Iveta Škripková is known primarily as a director of the At the Crossroads Puppet Theatre in Banská Bystrica, as a director and founder of the first Slovak feminist theatre Studio TWIGA (Theatre - Women - Improvisation - Gender - Action), and the director of the International Theatre Festival Puppetry Bystrica. The study focuses on the work of Iveta Škripková - playwright, which is numerous but underestimated and little known. Her concept of gender-sensitive (or gender-oriented) "gynodrama" significantly extends the thematic and philosophical scope of the contemporary Slovak drama, adding new aesthetic instruments to express the women's experience in the field of drama. Her plays of experimental nature are linked to the work of Jana Juráňová and intentionally follow a line of feminist drama in Slovakia. Slovak theatre and theatre criticism face an urgent task to adopt a feminist discourse and use it as an instrument for analysis of theatre and drama.
One of the essential methods specific for theatre research is the method of reconstruction of a theatre production. It is a significant tool of studying the history of stage art. Practice shows that a series of reconstructions of key theatre productions presents a good point of departure for recounting the history of theatre to both expert and lay public. The paper suggests possibilities of how the stage history of a theatre can be related while focusing its attention mainly on two existing models: the Russian history of the Moscow Art Theatre (1898–1998), published on the occasion of the centennial of this world famous theatre company, and the current project of the Theatre Institute in Warsaw mapping out the two hundred and fifty years’ history of professional theatre in Poland (1765–2015). The experience of Russian and Polish theatre researchers expands the range of methods available for research into theatre art and offers interesting possibilities and prospects for developing and communicating the gained knowledge to society.
The study is a comparative reflection on the development of performing arts in Russia and Slovakia at the turn of the millennium. Understanding the peripheries of post-Soviet transformation of Russian theatre deepens the knowledge of social and aesthetic contexts regarding the transformation of Slovak theatre at the turn of the 21st century. The disintegration of the Soviet Bloc in the late 80s and the early 90s of the 20th century changed the situation in the world and launched a major transformation in the post-communist countries. Along with the economic and political system, culture was changing also inevitably. Privileged status of Russian culture has become a thing of the past. In the following years, Slovakia has become the independent state with parliamentary democracy and market economy and joined the EU. Russia has undergone its own path of development. Despite a different orientation of the two countries at the turn of the millennium, both the Russian and Slovak theatre experienced in many ways analogous situation: the decline in social status of performing arts, opening to the world, the introduction of so-called new drama, transformation of directing and acting, etc. When approaching breakthrough processes in Russian theatre, the study is based on the author's personal knowledge of Russian theatre and on the publications written by Russian theatre critics Marina Davydova (End Theatrical Era) and Anna Vislova (Russian Theatre at the Turn of the Millenium
The theatre director Yuri Ljubimov (1917–2014) entered the annals of Russian and world theatre as a founder of the legendary Taganka Theatre in Moscow. In 1964–1984 the Taganka Theatre was the most famous theatre of the end of the Soviet era. Yuri Ljubimov took inspiration from Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Vakhtangov and enriched the Russian theatrical tradition with impulses from Bertolt Brecht. He created a modern theatre with a distinct civic attitude, untraditional repertoire and excellent acting company at Taganka Square. The Taganka Theatre was considered “an island of freedom” in the sea of Soviet bans and restrictions. The history of the theatre mirrors the history of the Soviet Union from the political thaw to perestroika. The present article describes the life and work of the director Yuri Ljubimov, the fate of the Taganka Theatre and the director’s conflict with it. It points out the role of Ljubimov’s long-term partner, the famous Russian film star Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, in the existence and formation of the Taganka Theatre’s repertoire.
Using the example of Theatre Without Home which includes the homeless and the disabled, the author examines the approach of the Slovak theatre critics and theatre scholars to the theatre of marginalized groups. This type of theatre emerged in Slovakia in the 1990s. The phenomenon of homeless theatre appeared in the Slovak context at the beginning of the 21st century. Theatre Without Home was officially established in 2006 and is currently trying to become professional. It views itself as a community theatre that has high artistic ambitions connected with therapy and social integration. Lindovská analyses in detail the approach of theatre critics to assessing and interpreting the productions of Theatre Without Home. Given the little interest that critics have demonstrated in its theatrical production, the author states that the marginal position of marginalized groups in society reflected in the marginal position of their cultural and artistic activities. At the same time she points out that the production of the theatre of marginalized groups violates deep-rooted aesthetic and ideological norms, has an experimental character and impact on the development of theatrical thinking.
In her paper, the authoress examines the first ever Slovak feminist theatre play, written in 1997. Thanks to the gender aspect, the play amusingly demythicises the key personalities of the 19th century Slovak national revival. Lindovská interprets Juráňová’s texts as a sign of diffusion of feminist inspirations in the Slovak theatre after 1989. The infiltration of feminism into Slovakia is understood as a component part of the democratization process of society and culture. She analyses the play in the context of the creation and civic participation of Jana Juráňová, and brings to the reader’s attention those features which the play has common with Top Girls by Caryl Churchill as well as its distinguishing features (1982).
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