Kolektyviniai naratyvai: bendruomenę įtraukiančio teatro kūrybinės praktikos

Abstract

Community-based theatre is not only an integral part of contemporary theatre. This specific theatrical movement belongs to the wider field of such art practices, in which the participation of the community and community involvement into artistic process is considered to be the most important creative condition. Community-based theatre is an effective means for communities to share collective stories, get involved into social and political dialogue and break down the exclusion of marginalized groups. In recent decades, community-based theatre became such a widespread field that it encourages theatre researchers to rethink traditional criteria of performance analysis and to search for new analytical tools suitable for the analysis and interpretation of this phenomenon. This article aims to discuss the phenomenon of community-based theatre and to present such participatory and collaborative creative strategies which help artists create collective theatre narratives expressing problems, interests and beliefs of certain communities. Community-based theatre projects are not widespread in Lithuanian art context. However, there are some creative projects which promote community involvement, participation and collaboration between artists and community members to some extent. The article refers to theoretical issues of community-based theatre and focuses on two case studies: the production “Pro Memoria Sv. Stepono 7” (“Pro Memoria Saint Stephen’s Street, Number 7”; theatre company Miraklis, directed by Vega Vaiciūnaitė in 1995 in collaboration with multicultural community of one quarter of Vilnius old town) and the performances by Kaunas dance theatre Aura “Tylus ėjimas” (“Silent walk”, 1999) created in collaboration with elders, “Kelias” (“Road”, 2001) created in collaboration with disabled, “re-gi-ne-re-gi” (“seedo-not-see”, 2002) created in collaboration with blind people.