Panelists: Joana Nuckowska, head of production and international relations, Nowy Teatr, Warsaw, Poland; Vijay Mathew, cultural strategist and co-founder, Howlround; Martin Zavadil, director, Czech streaming platform Dramox; Gert Naessens, digital platform expert, Perform Europe project. Moderated by: Becka McFadden.
Running time: 2 hours. Presented by: Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw, Theatre Institute Bratislava and Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute of Petöfi. Supported by: the International Visegrad Fund.
The Covid-19 pandemic experience has radically reconfigured the performing arts landscape and prompted a mass migration to digital space. What has it done to an art form like theater, which relies on in-person encounters and the collective experience of sitting in the dark with strangers? Questions of aesthetics, technology, and in-person presence will be accompanied by a discussion of how digital distribution can increase access, help theaters and audiences present their work globally, and contribute to greater environmental and financial sustainability in the performing arts.
The discussion will furter include a brief introduction to the Performing Arts Central Europe — Visegrad Countries Focus (PACE.V4) network and its SHOWOFF podcast series. Attendees will have a chance to contribute to the discussion and ask the panelists questions.
The event is part of a webinar series The Show Must Go ON/OFF Line organized by the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague. The debate will be recorded and used for a discussion featured on the podcast The Show Must Go ON/OFF Line.
This free event will be livestreamed on ZOOM. Registration is required. After filling out the registration form, you will receive an e-mail with a link to access the webinar. Contact person: Barbora Comer at barbora.comer@idu.cz.
VIJAY MATHEW In the past decade, Vijay has helped to build the organizational capacity for several hundred nonprofit organizations worldwide to livestream their conferences, panel discussions, and performances — with an emphasis on prioritizing accessibility, inclusion, and resource efficiency. In the past year, Vijay supervised the production of more than 500 livestreamed events on behalf of the HowlRound Theatre Commons of which he is Co-founder and Cultural Strategist based at Emerson College in Boston, USA. When using internet technologies, he is passionate about the intersections of accessibility, inclusion, the climate emergency, social change, and a post-carbon future. All of his work in these areas has been informed by a "commons" philosophy and social-justice values. He is also a worker-owner in the Crux Cooperative: a creative extended reality XR studio for Black storytelling.
Theatre Institute is the only institution in the Czech Republic that studies and records, preserves, and provides access to information related to theater to anyone interested in learning about its history and its present. We are the memory of Czech theater. We operate as an open center of information, scholarship, consultation, education, and publishing in the field of theater. We provide a wide range of services (a library and video library, web portals and databases, bibliographic and documentation services); organize and participate in international projects, engage in research, documentation work; collecting activities and organizing exhibitions; and we also publish scholarly and specialized literature regarding theater.
Dramox is a new theater streaming platform based in the Czech Republic with outreach to other Central European countries.
PerformEurope is a project to design a future support scheme for cross-border touring and digital distribution of the performing arts.
HowlRound Theatre Commons is a free and open platform for theater makers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners.
ABOUT THE 2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring Vaclav Havel is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association. The program is co-produced by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, GOH Productions, Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute New York, One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater, Slovak Consulate General in New York, Palissimo Company, and Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, Czech Republic.
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos. Additional support is by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka – Member of the KBC Group, PACE.V4 – Performing Arts Central Europe, Visegrad Countries Focus, and International Visegrad Fund.