by Petre Florin Manole I was born in a dead-end city, an economic and cultural wasteland (Slobozia, in Ialomița County). Back then, the highlight of the area was the festivities during the Days of the City: beer in a plastic cup and traditional music. As if that wasn’t enough, I later moved to the countryside – in Amara, Ialomița) – and moved up in the world: an annual music festival, with up and coming young “celebrities” and all the other artists for whom Bucharest was too small. That’s why, until I was 18, theater to me meant the radio theater…
by Shaili Sathyu – Artistic Director, Gillo Theatre Repertory, Mumbai, India Yes, the title of this essay may sound a bit preposterous! But before I continue, I would like to say that this project is more for the individual growth of each artist involved in the production, rather than some larger service to society or reference to the politics of the arts. Background For a few years now I have been thinking about what it means to be an ‘urban’ theatre practitioner. One is bombarded with accusations from within and without, regarding one’s identity, background, aesthetic core, training and traditions. Stuck…
by Radu Apostol The process of education by means of Educational Theater is an extension of the way education is conducted within the household. A classroom during a class of educational theater strongly resembles the floor in “the children’s room”; in fact, it resembles the floor in any room where there are children. There are no predetermined “better seats” or “worse seats”, there are no insecurities induced by “the front desk” or “the back desk”, because encounters leading to a performance scene can occur anywhere within this space, anywhere the imagination of the participants takes them. There is no teacher’s…
by Mihaela Michailov Janusz Korczak revolutionized 20th century pedagogy by laying the emphasis on personalized education – understanding the subjectivity of every child, who thus became the social creator of a world he/she had to be allowed to experience; without being judged, without having their tiniest of mistakes scrutinized, without having their opinions minimized, without being asked to “play nice” for the amusement of those around. The child is not a small, playful entertainer who does a balancing act on the high-wire of adult demands in order to satisfy the competitive ego of the latter. The child is not a…
Interview with Laurențiu Ridichie Tell me a little bit about your experience as a teacher of visual education. I’m interested most of all in your goals, the way in which children react to your teaching approach and also to you as an artist. There is a hierarchy in schools between ars liberalis and ars mechanica which seems as if it has been maintained since the Renaissance. The last place in this hierarchy belongs to visual education, right behind musical education. This subject is looked upon as something laughable, kept alive mostly to fill the teaching norms of tenured teachers in…
h.arta Group In a context in which the financial crisis is fueling sexism, racism and nationalism and in which the neocon discourse on religion and the traditional family is becoming more visible and legitimate, what role could art play? What kind of art would be more effective? How could art (and cultural work in general) be used as a methodology which explains contradictions and subverts inequalities? How could art be used to develop prototypes which can be improved or freely appropriated by others? How does one analyze the complex and contradictory position of the artist who is aware of his/her…
12/13 October, 19.30h Spațiul Platforma (Moșilor str. 62-68, close to Piața Sf. Gheorghe) The team of Migration Stories project and The Political Theatre Season invite you to the premiere of: BORN IN THE WRONG PLACE – with English subtitles! – The performance Born in the Wrong Place is based on the documentary text written by Alice Monica Marinescu and David Schwartz in 2011. The text had its international premiere at Baadisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 2013. The play intertwines the life stories of 5 people who have gone through the experience of seeking asylum with fragments from The Guide to Obtaining Romanian Citizenship for Foreign…