International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra and the V4@Theatre Critics Residency project invite you to the next two project events!
Their theme will be “Theatre and Crisis”, and they will focus on the current state of theatre at the time of war. In the first block, Croatian theatre expert Darko Lukić will present his masterclass “Crisis, Fragility and Vulnerability; Writing on war trauma theatre”, in the second block, we will discuss the current situation in Ukraine with Ukrainian artists Sashko Brama, Liuda Batalova, and Maria Yasinska.
Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute is a partner of the V4@Theatre Critics Residency.
Both events will be held in English, duration: 90 min.
Lecture/Masterclass 29 November, 18:00
Crisis, Fragility and Vulnerability; Writing on War Trauma Theatre
Lecturer: Prof. Darko Lukić PhD
Theatre cultures threatened by war face the crisis in many different ways. War trauma appears in theatre as a topic directly or indirectly in many forms of memory, political, documentary, historical, engaged, or performative activism. Ill-fated events worldwide constantly bring new topics and alternatives of war trauma in art and culture. Contemporary European theatre experiences witnessed many theatrical projects on the Great War, World War 2, Shoah, the Balkan War, and, most recently, the war in Ukraine. One of the challenges for theatre artists and critics addressing such performances is to understand the specific aspects of war trauma experience and their (re)presentation.
The lecture will address some of the most significant examples of war trauma theatre, the critical theoretical approaches and the methodologies used in war trauma theatre, to touch upon the following critical topics: Is it possible to perform war trauma? How do artists navigate through the facts and the imagination? How do we distinguish war propaganda from war trauma witnessing? What are the victimhood narratives in theatre? How can we be critical and objective in the context of transitional justice? What are the most important ethical questions in such performances?
Prof. Darko Lukić PhD is theatre scholar from Croatia, living in Germany and working around Europe. As an academic, he was a tenured professor at Academy of the Drama Arts University of Zagreb, visiting professor at Faculty of Philosophy University of Zagreb – doctoral studies of theatre, film, literature and culture, and visiting professor at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria) – Institut für Slawistik. As theatre scholar and dramaturge, he also worked in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Monte Negro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, USA, United Kingdom, and Venezuela. Among many published pieces of research in drama and theatre, he is author of the books The War Trauma Drama, theatre in its Environment 1 – The Theatre Identities, Theatre in its Environment 2 – The Inter-medial and Intercultural Theatre, Introduction on Theatre Anthropology and “Introduction on Applied Theatre.
Meeting ID: 817 6432 5337
Passcode: 490023
Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81764325337?pwd=aTdMV0l4bGg1ZXZWd0tiWGhGZ3hOZz09
Dicussion, 6 December, 18:00
Guests: Sashko Brama, Liuda Batalova, Maria Yasinska
Host: Tamara Vajdíková
After the launch of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the group WE: media theatre – Sashko Brama, Maria Yasinska and Liuda Batalova, that hitherto focused on contemporary theatre practices on a documentary basis, plunged into documenting the war and collecting testimonies. Thus emerged the project Chronicles of War, Hatred and Love to record the history of the drama in Ukraine through the testimonies of different people. It was presented at the International Festival Divadelná Nitra in 2022.
What has changed in this past (more than a) year? Does the project still continue? What is the situation like for film and theatre makers in Ukraine now? Those and many other questions will be asked at our discussion with Sashko Brama, Liuda Batalova and Maria Yasinska as a part of this year’s edition of V4@Theatre Critics Residency project on 6 December at 18:00.
Sashko Brama is theatre and documentary film director and videographer. Originator and co-founder of the art group WE: media theatre. Since 2012, he has been developing theatre projects based on his own documentary research. He has participated at a range of international theatre festivals, such as Radikal Jung (Germany), Stückemarkt des Berliner Theatretreffens (Germany), International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra (Slovakia), Maribor Theatre Festival (Slovenia), Urbäng! (Germany). In 2023 he made his debut as a documentary film director and director of photography with the short film WE made within part of the Indie Lab’s Filmmaking Laboratory for Young Artists, and with the film No Classes Today and Tomorrow made in collaboration with the German-language media NZZ Format.
Liuda Batalova is cultural manager and producer. In 2020 she graduated in cultural studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University. She is one of the co-founders of the art group WE: media theatre. As reporter and manager she participated in [WE] project, a documentary study of the social dimension of the pandemic. She is producer, co-author, and co-director of the multimedia performance Chronicles of War, Love and Hate that featured at the International Festival Divadelná Nitra (Slovakia) and at the festival Urbäng! (Germany). As grant manager she oversaw a series of reports on the events of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine which were supported by the Renaissance Foundation, Internews and Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. In 2023, she participated in the One World Media’s Global Short Doc Forum as a producer of the film No Classes Today and Tomorrow. The film was made in cooperation with the German-language media NZZ Format. She is also the executive producer of the short documentary film WE.
Maria Yasinska is theatre and film producer, theatre publicist, documentarist and translator from Polish. She was co-author, producer and documentarist in the project [WE] which she produced together with the team of WE: media theatre. The project addresses the social dimension of the pandemic. She also worked as a drama author and director responsible for interactions with actors in the eponymous theatre project. She is also producer and co-author of a report series about the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (in cooperation with OKO.press, Poland), co-author of the post-documentary theatre project Chronicles of War, Love and Hate that featured at the International Festival Divadelná Nitra (Slovakia) and the festival Urbäng! (Germany). She is general producer of the short documentary film WE made within the 2023 INDIE LAB Filmmaking Laboratory for Young Artists.
Meeting ID: 893 8066 1138
Passcode: 988842
Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89380661138?pwd=UzlOU0tYZk1YQTVvNFdOZlJ0S0t0dz09
