The European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance brings together scholars and artists to promote research into stage practice in Europe
EASTAP Annual Conference 2024 - Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance
We are delighted to announce EASTAP’s 2024 Annual Conference, hosted by the Institute of the Arts Barcelona in Sitges, Spain. The conference is entitled “Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance”. As host city, Sitges has been a biosphere destination since 2016, and is committed to environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
The conference aims to bring together international scholars, practitioners and researchers, inviting submissions for papers and presentations that delve into different aspects of this theme and offer fresh insights into the dynamic field of theatre and performance.
We aim to explore the terminological shift from ‘ecology’ to ‘ecosystems’ within the realm of theatre and performance. “Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance” invites proposals that explore the scientific-environmental, figurative, and economical dimensions of dynamic artistic systems.
The European Journal of Theatre and Performance is delighted to announce that Issue 6 is out now. The theme of the essays section is Fluidity Matters. To download the Table of Contents, please click HERE Members can access issue 6 and all past issues at https://journal.eastap.com Image: ‘The Pose’, by Costanza Macras and DorkyPark, 2017. Photo by Thomas Aurin.
Call for papers (nr. 4) Performance, Ecology and the End of the World
Performance, Ecology, and the End of the World
(coord. Gustavo Vicente)
The reflection on the potential of performing arts to rethink humanity’s relationship with the natural domain has been gaining clearer contours since the end of the 20th century. The challenge launched by Una Chaudhuri in 1994, through her article “There must be a lot of fish in that lake: toward an ecological theater” –[i] which demanded from theatrical practice a consistent response to the environmental crisis – is, by many, considered the kick-off of the field of knowledge associated with what we today call Eco-performance or Eco-theatre. Since then, a growing number of authors have been delving deeper into the terms (material, philosophical, cultural, and/or political) through which artistic practice can be articulated with ecological thinking (e.g., Baz Kershaw, Wendy Arons and Theresa May, Alan Read, Vicky Angelaki, Carl Lavery, Lisa Woynarski), developing new questions and conceptual perspectives around the capacity of the performing arts to bring about a change in attitude towards the way we live on Earth.
One of the main issues addressed by this interdisciplinary field is the anthropocentric tradition of the theatrical medium itself, within which humanity has occupied the central role of artistic questioning, relegating contemporary practice to the sphere of culture, as opposed to a savage idea of nature that exists “outside” the world. Some more recent practice has attempted to break with this bipartite logic, insofar as it has sought to consider the natural environment, not only through its biological attributes but also ethical ones – recognizing, in this way, the complexity inherent to human understanding of the network of ecological relationships in which it is necessarily integrated and the intrinsic value of other forms of life.
We are sad to learn of René Pollesch’s untimely passing. His more than 200 plays are and will remain unique memories: René Pollesch did not write his texts to be staged beyond the performances he himself created together with his actors and scenographers. They were published in print, but he did not allow them to be restaged by others. They were personal, they were in the moment, precisely by being cut and pasted textual montages. Only weeks before Pollesch’s sudden and unexpected death on 26 February, his latest piece had premiered at the Volksbühne, which he led as artistic director since 2021. It was entitled Well nothing is okay, a solo evening with Fabian Hinrichs who had already starred in Pollesch’s Kill Your Darlings. Pollesch became the darling of the 21st century theatre scene and urban intelligentsia across the German speaking countries – and while they laughed about the wit and esprit of Pollesch’s superficially banal textual outpourings, it escaped the most how his theatre exposed and ridiculed the intellectual and not least ethical vacuity of the dominant discourse and its celebrated protagonists. It was this vibrancy of engagement, this new way of thinking an epic-dialectic theatre of the present that, by refusing representation, all the more mirrored and critiqued the society within which it was embedded, that inspired and energised theatre makers across Europe – even if even they may not have understood a single word of the supercomplex montages. With Pollesch’s early death at the age of 61, the Volksbühne era that had commenced with Frank Castorf’s appointment in 1992, and where Pollesch had worked initially mainly in the satellite Prater stage, has come to its end. This is a loss for European theatre....
EASTAP Annual Conference 2024 Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance 28 October – 2 November 2024 Institute of the Arts Barcelona, Sitges, Spain Deadline for submissions: 28 February 2024
🌱We are delighted to announce that the EASTAP Annual Conference 2024 will be hosted by the Institute of the Arts Barcelona (Sitges, Spain), under the theme “Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance”.
🪴As host city, Sitges has been a biosphere destination since 2016, and is committed to environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
🍀The conference aims to bring together international scholars, practitioners, and researchers, inviting submissions for papers and presentations that delve into various aspects of this theme and offer fresh insights into the dynamic field of theatre and performance.
📚You can read the Call for Papers on the EASTAP website and on the conference website at https://www.iabarcelona.com/eastap2024
🙏Remember that you must be registered with EASTAP to submit an abstract and take part in the conference.
EASTAP is pleased to announce the publication of the book, Performing Arts and Intimacy. The volume features the work of EASTAP colleagues Luk van den Dries, Alix de Morant, and Rui Pina Coelho.
The book can be downloaded free of charge from the link below: http://monographs.uc.pt/iuc/catalog/book/374
Synopsis The relationship between performing arts and intimacy expresses itself in multiple and contradictory valences, creating heuristic possibilities with profound socio-political implications. The opening of the individual intimate sphere to other intimate spheres configures an act of interpersonal sharing that allows the privilege of the experience of another human being in that which is most profound and singular. But a fair analysis will lead us to recognize that, under certain circumstances, this space of intimacy may also (and perhaps should) legitimately remain closed to others. It is within this framework that, through their creators, theatre and the performing arts have developed interesting ways of dealing with problems of the intimate sphere in the contemporary world. Since performative work invariably leads to the investigation of bodily, emotional, mental, and relational processes of the human condition, this edition intends, through an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, to contribute to the mapping of the concept of intimacy in its relationship with the performing arts in a plural, political and affective way.
A book launch will take place on 25 October at 5pm. More info here: https://atuarnomundo.wixsite.com/atuar-no-mundo...
The Executive Bureau of EASTAP is deeply saddened to learn about the untimely passing of our Ukrainian colleague professor Maya Harbuzyuk, Professor of Drama Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. We had only met this energetic pedagogue, inspired theatre dramaturg and engaged researcher, who was instrumental in introducing decolonial thinking into Ukrainian theatre studies in a pioneering way for European theatre research, at this year`s EASTAP conference in Aarhus in June. In a moving and deeply insightful presentation, she reflected there on how Ukrainian drama and theatre negotiates which voices are being heard and which narratives told in a drama about war produced within the war itself. We send our condolences to prof. Harbuzyuk`s family and her colleagues, and send particular sympathy to our colleagues at Jagiellonian University in Krakow who had supported her and other Ukrainian colleagues through the war, also sponsoring her participation at this year`s EASTAP conference. We will publish a commemoration on the organisation`s website in due course....
We are excited to announce that #EASTAP24 will take place at the Institute of Performing Arts in Sitges, Catalunya, in the week commencing 28th October 2024 (exact dates to be confirmed).
The conference will be focusing on themes related to Ecosystems of Theatre and Performance.
We thank Valentina Temussi and Armando Rotondi for volunteering to organise what promises to be another amazing event.
More details to be announced soon. Stay tuned!
Photo credits: Sitges Convention Bureau (photo 1 & 2) and IAB (Photo 3)...
The European Journal of Theatre and Performance id delighted to announce that Rustom Bharucha, who was EASTAP’s first Associate Scholar, has joined the Journal’s Advisory Board.
Rustom Bharucha is a writer, cultural critic and dramaturg based in Kolkata, India. He is the author of several books including Theatre and the World, The Politics of Cultural Practice, Terror and Performance, The Question of Faith, In the Name of the Secular,Another Asia: Rabindranath Tagore and Okakura Tenshin, Rajasthan: An Oral History, a co-edited volume with Paula Richman on Performing the Ramayana Tradition, and, more recently, The Second Wave: Reflections on the Pandemic through Photography, Performance and Public Culture.
Do check out our webinar with Prof. Bharucha in conversation with Dr Agata Łuksza, which is available on our website and Facebook page.
On the final day, we hosted a thought-provoking debate on theatre in, for and against a plural society with Farnaz Arbabi of Unga Klara, Sandra Yi Sencindiver of theatre danskdansk, Mie Kanø of Blaagard Theater and Julia Wissert, artistic director of Schauspiel Dortmund, the latter on Zoom, stuck half way on the train, moderated by Dirk Gindt and Rebecka Brinch of Stockholm University.
We also had some philosophical poetry made of clay from Collectif Kahrabe from Lebanon, and at the end the organisers needed some good drugs from Dries Verhoeven`s Happiness store....
♥️Thanks to all 206 participants for debating, sharing, reflecting, making new friends, meeting old connections and making EASTAP23 so lively, reinvigorating and downright fun!
Images: the panellists, and photos from Dries Verhoeven’s ‘Happiness’ and Collectif Kahrabe’s ‘Origin of a Tale’ by Peter Boenisch @ilt_festival...
Lovely to have a day full of plenaries today at #EASTAP23, with a keynote by Yana Meerzon entitled ‘Between Migration and Nationalism: Performing The State-of-the-Nation Play — Playing a Foreigner’, a conversation with @thistimcrouch, presentations by the students running the Observatoire Critique, and a panel on Ukrainian dramaturgy.
Plus: workshops by @marinaotero22 and @ungaklara. And to finish with a cherry 🍒 on the cake 🎂 performances by @soniahughes192 @verhoeven.dries @focus_et_chaliwate and a drag show by @missstellastarlight @ilt_festival
Here’s a pic from ‘Editing Fury!!’ by Anna Franziska Jäger & Nathan Ooms on strategies to write for performance. We came up with fun texts today by using their suggestions. Thank you!
#EASTAP23 Day 2 has begun! Today we welcome our Associate Scholar Prof. Lola Proaño Gomez speaking about ‘The Dramaturgy of Research’ in the context of studying political theatre in Latin America....
It’s wonderful to be together again and learn from each other. And @aarhusuni has such a lovely campus.
Have a great first day, everyone, and see you at the theatre tonight for @needcompanyarts Billy’s Violence @ilt_festival, followed by the welcome party 🎉...
Final Programme and Book of Abstracts have been published, and all is ready to welcome scholars ftom all over Europe and the world to Aarhus for #EASTAP23!
In the meantime, feast your eyes on these wonderful images from FUCK ME by Argentinian performance maker and choreographer Marina Otero, which will be presented @ilt_festival on 15 and 15 June at 8pm at Aarhus Theater, followed by a talk with the artist on 15 June, moderated by Eylül Fidan Akıncı (dramaturg, Theater Rotterdam/NL) and Lola Proaño Gómez (professor emeritus, University of Buenos Aires/ARG).
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE In a wild mix of dance, sound and video, the Argentinian artist and former dancer, Marina Otero, tells her harsh life story in FUCK ME, which is danced by five men. The dance performance shows us the form of revenge that a dancer`s broken body seeks. The question is, what do we do the day our body says stop, and challenges both our ability and our way of being in the world? Fuck Me is created by the Argentinian artist and former dancer, Marina Otero. With the dance performance, she creates a fictional battlefield where she makes amends with the injustice she has experienced in real life. She uses the dancers on stage as her body. The body that can no longer do what she wants it to do. The body that has failed her. The body that challenges her ego and fuels the impulse to take revenge. On stage, she makes the dancers mold her narcissistic cause. Right there they tell the story of her life, only her life, until their death.
Photos by Diego Astarita, Matias Kedak and Marco Roa....