"Hver er framtíð sviðslista"?

Dragan Klaic heldur fyrirlestur fyrir menningarsamfélagið á Keðju

Allsstaðar í Evrópu standa nú leikhús frammi fyrir samkeppni frá markaðsdrifnu skemmtiefni og hafa fá haldbær úrræði til að tryggja stöðu sína sem og að réttlæta opinber framlög. Í kjölfar efnahagskreppunnar hafa opinber framlög verið skorin niður og almenningur spyr um tilverurétt menningarstofnana. Í fyrirlestri sínum mun Dragan Klaic varpa ljósi á hvernig sviðslistastofnanir geta styrkt stöðu sína, í breyttu umhverfi. Hann mun velta upp hugmyndum um framleiðslu og dreifingu, dagskrárgerð, nýtingu á rými og leiðum til aukinnar samvinnu.

Staður og stund: Keðja Reykjavík, föstudaginn 8. október kl 12-14 í Tjarnarbíói.

Dr. Dragan Klaic er meðlimur Felix Merities stofnunarinnar í Amsterdam. Hann er rithöfundur, fræðimaður, menningarrýnir, ráðgjafi og tíður fyrirlesari um alþjóðlegt menningarsamstarf, sviðslistir og menningarpólitík, jafnt á ráðstefnum sem og í háskólum víða um Evrópu. Hann er með doktorspróf frá Yale háskóla í Bandaríkjunum. Hann var stjórnandi hollensku leiklistarstofnuninnar (TIN) 1992 til 2001, átti frumkvæði að stórtækri rannsókn á evrópskum listahátíðum, sem enn stendur yfir og hefur skrifað fjölda bóka sem og greina sem hafa birst í yfir 60 útgefnum bókum. Sjá nánar www.draganklaic.eu

Dragan setur fram eftirfarandi fullyrðingu um framtíð leikhúsa í nýrri bók um leikhús í Evrópu og framtíð þeirra:

“Their vitality depends on a reaffirmation of the public culture as a counterpart of the market driven entertainment, essential for the deliberative democracy. Such reaffirmation could be brought about only with a broad advocacy movement, bringing together culture professionals and the core public.”

Hér gefur að líta nokkra lykilþætti sem hann setur fram:

• Non-commercial theater is expected in return for public subsidy to explore and renew the classical drama and to instigate new playwriting; to invest in post-dramatic theater, in the renewal of the music theater and re-imagining of the canonical opera rep; to build an audience for various dance theater forms; provide young viewers with a socializing theater experience; insert performative events in various urban and rural contexts. That is a tall order. To realize it performing arts organizations need to specialize and specify their mission, but also develop a range of partnerships and alliances, and not to imitate the commercial show show business.
• Theaters rely in their programming on the name recognition by the potential audience of titles, authors, star performers. Yet the smorgasbord programming overwhelms and confuses potential theatergoers. Programming in larger templates and series would appeal to the audience, help create temporary communities of concern and strengthen the partnership of theaters with other structures of the civil society.
• Playhouses can affirm their value as public spaces if they reconfigure them and run them as hubs of sociability, networking, leisure, debate and work. Public theater should be an instigator of local and neighborhood development, an economic and social magnet. In the performing arts facilities, small is beautiful and also more efficient while big is most frequently representational, expensive and ultimately unsustainable in the public sphere and feasible only under a regime of commercial exploitation. Spatial proximity can nourish partnerships and improve the context of the playhouse. Recycling existing structures for performing purpose is less risky than building new playhouses.
• A ready made public does not exist. It needs to be continuously discovered, developed and nourished. Without educational engagement and demonstrated work at interculturalization and inclusiveness no performing arts organization qualifies for public subsidy.
• Public theater cannot force the media to take a serious interest in it but it can shape and articulate its own media output and create a deliberative community of core theatergoers around its own web sites.
• International engagement is a developmental dimension of public theater, not a matter of self-representation and prestige enhancement. A learning and inspirational experience. A way to acquire and test own intercultural competence and articulate own specific dialectic of the local and global.
• Festivals thrive when they fuse the local and global dimensions. The best festivals advance professional discourse, affirm innovative practices, initiate adventurous coalitions and continuously engage their audiences between the two editions. With the proliferation of festival initiatives of all sorts, public authorities need to develop festival support policies.