Open Call | Dramaturgy NOW

How do we work? How do we think? How do we live? A two-day international online workshop and forum titled “New World, New Art Forms, New Dramaturgies” is to be held on November 18 and 19, 2020 as part of the Onassis Stegi Future N.O.W. program. This workshop will consider the role dramaturgy has to play in the performing arts in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

Six female dramaturgs, from various longitudes and latitudes across the globe, ask themselves: what does “dramaturgy” mean, and what can it offer within the framework of artistic creation today? What dramaturgical processes are in play right now in theater, dance, and performance scenes across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe? How can we work, or rather, how can we work together in this unprecedented moment, where work in the arts is itself at stake. How can we think up new forms of art, and how can we collectively form new ways of thinking about art – and by extension, about the world – in the constantly inconstant “here and now” of pandemic-ridden 2020? On reflection, how can we live, how can we create – and how can we make dramaturgy together?

The aim of this workshop is to explore and record – by means of specific practical examples drawn from the work of the participating dramaturgs and artists – dramaturgical trends in the performing arts as they currently stand, on aesthetic, structural, and sociopolitical levels; to discuss the challenges that the performing arts are being called upon to face at a global level; and to work on ways in which dramaturgy can, in answer to these challenges, act as a space for the creation of politically powerful on-stage acts.

With one eye always on the artistic and sociopolitical contexts in which they work, the curators and invited dramaturgs will together be discussing the similarities and differences between the dramaturgical processes where they are; the challenges that the performing arts are being called upon to face at a global level; and the ways in which dramaturgy can, in answer to these challenges, act as a space for the creation of politically powerful on-stage acts.

Curated by: Danae Theodoridou (Belgium/Greece) and Betina Panagiotara (Greece), in collaboration with Iliana Dimadi (Head of Dramaturgy at Onassis Stegi). With: Eylül Fidan Akıncı (Turkey), Maria Rößler (Germany), Warona Seane (South Africa), and Silvia Soter (Brazil).

The workshop will be held on November 18 from 17:00 till 21:00, and November 19 from 17:00 till 19:00 (six hours total).

An international forum (open to the public) on dramaturgy’s challenges and role in the performing arts today will be held over Onassis YouTube Channel on November 19 from 19:00 till 21:00.

Suitable for: theater, performance, and dance artists, and performing arts dramaturgs

Τhe international forum is set to be video recorded with a view to making the resultant materials openly accessible to the public as part of the promotion of the Company’s activities and events, via any means of its choosing, such as its websites, social media channels, and publications, the Media, and/or other online platforms, such as YouTube, for as long as it retains the relevant rights as per the law.

*Please note that, due to the international nature of this event, both the workshop and the forum will be conducted in English.