Mezinárodní divadelní ústav

ITI

International Theatre Institute

Mezinárodní divadelní ústav

L‘Institut International du Théâtre

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70 years of ITI

Many international centers of ITI commemorate the 70thanniversary of founding the biggest international non-governmental organization in the field of performing arts, which was founded in 1948 in Prague. ITI advances UNESCO’s goals of mutual understanding and peace and advocates the protection and promotion of cultural expression, regardless of age, gender, creed, or ethnicity. ITI works to these ends internationally and nationally in the areas of performing arts education, international exchange and collaboration, and youth training. The Czech (Czechoslovak) Centre of ITI was one of 15 founding members of the organization that is represented in theatre, dance and music communities of 94 countries.

On the occasion of founding the ITI, the Czech center of the ITI organized the following program:

14 -16 September 2018: Members of the ITI executive committee visited the International Festival Theater in Plzeň

16 September 2018: Meeting of the ITI executive committee in Prague (Arts and Theatre Institute)

17 September 2018: Daniela Jobert, Jana Návratová, Martina Pecková Černá, Pavel Štorek: Presentation of contemporary Czech performing arts (Theatre Faculty AMU)

17 September 2018: Symposium International Theatre Institute, UNESCO’s Goals and Performing Arts for the 21stCentury (Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic)

17 September 2018: New season launch in Ponec Theatre

The symposium International Theatre Institute, UNESCO’s Goals and Performing Arts for the 21stCenturytakes place on the occasion of the 70thanniversary of the organization with the meeting of the executive ITI committee and arrival of 17 figures of world theatre and dance from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. Along with Czech delegates, they are going to present a variety of visions for 21stcentury performing arts linked to substantial topics of contemporary global society. Three blocks of the panel discussion focus on the following topics: “Education in Performing Arts”, “Artists’ Rights, LGBT and Performing Arts” and “Theatre in Conflict Zones”.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is one of the 15 United Nations international agencies and focuses on topics such as peace, security, sustainable development, human rights, international rights as well as social, economic and humanitarian issues. UN priorities have changed in the course of time, yet their use remains the same: the international community should aim at diminution of differences between industrially developed and developing countries. The proposal for the establishment of the International Theatre Institute was presented at the UNESCO General Conference back in 1946, the first and founding congress of the organization took place in 1948 in Prague. Czechoslovak theatremakers were represented by Jan Kopecký and Jindřich Honzl (in the executive committee). The main mission of the ATI has always been to utilize and support cooperation of theatre and theatremakers to build bridges between nations when keeping and respecting the identity of their national culture regardless of their political systems.

Recording from the symposium is available here. 

The symposium was organized by the Czech Centre of ITI in cooperation with the Arts and Theatre Institute, International Festival Theatre in Plzeň and the Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It took place on 17thSeptember 2018 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Stables of the Nostitz Palace, Ministry of Culture, Maltézské nám. 1, Praha 1. 

PROGRAM 

1:00
registration, coffee

1:15
opening ceremony
JUDr. Petra Smolíková, Deputy Minister for Legislation and International Relations, Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic
Táňa Fischerová, President of the Czech Centre of ITI
prof. PhDr. Stanislav Štech, CSc., the head of the Czech Commission for UNESCO 

1:30-2:00
Mohammed Saif Al-Afkham (president of ITI) and Tobias Biancone (director general of ITI): Presentation of ITI(mission, aims, topics, priority, network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts)

2:00-3:00    
Thematic block I: Education in Performing Arts
Speakers: Hamadou Mande (Burkina Faso), Daniel Bausch (Switzerland), Derek Goldman (USA)
Host: Tobias Biancone

3:15-4:15
Thematic block II: Artists’ Rights, LGBT and Performing ArtsSpeakers: Ann Mari Engel (Sweden), Miřenka Čechová (Czech Republic), Jan Malík (Czech Republic)
Host: Yvona Kreuzmannová

4:30-5:30
Thematic block III: Theatre in Conflict ZonesSpeakers: Fabio Tolledi (Italy), Ali Mahdi Nouri (Sudan), Vendula Kodetová (Czech Republic), Lucie Němečková (Czech Republic)
Host: Marta Smolíková

Dramaturgy: Martina Pecková Černá

Production: Lucie Křápková, Lucie Bartoňová

Portraits of the speakers:

Daniel Bausch is vice Dean and Responsible for Advanced Studies and Services, Teacher of Theatre Improvisation. After graduating from the Accademia Teatro Dimitri, passed the acting exam at the institute Zentralstelle für Bühnen- und Fernsehberufe in Germany. Also completed training for teaching the Feldenkrais method. Worked as an actor in several theatres throughout Europe: toured the world for 5 years with the touring company Ton und Kirschen Wandertheater, worked in Berlin with the Berliner Ensemble and the Deutsche Oper, especially with the director Achim Freyer. Starred at the Teatro Stabile of Brescia under the direction of the Italian director Cesare Lievi. Also staged numerous productions of music theatre in collaboration with the Scuola universitaria di musica in Lugano. Vice Dean of the Accademia since 2012.

Tobias Biancone was born in Bern, Switzerland, and is of Swiss and Italian heritage. A poet and write, he studied German and French literature and language as well as arts history at the University of Bern. His works have been published in German, English, Bangla and Russian. After his studies he was the editor of books with contemporary art and literature and organized culture festivals with celebrated theatre poetry, prose, music and cinema. He is the Director General of ITI and President of the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts. To acknowledge his work for the performing arts, the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing gave him the title „Honorary Professor“.

Miřenka Čechová is currently one of the most distinctive representatives of dance and physical theatre in the Czech Republic and abroad. After she graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Prague in classical ballet, she graduated from DAMU (alternative theatre) and HAMU (non-verbal theatre), where she received a PhD in directing physical and mimic theatre. She received the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship for research and teaching activities at American University in Washington, DC. She has performed in more than 18 productions and many of them, mostly original authorial performances, have received significant foreign awards, including S/He is Nancy Joe (The Best of Contemporary Dance 2012 by the Washington Post, Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Voice of Anne Frank (Best of Overseas Productions at International Arts Festival in South Africa, Outstanding Performance Award at the Prague Fringe Festival, Best of Fringe at Amsterdam Fringe Festival), Antiwords (Theatre Newspaper Award, Next Wave Festival Award, Skupa’s Plzeň Award), and many others. As a director and choreographer, she has created more than ten productions often made in foreign co-productions, such as Prawns á la Indigo (supported by a residency at Schloss Bröllin in Germany), FAiTH (supported by a residency at Atlas Performing Art Center in Washington, DC), The Opening (produced by New Music Theater in Washington, DC), and, most recently Lessons of Touch together with Jiří Bartovanec, Vivisectic (at Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn and Gibney Dance, New York). At the request of the American baroque orchestra Opera Lafayette, she recently directed the opera production Opera and the French Revolution, which has been staged at the Rose Theatre Lincoln Center (New York) and the Lisner Auditorium (Washington, DC). She is the co-founder of theatre companies Spitfire Company and Tantehorse and the international festival Zero Point.

Ann Mari Engel completed her Ph.D. at Stockholm University 1982 in Department of Theatre. She is former director of Svensk Teaterunion – the Swedish Centre of the ITI,  a member organisation of all Swedish theatres and theatre associations, honorary member and former vice-president of International Theatre Institute and founder and contact person if of the ITI Action Committee for Artist’s Rights. In 1993 – 2015 she was the main producer of the festival Swedish Theatre Biennial. Ann Mari is member of the Stockholm City Council and of the Stockholm Cultural Committee.

Derek Goldman is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University and Founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.  He is an award-winning stage director, playwright, adapter, producer, developer of new work, educator, and published scholar, whose artistic work has been seen Off-Broadway, internationally, and at numerous leading theaters. Recently his work in global performance has taken to him to Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, the UK, among many other sites.  He is Vice-President of the International Theatre Institute; co-Director of the Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts; and a Board Member of Theatre Communications Group. He holds a Ph. D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is a recipient of Georgetown’s prestigious President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers.

Vendula Kodetová graduated from theatre studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University and theatre anthropology at the Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts. She has been engaged in social specific theatre, primarily with the experimental Bohnice Theatre Company, the group of patients-actors with psychiatric diagnoses and theatre professionals. She also does PR & Communications for non-governmental organizations (Diaconia ECCB, Child Helpline, Centrum Paraple etc.) as well as the Research, Development & Innovation Council, Office of the Government, Czech Republic. She has co-authored the book Základní pojmy divadla. Teatrologický slovník/Basic Theatre Terms. Dictionary of Theatre Studies (P. Pavlovský a kol., National Theatre, Libri 2004) and Esther. Anonym, Frýd, Zelenka: 1944 (Czech Theatre – interactive reconstruction of productions, Augias 2012).

Ali Mahdi Nouri is a Sudanese actor and stage director who has demonstrated that theatre, music and drama have an invaluable role to play in promoting dialogue and supporting peacekeeping processes. In 2000, Mr Nouri founded the Bugaa Theatre Group in Khartoum, internationally recognized today as the most convincing practical example of the instrumentalization of theatre for development and peace-building. Through the creation of his centre for Theatre in Conflict Zones, he succeeded in capturing the interest of morally and psychologically damaged young audiences, former child soldiers, victims and aggressors, and orphans bringing them to accept reconciliation and peace and, thus, aiding their successful reintegration into society. Mr Nouri also is engaged in significant voluntary and humanitarian work, notably with SOS Children’s Village Sudan. He presented a paper at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Child Rights, and was part of the delegation when the Sudanese Government signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 1990.

Honza Malík is dancer, teacher, casual choreographer, initiator, producer and manager of contemporary dance projects. In 1999, when he became a freelancer, he graduated from the Duncan Centre Conservatory – the only school for contemporary dance in the Czech Republic. As a dancer, he has work experience in the State Opera Prague, Laroque Dance Comp. and with Forman brothers. He co-founded NANOHACH company (2004 – 2016), in which he was the artistic director, dancer, producer and manager. He has initiated and developed activities in contemporary dance and has worked with many companies and colleagues: Jarmila Jeřábková Award/New Europe festival (choreography competition), the series of discussions on contemporary dance art LET’S TALK ABOUT DANCE, or Prague Pride festival. He is the head of PULSARr dedicated to creative and education activities of choreographer Michal Záhora and he is also the dramaturg of NU Dance Festival in Bratislava. He teachers at the Duncan Centre Conservatory. Apart from all the above-listed activities, he has been engaged in Czech folklore since his childhood.

Hamadou Mande is professor of Dramatic Arts and Cultural Policies at the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo in Burkina Faso. He also ensures various artistic and associative functions including those of Pedagogical Director of the Superior School of Theatre Jean-Pierre Guingané, President and Artistic Director of the International Theater and Puppet Festival of Ouagadougou (FITMO) and Vice President for Africa of the International Theatre Institute (ITI).

Lucie Němečková is a theatre dramaturg, journalist, translator, and the promoter of francophone theatre in the Czech Republic. She is also the founder and director of festivals Creative Africa and Nad Prahou půlměsíc/A Crescent Above Prague focused on the support of culture encounters, getting to know each other, new sensitivity and humanity, inspiration, tolerance, and open-mindedness, which rank among the essential issues of the contemporary world full of ignorance, prejudices, clichés, hatred, and fear of the different and unknown. She has worked for F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec, Klicpera Theatre in Hradec Králové, Vinohrady Theatre, and Goose on the String Theatre. She is currently the dramaturg of the National Theatre Brno Drama and Theatre World Brno festival. She has been associated with the international book fair Svět knihy and the international festival Theatre of European Regions in Hradec Králové. She writes for Theatre Newspaper, Dance Zone and Slovo, the magazine for and about foreigners.

Fabio Tolledi is a theatre director, playwright and artistic director of Astràgali Teatro (Italy). He is President of the Italian Centre of the International Theatre Institute, President of ITI for Europe and Vice-President of the Committee for Theatre and Conflict of ITI. He is member of ITI Executive Council. He teaches history of theatre at the University of Salento and has collaborated with University of Athens and Charles University of Prague. In the last years, he has been project director of many international projects, realizing artistic collaborations with international theatres, institutions, universities, artists. His performances have been played all over Europe and other countries. Tolledi’s work has been focusing on the direction of intercultural theatrical workshops and performances with team of actors and actresses of different nationalities, and realizing joint multilingual and site-specific performances. He staged performances and  gave lectures, conferences, workshops in many countries, among which Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia, China, Brazil.