THEATRE WITHIN THE CONTEXT Book of abstracts

THEATRE WITHIN THE CONTEXT � AND NOT JUST THEATRE

[the book of abstracts]

CONTENT

WELCOME NOTE pg.3

PROGRAM pg.4

ABSTRACTS:

Day 1 pg. 6 - 16

Day 2 pg. 17 - 27

Day 3 pg. 28 - 40

BIOGRAPHIES pg. 41 - 47

PROGRAM COMMITTEE pg. 48

WELCOME TO THE SYMPOSIUM!

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to the “Theatre within the Context… and Not Just Theatre“ international symposium,

which takes place from 23rd until 25th September 2015 at the Insitute for Cultural Development

Research (ZAPROKUL), Rige of Fere 4 (Belgrade, Serbia), as part of the 16th Bitef Polyphony.

The symposium is dedicated to analysis, contextualization and critical interpretation of

contemporary theories and performing practices, as well as understanding of principles, mechanisms

and value system uniting different forms of their implementation. The intention is to acquire and

exchange views about the multiple opportunities of the contemporary theatrical theories, methods

and techniques, both in education and in programs of psycho-social support in the work with

sensitive groups, as well as within other practices directed at social change and community culture

development.

Yourself, along with around thirty other Invited experts in scientific or activist-artistic fields,

will participate in one of the six thematic sessions in the upcoming three days. Dialogues within

sessions will be complemented by the participation of other invited and self-invited guests in the

audience. The interludes between sections include workshops and presentation of works, aimed at

raising new questions about the disciplinary boundaries of contemporary artistic practices.

“Theatre within the Context” symposium is organized by Hop.La! as a part of 16th Bitef Polyphony, in

cooperation with CEDEUM, Centre for Drama in Arts and Education, Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic

Arts, and UNESCO Chair in cultural policy and management University of Arts in Belgrade, and with

the support from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

Please, note that official languages of the symposium are Serbian, Croatian and English. Selected

works will be presented in the special edition, which will be published subsequently; after the

symposium and reviewing process.

Very much looking forward to meeting you all!

Best regards,

Doc. dr Irena Ristić,

Editor of Bitef Polyphony and President of the “Theatre Within the Context” Program Committee

September 2015

PROGRAM

9.00

Registration

10.00 − 12.00

Dialogue about Theatre

Within the Context #1

12.00 − 13.30

Workshop: Teaching as Conceptual Art

14.00 − 16.00

Dialogue about Education

10.00 − 12.00

Dialogue about Community Theatre

12.00 − 13.30

Workshop and dialogue about the project TIME FOR A STORY

14.00 − 16.00

Dialogue about Principles of Participation in the Work with Sensitive Groups

10.00 − 12.00

Dialogue about the Political Nature of Performative

12.00 − 13.00

Contemporary Imponderabilia: Working Body

14.00 − 16.00

Dialogue about Theatre Within the Context #2

16.00

Closing ceremony

DAY 1_23/09

DAY 2_24/09

DAY 3_25/09

Theatre Within the Context – How to Move from the History of Theatre

to the History of Lives; Great and Small?

Janko Ljumović, M.A.

(Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro)

Institutional Theatre and Social Conscienceness

Bojana Ivanov-Đorđević, M.A.

(National Theatre Sterija, Vršac, Serbia)

Socio-Cultural Implications of Multilingual Theatre

Lazar Jovanov, Ph.D.

(Faculty for Media and Communication, Belgrade, Serbia)

How the Body-Matrices are Guarding and Changing Theater and Dance institution

Marko Pejović, M.A.

(Let’s…, Belgrade, Serbia)

Spoilsport: Vesna Đukić, Ph.D. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

10.00 - 12.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT THEATRE WITHIN THE CONTEXT #1

DAY 1_23/09


Abstract:

HOW TO MOVE FROM THE HISTORY OF THEATRE TO THE HISTORY

OF LIVES; GREAT AND SMALL?

Author:

Janko Ljumović, M.A.

(Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro)

The context inside or the context outside, context of the model, context of authority, context of audience, context of war or the context of emotionality is only a part of possible mapping, that reflects the overlapping of various spheres of influence that theatre has in the community, but it also extends to the sphere of the community influence on its contents. It is the notion of community rather than the notion of society, which has placed theatre in line with its ideological orientations in various institutional models that have served, and still serve, as a manifestation of the power of politics and culture. It helps us understand its emancipating practices, as well as the possibility of change that lies in redefining (and taking over) institutional models. This requires affirmation of the idea of the participating community interest, while bearing in mind that, due to the normative determination, the theatre system in the European context is dominantly subsidized (with our money). How does the contemporary theatre reach the level of the audience’s interest, outside the implied circle of the so called expert audience, and what are the reasons for it to expand, solely through its contents, the sphere of interpretation where other audience speak of it as well?

An important issue in the analysis is mapping of contemporary performance practices that have redefined the notion of theatre policy in its traditional form, and where it is defined and established as a new repertoire value; a value of importance for the community. Theatre in the context of the community and its dilemmas, theatre through the community memory, theatre that speaks of the fears of the community – has a chance to not only be an ephemeral sign and bibliographical information relevant solely to the history of a theatre or of a theatre system.

Keywords: context, community, contemporary theatre practices, emancipator role, audience’s

interest

Day #1

DAY 1_23/09

6


Abstract:

INSTITUTIONAL THEATRE AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Author:

Bojana Ivanov-Đorđević, M.A.

(Sterija National Theatre, Vršac, Serbia)

The question of whether art should educate, inform, organize, influence, encourage, provoke or just be the subject of pleasure, does not cease to provoke its theorists. Even Aristophanes thought that comedy writer should not only gives pleasure, but rather be a teacher of moral and adviser of politics. Eratosthenes’s response to the issue was that a function of the poet is to impress their listeners, rather than teach them. In the case of Aristotle, poetry and politics are completely different disciplines – they should be regarded separately, because living according to specific laws serves different aims and pursues different objectives. When we talk about the national drama heritage we cannot bypass Sterija, who said that “the theater of moral cures the disease.” If art is one of the most important links in the chain of value system of a particular community or society as a whole, then it is hard to talk about art outside the context of its engagement. For this purpose, we will give an example of socially engaged theater already well known in the history of world theater, but also take a look around to point to positive examples of such theatrical thinking and acting in our immediate environment. The largest parade of demonstrators passed through New York City on the 15th of June 1982. The reason for the demonstration was the uprising against nuclear weapons. No one has so far not determined the exact number of demonstrators. They started in front of the United Nations and strolled through the city, led by giant puppets Bread and Puppet from the Peter Schumann theatre. It is speculated that the number of demonstrators reached the figure of half a million. Even the ancient theater whose capacity is was limited to tens of thousands of spectators is no match to this event. Vršac National Theatre “Sterija”, this year marks its 70th anniversary. When it was established in 1945, the fronts of World War II still burning in the struggle for liberation from fascism, part of the celebration was paid to the anti-war and anti-fascist right campaign, which in this theater next to the classical repertoire cultivated in the first decades of its existence, had an important place. This tendency at the same time fosters a more recent heritage and opens possibilities for other related topics in times of war, that still captures the world’s largest population migration in the past 50 years. Most of the planet turns their heads; for instance, Europe, which has started repairing the walls and barbed wires similar to those that have fenced camps of the Holocaust. Therefore, theater Vršac has planned a particular performance in the repertory, which examines the prism of contemporary perception of war victims focusing on a life of Anne Frank. The second program is dedicated to the victims of large-scale population migration to Europe and is planned for 2016/17 theater season. In this sense, the notion of theater in analyzed through the context of theater acting as social conscience, that sees the difficulties that communities face and finds partners outside the theater environment in order to confront or at least draw attention to the issues.

Keywords: socially engaged theatre, avant-garde, community

Day #1

7


Abstract:

SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF MULTILINGUAL THEATRE

Author:

Lazar Jovanov, Ph.D.

(Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade, Serbia)

The research is focused at socio-cultural implications of dynamic multilingual theater, at the meso (city)

and macro (national) level, on the example of the „National Theatre-Népszinház-KPGT“, and in the

context of development the value of cultural diversity and affirmation of the Unified Yugoslav Cultural

Space (concepts that has established by leaders of the movement and prominent Yugoslav theater artists:

Ljubisa Ristic, Nada Kokotovic, Rade Serbedzija and Dusan Jovanovic). The research objective is to prove

that multilingual theater, in a distinct form (as it was the concept of the Theatre City in Subotica) is a

cross-cultural link and the kind of social value, which is encouraging intercultural dialogue and affirmation

of cultural diversity, both at the micro (institutional) level, and at the meso (city) and macro (national)

level. The paradigmatic projects implemented from 1985. to 1987.are analyzed as the case studies. The

analysis has been focused on the model of Subotica Theatre City (project Madach, the comments), as well

as the Theatre City on Palic Lake (Shakespeare fest), and YU fest.

In the process of value determination, sociolinguistic theory of Ranko Bugarski is of particular importance,

by which we aims to point out social and cultural impact of the principle of multilingualism in the theater,

in terms of development of social capital and the dynamic relationship between different cultural entities.

During the collection of relevant data, the following empirical methods were used: “desk” research (analysis

of press clippings, archival research); qualitative method of in-depth interviews with representatives of

decision makers (political functionaries and administrators of institutions), as well as with artists, and the

originators of this authentic theater concept.

This study should enable a deeper understanding of the socio-cultural and political role of multilingual

theater in the contemporary social context. The intention, therefore, is to prove that multilingual theater,

in a clearly defined form, or model, is an immanent segment of cultural policies, which promote and

dynamise intercultural relations.

Keywords: multilingual theatre, National Theatre-Népszinház-KPGT, Theatre City, cultural policy,

cultural diversity

Day #1

87


Abstract:

HOW THE BODY-MATRICES ARE GUARDING AND CHANGING

THEATER AND DANCE INSTITUTION

Author:

Marko Pejović, M.A.

(Let’s…, , Belgrade, Serbia)

This work considers body-matrix as a set of physical characteristics, that have the function of the

signifiers, and form the structure. It is a reference value of eligibility (of the body) in one culture, or an

institution. The aim of this paper is to present the changes of the body-matrix, regarding the context

in which specific (theater and dance) practice is implemented. The issue in focus is how much a certain

body-matrix supports the institution of theater and dance, and how some matrices have subversive and

deconstructing potential.

The starting point for consideration is Hegel’s postulate about the totality. For him, the truth is total,

without lack, deficit-less. In the theater, this postulate is applied in practice of “closed” form that Volker

Klotz wrote about. The application of closed forms in the theater and dance, led up to “closed” body-

matrix. On the other hand, the presence of various bodies in the public space is a threat to oppressive

ideology that is trying to prevent any friction and tension. Body diversity revokes the reference body-

matrix as the sole, and puts observers in an awkward position to notice the difference that brings tension.

In a culture that is so anxious to control bodily functions and desires, “different” body (such as “disabled”

or “transgender” body) immediately is positioned as “deviant”. It reminds us of the vulnerability of the

body, the inability of control, and the loss of certainty. The paper addresses the change from monolith,

structured, to the rhizomatic body-matrix in dance, using examples from different dance practices.

Keywords: body-matrix, dance practices, deconstruction, totality

Day #1

9

12.00 - 13.30

WORKSHOP:

TEACHING AS CONCEPTUAL ART

9

WORKSHOP

Description:


Authors:

Eugene Matusov, Ph.D.

(University of Delaware, Newark, USA)

Ana Marjanović-Shane, Ph.D.

(Chestnut Hill College, USA)

Like artistic conceptualism, pedagogical conceptualism focuses on engaging people in experiences

that destabilize their familiar paradigms with a possibility for emerging an alternative paradigm and,

thus, promotes education without learning. Teaching as art of conceptualism is a part of teaching as a

performance art and complements teaching focusing on promoting learning. Teaching as conceptual art

is based on the notion that the essence of education is transformation of the person – the way how she

or he relates to and perceives the world, other people, and the self — and may exist distinct from and in

the absence of the focus on studying a particular out-there object or process or practice (i.e., knowledge,

skills, attitudes). Working in ontological dialogic pedagogy, we especially interested in pedagogical

conceptualism as a powerful genre of dialogic ontological provocations.

Dialogical ontological provocations are, as their name suggests, ways to bring unexpected and powerful

alternatives to the ways of relating to the world, to life, to the others and to the self. Through such

encounters, participants may experience enstrangement and begin to reexamine their own ways of being

and to test their ideas. In our view, dialogical ontological provocations are the core of Bakhtinian dialogic

pedagogy. In our workshop, organized as conceptual art, we will engage the workshop participants in

experience, discussion, and problematization of teaching as conceptual art.

Keywords: dialogic pedagogy, conceptual art, enstrangement, Backhtin

Day #1

Teaching as Conceptual Art


(University of Delaware, Newark, United States),


(Chestnut Hill College, United States)

Drama Pedagogy – Art or Pedagogy? Vlado Krušić, Ph.D.

(Croatian Centre for Drama Education - HCDO, Zagreb, Croatia)

Theatre Workshops as the Physics Lectures Improvement Method

Zvonimir Peranić, M.Sc.

(University in Rijeka, Croatia)

Spoilsport: Dragana Koruga (Center for Interactive Pedagogy - CIP, Belgrade, Serbia)

11

Teaching as Conceptual Art


(University of Delaware, Newark, United States),


(Chestnut Hill College, United States)

Drama Pedagogy – Art or Pedagogy? Vlado Krušić, Ph.D.


Theatre Workshops as the Physics Lectures Improvement Method


(University in Rijeka, Croatia)

Spoilsport: Dragana Koruga (Center for Interactive Pedagogy - CIP, Belgrade, Serbia)

14.00 - 16.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT EDUCATION

11


Abstract:


Authors:


(University of Delaware, Newark, USA)


(Chestnut Hill College, USA)

Like artistic conceptualism, pedagogical conceptualism focuses on engaging people in experiences

that destabilize their familiar paradigms with a possibility for emerging an alternative paradigm and,

thus, promotes education without learning. Teaching as art of conceptualism is a part of teaching as a

performance art and complements teaching focusing on promoting learning. Teaching as conceptual art

is based on the notion that the essence of education is transformation of the person – the way how she

or he relates to and perceives the world, other people, and the self — and may exist distinct from and in

the absence of the focus on studying a particular out-there object or process or practice (i.e., knowledge,

skills, attitudes). Working in ontological dialogic pedagogy, we especially interested in pedagogical

conceptualism as a powerful genre of dialogic ontological provocations.

Dialogical ontological provocations are, as their name suggests, ways to bring unexpected and powerful

alternatives to the ways of relating to the world, to life, to the others and to the self. Through such

encounters, participants may experience enstrangement and begin to reexamine their own ways of being

and to test their ideas. In our view, dialogical ontological provocations are the core of Bakhtinian dialogic

pedagogy. In our workshop, organized as conceptual art, we will engage the workshop participants in

experience, discussion, and problematization of teaching as conceptual art.

Keywords: dialogic pedagogy, conceptual art, enstrangement, Backhtin

Day #1

13


Abstract:

DRAMA PEDAGOGY – ART OR PEDAGOGY?

Author:

Vlado Krušić, Ph.D.


Various forms of practice of contemporary drama pedagogy, which some theorists call “applied theatre”,

regardless of wherever they are realized, still represent some form of drama and/or theatre work in context,

i.e. in an environment that is outside of original domain of arts in which, by deeply rooted convictions, we

usually place any kind of drama/ theatre work. The intensive development of drama pedagogy in the last

decades has opened a number of problems not only for theorists who explore and interpret this area, but

also for numerous practitioners involved in it, including a large number of trained theatre professionals.

It confronted them with a series of questions about the objectives of their engagement, methods applied

and the criteria of assessment of their work and its effects. Educated in the still nowadays predominant

theatre culture and supporting theoretical disciplines, the author will trace his own experience of transition

from the theatre professional to drama pedagogue and point out some of the main issues and conclusions

he reached in the process of developing this paper.

Keywords: drama pedagogy, applied theatre, context, methods, criteria of assesment

Day #1

1413

15


Abstract:

THEATRE WORKSHOPS AS THE PHYSICS LECTURES

IMPROVEMENT METHOD

Author:


(Univesity in Rijeka, Croatia)

Students’ attitudes towards research content are in direct relationship with the level of their comprehension

of it. Students with the positive attitude are more successful in the comprehension of the contents. Physics,

as the (university) course, has bigger impact on the students than other courses. Specific attitude is not

composed from the unique construction; it is composed from the number of the sub-constructions that

are affecting the formation of the individual attitude on the different levels. The environment in which

lectures takes place is significantly affecting attitudes; the most positive attitudes are associated with

high levels of mutual assistance, strong connections between participants in the educational institution

and involvement of different teaching strategies, as well unusual learning activities. The most influent

variable is the student personal learning experience, respectively the quality of teaching.

The aim of this research is the improvement of the insights in contemporary teaching in order to get better

results from the teaching process and contribute to the development of the education in natural sciences.

This research is aimed at demonstrating that the use of the specially created non-verbal theatre workshops

could improve the students’ attitudes toward the physics lectures and the physics in general, and that

it could be helpful in improving the conceptual knowledge of physics. The workshops are developed in

the period of the approximately 15 years. Contrary to the classical experiments in which students are to

perceive ‘from the outside’, in this workshops their bodies are set in the role of the active subject, which

is passing through the certain states and situations. Through the perception ‘from the inside’, certain

concepts are easier to understand, since they are physically experienced. Specially designed workshops

were conducted as part of the Physics for Engineers lectures on the Collegium Fluminense Polytechnic of

Rijeka, in the form of the exercises. The special questionnaire was created as the measurement tool. The

cluster analysis was used for classification and structuring of the particles. Reliability of the questionnaire

is shown by analysis with Cronbach alpha factor of 0,818. The validity of the questionnaire was analysed

by division of the particles into the two groups, which correlation factor was 0,773, and Guttman split

half factor was 0,871. Factor analysis showed that all of the particles were represented by one factor. The

conclusion of the research is that the questionnaire is valid measurement tool for the attitude(s) toward

physics lectures. The conceptual knowledge was measured by diagnostic conceptual test (FCI) which is a

standard measurement of the basic conceptual comprehension in mechanics.

Day #1

1615

The research was conducted during the two academic years. Students were divided into three groups;

one research group and two control groups. Examination by questionnaire and test before and after the

lectures was conducted on research and one control group. The other control group was exanimated only

after the lectures in order to avoid the possibility of the influence of the memory from the questionnaire

and test on the final results. Although all the groups were equally considering physics as complex matter

(there was no statistically significant difference), the research group showed statistically significant

difference in positive attitude toward the curiosities in physics, the experiments as part of the lectures.

Moreover, students found workshops helpful in mastering new contents. Students from the research group

used less additional instructions. Two control groups did not show significant statistical differences in the

results. The conclusion is that the use of non-verbal theatre workshops can improve students attitudes

toward the physics lectures and physics in general, and conceptual comprehension of contents.

Keywords: conceptual knowledge, physics, non-verbal theatre, workshop, attitudes

DIALOGUE ABOUT THEATRE WITHIN THE CONTEXT #1 Day #1

The Enigma of Community Theatre

Paul Murray, Ph.D.

(Bel Theatre, United Kingdom-Serbia)

Why Community Theatre?

Karolina Spaić

(ZID Theatre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Collective Acts of Witnessing – The problem with Community Theatre

Sean Aita,

(The Arts University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom)

Spoilsport: Tanja Pajović (POD theatre, Belgrade, Serbia)

10.00 - 12.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT COMMUNITY THEATRE

DAY 2_24/09

The Enigma of Community Theatre

Paul Murray, Ph.D.


Why Community Theatre?

Karolina Spaić

(ZID Theatre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Collective Acts of Witnessing – The problem with Community Theatre

Sean Aita,

(The Arts University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom)

Spoilsport: Tanja Pajović (POD theatre, Belgrade, Serbia)

10.00 - 12.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT COMMUNITY THEATRE

DAY 2_24/09DIALOGUE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY THEATRE Day #2

Abstract:

THE ENIGMA OF COMMUNITY THEATRE

Author:

Paul Murray, Ph.D.


Community theatre is recognizable by its approach and aims. Its approach is simple: a professional

team of theatre directors, scenographers, actors, playwrights, musicians etc. work with a group of non-

professionals to create an original play/performance about an issue, which the professional and non-

professional participants alike themselves consider to be significant. Community theatre’s aims encompass

(often utopian) ideas of pluralism, democracy, community, non-commercialism, activism, playfulness

and joy. Community theatre artists believe that their art-form has the capacity to: (1) Strengthen the

bonds of community; (2) Initiate democratic processes; (3) Empower and educate individuals; (4) Help

underrepresented views be heard by a wider audience, and (5) Intervene directly not just to interpret the

world, but to bring about change within it. Through both its approach and aims, Community is a form of

political theatre.

‘The very fact that it is called community theatre itself betrays the neo-liberal belief in individualism and

the idea that things such as “the public good” and “the community” should be discarded as unnecessary

components of a welfare state.’ (Martinez and García 2000).

As the oldest of participatory forms of theatre, one could argue that ‘Community theatre’ has lost much of

its identity in recent times as its approach have been increasingly utilized by State’s, cultural institutions

and neo-liberal philanthropists to promote their own aims through forms such as ‘drama in education’ and

‘applied theatre’. On the other hand, one could argue that community theatre is defined clearly enough in

relation to its political aims in order to retain its identity. Either way, the enigma of community theatre is

that it can only be truly recognized and appreciated in relation to what it aims to achieve; whether or not

these aims are achievable.

Keywords: community, theatre, pluralism, activism, non-commercialism

18

Abstract:

WHY COMMUNITY THEATRE?

Author:

Karolina Spaić

(ZID Theater, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This definitely applies to community theatre,

because once a work process begins, it cannot be stopped. It may seem that there are no rules in community

theatre and that anything goes, but especially here the rules determine the quality and effect of the work

and safeguard its authenticity. At the same time this is the reason why people choose to work in, support

or actively participate in this art form.

The most important rules are: 1) collectiveness, 2) multilayeredness 3) contagiousness and 4) endless

creativity. Apart from that there are no rules for how the work is made and what the end result may be.

Anyone can participate and the work is by nature politically engaged. Community theatre is one of the

few places where people can realise their fundamental need to express themselves, to contribute and

to change things, no matter how big. Whether it is about certain needs of a group, about exchanging

personal stories or getting to know your neighbours better in a new neighbourhood. Community theatre

is an effective way of acting ‘glocally’ – globally and locally at the same time – by addressing universal

human themes and needs within local settings.

And how does the work influence the artists who engage in this co-creative process together with the

representatives of the community? Transparency of the work process, the uncertain outcome and end

result of it demand great flexibility and openness. At the same time, optimal preparation and analysis

are required, both in terms of the artistic process and of the social political context, if the work is to

have maximum effect. Although they work within community theatres, the makers are active in various

domains simultaneously. For the makers it is important to realise that the community does not end when

the project ends, but continues to exist. The results of the work will be permanent, as long as the maker

has the capacity to create a bond based on mutual respect and trust between him/her and members of

the community.

For her blog in The Guardian, theatre critic Lyn Gardner wrote in her text ‘Why every artist should be a

community artist’ that the most interesting theatre today is being made together with the audience and

not for the audience. And that is what keeps this art form alive.

When we analyse the patterns in community theatre and collect the results of this work, then it is no

longer an illusion but a ticket to the future. I am interested in how we can develop an optimal concept for

community theatre that allows the audience to become active participants in the performance. How can

we create a shared meaningful experience for all those present? How might the performance empower

the audience to make choices, shape their own experience, and contribute to the collective experience?

Keywords: community theatre, collectiveness, openness, active participation

DIALOGUE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY THEATRE Day #2

19

Abstract:

COLLECTIVE ACTS OF WITNESSING – THE PROBLEM WITH

COMMUNITY THEATRE

Author:

Sean Aita,

(The Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom)

Despite the fact that what has traditionally been described as Community Theatre has had a major

influence on contemporary theatrical culture in the UK descriptions of the practices which attend to the

term have been subsumed into a taxonomic sub-set within the more commonly used Applied Drama and

Theatre (ADT).

The development of wider range of socially-engaged performative and theatrical approaches and/or

techniques, aligned with a growing scepticism from practitioners within the field of ADT of any tendency

towards a “homogenised, essentialist concept of community” (Prentki and Preston; 2013, 12) has made

a broader all-embracing classification convenient, and has facilitated the gradual elision of Community

Theatre as a term for professional practice. Indeed, in Britain, it is gradually becoming associated with

wholly amateur theatre, mirroring its use in the United States.

Community Theatre’s diminution within the professional theatrical lexicon is also reflective of its

corresponding occlusion ontologically. Companies, theatre spaces, and resources which have been

identified with this form of work, (particularly within a rural touring context) have been disappearing at

an alarming rate. Paradoxically, changes in arts and funding policies in the United Kingdom, has meant

that elements of Community Theatre practice, have increasingly been incorporated into the mainstream.

Supported by research into the history of Community Theatre in the UK, this paper also draws on

knowledge that is tacit and intuitive, utilising aspects of Moustakas’ (1990, p. 15-27) model of Heuristic

Enquiry, based in the extensive experience the author acquired as a practitioner within the Community

Theatre sector over a period of thirty years. This paper argues that this discrete branch of performance

is in danger of becoming a victim of the ongoing struggle for the ownership of theatrical space between

counter, and hegemonic cultures.

Keywords: community theatre, occlusion, applied drama and theatre (ADT), Moustakas’ model,

DIALOGUE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY THEATRE Day #2

2019

12.30 - 14.00

WORKSHOP AND DIALOGUE ABOUT

TIME FOR A STORY PROJECT

12.30 - 14.00

WORKSHOP AND DIALOGUE ABOUT

TIME FOR A STORY PROJECT

Description:

TIME FOR A STORY

Author:

Vera Večanski, Ph.D candidate

Performed by:

Ivan Jevtović

Time for a Story is a storytelling project carried out in libraries. It is based on similar projects and library

storytime programs in children’s libraries worldwide, performed by professional storytellers or actors,

sometimes by teachers, but most often by librarians themselves, through the use of interactive storytelling

techniques and tools such as language, sound, motion, gesture or repetition, with the aim of bringing to

life or revealing to the audience certain elements and images of a story. Storytelling for children often

includes various visual elements and tools, such as pictures, puppets or objects helping visualization,

and making storytelling more interesting to the children. Very often children themselves are given little

“roles”, for example, they are asked to produce a certain sound or to make a motion, or they are asked to

make a drawing or a prop to be used in the story, which transforms them from passive listeners into active

participants.

Time for a Story is a project aimed primarily at preschool and primary school children. Each session

lasts about thirty minutes and includes several stories with the same topic (for example, stories about

friendship and help, stories about perception and acceptance of self, stories about food, or about artistic

expression, etc), with equal attention paid to both the artistic and the educational aspect. The emphasis

is not only on rich visual identity, but even more so on quiet, meditative atmosphere providing complete

immersion into the world of stories and literature, very much needed by children today, as a balance to

the overly strong stimuli they are exposed to from many sides.

The primary objective of the project is twosome: first, to instill and develop in young children love for

literature and storytelling, and to draw them into the magical world of literature even before they can read

and write. Children are simultaneously sensitized to theater, visual arts, music, and dance. And second,

to attract and encourage children at an early age to find joy in visiting and using libraries and their

resources, to feel “at home”, be comfortable and move freely around the library, since it is presented

not only as a place for learning, but also for socializing and communicating with other children and with

adults, as well as for having fun.

WORKSHOP Day #2

22

Performing Creative Diversities

Bojana Škorc, Ph.D.

(Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Problems of Stigmatization of Minority Groups in Participative Art Projects

Boris Čakširan

(ERGstatus, Belgrade, Serbia)

The Importance of Cultural Diversity in Work

with Political Asylants in the Center Cimade

Richard Grolleau

(Compagnie Arti-Zanat, Serbia-France)

Drama and Children with Autism:

Helping Abraham to Deal with Life

Tasos Angelopoulos, Ph.D. candidate

(Drama Department AUTH, Thessaloniki, Greece)

Spoilsport: Dubravka Crnojević Carić, Ph.D. (Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb, Croatia)

14.00 - 16.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT PRINCIPLES

OF PARTICIPATION IN THE WORK

Abstract:

PERFORMING CREATIVE DIVERSITIES

Author:

Bojana Škorc, Ph.D.

(Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Alternative education process is seen as a joint project of children/youth and adults, and a part of social,

historical and cultural context in which it exists. This is contextually based process and its totality have

enormous developmental potentials. The mixed groups of people bring together their multi-leveled

diversities based on social status, vulnerability, age-span, ethnicity, cultural background, profession – in

different play and creative activities. That way, diversities become invaluable sources of learning for

development. In accordance to ideas of Lev Vygotsky, creative activities are seen as drivers of future

development. Through improvisation, art performance and play, participants build mutual psychological

space – the zone of proximate development; group members present not only who they are but who they

are becoming.

Zdravo da ste approach to vulnerable groups and war-affected people initiated in 1994. during collective

disaster, has been transformed today in alternative work with vulnerable groups, youth and teachers in

Serbian education system. Creative and open-ended activities involved many thousands of participants

in joint process of building constructive response to crisis, poverty, alienation and lack of opportunities.

Transformation of play and interactive capacities are regarded as crucial for the overall revitalization

of human capabilities to create and recreate social environments and life practices – these are “hidden

treasures”, new tools for change, as said by the young participant.

Keywords: multi-leveled diversity, learning for development, play, performance, zone of proximate

development

DIALOGUE ABOUT THE PRINCIPLES OF PARTICIPATION IN

THE WORK WITH SENSITIVE GROUPS Day #2

24



Abstract:

PROBLEMS OF STIGMATIZATION OF MINORITY GROUPS IN

PARTICIPATIVE ART PROJECTS

Author:

Boris Čakširan

(ERGstatus, Belgrade, Sebia)

The anxiety of meeting up with a vulnerable group is based on realistic ground stemming from the

prejudices that have a long history as taboos, predominant in our region. Hiding these tabooed groups

and erasing them from the public space has created image of their small number, while statistics present

us with quite a different situation. This lack of knowledge and inability to meet members of vulnerable

groups in public have resulted in even stronger ring of stigma that leads these groups to ghettoization,

whilst creating their own culture and social patterns within each group. Any interference in this ghettoized

space can be experienced as usurpation, instead of the expression of need for communication. These

stigmas are so strong that some processes need more than 10 years to open closed culture boundaries;

to be involved and exposed into the public scene, and thus become a part of the culture of the wider

community. The questions arising from this are rather important for the process of de-stigmatization, in

which opening, inclusion and participation can be experienced as stigma by themselves, because of their

confusing messages. Questions such as these arise: why do processes and problems have to be opened

and presented in public space; what do one want; who are audiences and what is their motive; whether one

can partake and remain consistent in a group; can one return to the group if all fails; what is a success, etc.

One of the most important elements in the encounter and work with vulnerable groups is the building of

trust. What happened in many projects where the human factor was is denied was such that instead of the

open door, the door was slammed ever more stronger and louder in the face of project initiators. These

fears arising from distrust can permanently exclude individuals who were valuable individuals for the first

steps. To build a solid trust requires a long period, but also accurately selected and balanced steps that

demonstrate continuous and long-term investment in the processes of emancipation.

The elements of stability and solidity are also important in relation to group dynamics. The changes are

not welcome, and acquired rights are barely won. This default setting leaves little room for significant

changes. Minority groups are unsafe when one shows weakness and empathy. Many groups have adopted

forms of abuse and manipulation just by using their own stigmas. They also estimate one’s strength and

safety, i.e. in whose hands they put their hard-won security and stability. One faces a lot of important

elements and problems ahead, so the procedure of participation and inclusion is of great importance for

the realization of the first steps and gain of mutual respect and trust.

Finally one of the perhaps most important elements is the art itself. It is perhaps the first step and

therefore the biggest, strongest and least safe than all other steps.

Keywords: participation, stigma, inclusion, vulnerable group, ghettoization

25



Abstract:

THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN WORK WITH

POLITICAL ASYLANTS IN THE CENTER CIMADE

Author:

Richard Grolleau

(Compagnie Arti-Zanat, Serbia-France)

The presentation includes a review of the experience and methodology of work with vulnerable groups

through theatrical creative workshops with political asylants at the Association Cimade Center in France,

where the author has been working for three years. General principles in “workshops of artistic support,”

as the author calls them, will be exposed, in the attempt to explain how the distinct method adapts to

working with asylants. Within the project which Compagnie Arti-Zanat leads in the Center Cimade, a

number of activities including creative theater workshops for adults and theater workshops for children

and parents have been organized. At the beginning of the author’s work with asylants, it was evident

that the work within the art workshops in the integration process of asylants in a new society and a new

culture, is complementary to social work. Migrants who have left their country and family, sometimes also

a higher social status, are displaced from their midst and have to start all over again, get over what they

have lost, fit into a new culture and often learn a new language. The focus in working with this population

is providing support in the integration process, enabling everyone to maintain a connection with their

own culture. For the author workshops are a place where everyone can fully experience and express the

richness of their own culture, and at the same time, experience the culture of others.

The workshops usually develop using a generally well known theater play the author selects based on

themes and questions he considers important for the participants. This format allows the participants to

talk about topics that are close to them, but with detachment represented by the existing work of art.

During the creative process, the author examines with the participants how each of them can adopt the

selected work to find a personal connection with a certain dramatic situation, as well as the manner in

which the piece could be enriched by the culture of each participant. It is a way for each of them to express

the values of their own culture in the process of integration into a new society.

Keywords: political asylants, theater, integration, cultural diversity, community

2625



Abstract:

DRAMA AND CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: HELPING ABRAHAM

TO DEAL WITH LIFE

Author:

Tasos Angelopoulos, Ph.D. candidate

(Drama Department of AUTH, Thessaloniki, Greece)

The paper describes the writer’s experience working in Greek education system both as a drama and as

parallel support teacher for Abraham, a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It also presents the

complete psychokinetic program based on drama exercises and tools conducted in order for Abraham

to manage dealing with everyday matters (e.g. eating and playing with other children during the breaks,

reducing his normal aggression, finding a way to participate at the lesson etc.), recognizing simple

(relative to us) notions or school subjects (such as right-left, do-not to do, colors and numbers, letters

etc.) and, finally, getting better integrated into his classroom. The experience also includes the social

and psychological support provided through drama games with Abraham’s classmates, aiming to reduce

conflicts with and related to Abraham’s participation in a regular classes and to convince, through children,

the entire community (e.g. parents etc.) about the utility of his participation. The results of that program

allows the writer to claim that drama can make the difference both for the life of children with ASD and

for the community.

Keywords: autism, drama, integration, education system

27

The Maid Vanishes: Performing Gendered Citizenship

in the Context of Work-Related Migration

Silvija Jestrović, Ph.D.

(Warwick University, United Kingdom)

Theater on the Edge of its Autonomy

Vlatko Ilić, Ph.D.

(Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Theatre…

Aleksandra Jelić

(ApsArt, Belgrade, Serbia)

Ideology, Performance, Spectacle

(two case studies: Laibach and Let 3)

Dragana Kružić, Ph.D. candidate

(University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia)

Spoilsport: Irena Ristić, Ph.D. (Hop.La!/ Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

10.00 - 12.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT POLITICAL

NATURE OF PERFORMATIVE

DAY 3_25/09

27

DIALOGUE ABOUT THE POLITICAL NATURE OF THE PERFORMATIVE Day #3

Abstract:

THE MAID VANISHES: PERFORMING GENDERED CITIZENSHIP

IN THE CONTEXT OF WORK-RELATED MIGRATION

Author:

Silvija Jestrović, Ph.D.

(Warwick University, United Kingdom)

In this paper, the point of departure is the disappearance of an Indian woman, who worked as domestic

help for a Saudi family. They arrived together to the UK and took residence in Cryfield Cottages at Warwick

University, where the mother of the family was taking a postgraduate course. Around the same time, I,

too, moved to the UK and into the Cryfield Cottages to take up a new job at the Warwick University. The

Indian maid and I chatted one morning over laundry. Afterwards, I was thinking about the fact that we

both were migrants from different parts of the world, who came to the UK to work, yet even though we

lived next door, our experiences, legal rights and prospects, couldn’t be further apart. A few days later, she

disappeared. The Saudi family was not surprised as this apparently happens all the time with domestic

help in their circles. The police investigated for a short while before it was agreed that the maid had

slipped through the immigration net. My Practice as Research project, which I will present in this paper,

retraces the steps of this disappearance from the idyllic setting of Warwick University’s family housing

to Coventry Police Records (and beyond). In this actual and conceptual investigation of my neighbour’s

disappearance, I seek to engage with various aspects of her otherness on a deeper political, ethical, and

personal level, which I failed to do at the time the incident happened. My paper will contextualize the

PaR project within the existing scholarship on migrant labour and gender, as well as within the frames

of labour and immigration laws, in order to investigate how gendered performances of citizenship are

variously shaped and conditioned in the context of work-related migration through different socio-

economic circumstances and legal systems.

This paper is part of the UKIERI funded (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) project “Gendered

Citizenship: Manifestations and Performance”.

Key words: migrants, performance, gendered citizenship, otherness, PaR project

29


Abstract:

THEATER ON THE EDGE OF ITS AUTONOMY

Author:

Vlatko Ilić, Ph.D


The reflections on complex relations between arts and politics, which marked the 20th century, pointed

out two different orientations in terms of theatre arts, its practice and theory. On one hand, the desire to

incorporate arts in the social life, in the way that was articulated by the avant-garde movements at the

beginning of the last century, in the most radical cases led to decrease in art production – for instance,

in case of Situationist International and Guy Debord, or Sergei Tretyakov, or even Augusto Boal. While

on the other, during the period to which we refer to as to neo-avant-garde (due to the reaffirmation of

the category of autonomous art piece), focus of artists and theorists moved mainly towards the politics

of the artworld. Hence, one could conclude that the goal of revolutionizing social life though arts has

led to the revolutionizing of the field of arts itself. However, despite the popular belief that this sort

of development of creative practices throughout the last century could and should be understood as a

failure of avant-garde aspirations, they fundamentally altered the way in which we think theatre. During

the second half of the last century and the beginning of the 21st one, a lot of attention has been devoted

to the question of performativity (in a way in which this term was introduced by the feminist studies and

theory of culture /Butler/), in regards to the role of theatre arts in social life; even though we still lack

precise articulation of notions and thesis that would support a consistent theorization. That is why there

are significant differences among American performance studies for instance, Lehmann’s theory of post-

dramatic theatre and the easthetics of performative /Fischer-Lichte/. On top of that, the current social

conditions, generated by global market, additionally challenge the ways in which we think contemporary

theater. Hence, the questions we will address will deal with the status of arts, further on, the assumption

of its autonomy (by looking at it as a political project), as well as effects and domain of those critically

oriented theatrical practices.

Key words: arts, theater, politics, avant-garde, neo-avant-garde

3029

Abstract:

WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD THEATRE…

About the project “From Lawbreaking to Law Making” and the play “Prison Resort”

Author:

Aleksandra Jelić

(ApsArt, Belgrade, Serbia)

Each system is a prison, despite the existence of the theory of open systems. State is imprisons. School is imprisons.

The company is imprisons. How then do we observe actual prison as a detention institution? Prison is not an

image, but an icon of oppression. It is worshiped and served by its loyal employees, continuing a kind of religion to

surveillance and punish (Michel Foucault) that begins in a system of mandatory schooling, multiplied then, modify

and lives through other legitimate and accepted forms of government suppression and control, similar to prison

but named differently. What kind of theatre is possible in prison, and how is it possible at all? Is it only the kind

which supports and mimics the system of control and punishment? How to achieve the field of personal freedom?

In prison, everything is seen as currency for trade, blackmail or snitching, even the participation in drama workshop,

or text line in the performance. Was theatre performance “Prison Resort” based on prisoners’ testimonials and

performed by former convicts, a shock to the Serbian legal system, which responded by meta-theatrical act, but also

featuring real threats? The “Prison Resort” performance was created within the project “From Lawbreaking to Law

Making” implemented by the “ApsArt Centre for Theatre Research” in collaboration with two other organizations

– YUCOM and BG Centre for Human Rights. This is the first time in Serbia and the region that the modification

of legal acts in the legal system has tried to be carried out by the means of legislative theater – the heritage of

the Brazilian director Augusto Boal. Legislative theater is a kind of socially engaged theater which aims to give

opportunity to particular social group in order to help them affect the general and professional public, as well as the

executive authorities in a bid to improve their social position, and also gain certain changes or additions to certain

laws that defined their positions. With this pioneering project and the process that has included more than 1,000

convicts, audiences in five towns in Serbia, online community, many relevant stake holders, organizations and the

media, supported by the Ombudsman – the door of state legal system has been opened in a new way. Deep inside,

behind prison walls and bars, the concrete problems of convicts have been revealed by their words and their own

insights. These findings are transposed into performance, and subsequently into interaction with the audience that

has turned them out into concrete legislative proposals. The “Prison Resort” performance has raised numerous

questions in the community about the organization and functioning of the legal system, and it has touched finally

the extremely closed executive authorities of the legal system of Serbia. During the process, a number of obstacles,

simulations and manipulations made up part of the daily struggle with the executive authorities of the legal system.

The final outcome is that performance has banned in prisons by Directorate for Execution of Criminal Sanctions,

and the final implementation of the project has been disabled on a legal level as well. The theater was declared

dangerous, undesirable and as an element that can provoke riots. Especially, it was banned from giving a voice

to prisoners. Truthful theater, which occurs beyond the expected, permissible, acceptable, decent social context,

created by the living witnesses of injustice and oppression, is and should be a disturbing act for each individual

or system – phenomenon that does not allow injustice to hide, huts or be justified. Are we ready for this kind of

theatrical process as creators; where exactly, and under what conditions? Do we recognize the systems of control

– the censorship – the blackmails in other social contexts and what the theater has to do with that? Whether and

when the theater itself becomes part of social control?

Keywords: legislative theater, legal system, convicts, surveillance, social control


31

3231


Abstract:

IDEOLOGY, PERFORMANCE, SPECTACLE

(TWO CASE STUDIES: LAIBACH AND LET 3)

Author:

Dragana Kružić, Ph.D. candidate

(University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

With the advent of the New Wave, a rock movement in the 1980s on the territories of the former Yugoslavia,

new bands Let 3 and Laibach appeared. Their specific genre experiment and transgression of the genre

boundaries exclusively made them leave musical sphere of expression. They accepted conceptual

and performative form of presentation, indicating that the kind of subversion of political, cultural and

traditional moments, resulting in their discourse, is their basic, starting point in artistic creation.

Specific ways of media promotion in the society of the spectacle, indirect or direct interpretation of attitudes

on social issues through a process of transformation (transvestitism), highlighting masculinity, vulgar

rhetoric, ideological iconography, eclectic and appropriative access to their musical and performative

opus, confirms the authenticity of the artistic, powerful, intellectualized art concept bands Let 3 and

Laibach arising from culture and therefore presenting a product of cultural industry.

Adorno and Horkeheimer, members of the Frankfurt School, explain that the categories and the content

of cultural industry are actually the goal of liberalism and that the difference in the field of popular

culture are a way of preserving its state. Deviations and departures are mutations of the system itself.

That what deviates can only survive by getting classified. In other words, they do not make a complete

shift or even resist belonging to one cultural sphere. It serves them as a strong basis point where there is

a certain traditional layering of (moral) values and adds secondary vision to the “lack” of not belonging

to this sphere. The exploitation of religious, gender, ethnic or political issues leads to questioning of

traditional values of an ideological society and a system. Nietzsche pointed out the negative effects of

most social institutions, traditions and customs on the development and freedom of an individual. In

relation to morality he argues: “A free human being is (rated) immoral because in all matters it chose

to rely on itself and not on the (moral) tradition.” Methodological levels of verbal (lyrics) and nonverbal

(body) communication with the audience, their behavior on the stage, and particularly their vulgar

rhetoric (according to Barthes’ term grandiloquence- “excessive talking” of gestures, postures and the

body) indicate a high level of awareness to the approach of criticism to social reality.

33


This interpretation, suggests Fiske, claims that vulgar speech is an oral, opposite participatory culture,

that does not distinguish between performers and the audience. If the choice between euphemism and

disruption of linguistic and iconographic conventions made the two bands accept the latter, then such

rhetoric reversals and opportunities offered by these rhetorical games became their distinctive discursive

form.

Victor Turner connects performance, ritual and theater. He believes that play is the final completion of

an experience that emerges from what is usually closed in depths of socio-cultural life, inaccessible to

ordinary observation and reasoning. Through direct involvement in the execution of performance or in

its successive display through the media, the audience receives verbal, visual or musical “inputs”. They

contain a abundance of stratus denotations and connotations where the boundaries between fiction and

reality gradually dissolves and where a kind of an ideological ritual as a media event transfigures itself

into a spectacle.

If, due to the stimulus which offers the audience a lot of their musical and performative work, their artistic

creativity can be perceived as an interactive art, i.e. work whose constitutive aspect is the intervention of

recipient’s interaction with an appropriate technological system, then it can be perceived as an open work.

It is as such based on the interaction with the audience, who responds to a proposal offered by the artist,

and by their involvement is not exclusively in receptive completion of the work; rather with their behavior

and actions it is performing the work or participating in its completion.

Key words: ideology, performance, society of the spectacle

12.00 - 13.00

CONTEMPORARY IMPONDERABILIA:

WORKING BODY

33

Description:

CONTEMPORARY IMPONDERABILIA: Working Body

Author:

Maja Ćirić, Ph.D.

(Independent curator, Belgrade, Serbia)

Interpreted by:

Sandra Stojanović, M.F.A.

(Artist, Belgrade, Serbia)

Contributors:Annie Vigier and Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan), Parterre

Iva Kontić, AGIT-PROP-FLASH-MOB (or The Workers’ Dance into the Twilight)Karolina Kucia, PARASITE: A Performer, the Mental Hotel and Life in the Gallery. Notes

on Immaterial production depression and precarious laborRena Rädle & Vladan Jeremić, OUT Praxa & Red Winter

Jovana Stojanović, Little Wars

By the means of documentation (presentations, screenings and interviews), this session aims to establish

a link between the history of performance art and contemporary artistic production, as well as to discuss

its relationship to the socio-political moment. Inspired by the performance Imponderabilia (Marina

Abramovich/Ulay, 1977), in which the naked artists stood in the narrow entrance of the gallery space

facing each other and facing the audience with their own gaze, likewise today we reconsider the role of

art/artists in relation to the society.

Between proletariat and/or cognitariat, as a social coorporeality of cognitive work (F. Berardi: 2009), this

session examines the collective, individual, and non-anthropomorphic bodies.

If the performance Imponderablia opens the distance between the body of the artists and the audience; in

the performance Parterre, this distance is abolished, in a sense that the bodies of performers directly glide

over the audience. Agit-prop-FLASH-MOB (or The Workers’ dance at dusk) is inspired by the increasingly

popular phenomenon of collective dancing under the self-organized street protests. OUT Praxa and Red

Winter are two interventions from different spatio-temporal frameworks that link the withdrawal strategy

and non-attendance in order to constitute political bodies. PARASITE rexamines immaterial production,

depression and precarious work among the cultural workers. Small wars is a self-referential analysis of

diseases; an attempt to run the deconstruction of personal identity.

WORKSHOP Day #3

35

Self-consciousness and Drama in Education

Aleksandra Stojanović


Performing Practices in Digital Environment (case of virtual worlds)

Biljana Mitrović, Ph.D. candidate


Audience as Discursive Formation and the Failure of Socially Engaged Theatre

Goran Tomka, Ph.D. candidate

(Faculty for Sport and Tourism TIMS, Novi Sad, Serbia)

Contexts of Bitef Polyphony…and Not Just Polyphony

Ljubica Beljanski-Ristić

(Cedeum, Belgrade, Serbia)

Spoilsport: Vlatko Ilić, Ph.D. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

35

Self-consciousness and Drama in Education



Performing Practices in Digital Environment (case of virtual worlds)

Biljana Mitrović, Ph.D. candidate


Audience as Discursive Formation and the Failure of Socially Engaged Theatre


(Faculty for Sport and Tourism TIMS, Novi Sad, Serbia)

Contexts of Bitef Polyphony…and Not Just Polyphony

Ljubica Beljanski-Ristić

(Cedeum, Belgrade, Serbia)

Spoilsport: Vlatko Ilić, Ph.D. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

14.00 - 16.00

DIALOGUE ABOUT THEATRE

WITHIN THE CONTEXT #2


Abstract:

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND DRAMA IN EDUCATION

Author:



In a world in which technology development has reached such a rise that the Internet and all of the

technological resources enabling connection to the network create our reality, in a world in which it is

possible to require all the information we need, and much more just by clicking a button, what role does

classical education play in our lives? Is the position of the omniscient teacher and a student who should be

filled with knowledge sustainable in such a system? More importantly, can theatre play an important role

in such a system? What is its purpose and can it be used in education; can it help us in finding a compass

in the chaos that is the world that surrounds us?

In his book Education for critical consciousness Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher, highlights

the importance of critical thinking in education, as well as the need to use dialogue between the ones who

transfer knowledge and the ones who receive it, opposing it to the relationship of monologue and silence.

Even though Freire researched and dealt with a different kind of education, first and foremost teaching

the poorest citizens of Brazil how to read and write, his ideas of conscientization, exchange through

dialogue and encouragement of critical thinking are very relevant today.

The teacher-student relationship can be, as seen through the prism of Freire’s philosophy, the relationship

of the oppressor and the oppressed. Can the introduction of drama in education, that is to say the usage

of theatre with the function of learning, incitement to think critically and indulge in independent research,

change this dynamic that is still omnipresent in the educational system? Lead by contemporary discoveries

in psychology and pedagogy and by the idea that learning through play can have a high impact on

stimulating children and the youth to connect, develop and discover independently, this paper aims to

show how it is possible to connect ideas of conscientization (set by Freire while working with the poor

in Brazil) with the usage of drama in education in order to raise consciousness and stimulate the youth

to think critically. In this paper, an attempt has been made to transpose the term conscientization, which

Freire uses as more of a political term, to the feeling of consciousness that young people can develop while

learning and creating. This paper is the examination on of how drama, as a way of learning, can contribute

to raising of awareness and encouragement of students to be more independent, create stronger bonds

between classmates and make room for a higher degree of freedom in learning and investigating. Reasons

behind this experiment lay in the fact that the current education system is still set as a space of no

freedom, where students spend most of the classes sleeping, being bored or hating the teacher, because

they are still, in spite of development of the internet and the bigger accumulation of knowledge, seen as

passive and subordinate.

Keywords: theatre, education, consciousness, freedom, Freire

37 38

37


Abstract:

PERFORMING PRACTICES IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

(CASE OF VIRTUAL WORLDS)

Author:

Biljana Mitrović, Ph.D candidate


The aim of this paper is to present some of the performing practices represented in the digital environment,

focusing on those practices that are related to virtual worlds, especially in the context of MMORPG

video games (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). In virtual worlds, where a huge number

of players simultaneously access constructed environment using the concept of role-playing, specific

performative possibilities are present, in addition to playing games according to predefined rules or

following the fixed game narrative. These include gatherings focused on entertainment, social, political

objectives concerning the events and occurrence of a real, physical world, as well as the practice of

organization of conferences within the virtual environment, and attempts of creative (potentially artistic)

performative forms. In all these cases the presence of participants is provided by means of avatars, with

more or less present elements of role-playing, depending on the type and purpose of the gathering and

characteristics of particular virtual environments. In the proposed paper, these technological possibilities

and social and cultural (and political) practices are contextualized in accordance with Richard Schechner’s

observations on the relationship between play, games, sports, theater and ritual, whilst bearing in mind

the interactivity and the phenomenon that Erving Goffman has identified as focused gathering.

Key words: performance, virtual environment, MMORPG, presence, politics

38


Abstract:

AUDIENCE AS DISCURSIVE FORMATION AND THE FAILURE OF

SOCIALLY ENGAGED THEATRE

Author:


(Faculty for sport and tourism - TIMS, Novi Sad, Serbia)

Theatre audiences are traditionally understood as temporary social formations gathered around a

theatrical event; in other words, engaged in the practice of watching, experiencing or participating in

the theatrical oeuvre. At the same time, audiences can also be seen as discursive formations or socially

recognizable constructs used to describe and explain features of audience members as well as give

arguments for, or justify certain practices related to the audiences (e.g. seating arrangements, pricing

strategies, dramaturgical decisions and so on). They are produced through discursive practices (such

as acts of thinking, talking and writing) of theatre practitioners, critics, policy makers and particular

members of the audience. However, the boundary between these two practices – being an audience

member and talking about audience – is a blurred one, since one informs and shapes the other. Hence,

the production of discourses is embedded not only in the process of theatre production itself, but it also

defines the social and political aspects of the entire theatrical field.

Starting from this point, the presented research explores discourses on audiences in a particular cultural

institution. Student cultural center Novi Sad is taken as a case study as, amongst else, theatre production

house with an explicitly activist standpoint, with recent plays including To Kill Zoran Đinđić (Ubiti

Zorana Đinđića), Dogvil and Balerine. Research findings show that discourses are produced through the

interplay of institutional mission and culture, personal experiences of producers and selective and partial

information on actual audience experiences and behavior. However, since the entire inherited system

of theatre production is highly insensitive to the audience feedback (knowledge on and exposure to

the audiences is very weak), discourses on audiences are mostly projections of various personal and

institutional ideological standpoints. As a result, audiences members are portrayed as weak subjects

deprived of agency, which itself is contradictory to the emancipatory mission of the socially engaged

theatre. Based on the empirical findings, this paper suggests several conclusions. First, through their

discourses on audiences – and not only theatrical texts and events on stage – theatre practitioners are

producing (or approving) subjectivities that serve as desirable socio-psychological patterns of behavior.

Second, engaged theatre, one that inspires critical thinking and empowers political participation,

is possible only when audiences are treated as active subjects. Third, for such active agents to occur,

institutions have to expose themselves to differing audience experiences in order to deconstruct an image

of it as a passive social conglomerate.

Key words: theatre audience, discourse analysis, practice theory

39 40

39


Abstract:

CONTEXTS OF BITEF POLYPHONY… AND NOT JUST POLYPHONY

Author:

Ljubica Beljanski Ristić

(Founder of CEDEUM and BITEF Polyphony, Belgrade, Serbia)

How was the BITEF Polyphony created? In what context? How much has the context changed in the course

of 15 years? In what way has the presentation of Art for Social Changes – Play against Violence regional

programme within 34th BITEF in 2000, called Polyphony, responded to the contextual realities, and which

kind of mechanisms were developed by BITEF Polyphony, in the following years, to enable intervention in

the particular context, and all other contexts that existed and/or emerged? How has the BITEF Polyphony

managed to influence the context? And how have different contexts influenced the BITEF Polyphony?

What is the feedback of the BITEF Polyphony’s cyclic structures? How did they discover and develop

polyphonic approach as a distinctive sign, concept and value?

Through a review of the origin and development of the BITEF Polyphony, the author explores and reveals

mechanisms of social dependence of artistic, educational, and other program initiatives that pretain to be

activist, and to engage different stakeholders of the local community who foster dialogue, exchange of

experiences, mutual partnership and cooperation on a larger scale, especially in regional frames. At the

same time, the author opens a series of questions about the potentials and limitations of engagements

of stakeholders that directly or indirectly change the work circumstances. The author also touches upon

sustainability of the BITEF Polyphony as a program, given that it operates on the ground of insufficiently

known rules the world it created itself and which, in spite of all, continues to build.

Keywords: contextual realities, programme initiatives, developmental process, performing arts,

potentials

40

PARTICIPANTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

42

Aleksandra Jelić is a film and theatre director, and author of several award-winning documentaries,

theatre performances, music videos and commercials. She is founder of ApsArt Centre for Theatre

Research. Over the past eleven years her professional engagement has been mainly focused on

applied theatre. She has worked with children with learning disabilities, victims of family violence,

Roma people, prisoners, children with cancer, drug addicts, psychiatric patients, youth in detention

and other socially marginalized groups. She worked for six years in Serbian maximum security

prisons and has been pioneer in the field of prison art in Serbia. In 2009. she won the ERSTE

Award for Social Integration. In 2011. in Novi Beograd she founded a first Community Theatre in

Serbia, creative center for socially active citizens. Devoted to spreading applied theatre practice

and advocacy for right on arts.

Aleksandra Stojanović graduated Management and production of theatre, radio and culture at the

Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. During her studies she was a volunteer on numerous theatre

festivals and conferences, and she is currently working at DAH Theatre. She has participated in

a number of seminars and courses in Serbia and abroad, in which she worked on perfecting her

knowledge and skills. At the moment she is finishing her masters in Theory of dramatic arts and

the media at the Faculty of drama arts in Belgrade.

Ana Marjanovic-Shane is an Associate Professor of Education at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia,

PA /USA. She is developing a socio-cultural approach to education grounded in the key aspects of

creative activities: play and drama, imagination, and the arts. Strongly committed to developing

and promoting cultural historical approach to human development and education – an approach

based on an understanding that human development in all its fulness and complexity takes place

through unique and irreplaceable events in life in which people create relationships, exchange

and test their ideas and points of view, create multiple perspectives through participating in

meaningful practices.

Bojana Ivanov-Đorđević graduated from Teacher Training Faculty of Belgrade in 2007. She finished

the postgraduate studies of Theory of dramatic arts and media at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in

Belgrade, in 2013. She is founder and president of Edu-theater which brings together artists and

educators in the tasks of nurturing, developing and research of theatre culture, through theory

and practice dealing with puppetry, interactive and intercultural theater. She writes and works for

both theater and television. She is employed in National Theatre “Sterija” in Vrsac, as dramaturge.

She is mother of three children.

42

Bojana Skorc graduated from the Department of Psychology at Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade

in 1987. In 1992 she finished her master’s thesis and in 1999 she defended her PhD dissertation

in the field of dream psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. She is a lecturer in

Psychology and Psychology of Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts,

University of Montenegro and Faculty of Physics in Belgrade. She works as an educator in the field

of an alternative education. She is actively involved in the international network of psychological

associations, associations of the experimental and empirical aesthetics of art research.

Boris Čakširan is costume designer, scenographer, choreographer and director. Since 1996 he

is visiting choreographer at one of the most relevant schools for contemporary dancing in

Israel – MASPA (Mateh Asher School for Performing Arts). He established an international

educational project, ERGstatus in Belgrade, 1998, with the intention to educate young dancers and

choreographers, by bringing famous choreographers and pedagogues on our artistic scene. He

is artistic director of Off Frame festival and ERGstatus Dance Theatre. He won numerous awards

and prizes for costumes and design of puppets. Among other awards one stands out – third place

and UBUS medal won on Festival of Choreographic Miniatures in May 2000.

Dragana Kružić graduated painting at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka in prof Emilija

Duparova’s class. She is enrolled in doctoral study of Theory of art and media at the University of

Arts in Belgrade, in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. She has received numerous accolades,

scholarships and awards, among which, the Rector’s Award for Excellence. She exhibited in

approx. seventy solo and group, national and international shows (MC Gallery – New York , MMCA

– Rijeka , Rookie Gallery – Graz, UNICUM – Maribor , CVU Batana – Rovinj , 46th Zagreb Salon

– Glyptotheque Zagreb , Diocletian’s Palace – Split , MMC , MMC – Umag , the World Biennial of

Student Photography ” Spens – Novi Sad).

Eugene Matusov is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. He was

born in the Soviet Union. He studied developmental psychology with Soviet researchers working

in the Vygotskian paradigm and worked as a school teacher before immigrating to the United

States. He uses sociocultural and Bakhtinian dialogic approaches to education, which he views as

transformation of participation in a sociocultural practice.

Goran Tomka is a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Sport and Tourism from Novi Sad, and

UNESCO Chair in cultural policy and management from Belgrade, Serbia. He is a PhD student at

the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade. His main research interest is cultural participation and the

ways it is shaped by cultural policy and arts management. He has also been active as a trainer,

activist and cultural manager working for several cultural organizations in Novi Sad, Belgrade

and Berlin, and giving workshops and leading seminars to numerous activists and cultural

professionals in Armenia, Bosnia, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Serbia and Slovenia.

43

Janko Ljumović has a Master degree in Dramatic Arts and is currently holding a position of

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje (Theatre production, Contemporary

art production and Creative industries). He graduated from his B.F.A and M.F.A at the Faculty of

Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Participated in numerous national and international conferences and

projects in the field of cultural policy, dramatic arts and management in culture and media. Author

and editor of five book and publications: Culture Page, Production of meaning, Start-up Creative

Podgorica, Platforma for new scope of the iGrad project at the park. Head of the Montenegrin

National Theatre since April 2008.

44

43

Karolina Spaić is director and artistic director of ZID Theater. She followed a training in classical

ballet, studied literature, and made her first steps onto the stage in “Škozorište”, that was

led by Ljubica Beljanski Ristić in her native city, Belgrade. After that she graduated from the

International Theatre Department at the Arts Academy (HKU) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in

1988. She has directed many performances since then, in which she combines elements from a

variety of disciplines: physical theatre, performance art and various media. From 1995 until 2005,

she took part in a specialisation study in theatre anthropology at the International School of

Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) under Eugenio Barba, in Denmark. Theatre anthropology explores

both non-western and western styles of physical theatre and dance styles. Ms. Spaic has published

articles in several countries and her texts have been included in a number of books. In 1992,

she established ZID Theater, where she directed all the performances and worked together with

actor Sebo Bakker. To them, the word ZID (in Serbian ‘the wall’) means: breaking through and

tearing down the walls between people by means of theatre. Many of the performances were

internationally acclaimed at various theatre festivals in the Netherlands and abroad. ZID Theater

has performed from the USA to Russia, Colombia, Morocco and many European countries. Since

2003, ZID is based in its own venue in Amsterdam. Since then ZID has been creating performances,

producing festivals and has been active in the field of community art, cultural education and

cultural participation. In 2011, ZID was awarded the prestigious ‘Apple of Orange award from the

Oranje Fonds (A Dutch Royal Foundation). From its home base in Amsterdam, Spaić operates with

ZID on the regional, national and international level.

Lazar Jovanov graduated acting in 2008. from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, and two years

later he graduated at the Faculty of Management (Department of Management in the media). In

2015 he received his PhD degree from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, with the theme:

“Theatre city as a dynamic model of the development of social-cultural capital of the cities in the

former Yugoslavia”. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Faculty of Media and Communications at the

Singidunum University, on the courses of Cultural Policy and Cultural Management. As an actor,

Lazar is starring in plays of KPGT Theatre, Terazije Theatre, Madlenianum, Mostar Youth Theatre,

Theatre Bora Stankovic from Vranje, with several roles in Serbian National Theater, in addition.

Ljubica Beljanski – Ristić graduated Yugoslav literature and the Serbo-Croatian language from

the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Since 1977 she had worked in the Cultural Centre “Stari

grad”, where she has initiated the innovative, creative and interactive programs and workshops

for children and youth, gathering and providing support to young professionals and artists to

educate through practice and practical research projects, This way she has created a base for

creative education, and implementation of drama in education (Drama Studio “Škozorište” Studio

of creative education “Školigrica” …). In 1999 she founded the Center for Drama in Education and

Art CEDEUM which became a National Centre for the Drama in Education within IDEA. She leads

the national projects and participates in international projects, conducts numerous seminars and

workshops targeting teachers and artists. She was a member of the committee for educational

reform, for development of education strategy and the strategy of culture in the field of intersectoral

cooperation. She advocates for the drama methodology and its application in education system.

She designed the concept of Bitef Polyphony in 2000, and she lead the program till 2014. After

fifteen years of her editorial engagement, Bitef Poliphony became important sustainable side

program of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival BITEF.

44

Maja Ćirić (1977) is an independent curator. Short selection of recent exhibitions: Displacement of

All Places, UQBAR, Berlin(2015); Stone, Wood and Paradise Syndrome, 1933 Contemporary gallery,

Shanghai, China (2014); We’re Everything to Each Other, Lanchester Gallery Projects, Coventry,

Great Britain (2013); 0.1: Yet Another Effort to Understand if it Really Emerged from Now Here,

Open Space Open Systems, Vienna, Austria (2012); The Power to Host, ISCP, Brooklyn, New York,

USA (2011). Her texts on curating and art criticism are published in Sternberg Press i Blackdog

Publishers editions, OnCurating and Flash Art International.

Marko Pejović is a psychologist, art theoretician and theater practitioner. He is the author of

several projects featuring artists and members of various marginalized groups. He is the author

of plays The Death and Life of Experimental Bunnies (special recognition of the Association of

Playwrights of Serbia) and Dora’s Land of Oz (produced by the Mostar Puppet Theatre as part of

its 60th anniversary). He was the dramaturge for several dance productions: A Curve for Gauss,

Reset (received the INFANT 2010 award), Thanatos, Dogs… He is a co-author of the play Silence,

and Aphanisis or about Cross-dressing. He is the executive director of the Festival of socially

engaged theatre Off Frame/Van okvira, organized by Group „Let’s…“.

Paul Murray is director of the Belgrade English Language Youth Theatre (BEL). He has worked

through the U.K. Europe and internationally as an actor, director, professor and art consultant. As

well as being director of the school, Paul is active within a number of other organisations, he is

guest professor at several academies and has published a number of articles on the subjects of

theatre, education and theatre and development.

Richard Grolleau is an actor and director. He attended acting school of Pierre Debauche in Paris

from 1991 to 1994. Since then he cooperates with a number of directors of the independent theater

companies. In 2008, he attended school for art therapy INECAT in Paris, where he currently works as

an educator and dramatherapist. He founded the association Compagnie Arti-Zanat in which he leads

workshops of artistic support to vulnerable groups (persons with disabilities, children without parental

care, asylum seekers), in France as well as in Serbia (association of users of psychiatric services “Duša”,

the Center for support to young people who live with HIV-AS), creating its own performances.

Sean Aita is Associate Professor – Theatre at the Arts University at Bournemouth. He is trained

originally as a classical actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and performed professionally in a

wide range of genres on stage, film, television, and radio. He is an award winning theatre director and

playwright, and is interested in cross disciplinary performance models. PSean moved into directing

by observing/assisting at the Royal Opera House, and English National Opera before starting his own

company Animus in London. He became Associate Director at the Royal Theatre Northampton, where

he won the Checkout Theatre award for his play Yallery Brown, co-produced with Forkbeard Fantasy

which subsequently transferred to Greenwich Theatre. He has had a twenty five year association with

Vienna’s English Theatre in Austria where he has written, adapted and directed work seen by over

100,000 young people each year. As artistic director of regional touring theatre company Forest Forge,

Sean’s work was short-listed for the Stage Award for Achievement in Regional Theatre, for his season

of productions in 2005/06. At Forest Forge Sean produced the company’s first ever international

co-production with Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador commissioning award winning writers

Nell Leyshon and Robert Chafe. As a writer Sean’s play Bin-it won the live event category of the

2009 International Visual Communications Association Clarion awards recognising best practice in

communicating the importance of CSR, sustainable development, social inclusion and ethical debate.

4645

Silvija Jestrović studied playwriting and dramaturgy at the University of Belgrade (1989–1992)

and completed her postgraduate studies at the University of Toronto in 2002. From 1990 to

1996 she was a freelance playwright, dramaturge and journalist. Before coming to Warwick in

2005, Silvija was SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer at York University in Toronto. Whilst

at Warwick she has designed modules that address her interest in performance and exile, avant-

garde theatre, playwriting, and theatre and performance theory. Research interest are: exilic

theatre and performance, citizesnhip, gender and labour migration, contemporary urban and

political performances, performances of the cultural Left, avant-garde theatre and performance,

and culture of the Balkans.*

Tasos Angelopoulos is Ph.D. student at the Drama Department AUTH (MA in Sociology , BA

in Drama Department AUTH, BA in Law AUTH), born and lives in Thessaloniki. He is director,

Drama in Education teacher and Adjunct Lecturer at the Drama Department AUTH. From 2011

he coordinates Theatre Company “Papalangki”/theatre outside theatre. Performances in public

spaces: Dear Dad, by Milena Bogavac, The Golden City, by Danae Tanidou and himself, Hunting

Scenes from Bavaria, by Martin Sperr. Performances into school classrooms: The story of Victor

and Mary, Dombre Den, Goodnight Mr. Bear and I am (not) the cool guy, in his text.

Vera Večanski graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where she completed MA

studies in the field of drawing as well. She participated in numerous exhibitions in the country

and abroad. Simultaneously with the artistic activity, she works as a teacher of art education at

the Teacher Education Faculty in Belgrade. In the moment she is completing doctoral studies in

the field of methodology of teaching the fine arts culture. Also she participates actively in art

education projects for preschool and school age children, as author, contributor and implementer,

in various cultural institutions (Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Children’s Cultural

Centre of Belgrade, Children’s Department of Belgrade City Library etc.).

Vlado Krušić jis a drama pedagogue and theatre director from Croatia. Since 1988, he was the

head of the Educational Department of the Zagreb Youth Theatre, and since 2008 he is the head

of the Youth Theatre Studio of the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin. In 1996 he founded the

Croatian Centre for Drama Education, and is actually its president. From 2004 to 2010 he was

president of the General Assembly of the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association

(IDEA). He has led over 150 seminars, workshops and conferences in the field of drama and theatre

education. Since 2000 he occasionally taught drama pedagogy to students of social work and of

Croatian studies at the University of Zagreb as well as to students in teacher training college in

Petrinja, and now he is teaching at the Zagreb Faculty of Teacher Education – Department in

Čakovec. In 2012 he defended his doctoral thesis Paradigms of modern Croatian drama pedagogy.

4645

Vlatko Ilic is a theatre director and arts and media theoretician. Since 1999 till 2001 he attended

Lester B. Pearson UWC College of the Pacific, Victoria, Canada, for which he was awarded a

scholarship from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). Since 2001 till 2009 he

was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia. Since 2009

till 2011 he was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Technology of RS. In

2010 he completed his interdisciplinary PhD studies at the Department for Theory of Arts and

Media, the University of Arts in Belgrade. Ilić is active in the fields of contemporary theatre, its

theory and artistic education. He was awarded the special prize for directing at the 52nd Sterijino

Pozorje theatre festival (2007), his book An Introduction to New Theory of Theatre (Nolit/Altera,

Belgrade) came out in 2011, and he is currently teaching at The Faculty of Dramatic Arts Belgrade

and Faculty of Arts, UDG (Podgorica, Montenegro).

Zvonimir Peranić works on Collegium Fluminense Polytechnic of Rijeka teaching Physics and

Mathematic courses. He has a degree in Mathematic and physic – Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka,

Croatia. He has Master of Science degree in Science education – physic – Faculty of Natural

Sciences, Mathematics and Kinesiology in Split, Croatia. He finished MAPA – Moving Academy for

Performing Arts from Netherlands, in Czecs Republic, and in GITIS – Russian Theatre Academy,

Moscow, he specialized Meyerhold Biomechanics by Gennady Bogdanov. He is a founder of the

Rubikon Theatre (1995.) He participated in more then 40 festivals, and more than 40 theatre

productions. Work of The Rubicon Theatre is based on the principles of established theories such

as the theory of relativity, quantum physics and theory of chaos in particular, applied on the

theatre directing and dramaturgy. His performances are based on body language (biomechanics,

physical theatre and corporal mime) and objects in space (visual theatre).

47 48

Biljana Mitrović is PhD candidate in Theory of Dramatic Arts, Media and Culture (Faculty of

Dramatic Arts, University of Arts, Belgrade). She graduated from the Faculty of Philology

University of Belgrade, department of Serbian Literature and Language & World Literature and

holds M.A. in Philology. She was visiting lecturer in game studies (University of Skövde, Sweden,

2014). She participated in several national and international academic conferences in Serbia and

abroad (Lisbon, Prague, Cluj-Napoca, Utrecht…). She is author and co-author of papers published

in proceedings and in special editions of Institute for Balkanology (SASA).

47

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

48

Milena Dragićević Šešić, Ph.D. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia)

Ana Marjanović-Shane, Ph.D. (Chestnut College Pennsylvania, USA)

Silvija Jestrović, Ph.D. (University of Warwick, UK)

Janko Ljumović, M.A. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro)

Irena Ristić, Ph.D. committee president (Hop.La! & Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Michal Babiak, Ph.D. (Faculty of Philosophy, Bratislava, Slovakia)

Ljubica Beljanski-Ristić, drama pedagogue (founder of Cedeum and Bitef Poliphony, Belgrade,

Serbia)

Boris Čakširan, director, choreographer and costume designer (ERGstatus, Belgrade, Serbia)

Vlatko Ilić, Ph.D. (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Vlado Krušić, Ph.D. (Croatian Centre for Drama Education - HCDO, Croatia)

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE

Sandra Stojanović (Hop.La! Belgrade, Serbia)

Vlatko Ilić (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

Irena Ristić (Hop.La! & Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, Serbia)

CONTACT

pozoristeukontekstu.wordpress.com

[email protected]

+381 (64) 4247767

na svetloj podlozi:

na crnoj/tamnoj/tamno šarenoj podlozi:

ili

The symposium is organized by Hop.La! as a part of 16th Bitef Polyphony, in cooperation with CEDEUM,

Centre for Drama in Arts and Education, Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, and UNESCO Chair in

cultural Policy and Management, University of Arts in Belgrade, and with the support from the Ministry of

Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

Documents

THEATRE WITHIN THE CONTEXT Book of abstracts