Amfiteater Journal of Performing Arts Theory
Academic Symposium
Changes in contemporary drama after 2000
October 7th and 8th, 2021, Slovenian Theatre Institute, Ljubljana
Dramatic writing and theatre have been caught in an impossible relationship throughout history, in which they seem to be constantly fighting for dominance, yet at the same time they cannot exist without each other. We can see this already in Aristotle in Poetics, where the great philosopher was convinced that "tragedy can make an impression even without theatrical performance and spectators". Nevertheless, tragedy and its rise were fundamentally linked to the theater and the ritual in honor of the god Dionysus, which was an important part of the Athenian polis. However, we will not be interested in this relationship throughout history, but rather its changes in the last 20 years, as it seems that at this time in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe we are witnessing a resurgence of dramatic writing.
We have already spoken about the renaissance of dramatic writing in connection with the so-called "u fris" theatre, which developed in the 1990s in Great Britain and influenced the development of drama throughout Europe. At the same time, the so-called performative turn (Erika Fischer-Lichte's term) took place in the development of theatre at the end of the 1960s, which subsequently influenced the emergence of post-dramatic theatre (Lehmann) or the new aesthetics of the performative (Fischer-Lichte), and in the field of dramatic writing in the 1980s and 1990s brought about no-longer-dramatic texts (Gerda Poschmann) or post-dramatic texts.
After 2000, a new way of writing for the theatre began to gain ground, especially in German literary theory and theatrology, which Birgit Haas calls "dramatisches Drama" or in Slovenian "dramatic drama". These are theatre texts that again build to a greater extent on dialogue and recognizable and at least partially coherent dramatic action, while at the same time being marked by an emphasized political/socially engaged point. At the same time, new names for dramatic writings beyond postdramaticity began to gain ground, such as neodramatic (Anne Monfort) or postpostdramatic theatre (Élisabeth Angel-Perez), in which the author maintains his presence through lyricization and epization. Contemporary drama thus exposes us to the deconstruction of the opposition between representation and presentation, while at the same time, despite the disturbances in the fictional textual cosmos, it nevertheless establishes a strong process of redramatization, of injecting the dramatic and dramatic into the postdramatic fabric of plays.
The questions we are asked about the planned scientific symposium are:
1. What are the formal and substantive characteristics of dramatic works after 2000 in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe?
2. What are the causes and influences on the development of dramatic writing after 2000?
3. Forms of the dramatic subject in contemporary drama and the question of dramatic genres.
4. What is the relationship between drama and theatrical performance in contemporary theater?
5. Who are the main authors of contemporary drama and what are their poetics?
6. What is the reception of contemporary drama?
7. Do literary theory and criticism have the appropriate tools for analyzing such texts? Is it necessary to include the knowledge and tools of other disciplines in its understanding, given the changed nature of this drama and its intertwining with performance principles?
8. Can we (still) talk about a crisis of drama?
9. What is the role of the author in drama after 2000?
10. What tactics and strategies does contemporary drama use to address social challenges?
Thursday, October 7, 2021
8.30 reception of participants
9.00 Welcome speech
Mojca Jan Zoran, M.A., Director of the Slovenian Theatre Institute
Full Professor Tomaž Gubenšek, Dean of the University of Ljubljana AGRFT
9.15
Lada Čale Feldman: Deconstruction and reconstruction of the fictional world based on two examples of contemporary drama
9.45
discussion
10:00 a.m
First session
moderator: Gasper Troha
Špela Virant: Contemporary German Drama or "Capitalism Will Not Win"
Martina Petranovič and Lucija Ljubić: Poetic Tendencies of Contemporary Croatian Dramatic Writing
Zuzana Timčíková: Authenticity in the approaches of collective authorial theatre of the millennial generation in Slovakia
10:45 a.m
discussion
11.10 coffee break
11:30 a.m
Second session
moderator: Tomaž Toporišič
Kristof Jacek Kozak: Drama's confrontation with the basic human condition: refugeeism
Zala Dobovšek: Representation and understanding of poverty in contemporary Slovenian drama
Maja Murnik: Smart Text: Contemporary Slovenian Drama and Documentary
Hana Strejčkova: Ambient auteur drama
12.30
discussion
13:00 lunch
15:00
Aleksandra Jovićević: From stage to writing: New images of dramatic text
15.30
discussion
15.45
Third session
moderator: Krištof Jacek Kozak
Tomaž Toporišič: How can we interpret (no longer) drama and theater of the 21st century in art and theory?
Blaž Lukan: Postpostdrama or Strongly Broken Dramatic Universet
Ana Perne: Text as "the trace left by the performance on paper"
Hanna Veselovska: 21st century drama and the new reality of social media
16.45
discussion
5:00 p.m. coffee break
17.20
Fourth session
moderator: Maja Murnik
Almir Basovic: Fear of self-definition and signs of crisis
Mateja Pezdirc Bartol: The return of the worker in contemporary Slovenian drama
Gasper Troha: What shakes the brain and scratches the heart in Europe at the beginning of the 21st century?
Ivana Slunjski: Who owns the staging?
Piet Defraeye: Milo Rau's Reality Theater and the Issue of Homophobia
18.35
discussion
Friday, October 8, 2021
9.00
Fifth session
moderator: Gasper Troha
Benjamin Zajc: The state and atmosphere of millennial drama in our region
Varja Hrvatin, Maša Radi Buh and Jakob Ribič: Drama without a generation
Nika Švab: Questioning the definition of female writing in contemporary Slovenian drama
9.45
discussion
10.15 coffee break
10:45 a.m
Jure Gantar: Death of a dramatic character in a post-dramatic comedy
11.15
discussion
11:30 a.m
Sixth session
moderator: Krištof Jacek Kozak
Karolina Prykowska-Michalak: Migrant dramaturgy. Kill the bandits
Radka Kunderová: Textuality, performativity and politics
Simona Hamer, Jera Ivanc, Kim Komljanec and Simona Semenič: Report from the front
12.15
discussion
12.45 lunch
14.30
Seventh session
moderator: Mateja Pezdirc Bartol
Kim Komljanec: Contemporary Slovenian drama in the domestic and international space today and tomorrow
Andrey Moskvin: Reception of Slovenian drama in Poland
Lyudmil Dimitrov: Slovenian drama in Bulgarian translation
15.15
discussion
15.40 coffee break
16.00
Eighth session
moderator: Blaž Lukan
Pavel Ocepek: Sexually Liberated Woman: Sexuality and Sexual Cultures in Two Plays by Simona Semenič
Ivanka Apostolova: The politics of theater control or why, after Goran Stefanovski and Dejan Dukovski, no one is known outside the borders of Macedonian theater?
16.30
discussion
16.45
closing discussion of the symposium
Introductory lecture and first session
Second session
Third session with introductory lecture
Fourth session
Fifth session
Sixth session with introductory lecture
Seventh session
Eighth session and closing discussion
Symposium leader: Gašper Troha
Preparatory Committee: Mihael Čepeljnik, Mojca Jan Zoran, Krištof Jacek Kozak, Blaž Lukan, Maja Murnik, Mateja Pezdirc Bartol, Tomaž Toporišič, Gašper Troha
Contact:
Gašper Troha
Slovenian Theater Institute (SLOGI)
Mestni trg 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
E amfiteater@slogi.si
T 041 369 690
We are organizing the symposium
Slovenian Theater Institute (SLOGI) is a national public institution, founded in 2014 as the legal successor of the Slovenian Theater Museum. The institute's mission is the development of theater culture and the promotion of theater art, which is realized through research, study, interpretation, promotion, preservation, documentation and presentation of Slovenian theater culture, theater heritage and theater art in the Slovenian and international space.
Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television of the University of Ljubljana It carries out educational, artistic and research work in the fields of theatre, radio, film and television. From its founding in 1945 until 1975, it operated as an independent higher education institution with a rector, after which it became a member of the University of Ljubljana.
Amfiteater – Journal of Performing Arts Theory is a scientific journal that publishes original articles on performing arts with a broad spectrum from dramatic theatre, drama, dance, performance and hybrid art forms. Authors can analyse the forms and content of artwork and art phenomena from the field of performing arts, their history, their present and their future, as well as their relationship to other art forms and the broader (social, cultural, political …) context.
The symposium is being prepared in cooperation with UL AGRFT within the framework of the research program Theater and inter-art research (P6-0376), which is co-financed by the Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia from the state budget.
From the media:
Culture, TV Slovenia, October 7, 2021 (3:43-4:27 minutes)
In Sloga Amphitheatre Symposium on Drama after 2000, STA, October 7, 2021
