Temporal Communities and Digitality

A series of events organised by Doris Kolesch and Kai Padberg of Research Area 2 “Travelling Matters” at EXC 2020.

Livestream: https://fu-berlin.eu.vbrickrev.com/#/webcasts/theatreduringthepandemic2

Note: In order to log in to the livestream, non-members of Freie Universität Berlin will have to provide a name and an e-mail address. The data will not be saved.
The second event within our series is an online talk with:

Anna Lewanowicz (Head of International Development at STUDIO teatrgaleria in Warsaw, Poland)
Head of International Development at STUDIO teatrgaleria in Warsaw, where she – as a response to lockdown – initiated and leads “Virtual Workspaces” – a platform dedicated to creative and reflective encounters for international artists.
Her previous roles and involvement include among others: Deputy Director at the National Stary Theatre in Krakow; Director of the international performing arts festival ‘Krakow Theatrical Reminiscences’; launching and co- leading “Brave Festival- – Against Cultural Exile’”, dedicated to forgotten cultures and people; Initiator, organiser and partner of numerous – mainly international – educational projects for artists from theatre and dance field.

Grzegorz Jarzyna (Artistic director of TR Warszawa, Poland)
Since his debut in 1997, Grzegorz Jarzyna has been one of the most important theatre directors in Poland. His work revolutionized the Polish theatre and gained wide international recognition. He is the director and artistic director of the Teatr Rozmaitości (TR Warsaw) in Warsaw, which gained international fame under his leadership. In 2007 he received the Austrian Nestroy-Theater Prize in the “Director” category for his production of Medea at the Vienna Burgtheater. Jarzyna’s current production at TR Warsaw “2020: Tempest” is based on The Tempest by William Shakespeare and deals with the question of artificial intelligence. The piece premiered on October 20, 2020 and is currently streamed as a live stream on the TR Warsaw website.

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch (Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin)

It was the middle of March 2020 when Germany went into lockdown. Back then, there had already been a curfew in Wuhan, China, for several weeks. In many other countries in Europe and worldwide, public life was abruptly shut down. The consequences for the cultural sector have been dire everywhere. All over the world, theatres have had to shut down unexpectedly and most remain closed. Schedules have been cancelled. Professional existences are endangered. At the same time, public and cultural life has shifted to the digital sphere. Many theatres and artists are using this way to stay in touch with their audiences and are exploring digital spaces more than ever before. But what forms of community-building are even remotely possible for theatre and the performing arts? What is the character of the relation between local institutions and these transnational spaces, which might open up and expand while national borders remain closed? What does it mean for artistic practice if humans assemble as a virtual audience while being physically alone in their respective homes? In what ways will the pandemic change theatre? What will digital assemblies mean for theatres after the pandemic?

In the series of events entitled “Temporal Communities and Digitality – Theatre During the Pandemic”, theatre directors, theatre artists and scholars from Brazil, Japan, Poland and Germany will report on the practical effects on theatre operations and their work. They will examine the various strategies with which stage and theatre creators have reacted to this situation, online and offline. Together with researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective”, they will discuss how the global crisis of the theatre has created new temporal communities and to what extent these are created under the conditions of digitality.

This event is part of our series “Temporal Communities and Digitality – Theatre During the Pandemic”.

Teilnahme: Bitte per E-Mail an j.koenig2@fu-berlin.de. Die Veranstaltung wird zusätzlich als Livestream übertragen. Eintritt frei.