Conferences

Conferences

GROTOWSKI AND KANTOR: TWO ARTISTS OF THE NIGHT

George Banu (ROU/FRA)

The year 2009 was proclaimed by UNESCO the Grotowski Year in order to celebrate fifty years from the creation of the famous Laboratory Theatre and ten years from the passing away of the great theatre man. George Banu, who knew him and who published his last book, as well as the book Peter Brook recently dedicated to him, suggests a poetic reflection on Grotowski from the standpoint of the night, which was his ruling working environment. Here, in Sibiu, with "Rosmersholm", the Romanian theatre discovered Aureliu Manea, our great nocturnal grotowskian.

Tadeusz Kantor laid his theatre of death under the sign of the night, a night of war and darkness, a night of ghosts who find themselves in a grotesque dance under the wand of the one who brings them back to life, the demonical master, Kantor himself.

THE REHEARSALS: BETWEEN LABORATORY, WORKSHOP AND PLANT

George Banu (ROU/FRA)

On the occasion of the launch by Nemira Publishing House of the collective volume dedicated to "Rehearsals", with the support of Sibiu International Theatre Festival, George Banu suggests an analysis from the standpoint of the various techniques used by directors, contingent of the aesthetics embraced and the circumstances of the performance production. "Tell me how you rehearse and I will tell you what you aim for". The rehearsals - a practice and a horizon! The rehearsals, a group self-portrait of the director at work! The rehearsals, from "A Midsummernight's Dream" by William Shakespeare to "After the Rehearsal" by Bergmann, are the secret novel of the theatre.

Presentation: LANSMAN PUBLISHING HOUSE

Emile Lansman (BEL)

In 1989, when he launched a theatre publishing house in Belgium, Emile Lansman did not even imagine that twenty years later in the catalogue of his publishing house would stand over seven hundred works by francophone authors from all over the world: from Europe to North America and from Africa to the Caribbean.

During a conference, Emile Lansman will recall his journey, his choices, his enthusiasm, his countless collaborations, as well as his ties with the theatrical education and his battle for the recognition of contemporary theatre as literature in its own right.

NARRATIVES OF DESIRE

Mike Phillips (GBR)

The accession of several new states within the European Union also constructed a new site for the creative imagination, because the history of the 'new' Europe represents, among other things, a decisive confrontation with another persistent narrative about a binary Europe - East and West. During the 20th century the central focus of the artistic creativity about 'Eastern Europe' in the 'West' more or less became an offshoot of the Cold War atmosphere and environment, spawning a variety of stereotypes and polemics.  The current struggle of Anglophone art is to discover new platforms from which to explore the process by which a new European identity is coming into being.  The rubric of cultural diversity offers at least one useful avenue of approach to understanding this process.   On the other hand, specific countries are engaged in another process of struggling to understand and come to terms with their own specific past.  The result is an extraordinary and multi-faceted conversation about identity.  

Dr Mike Phillips will discuss some aspects of portraying the 'East' in the literature and theatre of the 'West', outline the nature of the present dialogue, and argue that the present moment offers European art and culture a unique opportunity.

PLAY DEVELOPEMENT - FROM PAGE TO STAGE TO TV / FILM

Saviana Stănescu (ROU), Amy Handelsman (USA), Caroline McGee (USA)

Presentation: ALTERNATIVES THÉATRALES MAGAZINE - A CONDENSED HISTORY OF MODERNITY: MILESTONES, HEROES, THEMES

Bernard Debroux (BEL) & George Banu (ROU/FRA)

EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE

Jonathan Mills - Director of Edinburgh International Festival (GBR)

Horia Roman Patapievici - President of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ROU)

Theodor Paleologu- Minister of Culture, Religious Affairs and National Heritage (ROU)

OUR 1989, THEIR 2009

Mircea Dinescu (ROU)

EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE

Andriy Zholdak (UKR) & Dragoş Buhagiar (ROU)

GREAT FOREIGN WRITERS IN THE COLLECTION „dENISA'S SHELF", HUMANITAS FICTION PUBLISHING HOUSE

Denisa Comănescu - general manager of Humanitas Fiction Publishing House (ROU)

The Metamorphosis of the Comic - with and without the Mask: Kyôgen, Commedia Dell´Arte and the Art of Clown

Stanca Scholz - Cionca (GER)