The Ritual Theatre Of Theodoros Terzopoulos

The Ritual Theatre of Theodoros Terzopoulos outlines the story of the Athenian-based Attis Theatre and the way its founder and director, Theodoros Terzopoulos, introduced bio-energetic presences of the body on the stage, in an attempt to redefine and reappraise what it means today not only to have a body, but to fully be a body. Terzopoulos created a very specific attitude towards life and death, and it is this broad perspective on energy and consciousness that makes his work so appealing both to a general public and to students of arts, theatre and drama. Freddy Decreus’ study charts the career of Greece’s most acclaimed theatre director and provides a spiritual and philosophic answer in times where former Western meta-narratives have failed.

On September 23 and 24, 2011, a group of scholars and practitioners from different fields and parts of the world assembled at the Greek Cultural Foundation in Berlin to discuss aspects of Terzopoulos'theatre related to its Dionysian qualities. Scholars of theatre studies, classical studies, psychoanalysis, psycho- and neurolinguistics met with writers, dramaturges, directors, and actors to share their views on the particularity of Terzopoulos' theatre. The symposium was held in his honor. With contributions from: Etel Adnan | Konstantinos I. Arvanitakis | Penelope Chatzidimitriou | Alexander Chepurov | Freddy Decreus | Matthias Dreyer | Erika Fischer-Lichte | Gonia Jarema | Kerem Karaboga | Frank M. Raddatz | Georgios Sampatakakis | Savvas Stroumpos | Dimitris Tsatsoulis | David Wiles

This book collects the contributions to the international conference on the theater of Greek director Theodoros Terzopoulos, held in Delphi, Greece, in 2018. Terzopoulos, who developed an internationally acclaimed contemporary form of ancient theater with his own method, has made a deep impact with his work on both theater theory and practice as well as on the research of its foundations in different cultures. Contributors include Hélène Ahrweiler | Afroditi Panagiotakou | Erika Fischer-Lichte | Etel Adnan | Anatoly Vasiliev | Eugenio Barba | Freddy Decreus | Frank Raddatz | Dikmen Gürün | Vasilis Papavasileiou | Eleni Varopoulou | Daniel Wetzel | Jaroslaw Fret | Blanka Zizka | Maria Marangou | Kalliope Lemos | Konstantinos Arvanitakis | Gonia Jarema | Dimitris Tsatsoulis | Savas Patsalidis | George Sampatakakis | Penelope Chatzidimitriou | Despoina Bebedeli | Tasos Dimas | Savvas Stroumpos | Avra Sidiropoulou | Johanna Weber | Panagiotis Velianitis | Ileiana Dimadi | Kim Jae Kyoung | Sophia Hill | Aglaia Pappa | Dimitris Tiliakos | Marika Thomadaki | Niovi Charalambous | Özlem Hemiș Katerina Arvaniti | Paolo Musio | Kerem Karaboga | Yiling Tsai | Lin Chien-Lang | Justin Jain | Li Yadi | Przemyslaw Blaszczak | Mikhail Sokolov | Rustem Begenov | Juan Esteban Echeverri Arango

Entangled Performance Histories is the first book-length study that applies the concept of "entangled histories" as a new paradigm in the field of theater and performance historiography. "Entangled histories" denotes the interconnectedness of multiple histories that cannot be addressed within national frameworks. The concept refers to interconnected pasts, in which historical processes of contact and exchange between performance cultures affected all involved. Presenting case studies from across the world—spanning Africa, the Arab-speaking world, Asia, the Americas and Europe—the book’s contributors systematically expand, exemplify and examine the concept of "entangled histories," thus introducing various innovative concepts, theories and methodologies for investigating reciprocally consequential processes of interweaving performance cultures from the past. Bringing together examples of entanglements in theater and performance histories from a broad variety of geographical and historical backgrounds, the book’s contributions build together a broad basis for a possible and necessary paradigmatic shift in the field of theater and performance historiography. Ideal for researchers and students of history, theater, performance, drama and dance, this volume opens novel perspectives on the possibilities and challenges of investigating the entangled histories of theater and performance cultures on a global scale.

Theater requires artifice, justice demands truth. Are these demands as irreconcilable as the pejorative term “show trials” suggests? After the Second World War, canonical directors and playwrights sought to claim a new public role for theater by restaging the era’s great trials as shows. The Nuremberg trials, the Eichmann trial, and the Auschwitz trials were all performed multiple times, first in courts and then in theaters. Does justice require both courtrooms and stages? In Staged, Minou Arjomand draws on a rich archive of postwar German and American rehearsals and performances to reveal how theater can become a place for forms of storytelling and judgment that are inadmissible in a court of law but indispensable for public life. She unveils the affinities between dramatists like Bertolt Brecht, Erwin Piscator, and Peter Weiss and philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin, showing how they responded to the rise of fascism with a new politics of performance. Linking performance with theories of aesthetics, history, and politics, Arjomand argues that it is not subject matter that makes theater political but rather the act of judging a performance in the company of others. Staged weaves together theater history and political philosophy into a powerful and timely case for the importance of theaters as public institutions.

Staging 21st Century Tragedies: Theatre, Politics, and Global Crisis is an international collection of essays by leading academics, artists, writers, and curators examining ways in which the global tragedies of our century are being negotiated in current theatre practice. In exploring the tragic in the fields of history and theory of theatre, the book approaches crisis through an understanding of the existential and political aspect of the tragic condition. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, it showcases theatre texts and productions that enter the public sphere, manifesting notably participatory, immersive, and documentary modes of expression to form a theatre of modern tragedy. The coexistence of scholarly essays with manifesto-like provocations, interviews, original plays, and diaries by theatre artists provides a rich and multifocal lens that allows readers to approach twenty-first-century theatre through historical and critical study, text and performance analysis, and creative processes. Of special value is the global scope of the collection, embracing forms of crisis theatre in many geographically diverse regions of both the East and the West. Staging 21st Century Tragedies: Theatre, Politics, and Global Crisis will be of use and interest to academics and students of political theatre, applied theatre, theatre history, and theatre theory.

Shows how contemporary adaptations, on the stage and on the page, can breathe new life into Greek tragedy.