A workshop on criticism
More Theatre Criticism, Please!
Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia, Prešeren Theatre Kranj
About the event
In collaboration with the Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia, the festival will organise a two-part workshop on criticism:
26 March, 15.00–18.00
Temporary Dance Archive, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana
I. ROK VEVAR: THE INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICISM OF PERFORMING ARTS
In the Introduction to the Criticism of Performing Arts, the participants and their mentor, Rok Vevar, will study some fundamental contextual and textual questions about the practice of criticism. What is the relationship between the individual critical text, the constellation of the media landscape and the system of performing arts, and how do these relationships change over time? How do we understand the critique of the performing arts in the public sphere, and when is the public sphere operational? How does the function of critical writing change through time? What can we say about the genres and styles of critical writing? What can be said about the elements of the daily criticism? What can be said about the textual critical genres, and why are they more or less suited for different historical periods? What is the code of practice of the International Association of Theatre Critics (AITC-IATC), what could be the critic’s intimate credo, and why does it make sense to create one and constantly put it to the test? What are the critic’s intimate duties? We will also consider why it is useful for a critic to continuously encounter stage works with zero degree of signifying.
4–8 April
Prešeren Theatre Kranj
II. PETRA VIDALI: FESTIVAL CRITICISM WORKSHOP
The festival criticism workshop mentored by the established theatre critic Petra Vidali will be based on following the festival performances and reflecting on them, critical analysis and writing different critical texts.
Petra Vidali (1968) is a critic, writer and editor.
She studied at the UL Faculty of Arts and has a degree in comparative literature and sociology of culture. She gained experience as a critic and editor at the student journal Katedra during her studies. After graduation, she worked with several professional journals and was a member of the editorial board of Literatura. When she started working for the [Maribor] daily paper Večer (1999), she predominantly covered literature and theatre. Since 2009, she has been the editor of the newspaper’s culture section. She has been a jury member for literary awards (Večernica, Rožanc Award, Veronika Award, Prešeren Fund Award) and theatre awards (Maribor Theatre Festival, Festival of Chamber Theatre, Biennial of Puppetry Artists) and is a member of the Prešeren Fund Management Board. In the seasons 2015/2015 and 2016/2017, she was the selector of the Maribor Theatre Festival. She received the Stritar Award for literary criticism (1999), the Glazer Award for theatre and literary criticism (2004) and the Vladimir Kralj Award for theatre criticism (2022). Between 2002 and 2014, she conceived and edited the series of contemporary translated prose Babilon, and between 2010 and 2014, she also edited the book series Nova znamenja for the Litera publishing house. She writes introductions to translated but particularly original contemporary prose.
Rok Vevar (1973) is a critic, author, theorist, archivist and historian.
He graduated in comparative literature and literary theory at the UL Faculty of Arts and studied directing at the UL AGRFT. He is an author in the field of theory and history of contemporary performing arts and a historiographer and archivist of contemporary dance. His writing has been published in several Slovenian daily papers and Slovenian and international professional performing arts and literature journals. He wrote the book Rok za oddajo: Izbor kritik in člankov (Litera 2011). In 2011, he established the Temporary Slovenian Dance Archive in his flat, which in 2018 was moved into the custody to the first floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, where Rok Vevar performs a living archive in duration. He is an active member of the Balkan dance network Nomad Dance Academy, in which he initiated the project of regional archiving of choreographic practices as a part of the Nomad Dance Institute.
Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia, Prešeren Theatre Kranj
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