Bitef

23 rd 09. / 12:00 / 180’ Cultural Institution Parobrod

Opening of 14th Bitef Polyphony

TO A NEW THEATRE AUTHORSHIP OF POLYPHONY

Moderator: Milan Lučić, Ljubica BeljanskiRistić and Milena Dragičević Šešić Authors' workshops - presentations: Nela Antonović and Zoran Jovanovic ■ Bitef Polyphony inherited its name from a pilot project called Polyphony conducted by CENPI, Centre for New Theatre and Dance within the programme Art for Social Change Play against Violence, initiated in 1999 by the European Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the Open Society Fund network in seven South-Eastern European countries. Besides Centre for New Theatre and Dance CENPI presentations of their pilot projects within this programmes were held by Asociation of Independent Theatres ANET and Centre for Drama and Education in Arts CEDEUM. In its pilot project CENPI advanced a multicultural approach and included in its workshops young people and Roma artists. One of them was Zoran Jovanovic, the founder and leader of the Roma theatre Suno e Rromengo which had its first presentations and productions during Bitef Polyphony. The leading workshop moderator in the project was Nela Antonovic, the founder and artistic director of Mimart Theatre. Zoran Jovanovic and Nela Antonovic have been unavoidable participants in Bitef Polyphony throughout all these years. What is their cooperation and exchange of experience like today? How do they define their work and how did they approaches as authors evolve? What would they call them and what can, according to them, be their contribution as authors to the building of an open system of polyphonic drama and theatre?*

Zoran Jovanović

THE IDEA OF A ROMA DREAM Presentation of the work process

■ Our theatre Suno e Rromengo (Roma Dream) was named after a production which used dance, sound, song, movement and other elements of the theatre of movement to answer the ever-present questions about the lot and existence of the Roma. Our work in the theatre is influenced by the Roma tradition; it sheds light on the poetic atmosphere of the Roma history, culture and art in the light of the modern European society with a special reference to the models of work in theatre and other educational workshops. The polls conducted among our public, the citizens of Roma and other ethnicities, experts in the world of culture, theatre and others... tell us what they expect from us and what they would like to see in a Roma theatre. Then we move on to collective work. If it is a classic, we look for a detail in the text that could serve as a point of departure in the process or, if it is oral heritage, we look for even more details and only then begin improvisations on a set subject. We choose moments and ideas and create scenes, explore their importance and their relationship with the subject and the message they carry by collectively working in workshops and hearing the suggestions of all involved in the work of the theatre. Only after that we fix the project and start working on the production ■

Nela Antonović

PUNCTUATION OF THE MOVEMENT Mimart method workshop

■ Mimart method workshops are complex and make the system whereby the body is prepared for the physical theatre. The open working process enables the participants to use the Mimart method creatively and explore their bodies. Starting from the idea that only a phenomenon can be entered by the body, this method permits the participants to experience the pleasure of working for their own benefit and the art of team work (team yet free), and paradoxically, it permits to develop dialogue skills, form views, develop criticism and selfcriticism, promote tolerance, readiness for compromise; it empowers the participants to find the solutions through a creative process.

The emergence of the creative material in our workshops is preceded by a theoretical part and discourse to initiate emotions and creativity. We work on inner monologues where there is a link between grammar and the aesthetic use of space, intensity and rhythm of the movement. Mimart insists on the diction of the movement because the articulation of the body and the punctuation of the movement are the basis of the communication in the non-verbal theatre. The personal in the Mimart project is the sum of the personal of the participants according it ■■ a universal dimension and supporting the nonverbal artistic expression and communication ■

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HARD TO BE