More information
Description
The Those Who Speak for Themselves project presented by the Archa Theatre works in the field of documentary theatre and theatre in social context. It follows many years of creative, educational and networking activities developed by Archa in this direction.
Our vision is to strengthen the position of documentary theatre in the Czech Republic and in the international context, mainly in the donor countries, and to strengthen the international network of professionals working in the methods of documentary theatre. We want to interconnect the creation of a theatre piece with the training of 48 professionals from diverse fields and from all around the world during the summer school courses. To support this, we plan to publish an interactive electronic workbook explaining the methodology. There will be two residencies of alumni and public presentations of their creative results. We want to involve 50 "experts of everyday life" from the Czech Republic and Norway and together with them create one production and one co-production, able to travel internationally, but at the same time functioning as an internationally portable format. Both the show and the format will be offered to be shown or used internationally. In addition, the methodological handbook will be disseminated to a network of art schools in the Czech Republic, Europe and the world.
Summary of project results
Although its importance of the so called documentary theater or social-specific theatre is raising internationally,it has no institution support in the Czech Republic. The new theatre project, entitled "Those Who Speak for Themselves" was based on our long term experience in the creation of social-specific theatre and developed a specific methodology of artistic work with people of different occupations, age, education, cultural roots, nationality, etc. This kind of work is not yet part of the academic education system in the Czech Republic or in many other countries, like Norway or Iceland. That is why the project also included an International Summer School of the Theatre in Social Context, which was organised in Prague. The intention was to create an informal network and to introduce this type of theatre work to broader public.
The documentary theatre play "Those Who Speak for Themselves" was created using the method of documentary theatre creation, which we described in the interactive method manual, and based on it we organised a workshop in Oslo, which resulted in the Norwegian production of the paly under the same name. We organised two International Summer Schools of Documentary Theatre, followed by residencies, during which the artists used the same method to create two thjeatre plays "The Barker" and "Everybody Has Two Wolves in Him". We linked the creation of a theatrical performance with education of 32 professionals from different backgrounds and countries during two years of the summer school and simultaneously published an interactive electronic book capturing the specific methodology of such work, which has been so far downloaded by more than 500 other professionals from different countries around the world. We provided a residency program for two selected projects, engaged the public and produced 4 productions presented in 27 shows.
The project enhanced access to contemporary art and promoted new methods of merging performance art and social issues. It helped to develop the long-standing creative, educational and networking activities of the Archa Documentary Theatre Centre and its partners.
Summary of bilateral results
The result of cooperation with partners from Norway and Iceland was a documentary theatre workshop held in Oslo and three performances of the Norwegian version of the production Those Who Speak for Themselves there. During two years, the offer of participation in the International Summer School of Documentary Theatre was disseminated among the professional public of both countries, and the methodological manual Social-Specific Theatre in Practice was also distributed. Norwegian director Lise Andrea Grimelund-Kjelsen and Icelandic expert Asa Richardsdottir participated in two International Summer Schools of Documentary Theatre in Prague as lecturers. The cooperation had a positive impact on the expansion of the informal network of documentary theatre, and the new follow-up organisation Archa – the Documentary Theatre Centre will continue to cooperate with the Norwegian partner in the coming years.