
www.www.instituto-camoes.pt
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.instituto-camoes.pt/activity/o-quefazemos/cooperacao/cooperacao-na-pratica
Romania
Romanian Cultural Institute
www.icr.ro
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.icr.ro/categorii/burse
Slovak Republic
Slovakian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
www.mzv.sk
Slovenia
Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport
www.mizs.gov.si
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.mizs.gov.si/en/areas_of_work/
Spain
Instituto Cervantes
www.cervantes.es/default.htm
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.cervantes.es/cultura_espanola/informacion.htm
Spain
AECID
www.aecid.es
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.aecid.es/EN/cultura;
http://www.aecid.es/EN/grants-and-assistantships (on funding)
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Sweden
Swedish Institute
www.si.se /
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.si.se/en/events-projects/ (on current projects);
www.si.se/en/apply/scholarships/ (scholarship); www.si.se/en/apply/funding-grants/
(funding)
United Kingdom
British Council
www.www.britishcouncil.org/
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.britishcouncil.org/programmes
Institutions not-affiliated to EUNIC
Belgium
Flemish Government: Department of Culture, Youth, Sport & Media
www.cjsm.vlaanderen.be
Germany
DAAD
www.daad.de
Spain (Catalonia)
Institut Ramon Llull
www.llull.cat
Cultural cooperation and funding:
www.llull.cat/catala/subvencions/esceniques_intro.cfm (specific for theatre)
Ireland
Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaion
www.artscouncil.ie
Cultural cooperation and funding: http://www.artscouncil.ie/funding/
Italy
MIBAC – Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali
www.beniculturali.it
Italy
Agenzia Nazionale del Turismo
www.enit.it
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Portugal
Direcção-Geral das Artes
www.dgartes.pt
Cultural cooperation and funding:
https://www.dgartes.gov.pt/pt/atividades/apoio_as_artes;
https://www.dgartes.gov.pt/pt/vnode/6 (national funding);
https://www.dgartes.gov.pt/pt/vnode/7 (international cooperation)
United Kingdom (England)
Arts Council of England
www.artscouncil.org.uk
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding
United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
www.artscouncil-ni.org
Cultural cooperation and funding: http://artscouncil-ni.org/funding
United Kingdom (Scotland)
Creative Scotland
www.creativescotland.com
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.creativescotland.com/funding
United Kingdom (Wales)
Arts Council of Wales
www.arts.wales
Cultural cooperation and funding: www.arts.wales/funding
Armando Rotondi
Mapping #6 – A selection of national European institutions involved in the promotion of culture
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