Odin Teatret

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Odin Teatret is a multicultural Danish theater group that is heavily dedicated to the intercultural exploration of theatrical expression. It was founded in 1964 in Oslo by Eugenio Barba and moved to Holstebro in Denmark in 1966 , where they added "Nordisk teaterlaboratorium" to their name and where the group is still based today. The Odin Teatret is also the basis of the International School of Theater Anthropology (ISTA) founded by Barba in 1979 and the Center for Theater Laboratory Studies (CTLS) founded in 2002. At least in the beginning it worked with the means of street theater .

history

The Odin Teatret was founded in Oslo on October 1st, 1964 by Eugenio Barba. The members were four young people who had been rejected from the Oslo State Theater School. The Odin first rehearsed in an old air raid shelter. Her first production, Ornitofilene, written by Jens Bjørneboe , was shown in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Here they were invited by the then mayor of Holstebro to set up a theater laboratory. In return, they were offered an old farm and a small amount of financial support. The Odin Teatret has been based there since June 1966. The “Nordisk theater laboratory” was set up as the umbrella organization for the theater and all of its activities.

Odin Teatret has been a self-governing institution since 1984. Today it has a permanent and paid tribe of around 20 people, including actors, technicians and administrative staff. Both the theatre's activities and the origins of its members span several continents and the three founding members, Tage Larsen, Else Marie Laukvik and Torgeir Wethal, are still with us. Current members also include Roberta Carreri, Iben Nagel Rasmussen and Julia Varley, who can look back on a similarly long active membership.

The theater laboratory developed through performances, research, seminars, courses and films both in Denmark and abroad into an intercultural and interdisciplinary network and meeting point for (budding) actors from all over the world. The invited guest lecturers included such well-known artists as Jean-Louis Barrault , Dario Fo , Étienne Decroux , Jacques Lecoq , Jerzy Grotowski and Joseph Chaikin. As early as the 1960s, it created a library and a publishing house to document the history and activities of Odin. The Odin Teatret Forlag made its first name with the translation and first edition of Grotowski's Towards a Poor Theater, which was then translated into more than fifteen languages.

activities

The activities of the Nordisk theater laboratory Odin Teatret include:

  • the presentation of own productions in Holstebro, in Denmark and abroad
  • so-called "barters" (English for "exchange, barter, counter-deal") with different social and cultural milieus in Holstebro and abroad
  • the organization of meetings for theater groups
  • didactic activities in Denmark and abroad
  • the publication of magazines and books as well as the production of didactic films
  • Theater anthropological research by the ISTA
  • Temporary performances by the multicultural Theatrum Mundi ensemble
  • the collaboration between the CTLS and Aarhus University
  • the annual Holstebro Festuge (Danish for "festival week") and the annual Odin week
  • the triennial festival Transit, which is dedicated to the topic of "women in the theater"
  • Children's theater, exhibitions, concerts, round table discussions, cultural communal activities in and around Holstebro.

Performances

Since its inception, the Odin has developed dozens of performances that have been shown in over 60 countries under a wide variety of social and cultural conditions, some of which can still be found in the current repertoire. A first performance of Brecht's Ashes, originally compiled from an assembly of his writings in 1980, had to be reworked into Brecht's Asche 2 , which is known in German-speaking countries and which premiered in Holstebro in 1982 , due to a ban on use by the Brecht's heirs . Andersen's Dream for the 200th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen in 2005 is one of the more recent pieces . Since the theater itself maintains a complete archive, which also provides images and videos, the usual list of exemplary pieces and filmography is dispensed with and refer to the internet address of the archive under the web links.

The Odin Teatret was also in Germany as part of guest performances with Brecht's Asche 2, a play about Brecht's legacy (“How to speak with the dead?”), With millions and with Oxyrhincus Evangeliet (the Oxyrhincus Gospel based on “an Egyptian city, where some of the earliest Christian scriptures were found ”), a“ notion that evokes the spirit of our time. It's about a revolt that is buried alive, about the trivializations of cruelty, about accepting evil every day as if it were inevitable. "

Eugenio Barba

Eugenio Barba emigrated to Norway in 1954, where he studied Norwegian literature and religious history at the University of Oslo . After a three-year stay at Jerzy Grotowski's Theater of the 13 Rows in Opole and a trip to India, where he studied Kathakali , Barba went back to Oslo, studied anthropology and Sanskrit and wanted to become a director, but as a foreigner in Norway he did not Seeing opportunities on institutionalized stages, he founded the Odin Teatret in 1964. About the name and the goals he said on the occasion of the Theater Festival 79 in Munich in 1979:

“The name of our theater is no coincidence. It seems natural to us that it should be named after the violence that has so deeply shaped our century: the god of war Odin , the great berserker. [...] Our theater neither wants to amuse nor propagate theses. It simply wants to ask questions that everyone has to find an answer to; the really committed art does not provide good answers, but is content with asking good questions. "

-

ISTA and CTLS

ISTA

In 1979 Barba founded the International School of Theater Anthropology (ISTA) as a kind of university and multicultural network for drama (schül) er with a focus on theater anthropology and the exchange of different acting and dance traditions and their technical implementation as well as international cooperation between the participants. Its meetings take place periodically in response to inquiries from national and international cultural institutions and each deal with a topic that is dealt with through practical work, work demonstrations and comparative analysis. A limited number of actors, dancers, directors, choreographers, students and theater critics can register for this. Since its inception, its meetings have taken place in Bonn (1980), Volterra and Pontadera (1981), Blois and Malakoff in France (1985), Holstebro (1986), Salento (1987) and Bologna (1990) in Italy, Brecon and Cardiff in Great Britain (1992), Londrina in Brazil (1994), Umeå in Sweden (1995), Copenhagen (1996), Montemor-o-Novo and Lisbon in Portugal (1998), Bielefeld (2000), Sevilla (2004) and Warsaw (2005) instead of.

Since 1990 ISTA has organized the “University of Eurasian Theater” in collaboration with the University of Bologna . Another focus is on the Theatrum Mundi Ensemble, which has been giving performances with a solid base of Asian and Odin actors since the early 1980s, combining different cultural and social origins.

CTLS

In 2002 the Center for Theater Laboratory Studies (CTLS) was set up in collaboration with Aarhus University. In addition to the documentation and archiving of all Odin activities, the CTLS examines historical and contemporary theater laboratories, prepares the exchange between national and international theater networks and initiates seminars and conferences.

Services

The special Odin culture is based on recognition of cultural diversity and mutual exchange. Not only through its performances, but also through its various didactic activities, it developed into a point of reference and center, especially for independent theater groups around the world.

Works

  • Eugenio Barba, Ferdinando Taviani: The Floating Islands. Reflections with Odin Teatret. Drama, 1979
  • Eugenio Barba, Iben Nagel Rasmussen: Comments on the Silence of Scripture. Published by Christoph Falke and Walter Ybema, Verlag der Theaterassoziation, Schwerte 1983

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See for example Sally McGranes: "Greek Myth as Potpourri of Multicultural Flavors." The New York Times, July 10, 2008, accessed on February 6, 2011 (English)
  2. a b Program sheet for the performance of Brecht's Asche 2, without place and year
  3. program leaflet for performances from 9 to 12 March 1986 to the Dominican monastery in Frankfurt, published by the off- TAT Frankfurt
  4. ^ A b c Manfred Brauneck : Theater in the 20th Century. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1982, pp. 485-488

Coordinates: 56 ° 22 ′ 47.7 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 24.1"  E