Maja Murnik (Editor)

Amfiteater, Journal of Performing Arts Theory, Volume 11, Number 2

The second issue of Amfiteater in 2023, edited by Maja Murnik, brings together a varied conglomeration of texts, both in terms of themes and genres.

The volume is introduced by four articles. In the first, Tomaž Toporišič reflects on the avant-gardes. He considers them through the prism of the relationship between the centre and the periphery in Central and Eastern Europe, starting from the assumption that the Central and Eastern European avant-gardes should not be understood as imperfect derivatives of movements from the great Western centres but as independent, authentic avant-garde expressions. The discussion ranges from the historical avant-gardes of the 1920s and 1930s (especially Zenitism and Constructivism) through the neo-avant-gardes to the (Slovenian) retro-avant-garde towards the end of the 20th century, which not only revived some of the original ideas but also explicitly sought to draw alternative maps of European art.

In the second article, Andrej Leben analyses diverse theatrical activities by the Slovenian minority in Carinthia, much of which today is bilingual and multilingual. The author draws an outline of the contemporary Slovenian bilingual and multilingual theatre scene in Carinthia, its structures, activities and staging practices. He also addresses the question of how to conceptually encompass these diverse practices, thus providing one of the first theorisations of this theatrical as well as cultural-sociological phenomenon.

The topic of Irina Lešnik Jeras’s discussion is theatre pedagogy. In addition to educational goals, drama in education (DiE) has aesthetic or artistic goals. DiE belongs to the so-called process forms of drama, as it does not envisage a final product, that is, a performance, but spends most of its time on negotiating and structuring meanings. The author reviews and critically evaluates the terminology, history and various definitions of this teaching approach; she discusses the notion of theatre in education and evaluates the situation in Slovenia as well.

We are also publishing another two texts prepared in the framework of the Amfiteater Symposium, which took place at the Slovenian Theatre Institute in Ljubljana in October 2022 under the theme “The Theatre Experiment in Slovenia (1966–1986) and Its Echoes”. In the article, Milena Mileva Blažić analyses the youth drama of Andrej Rozman Roza, in particular, his adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999). Through a comparative analysis of both plays, she identifies several elements of experimental theatre in Rozman’s adaptation, as well as the echoing of Bakhtin’s theory of carnival. The characteristic features of his work are crossover writing, multiple meanings and adaptations.

In the context of the theatre experiment in Slovenia and its echoes, we are presenting an extensive interview prepared by Primož Jesenko with the theatre and TV director Iztok Tory, in which he looks back at the twisted and unpredictable pathways of his rich creative work.

Jana Pavlič has written an essay on the texts from the mid-1980s with (geo)political topics: she discusses Alice Goodman’s opera libretto for Nixon in China within the context of contemporary American opera, comparing it also with the political drama The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, written by Hélène Cixous especially for the 1985 production of Ariane Mnouchkine.

We conclude the issue with two book reviews: in the first, Boris Kern discusses the book Govor in prostor (Speech and Space), edited by Katarina Podbevšek and Nina Žavbi, and in the second, Jakob Ribič reflects on Zala Dobovšek’s monography Gledališče in vojna (Theatre and War).

The journal is included in MLA International Bibliography (Directory of Periodicals), Scopus, DOAJ. The journal is also included in class A of the registry by Italian Agenzia nazionale di valutazione del sistema universitario della ricerca. The publishing of Amfiteater is supported by the Slovenian Research Agency and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

Colophon
Contents

Amfiteater 11/2

Articles

Tomaž Toporišič

Trieste, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade between Periphery and Centre: From Historical Avant-Gardes to Neo-, Post- and Retro-Avant-Gardes

Andrej Leben

Contemporary Slovenian Bilingual and Multilingual Theatre in the Context of Carinthia

Irina Lešnik Jeras

Theatre Pedagogy: When Drama Becomes a Learning Approach

Milena Mileva Blažić

The Theatre Experiment in Slovenia (1966–1986) and Its Echoes in Youth Drama – Andrej Rozman Roza

Interview

Iztok Tory

Na koncu imaš samo obleko brez žepov

Essay

Jana Pavlič

Začelo se je z Einsteinom

Reviews

Boris Kern

O determiniranosti govora s prostorom (K. Podbevšek, N. Žavbi, ur.: Govor in prostor)

Jakob Ribič

Estetika in etika, gledališče in vojna (Z. Dobovšek: Gledališče in vojna)

Submission Guidelines
Call for Papers

Editor-in-Chief: Maja Murnik, PhD (Institute of New Media Art and Electronic Literature)

Editorial Board:  Zala Dobovšek, PhD (University of Ljubljana), Primož Jesenko, MA (Slovenian Theatre Institute), Matic Kocijančič, PhD (Slovenian Theatre Institute), Bojana Kunst, PhD, Prof. (Justus-Liebig University Gießen, DE), Blaž Lukan, PhD, Assist. Prof. (University of Ljubljana), Aldo Milohnić, PhD, Assoc. Prof. (University of Ljubljana), Barbara Orel, PhD, Prof. (University of Ljubljana), Mateja Pezdirc Bartol, PhD, Prof. (University of Ljubljana), Maja Šorli, PhD (University of Ljubljana), Tomaž Toporišič, PhD, Prof. (University of Ljubljana), Gašper Troha, PhD (Slovenian Theatre Institute)

International Editorial Board: Mark Amerika, MFA (University of Colorado, US), Marin Blažević, PhD, Assoc. Prof. (Sveučilište u Zagrebu, HR), Ramsay Burt, PhD (De Montfort University, GB), Joshua Edelman, PhD (Manchester Metropolitan University, GB), Jure Gantar, PhD (Dalhousie University, CA), Anna Maria Monteverdi, PhD (Università degli Studi di Milano, IT), Janelle Reinelt, PhD (The University of Warwick, GB), Anneli Saro, PhD (Tartu Űlikool, EE), Miško Šuvaković, PhD, Prof. (Univerzitet Singidunum, RS), Stephen Elliot Wilmer, Prof. (Trinity College Dublin, IE)

Published by: Slovenian Theatre Institute (represented by Gašper Troha, Director) and University of Ljubljana, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (represented by Tomaž Gubenšek, Dean)