Theatre Project Research Articles

The Aesthetics of Responsibility in the Latest Post-Yugoslav Theatre Projects

Theatre in the countries that emerged after the break-up of Yugoslavia is one of those areas of contemporary culture that respond very quickly to social and political issues, ongoing discourses in the public space and challenges facing the community and the individual. Directors coming from Serbia, but operating in many areas of the region, such as András Urbán and Zlatko Paković, emphasise in their subversive theatrical treatises that at the root of the limitations of ethical, moral and intellectual freedom lies responsibility as a constant consciousness of determinism expressed in the fact that there are no events without consequences. They problematise the personal responsibility of the author, but also the responsibility of the audience and actors, and explore the theatrical situation (the relationship between actors and audience and the actor-character relationship). It turns out that unmasking criticism aimed at preventing the reproduction of the status quo produces discomfort among the audience (the performances based on Danilo Kiš’s prose and in collaboration with Jeton Neziraj are specifically pointed out here).

The ACT in Health Activism: Teaching Street Theater to College Students

Street theater is historically a form of political performance art used to foster social change and is characterized by unscheduled performances in public spaces, interactive audience participation, and short performances often repeated in the same spot for passersby. Long used as a creative tool within social movements, street skits not only entertain but are used to educate and build awareness on pressing issues. It is an art form for the people, by the people, making theater available for all (“on the streets”) rather than solely for those who can afford it. Street theater also has its uses in public health education and organizing and has been used globally as an effective method of health promotion, especially in rural and low-literacy areas. This paper looks at a street theater project that university students at Clark University in Worcester, MA participated in as part of a “Health Rights: Advocacy and Action” course. Students were tasked with developing a street theater skit that educates on a public health issue and publicly perform the skit on campus. Three skits were produced: (1) “Deadly Derailment”: raised awareness on industry deregulation and the 2023 toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, OH; (2) “Harm Reduction Saves Lives”: addressed humane and non-victim blaming ways to address substance use; and (3) “End the STIgma”: educated on sexual health on a college campus. Teaching street theater as part of public health pedagogy is a creative approach to inspire students to use their voices and link health promotion and activism.

Editorial

Editorial

(P(Re))Forming Justice: Milo Rau’s Trials and Tribunals

Since the founding of the International Institute of Political Murder in 2008, Swiss German theater-maker Milo Rau has gained international attention for his political theater projects. ‘(P(Re))Forming Justice: Milo Rau’s Trials and Tribunals’ looks specifically at Rau’s trial and tribunal projects: The Moscow Trials (2013), The ZurichTrials (2013), and The Congo Tribunal (2015). It engages with the intersection of the political and the affective in Rau’s re-temporalization of necessary but ultimately non-existent institutions to create utopian, affective institutions that serve as demonstrative alternatives to those of the present. In uncovering the connection between the aesthetic references of affect and politic, this article connects three performance elements within Rau’s projects: (1) the political impulses of these constructed, temporary institutions, (2) their affective power, and (3) the concept and question of justice. Bringing the anarchist concept of prefiguration, Frans-Willem Korsten’s apathy, Olivia Landry’s Theater of Anger, and Robert Walter-Jochum’s Theater of Outrage into contact with affect, this article uncovers how Rau’s tribunal theatre, in its creation of a jurisdiction located in the future – a prefiguration for what these spaces should look like – serves as a call to justice that breaks with the apathy of the present.

The politics of everyday life in the performers’ experience: practices of engagement in Teatro do Vestido

Inthis text, drawing from my participation as an actor in Juventude Inquieta[Restless Youth], thelatest of my collaborations with Teatro do Vestido, I begin by acknowledging the ethical implications of my personal experiencewithin the creative process. I then build on this reflection to further explorethe possible ways of looking at theatre projects, differentiating between onesthat are oriented exclusively towards scenic outcomes and ones that put inmotion a process of political engagement of the performers that transcendartistic results alone. I follow this proposal to foreground the importance of distinguishingbetween making theatre that resembles the politics we can only envision and atheatre that relates to another form of artistic circulation, in which thepractices of learning, self-discovery, and critical thinking are privilegedalongside the final stage performance.

Creative Interpretation and the Politics of Failure

Abstract In this article, I ask what happens to theatrical performance when it fails. By describing a performance as “failed,” I do not necessarily imply its normative dismissal – as a “flawed” enactment or an artistic vision not properly executed. Instead, I use failure as a conceptual starting point for the articulation of alternative meaning-making practices. In this sense, failure is a form of creative interpretation that capitalizes on performance’s constitutive contingency, its structural unreliability that for many is part of its appeal, the very “magic” only a gathering of live bodies can create. Specifically, the article looks at two recent US American plays and one musical in order to discuss the theatrical politics of failure: Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project (2000), Ayad Akhtar’s The Who and the What (2014), and Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (2012). By discussing the ways in which these pieces and their performances creatively address failure, I point to three formal and cultural dimensions in which failure can be mobilized theatrically: first, failure problematizes the easy formal subsumption of performance under production, pointing to the ways in which a specific performance may not adequately actualize the conceptual work of the production, be it because audiences intervene in ways not intended by the production or because performers deviate from the production’s script in one way or another. Second, failure can be mobilized to reveal tacit cultural conventions or standards of success that entrench particular (classist, racist, sexist, ableist, etc.) normative behaviors. And third, failure can enable more creative approaches to the relationship between the labor of theater practitioners and its exchange value for spectators, who paid – at least – the price of a theater ticket and typically expect some form of artistic professionalism as remuneration.

Is tragedy the true language of science? Unleashing the emotional power of theatrical storytelling for climate change communication

Should scientists extend their climate change communication beyond factual reporting? A transdisciplinary and participatory theatre project exemplifies the power of storytelling in climate change communication by eliciting emotional responses.The complex and interconnected nature of current global challenges such as climate change call for new and creative ways of communicating research. To help people make sense of phenomena, improve information acquisition and retention, build collective awareness and public engagement, emotions are often more impactful than factual reporting. In this context, this paper builds on transformative narrative theory to investigate the efficacy of theatrical storytelling in unleashing emotions in relation to climate change. As part of a transdisciplinary and participatory theatre performance combining the arts, science, and activism, a brief questionnaire was administered to the audience to exploratively assess emotional changes before and after the play. Significant emotional changes highlight the potential of participatory theatrical storytelling as a powerful tool for communicating climate change and encourage further exploration of this approach in transdisciplinary (theatrical) projects and science communication efforts.

The use of dramatization technology for the development of students' value orientations

The paper is devoted to the application of dramatization technology in foreign language teaching in order to develop general cultural, spiritual and moral value orientations among students. The purpose of this study was to prove the effectiveness of the use of dramatization technology as a means of developing students' value orientations in the process of learning a foreign language. To study the methods of this pedagogical technology, a review and analysis of psychological, pedagogical and methodological literature was conducted followed by a brief survey among foreign language teachers and students of the Theater Faculty of the Samara Institute of Culture. The results of the survey were used to clarify the most significant cultural values among the interviewees, as well as to determine the interest of the Theater Faculty students in the use of dramatization techniques during the study of a foreign language. To confirm the hypothesis and further practical implementation of the conclusions, a theatrical project "Gallop across Europe. From Aeschylus to Brecht", which involved the 2 year students of the Theater Faculty, was staged. The material for the dramatic production was excerpts from five works of classical foreign literature, which most fully reflected the purpose of the study. It was concluded that the didactic potential of dramatization technology is not limited exclusively to the development of language skills, but can be effectively used for formation of students' value orientations.

“LEADER’S THEATRE”: HEYDAR ALIYEV AND STAGE ART

The article is devoted to the influence of theatre art and acting techniques on the formation and development of leadership qualities on the example of the career of Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of Azerbaijan. The article is based on the analysis of Heydar Aliyev’s life and political career, as well as his active role in the development of theatrical art in Azerbaijan. The results of the study show that participation in theatre projects and an active interest in art and culture helped Heydar Aliyev develop leadership skills such as communication, empathy, persuasion and the ability to inspire others. The article emphasises the importance of methods applied in cultural and artistic spheres in the formation of leadership qualities of managers and harmonious development of personality.

Sining Kambayoka Ensemble’s Bayok: Connecting Philippines and Canada in Teaching Voice and Performance

ABSTRACT How does one mitigate the misappropriations of bayok in performance projects and voice training? Interweaving various positionalities and praxes of performance pedagogy and creation using the Meranaw bayok, this essay instigates a conversation on a decolonial and ethical appropriation of Indigenous voice style within the Philippines and Canada that seeks to connect various intercultural pedagogic and theatre praxes. By building a discourse on entwining the Philippine bayok in our theatre creation and voice training, the authors deploy a shared positionality and autoethnographic inquiry as critical approach of intersubjectivity, collaboration, and historical contextualization as interventions to misappropriation and other appropriative acts of Indigenous performance forms. In doing such, the authors enmesh three frameworks to cultivate a nascent but ongoing practice of decolonizing cultural appropriation through historical grounding, social-political contextualization, and informed collaboration. In shaping a discourse on ethical appropriation of bayok, the authors engage intercultural methods and predispositions of using bayok in teaching and performing theatrical projects while tackling certain socio-political goals like peace building, climate justice, and other global issues with self-reflexivity and collaboration.

Reimagining Macbeth in Africa and the Persistence of Primitivism

Abstract: This essay examines the relationship between “Africa” and “Shakespeare,” two powerful cultural constructs that hold particular ideological traction in contemporary global culture in the aftermath of colonialism. Attempts to “Africanize” Shakespeare may seem well-aligned with the imperative to decolonize knowledge and culture. However, invocations of “Africa” on international stages all too often rely on suggestions of primitivism and reproduce the age-old association of Africa with supposed barbarism or beastliness, inherited from antiquity and absorbed into the cultural myths against which notions of “Englishness” took hold. The essay considers how contemporary theater-making might reckon with these histories and with their lingering influence on public culture today, arguing that the conjuring of an “Africa” that is especially amenable to the violent excesses in evidence in Macbeth may reinforce simplistic readings of history and perpetuate racist teleologies. The essay examines a number of adaptations of Macbeth , some not widely known, others already familiar within Shakespeare studies, such as Welcome Msomi’s uMabatha, the Zulu Macbeth (1970), the so-called “Voodoo Macbeth ” directed by Orson Welles for the Federal Theater Project (New York, 1936), and Brett Bailey’s adaptation of Verdi’s operatic Macbeth set within a failing contemporary African state (2014). More nuanced representations of African cultural legacies and political histories emerge through innovative modes of storytelling, evident in two more recent productions: the short film In iRedu directed by Abiola Sobo (2013), and the 2021 production of Macbeth at the Joburg Theatre in South Africa, which drew on active, “actor-centric” modes of interpretation and multilingual innovations. Theater practice is well equipped to engage African worlds as sources of influence and inspiration, without resorting to the pejorative and unimaginative discourses of primitivism that have persisted well past the independence movements of the twentieth century.

Theatrical Complications

Though theatricality as a concept has been extensively and variously theorized vis-a-vis live theatre through the sharing of space (see Cole 1975; Davis and Postlewait 2003; Davis and Postlewait 2003; Petrović-Lotina 2019; Shank 1969), through the rejection of the quotidian (Durang 1999; Heim 2020; White 2019), and through heightened expression (Carlson 1990; Peterson 2023; Smith 1984); many of its core tenets have recently been challenged through the rising prominence of virtual theatre. In this paper, I explore various theories of and about theatre to redefine “theatricality” as a term in its application to virtual (music) theatre. Additionally, I investigate how Rise, Shine, Sing!, a weekly, online participatory community music theatre project, reconfigures the demands for its participants to assume the unique role of spectator-performer, thus redefining the terms of engaging with and through theatricality in this medium.
 My interest in redefining theatricality in virtual contexts is motivated by the (post) pandemic impulse to prioritize audience safety in line with public health measures to protect those who are at risk, whether for reasons of age, ability, or health status. Because virtual theatre is therefore now a matter of access, theatricality is in a position to be (re)defined. I explore this in three ways: through further theorizing around the suspension of disbelief–a departure from the quotidian space that defines our daily living–which characterizes theatricality (see Causey 2006; Féral 2002; MacDonald 2013); through theatre’s reconfiguration of the social world’s constructivity to develop new iconography in gesture; and through a renegotiation of the opportunities for heightened experience on the part of the performer-spectator. 

DIY Design and Radical Worldbuilding at The Grove Skatepark, London

This paper presents an ethnographic case study of DIY design practices at a skatepark in London, UK. The skatepark is presented as an urban commons, offering a framework for DIY infrastructuring that contrasts top-down and inequitable urbanisation processes. Three key themes emerge from the fieldwork that demonstrate the capacities and limitations of DIY design. Firstly, DIY practices are viewed as “learning-by-doing”, wherein skateboarders not only learn how to construct a skatepark but also an array of vocational and soft skills. Here, DIY’s qualities of low barriers to participation, multidisciplinarity, and low risk of failure foreground a rich environment of vernacular knowledge exchange that underpins the research methodology of this paper utilising skatepark construction as object-orientated, research-through-design. Secondly, DIY design is found to support a community of practitioners that transcend the space as just a skatepark, incorporating a community garden, collaborative theatre project and arts-based workshops that transcend male-dominated histories of DIY skateboarding cultures. Here, Participatory Design (PD) notions of ‘infrastructuring’ mirror an emergent and open-ended design process that supports inclusive socio-material worldmaking. Thirdly, DIY design practices influence the ways in which the space is governed, in which there are found to be contradictory notions of “prefigurative politics.” Here, the space is argued to be inclusive and anarchic yet centres agency around notions of “core skateboarding” that reinforce masculine hegemonies. Collectively, this paper argues that DIY design has the potential to serve as a worldmaking agent underpinned by a unique set of values and modes which are well-suited to times of uncertainty, flux and crisis, yet highlights the necessity for critically engaging with the politics and practices of both DIY and skateboarding communities.

Textuelle Infrastrukturen des Theaters. Dramaturgie als Vermittlung

Textuelle Infrastrukturen des Theaters<b>. Dramaturgie als Vermittlung</b>

PRIMIJENJENI TEATAR U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI STRATEŠKI RAZVOJ I PRIMJENA U DRUŠTVENOJ ZAJEDNICI / APPLIED THEATER IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION IN THE SOCIAL COMMUNITY

The primary goal of this paper is to examine the potential possibilities of applied theater in the social community in BiH. Applied theater projects can create a range of impacts: moments of happiness, a growing sense of recognition and emotional well-being to increased awareness of the social situation in the community. Applied theater is aimed at an individual who is not a theater professional of all ages, but is led by professionals, because, using the basic features of acting / drama studied at the Academy of Performing Arts, such as: action, situation, character, conflicted the relationship helps to identify participants with a focused problem of a specific target group and leads to communication about the problem and playing different potential solutions to the conflict. Applied theater is an interactive theatrical form that seeks an engaged spectator, not a passive observer, and deinstitutionalizes theater and leads to an audience that is not primarily theatrical. Forms of applied theater that are used experimentally and occasionally in pedagogical and educational work in BiH are mostly supported by the non-governmental sector, but there is no strategic engagement and development of professional academic staff, graduates, directors, playwrights and orchestrations with other university units. The paper will also present different forms / types / styles of applied theater, as well as documentary and documentary character and the possibility of different aesthetics, but also the synergy between forms and methodologies. The paper will analyze practical experiences and suggest platforms for scientific research and artistic research dedicated to drama as therapy as a dynamic force aimed at correcting social change.

RAZVOJ MUZIČKOG TEATRA NA UNIVERZITETU U SARAJEVU / DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL THEATRE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVO

The paper presents a historical overview of the development of musical theatre at the University of Sarajevo through the education of students at the Music Academy and the Academy of Performing Arts, whom participated in music and stage projects in the period from 2013 to 2021, produced by the Sarajevo Institute for music, theatre and multimedia. Research includes detailed review and comparison of theatre projects through quantitative analysis, that shows their importance for the development of the field and through the teaching process on the subject Voice, on the I and II cycle of studies at the Department of Acting of the Academy of Performing Arts. The aim of this paper is to point out the need to start the first regional interdisciplinary specialist master study for music theatre modeled on world higher education institutions, for which there is student interest, and which as such can be offered as part of internationalization projects at the University of Sarajevo. Finally, through the first art research project "Voice as an actor tool in musical theatre" of the Academy of Performing Arts, which will, in 2022, result in a theoretical template for this study, the author draws attention to the contextualization of artistic research processes as scientific research in education for the performing arts.

The Decolonial Labour and the Gift of Contemporary Sámi Performance

In February 2017, Sweden’s oldest and largest professional Sámi ensemble, Giron Sámi Teáhter, produced the politically outspoken production CO2lonialNATION – A Theatrical Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a collective documentary theatre project that assembled anonymized witness testimonies from all over Sápmi. Using CO2lonialNATION as a highly representative example of Giron Sámi Teáhter’s repertoire, this essay highlights the decolonial labour of contemporary Sámi performance. It teases out the dramaturgical implications of mounting a theatrical truth and reconciliation commission by exploring the preparation and research process, the embodied performance onstage including the script, spatial arrangement, and relationship between performers and audiences, as well as the production’s roots in Sámi visual, material, and musical culture. Indebted to the work of political sciences and Indigenous studies scholar Rauna Kuokkanen, the essay’s core argument suggests that Sámi performance constitutes a gift that foregrounds Indigenous knowledges, rehearses and enacts political change and social justice, and engenders relationships that are characterized by respect, responsibility, and reciprocity. Finally, the essay ponders some of the ethical responsibilities and methodological challenges that a non-Sámi spectator faces when witnessing a performance that outlines the manifold legacies of settler colonialism.

Theatre beyond culture wars: why we need to get over ourselves

ABSTRACT A meditation on drama practice from an artist in Canada. My university students are preoccupied with damage and trauma. There are paralyzing obstacles to working across differences that were useful for a time but no longer serve a robust solidarity. The stories we collect, tell and re-tell ourselves to prepare for a ‘never again’ are stifled if the collisions between the evident and the imagined – and between suffering and joy – are reduced to their limits and not probed for their possibilities. I ponder this via an applied theatre project with my students and injured workers from across Ontario.

Technologies of Augmented Reality in the Opera: Application Analysis

The author showed interest in scientific research on how extended reality technologies are applied in modern opera art. This study identified and characterized the types of technologies, including extended, virtual, and mixed reality. Examples of the use of such technologies by opera companies are given. The author of the article, while working on the "NocturneVR" project based on M. Lysenko's chamber opera "Nocturne", was able to analyze the above technologies based on personal practice. He discovered the practical and theoretical possibilities of development and transformation of individual components of opera art, which can be provoked by the progress of technology and public demand. In this context, there is a need to analyze opera from the point of view of an interdisciplinary approach that involves the practical application of technology. The adaptability of opera art in the context of the development of technology has been studied. The concept of opera is presented from the point of view of the audience experience, which takes into account the specific type of attention of the viewer. This concept is justified as a methodology of conscious work with time in a philosophical sense. The thesis is put forward that similar interdisciplinary studies on the analysis of both opera art and the phenomenon of extended reality technologies are useful and necessary for the practical implementation of digital theater projects. In this understanding, there is a rationale for the consistent development and mutual enrichment of both creative and technical tools of practicing artists. The directions of possible further scientific investigations are outlined with an emphasis on their usefulness in the practical implementation of artistic projects.

Trumpet: Revisiting and Reimagining Thornton Wilder’s The Trumpet Shall Sound

Abstract The Trumpet Shall Sound (1919–20) is Thornton Wilder’s first known full-length, published, and produced play. The action is straightforward: While their master is away on a prolonged journey, three servants open the house to roomers for profit, but then they live in guilt and fear of discovery. The play was awarded a college literary prize and it attracted the attention of talented director Richard Boleslavsky, but his production received mixed reviews. Wilder considered rewriting the problematic final act, but instead he moved on to Pulitzer Prize–winning literary and theatrical projects. This article revisits The Trumpet Shall Sound and shows its value as a harbinger of its author’s later genius. In structure and themes, this early allegorical work foreshadows Wilder’s mature exploration of the microcosm of the everyday connected through religious and mythic sources to the universal. The article also describes how its author followed the characters, dialogue, and symbolism and drew on input from scholars as she reimagined Wilder’s play as Trumpet, her 2020 and 2022 adaptations.