Contemporary Acting Techniques in Eurasian Theatre, Performance and Audiovisual Arts: Intercultural and Intermedia Perspective

Online conference

 28‒30 September 2021

Contemporary acting encompasses a wide range of established and evolving approaches, techniques and strategies. This conference, the second conference held as part of the InlanDimensions International Arts Festival – will offer a platform of dialogue for international researchers and practitioners focused on contemporary acting techniques interpreted from an intercultural and intermedia perspective. The Eurasian dimension provokes investigation of cultural exchanges between East and West, including the spread of ideas and practices, intercultural influences and interweavings, inspirations coming from the masters of the 20th century and stimulating practices of intercultural theatre, as well as embracing the area of audiovisual and digital technologies. Avenues of inquiry might include the liminal territory of live performers, animated objects and mediatised images, living bodies and inanimate matter (puppets, objects, analog/digital pictures), corresponding with inventions in the field of hybrid forms of performance. The conference will be focused especially on the newest acting techniques – ideas, concepts and practices from the turn of the 21st century – as they are creative continuations of particular traditions and/or re-interpretations of the achievements of theatre, performance and cinema masters.

 Three eminent keynote speakers will start each day of the conference:

  • Eugenio Barba (Odin Teatret, International School of Theatre Anthropology), who will speak on Eurasian Theatre: the Tradition of Traditions;
  • Tang Shu-wing (Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, Hong Kong), who will discuss Performing: Feeling, Auto-transformation and Expression; and
  • Danny Yung (Zuni Icosahedron, Hong Kong), whose keynote speech will focus on Cultural Institute and Institute Culture.

The first day of the conference will conclude with an in-conversation event with Julia Varley, Simone Dragone and Leonardo Mancini, members of the editorial board of the Journal of Theatre Anthropology.

The conference will be hosted online by the Faculty of Humanities of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland. Unregistered viewers will have direct access to a live feed, subject to platform limitations. If you want to join the conference, please contact Andrea Guźlecka and Jakub Stankiewicz at actingtechniques2021@gmail.com.

The conference is part of the InlanDimensions International Arts Festival. For more information, visit https://inlandimensions.com.

Programme

Tue 28 September 2021

9:45–10:00 Conference opening

10:00–11:30 Keynote speech: Eugenio Barba (Odin Teatret, Holstebro, Denmark): Eurasian Theatre: The Tradition of Traditions

Lecture and Q+A, hosted by Monika Blige

Coffee break

12:00–13:30 Panel 1, chaired by Artur Duda

Simone Dragone (University of Genoa, Italy), Finding Kokoro through the Eyes: Butoh in Roberta Carreri’s Work and Pedagogy

Katarzyna Pastuszak (University of Gdańsk, Poland), Nomadic Practices, Ideas and Stories: Performative Projects of Amareya Theatre & Guests on the Crossroads of Cultures

Fatma Kandemir Şahin (Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey), Use of “Stylization” and “Deformation” Methods as an Intercultural Approach in the Search for Physicality of the Actor

Lunch break

14:30–16:00 Panel 2, chaired by Barbara Bibik

Pinar Arik (Anadolu University, Turkey), Back to the Roots: Re-inventing of Traditional Turkish Performing Arts

Linda (Lyn) Cunningham (De Montfort University, UK), In Relation to Expanded Theatre Anthropology

Artur Duda (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland), Re-inventing the Roots of Theatre. The Catachrestic Theory

Coffee break

16:30–18:00

Journal of Theatre Anthropology, in conversation with Simone Dragone, Leonardo Mancini and Julia Varley, hosted by Monika Blige

Wed 29 September 2021

10:00–11:30 Keynote speech: Tang Shu-wing (Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, Hong Kong, China): Performing: Feeling, Auto-transformation and Expression

Lecture and Q+A, hosted by Marzenna Wisniewska

Coffee break

12:00–13:30 Panel 3, chaired by Katarzyna Pastuszak

Angelo Romagnoli (University of Kent, UK): The Three Spaces of the Actor

Mohammad Reza Aliakbari (University of Tehran, Iran), Meyerhold’s Bodymind: A Cognitive Look to Work with Stick in Biomechanics

Katarzyna Woźniak (University of Wroclaw), Pippo Delbono: Towards an Extension of Understanding of the Performer’s Presence

Lunch break

14:30–16:00 Panel 4, chaired by Linda (Lyn) Cunningham

Elisabeth Gunawan, Matej Matejka (Divine Dance), The Theatre is Dead(?): The Transition from Human to Virtual Encounters in a Post-pandemic Age

Judyta Pogonowicz (Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland), Theatre Deprived of the Bodily Body

Maria Francesca Arbues (Italy), “Città invisibili”, an Artistic Project to Rediscover one’s own City

Thu 30 September 2021

10:00–11:30 Keynote speech: Danny Yung (Zuni Icosahedron, Hong Kong, China), Cultural Institute and Institute Culture

Lecture and Q+A, hosted by Rossella Ferrari

Coffee break

12:00–13:30 Panel 5, chaired by Maciej Szatkowski

Rossella Ferrari (University of Vienna, Austria), Zuni Icosahedron’s “Xiqu 2.0”: Deconstruction, Decolonization, and Inter-Asia Collaboration

Freda Fiala (University of Vienna, Austria), Mask and Maskings in the Performances of Zuni Icosahedron

Ryunosuke Kimura (Theatre Company KAKUSHINHAN, Japan), The Lost Samurai: Utilizing Shakespearean Plays to Redesign Japanese Acting Theories

Lunch break

14:30–16:30 Panel 6, chaired by Fatma Kandemir Şahin

Nikodem Karolak (InlanDimensions Festival, Poland), The Shōchiku New Wave:Terayama Shūji Meets Shinoda Masahiro

Maji Rhee (Waseda University, Japan), The Stanislavski System and Legal Semiotics: The Case in the Korean Language

Łukasz Mańkowski (University of Warsaw, Poland), Finding New Brechtianism: Techno, Body and the City in the Audiovisual Representation of Modern Japanese Cinema

 16:30–17:00 Conference closing

Conference agenda

Times are listed in Poland time zone: GMT+1

If you want to join the conference, please contact Andrea Guźlecka and Jakub Stankiewicz at actingtechniques2021@gmail.com.

Conference team

Prof Artur Duda, Marzenna Wiśniewska, Ph.D. (Institute of Culture Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń)

Maciej Szatkowski, Ph.D. (Centre for Chinese Language and Culture, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń)

Jarosław Fret, Monika Blige (Director and Deputy Director of the Grotowski Institute, Wrocław)

Nikodem Karolak (Bridges Foundation)

Organizers

Faculty of Humanities of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

The Grotowski Institute, Wrocław

in collaboration with the Bridges Foundation