Seminário Internacional de Jovens Críticos de Teatro (V)
Apresenta-se hoje a colaboração de Sonia Ulicna, que escreve sobre a situação teatral na Eslováquia.
SLOVAK THEATRE NOWADAYS
At the very first let me note that I find quite hard to explain the current state and situation of theatre in my country in few sentences, so far as I am aware that many of you have had just a very sparse information about theatre in my region - if any… Nevertheless, to put it in a nutshell I would conclude that situation of theatre in my country these days is nothing to celebrate, but neither to cry about. The theatre and culture system as such is currently undergoing a process I would call a transformation - probably slightly painful in details, but I hope fruitful in results, which shall be shown in upcoming years.
Concerning this, it is necessary to understand that the theatre culture of various forms is deeply rooted within Slovak tradition - in the more modern history it is connected with first attempts to officially establish Slovak language at the beginning of 19th century and ever since has been theatre and drama a constant companion of nation in all upcoming political struggles as well as a political tool often and last but not least as a very popular form of art and fun and platform for social gatherings. Therefore it is not surprising that in previous decades Slovakia {or better said, Slovak part of Czechoslovakia} was bearing one of the largest theatre nets in world from the point of view of number of theatres for number of inhabitants.
Virtually every bigger city {what in our area means about 50 000 inhabitants} had its own theatre building with constant crew of professional employees and repertoire. Of course, the quantity didn't and doesn't always mean quality and therefore since the Velvet Revolution has been the number of scenes and productions decreasing to a more sensible amount. During this natural process of transformation several oversized state theatres had to reduce its budget and repertoire, while on the other hand a lot of smaller private, independent, alternative and more specific constantly playing groups and scenes had surfaced.
Nowadays, we can speak of approximately 8 biggest and most significant theatres {4 of them situated in capital city Bratislava, including the still most prominent Slovak National Theatre}, couple of smaller and somehow struggling regional theatres throughout country and finally of almost uncountable number of independent groups and private theatre spaces dealing with repertoire varying from underground opera to slapstick-comedies and still popular "Broadway-style" musicals. The theatre professionals emerge mostly from official Academy of Music and Drama Arts situated in Bratislava, bearing three faculties among which drama faculty offers BA, MA and PhD programs of theatre directing, dramaturgy, acting, theatre theory, set and costume design and newly also theatre management.
The academy recently celebrated an 50th anniversary of its founding and is internationally respected not only thanks to its graduates, but also because of biannually organized international festival of theatre schools called Project Istropolitana. Talking about festivals, another event we are happy about is international theatre festival called Divadelna Nitra, which is every year focused on the most progressive and promising productions and creators mainly from Europe and usually succeeds in promoting provoking directors at the beginning of their career {and let me humbly add that I am very happy to be a member of artistic board of this festival}.
Of course, there is also lot of other regular international events happening, mostly in collaboration with our Czech neighbors, but also with more far away countries {e.g. with USA and Asia in the field of dance or opera… which are areas I honestly don' t feel to be expert on}.
Theatre is being regularly reviewed by one professional theatre magazine, as well as by several cultural magazines and critical weeklies and it gets some space also in daily newspapers, although perhaps not always as large as we would wish.
We had a rather active Slovak Theatre Institute {organizing for instance a contemporary drama contest for Slovak authors}, active branch of AICT and more or less active branch of ITI.
From everything written above it shall be obvious that theatre in Slovakia is alive and functioning, if with struggles and problems similar to everywhere in the world. Audience is still quite dedicated and faithful {although perhaps not in such a mass number as it was during communistic era, when more censored cinema or TV were no hard competitors…} and it seems that enormous thirst for musicals and lighter genres obvious in early nineties had been finally compensated and theatre-goers are ready to confront themselves with more demanding topics and more alternative setups, although the majority of regular audience remains rather conservative in their taste…
The hottest problems we face now are as usually connected to money and bureaucracy, while the biggest potential I see in our remarkable actors and their unique methods, whose ability still draws the audience to the theatre and in the fact that many talented young people are still keen on dedicating their time, energy and basically life to theatre, even if it nowadays means really hard struggle for every day's existence. And if we want it to stay so, I believe we shall open ourselves yet more to international collaboration and projects, to exchange experiences and gain inspiration.
Apresenta-se hoje a colaboração de Sonia Ulicna, que escreve sobre a situação teatral na Eslováquia.
SLOVAK THEATRE NOWADAYS
At the very first let me note that I find quite hard to explain the current state and situation of theatre in my country in few sentences, so far as I am aware that many of you have had just a very sparse information about theatre in my region - if any… Nevertheless, to put it in a nutshell I would conclude that situation of theatre in my country these days is nothing to celebrate, but neither to cry about. The theatre and culture system as such is currently undergoing a process I would call a transformation - probably slightly painful in details, but I hope fruitful in results, which shall be shown in upcoming years.
Concerning this, it is necessary to understand that the theatre culture of various forms is deeply rooted within Slovak tradition - in the more modern history it is connected with first attempts to officially establish Slovak language at the beginning of 19th century and ever since has been theatre and drama a constant companion of nation in all upcoming political struggles as well as a political tool often and last but not least as a very popular form of art and fun and platform for social gatherings. Therefore it is not surprising that in previous decades Slovakia {or better said, Slovak part of Czechoslovakia} was bearing one of the largest theatre nets in world from the point of view of number of theatres for number of inhabitants.
Virtually every bigger city {what in our area means about 50 000 inhabitants} had its own theatre building with constant crew of professional employees and repertoire. Of course, the quantity didn't and doesn't always mean quality and therefore since the Velvet Revolution has been the number of scenes and productions decreasing to a more sensible amount. During this natural process of transformation several oversized state theatres had to reduce its budget and repertoire, while on the other hand a lot of smaller private, independent, alternative and more specific constantly playing groups and scenes had surfaced.
Nowadays, we can speak of approximately 8 biggest and most significant theatres {4 of them situated in capital city Bratislava, including the still most prominent Slovak National Theatre}, couple of smaller and somehow struggling regional theatres throughout country and finally of almost uncountable number of independent groups and private theatre spaces dealing with repertoire varying from underground opera to slapstick-comedies and still popular "Broadway-style" musicals. The theatre professionals emerge mostly from official Academy of Music and Drama Arts situated in Bratislava, bearing three faculties among which drama faculty offers BA, MA and PhD programs of theatre directing, dramaturgy, acting, theatre theory, set and costume design and newly also theatre management.
The academy recently celebrated an 50th anniversary of its founding and is internationally respected not only thanks to its graduates, but also because of biannually organized international festival of theatre schools called Project Istropolitana. Talking about festivals, another event we are happy about is international theatre festival called Divadelna Nitra, which is every year focused on the most progressive and promising productions and creators mainly from Europe and usually succeeds in promoting provoking directors at the beginning of their career {and let me humbly add that I am very happy to be a member of artistic board of this festival}.
Of course, there is also lot of other regular international events happening, mostly in collaboration with our Czech neighbors, but also with more far away countries {e.g. with USA and Asia in the field of dance or opera… which are areas I honestly don' t feel to be expert on}.
Theatre is being regularly reviewed by one professional theatre magazine, as well as by several cultural magazines and critical weeklies and it gets some space also in daily newspapers, although perhaps not always as large as we would wish.
We had a rather active Slovak Theatre Institute {organizing for instance a contemporary drama contest for Slovak authors}, active branch of AICT and more or less active branch of ITI.
From everything written above it shall be obvious that theatre in Slovakia is alive and functioning, if with struggles and problems similar to everywhere in the world. Audience is still quite dedicated and faithful {although perhaps not in such a mass number as it was during communistic era, when more censored cinema or TV were no hard competitors…} and it seems that enormous thirst for musicals and lighter genres obvious in early nineties had been finally compensated and theatre-goers are ready to confront themselves with more demanding topics and more alternative setups, although the majority of regular audience remains rather conservative in their taste…
The hottest problems we face now are as usually connected to money and bureaucracy, while the biggest potential I see in our remarkable actors and their unique methods, whose ability still draws the audience to the theatre and in the fact that many talented young people are still keen on dedicating their time, energy and basically life to theatre, even if it nowadays means really hard struggle for every day's existence. And if we want it to stay so, I believe we shall open ourselves yet more to international collaboration and projects, to exchange experiences and gain inspiration.
SONIA ULICNA frequenta um doutoramento na Academy of Music and Drama Arts, Bratislava em Dramaturgia Teatral. Escreve regularmente para alguns jornais eslovacos (DominoForum, Javisko, Divadlo v medzicase, Šarm, Bájecná žena). Desde 2003 é membro do conselho consultivo do Festival Divadelna Nitra. Tradutora, dramaturgista e encenadora, recebeu em já os prémios Ivan Krasko (2003, pelo Slovak Literary Fund) e The Best Original Radio Drama Debut Prize (2003, Slovak Radio).
Contacto: soniaulicna@yahoo.com
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