Directors from Eastern Europe. Reżyserzy z Europy Wschodniej. Kalina Stefanova and Marvin Carlson

Thursday, 13 May 2021, 16.00 CET

20 Ground-Breaking Directors of Eastern Europe

Edited by Kalina Stefanova and Marvin Carlson

Published by Palgrave Macmillan

Directors have long been the main figures on Eastern European stages. During the last three decades some of the most outstanding among them have risen to international stardom thanks to their ground-breaking productions that speak to audiences far beyond local borders. Not by chance, a considerable number of these directors have won the second-biggest theatre award on the continent – the European Prize for (New) Theatrical Realities. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the top directors of the region have been pushing contemporary theatre as a whole ahead into new territories. This book offers informative and in-depth portraits of twenty of these directors, written by leading critics, scholars, and researchers, who shed light on the directors’ signature styles with examples of their emblematic productions and outline the reasons for their impact. In addition, in two chapters the selected directors themselves discuss their artistic family trees as well as the main stakes theatre faces today. The book will be of interest to theatre scholars, students, and anybody engaged with theatre on a global scale.

The directors featured in the book are: Alvis Hermanis (Latvia), Oskaras Korsunovas, Eimuntas Nekrosius, Rimas Tuminas (Lithuania), Oliver Frljić (Croatia), Arpad Schilling and Bela Pinter (Hungary), Silviu Purcarete, Andrei Serban and Gianina Carbunariu (Romania), Daniel Spinar and Jan Mikulasek (the Czech Republic), Alexander Morfov (Bulgaria), Włodzimierz Staniewski, Jan Klata, Grzegorz Bral, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Grzegorz Jarzyna and Krystian Lupa (Poland), Jernej Lorenci (Slovenia).

Release date: May 28th 2021

For more information visit:

The Cold War is decades behind us, still readers of English know precious little about the arts and cultures of Eastern Europe. Here is a book that takes readers to the theatres of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. A book exploring theatre directing, theatre groups, and important artists ranging from the relatively well-known like Krystian Lupa and Andrei Șerban to the many equally creative but still hidden theatre creators. A must-read for anyone wanting to learn about this region's extraordinary theatrical diversity and energy.

Richard Schechner, Editor, TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies

University Professor Emeritus, New York University

Marvin Carlson

Marvin Carlson is a theatre, drama and performance studies scholar. He is a Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies and holder of the Sidney E. Cohn Chair at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, the ATHE Career Achievement Award, the ASTR Distinguished Scholarship Award, the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, and the Calloway Prize for writing in theatre. He is the founding editor of the journals Western European Stages and Arab Stages. He is the author of twenty-three books, translated into seventeen languages. Among these are Theories of the Theatre (1993), Places of Performance (1989) and Performance: A Critical Introduction (1996). His most recent books are 10,000 Nights (Michigan, 2017) and Theatre and Islam (Macmillan, 2019).

Kalina Stefanova

Prof. Dr. Kalina Stefanova is author/editor of 16 books: 14 books on theatre, some of them launched in New York, London and Wroclaw, and two fiction ones, published in nine countries, in two editions in China. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the New York University and has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Meiji University, Japan, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, China, among others. In 2016 she was appointed as Visiting Distinguished Professor of the Arts School of Wuhan University, China, as well as Distinguished Researcher of the Chinese Arts Criticism Foundation of Wuhan University. She served as IATC’s Vice President (2001/2006) and as its Director Symposia (2006-2010). In 2007, she was the dramaturg of the highly acclaimed production of Pentecost by David Edgar, directed by Mladen Kiselov, at the Stratford Festival of Canada. Since 2001 she has been regularly serving as an evaluation expert for cultural and educational programs of the European Commission. Currently she teaches at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Sofia.

Teatr ZAR.net

Teatr ZAR is a unique company. More than a company, it is a creative group of artists brought together by the same cause of finding the truth beyond the representation in theatre. Is there an ultimate truth, however? Jaroslaw Fret seems to believe that, and – like Grotowski, his glorious precursor, did once upon a time – he has embarked on a journey to find it. His stage language defies all definitions: it is close to performance art, but not the same. It is a form of anthropological theatre, yet not exactly that. It is music, or at least based on sound. Nevertheless, to place it in any such category would be insufficient. Zar is a phenomenon of authenticity. About that, about truth, about the body, about the encounter between the “performer” and the “spectator”, about faith in theatre during this troubled period… in a dialogue occasion by a new edition of Between.Pomiędzy Festival.

Jarosław Fret is a founder and leader of Teatr ZAR, theatre director and actor. He is Director of the Grotowski Institute, lecturer at the PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków (Branch in Wrocław) and President of the Board of Curators of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 and Curator of its Theatre Programme. In 1999–2002 he organized a series of expeditions to Georgia, Armenia and Iran, conducting research into the oldest forms of religious music of Eastern Christianity. In the following years, together with members of Teatr ZAR, he led expeditions to Mount Athos in Greece, Sardinia, Corsica, Armenia, Turkey and Israel. He has directed four performance pieces with Teatr ZAR. Teatr ZAR’s Gospels of Childhood triptych has been seen in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Athens, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Florence, Madrid, Paris, Sibiu, Cairo, New Delhi and Seoul. In November 2013 he completed work on Armine, Sister, for which he developed an original musical dramaturgy and special stage architecture. He lectures and leads work sessions in Poland and abroad. His awards and honours include: Best New Music Theater for Teatr ZAR from Los Angeles Times (2009); Wrocław Theatre Prize for the Gospels of Childhood triptych (2010); the prestigious Total Theatre Award for Physical/Visual Theatre and the Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2012). He has originated and coordinated numerous Polish and international projects of the Grotowski Institute, including the Grotowski Year 2009, Masters in Residence, the International Theatre Festival The World as a Place of Truth and the Theatre Olympics 2016 in Wrocław. His efforts led to the opening of new locations of the Grotowski Institute: Na Grobli Studio (2010) and the Bakery, a centre for performing arts (2019).

Cultivating an ethos of ensemble work, Teatr ZAR develops productions through a long process of creating its own theatrical language, which draws on music from numerous traditions found in the East and West. The company is a multinational group that was formed during annual research expeditions to Georgia between 1999 and 2003. During these expeditions, they collected a wealth of musical material, including a core of centuries-old polyphonic songs that have their roots in the beginning of the human era and are probably the oldest forms of polyphony in the world. Zar is a name of funeral songs performed by the Svaneti tribe who inhabit the high regions of the Caucasus in north-west Georgia. Teatr ZAR attempts to demonstrate that theatre does not only relate to thea (Greek ‘seeing’), but it is something that above all should be heard.

ZAR brings back theatre as it was before art ruptured into different disciplines and styles. Its work addresses themes that, in the contemporary world, seem to be reserved only for the religious domain. It comes from conviction, influenced by Polish Romantic ideas, that art is not only complementary to religion but can fill the dynamic chasm between the everyday and transcendent life. Juliusz Osterwa, one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Polish theatre who tried to put these ideas into practice – and one whose ideas had a great impact on Jerzy Grotowski – once wrote: ‘God created theatre for those for whom the church does not suffice.’

The Gospels of Childhood triptych is a culmination of more than 10 years of work with ancient sacred songs. The triptych consists of three performances, played also separately: Overture, Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide and Anhelli: The Calling. In 2009, the triptych premiered in London at the Barbican Centre and then was presented in Los Angeles, Wrocław, Florence, San Francisco, Chicago, Sibiu, Legnica, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz. Parts of the work were staged, among others, in Athens, Edinburgh, Madrid, Belgrade, Budapest, Paris, Cairo, Seoul, New Delhi, Boston. The triptych was named Best New Music Theatre byThe Los Angeles Times in 2009, and won the Wrocław Theatre Prize in October 2010. The second part of the triptych, Caesarean Section, was shown as part of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in August 2012, earning Teatr ZAR a prestigious Total Theatre Award for Physical/Visual Theatre and a Herald Angel Award.

In 2011, the company started work on Armine, Sister, a project dedicated to the history and culture of the Armenian people and to the Armenian genocide. Teatr ZAR’s performance Armine, Sister premiered on 28 November 2013 at the Na Grobli Studio of the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław. Since then, apart from Wrocław, it has been staged in Warsaw, London, Oslo, Rome, Paris, Szczecin, Sibiu, Florence and San Francisco.

Teatr ZAR’s latest performance works, Medeas: On Getting Across and Anhelli: The Howl, were first performed, respectively, at the Theatre Olympics in Wrocław in 2016 and at the Theatre Olympics in Japan in 2019.

Professor Octavian Saiu is a scholar and professional theatre critic. He holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from National University of Theatre and Film (NUTF) in Romania, with a thesis about theatrical space, and another PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Otago in New Zealand, with a thesis about Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. He completed his Post-Doc in Modern Literature at the University of Otago, and has been awarded his Habilitation in Theatre and Performing Arts. He teaches in the Postgraduate Programme of NUTF, the Doctoral School of Sibiu University and the Centre of Excellence in Visual Studies of the University of Bucharest. He was Visiting Fellow at the University of London, School of Advanced Study, and is Visiting Professor at universities in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing and Lisbon. He has offered master classes at other universities in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the Grotowski Institute.

He has been actively involved, as Conference Chair and Invited Speaker, in several major theatre and academic events around the world, including the Theatre Olympics, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, as well as Edinburgh International Festival, where he was Chair of the Samuel Beckett Conference in 2013. Since 2004 he has been Chair of the Conferences of Sibiu International Theatre Festival.

He is Adjunct Secretary General of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) and President of the Romanian Section – Theatre Studies of IATC. He has published academic articles in several international journals, as well as eleven books on theatre. He received the Critics’ Award in 2010 and the Award of the Union of Theatre Artists (UNITER) in 2013. In 2020, on the National Day of Culture, the President of Romania awarded him the Order of Cultural Merit.

“Theatre as a social institution”. Moderator: Michał Lachman

Friday, 14 May 2021, 11.30 CET

Invited Guests:

Marta Ljubková, Dr Verónica Rodríguez, Dr Magdalena Szuster, Dr Michael Raab

Marta Ljubková

Marta Ljubková graduated from the Faculty of Liberal Arts of Charles University and the Academy of Performing Arts, where she currently lectures. Her main teaching interests are dramaturgy and literary work.

She has worked as a publishing editor, a freelance dramaturg, a reviewer, and an editor. She specializes in contemporary prose and drama, as well as in post-dramatic writing.

She has served as the Head Dramaturgist of the National Theatre Drama since 2015, and she is a Program Director of the international theatre festival Prague Crossroads.

Topic: How does the situation change dramaturgical work and our communication with audience

Verónica Rodríguez

Dr Verónica is Teaching Fellow in Theatre and Performance at University of Reading. Currently based in London, she has previously lectured at University of Barcelona, Canterbury Christ Church University, Royal Holloway, University of London and Richmond University.

Her main research interests are in the fields of contemporary British theatre, new political forms of theatre and feminism. Her current research also examines the intersection of women’s health and illness and contemporary theatre and performance practices. She published with Palgrave in 2019 her monograph David Greig’s Holed Theatre: Globalization, Ethics and the Spectator, with a foreword by Dan Rebellato. With the research group “Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona (CBTBarcelona)”, she participates in the research project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and by FEDER (European Union) (see website). She is also a commissioned playwright (e.g. the Royal Court), a published poet and a member of the artistic collective of people living with endometriosis Inner Orchestra. She is currently a participant at the Royal Court’s Script Panel 2021.

Topic: “Theatre Communities Come Together”: The Royal Court’s Living Newspaper Project.

Magdalena Szuster

Dr Magdalena Szuster is affiliated with the Department of North American Literature and Culture, University of Łódź. She specializes in American theater and drama, and works now in the area of stage adaptations of plays by North American playwrights in Poland. She is a member of the American Theatre and Drama Society and the International Federation for Theatre Research. Since 2014, she has been collaborating with the Music Theatre of Łódź, where she now designs and coordinates theatre education programs. She has collaborated with the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute and is partaking in the Institute’s educational networking programs. She is a theatre ed leader at the City Council of Łódź on behalf of the Music Theatre and a recipient of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Fellowship for cultural education.

Topic: “Let’s go play at the theater!” Benefits of cultural education in the context of theatre pedagogy and its effects on local communities.

Michael Raab

Dr. Michael Raab (born 1959) is a translator and lecturer living in Frankfurt/Main. He studied English, German and French in Marburg/Lahn, London and Hamburg where he earned his PhD. Afterwards he was employed as editor for German television ZDF (1987-1989), as dramaturg at the State Theatres of Stuttgart (1989-1991) and Mainz (1991-1995), the Munich Kammerspiele (1995-2001), the Schauspiel Leipzig (2002-2005) and as a guest dramaturg in Weimar and Bonn. Since 2005 he mainly works freelance.

He has written books on Shakespearean productions in Germany and England, the portrayal of the entertainment industry in contemporary British drama, the director Wolfgang Engel and on English plays in the 1990s. In addition he published numerous articles and essays on the history of German theatre and new British or Irish drama.

He taught at the universities of Constance, Leipzig, Mainz and Heidelberg as well as at acting schools in Munich, Salzburg and Frankfurt. In 2011 he was translator-in-residence at the University of Tübingen. Many national and international universities invited him for lectures and workshops. At the Mozarteum Salzburg he held a guest professorship in dramaturgy over five terms.

In 2009 he received the journalism prize of the German Association for the Study of English. In 2020 he was awarded the Barthold-Heinrich-Brockes-stipend by the German translators’ fund, honouring his collected translation work. Up to now he translated ca. 125 English or French plays by authors like Agatha Christie, J. B. Priestley, Michael Frayn, Lee Hall, Martin McDonagh, Ayad Akhtar, Lucy Prebble, Laura Wade and Flavia Coste. He also translated novels and theoretical works on the theatre.

Topic: German Theatre as a “lubricant” for social and economic developments?

Host: Michał Lachman

Michał Lachman is a Lecturer in English and Irish Drama at the Department of English Drama, Theatre and Film, University of Lodz, Poland. His research interests include the history of the twentieth-century British and Irish drama, literary theory and translation. He has published on Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Howard Barker. He has translated Christina Reid’s Belle of the Belfast City, Billy Roche’s A Handful of Stars, Frank McGuinness’e Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and Innocence into Polish. In 2018, he published Performing Character in Modern Irish Drama: Between Art and Society (Palgrave).