On 28th and 29th November will be the fourth National Playwrights Meeting with all the Polish authors selected and all the Fabulamundi’s partners.

Reading of the text Spirit, written by Nathalie Fillion, on February 5th in Warsaw for the direction of Aldona Figura. Cast: Magdalena Czerwińska, Agata Góral, Martyna Kowalik, Katarzyna Pośpiech, Agnieszka Roszkowska, Łukasz Lewandowski, Kamil Szklany, Mateusz Weber.

The play “Scenes of Domestic Violence” by Gérard Watkins will take place in Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw on 19th of March at 7.00 pm. The reading is going to be directed by Aldona Figura with the cast from our theatre. After the reading there will be the discussion with the audience and an expert.

The play “Allarmi!” by the Italian author Emanuele Aldrovandi will be presented in Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw on 5th of March at 7.00 pm.

The play was translated by Kamila Straszyńska and the reading is going to be directed by Katarzyna Łęcka with the cast from the theatre.
After the reading there will be the discussion with the audience and an expert.

From 25th to 27th April there will the first Mob Pro in London

This month Warsaw Dramatic Theatre continues to host public readings of Fabulamundi selected texts translated into Polish. On the evening of 16 April, there’ll be a reading of Out There by French Fabulamundi author Nathalie Fillion (translated by Aleksandra Stelmach and directed by Aldona Figura). The reading will be followed by an open discussion with the audience and experts.

On 21 May at Teatr Dramatyczny M. St. Warszawy there’ll be a reading of “Die Mountainbiker” by Austrian playwright Volker Schmidt (translated by J. St. Buras and directed by Adam Sajnuk). The reading will be followed by an open discussion with the audience and experts.

On the evening of 18 June there’ll be the reading of Fascinacion by Helena Tornero, with the translation of Hanna Szczerkowska and the direction of Daria Kopiec.

There we’ll be a reading of The Rumbling of the Milky Way by German playwright Bonn Park, translated by Iwona Nowacka  and directed by Adam Nalepa.

At Teatr Dramatyczny, Bernhard Studlar will lead a masterclass for theatre students from 14-24 October. The theme of the workshops is The Confessions of the Courageous Mind. In the frame of this workshop, Starless Night by Bernhard Studlar will be presented with the direction of Grażyna Kania.

The new season of Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw starts with the stage reading of The Calipsh Will Kiss Our Foreheads by the Austrian author Muhammet Ali Baş, with the direction of Aldona Figura.

The play tells in a highly comic manner of the efforts of two young men to enroll in jihad. Its principal aim is to expose the absurd reasons that motivate them to do so. Aside from all the usual, frequently discussed explanations, the play attempts to highlight the role of pop cultural elements and religious illiteracy in this. In the course of the play the two young men meet a plethora of quirky, bigoted characters who are in the jihad business primarily to further their own financial interests. This is often grotesquely funny but is also highly instructive. Not only for the figures taking part, but also for the audience. The play tries to make sense of the incomprehensible in a quirky and comic manner without making it appear cute.

On 14 December Teatr Dramatyczny m.st. Warszawy presents the premiere of Smutek I Melancholia (Traurigkeit & Melancholie) by German author Bonn Park.

At Teatr Dramatyczny of Warsaw in January Smutek I Melancholia (Traurigkeit & Melancholie) by German author Bonn Park will still be running. The show will be on stage on 12-13 January, translated by Iwona Nowacka, with the direction of Piotr Waligorski, the set and costume design of Jak Kozikowski and with Zdzislaw Wardejn as George.

From 18-24 February at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw, Anna Wakulik will lead a playwriting workshop focused on the theme of the family with four selected Italian authors of Fabulamundi Drama Lab: Martina Badiluzzi, Valeria Belardelli, Luca Di Capua and Pier Lorenzo Pisano.

On Monday 18th, there will be the reading of For your own good by Italian playwright Pier Lorenzo Pisano.

On March 16th there will be the  opening of Scenes of domestic violence by Gerard Watkins, directed by Aldona Figura at Przodownik Stage.

From 5-7 March Teatr Dramatyczny will host the Mob Pro-Warsaw, the three-day training programme focused on the role and the work of the playwrights in the contemporary society. The theme of this session will be We and they – on different aspects of cultural narcissisms and will see the involvement of international experts and a selection of ten Fabulamundi playwrights: Alexandra Badea, Clàudia Cedó, Nathalie Fillion, Bogdan Georgescu, Industria Indipendente, Petr Kolečko, Bonn Park, Volker Schmidt and Csaba Szekely.

On March 4th in the frame of Laboratorium Dramatu there will be the reading of The Revolution trilogy – Against Equality by Spanish author Esteve Soler.

From 26-28 April, Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw will present the production of Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins, directed by Aldona Figura and with Paula Kinaszewska, Marcin Sztabiński, Agnieszka Roszkowska, Anna Szymańczyk and Kamil Mróz

Fabulamundi – Call for Associate Researcher

Fabulamundi Playwriting Europe is seeking a highly motivated individual to join our team as Associate Researcher for our academic research project ‘Fabulamundi Workbook: Mapping Contemporary Playwriting and Theatre Translation Practices in Europe’, led by Dr Margherita Laera, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.

This is a highly flexible part-time role which would suit a recently appointed Lecturer, post-doc, or PhD student based at any higher education institution in the EU, who could freely choose to spend their paid research time on this project. The position starts in June 2019 and ends in July 2020. The Associate Researcher will receive a small honorarium.

From 21 to 23 May Wiener Worstaetten will host the Mob-Pro Vienna, the three-day training programme focused on the role and the work of the playwrights in the contemporary society. The theme of this session will be the tolerance and it will see the involvement of international experts with the participation of eight Fabulamundi playwrights: Gerhild Steinbuch, Katerina Rudčenková, Nathalie Fillion, Kai Grehn, Liv Ferracchiati, Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, Radu Popescu, Josep Maria Miró.

On May there will be two shows in repertory at Teatr Dramatyczny m. st. Warsawy: on 9th and 11th of May, Sadness and Melancholy by the German author Bonn Park, directed by Piotr Waligorski; on 24-25 May Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins, directed by Aldona.

From June 29th to July 7th Laboratorium Dramatu in Wiatraki will host 10 days of workshops and lectures with experts and the participation of 10 Polish playwrights (among the others, Elzbieta Chowaniec), 10 directors and 30 actors.

On 13-14 June Scenes of domestic violence by Gerard Watkins will be presented at Przodownik Stage, with the direction of Aldona Figura and the translation of Aleksandra Stelmach.

On June 3rd in the frame of Laboratorium Dramatu, there will be the reading of Julia and the Empty Lot by Spanish author Claudia Cedó directed by Justyna Celeda and translated by Zuzanna Bucko. The reading will be followed by an open discussion with the audience.

On 20-21 July there will be the show Sadness and melancholy by German playwright Bonn Park, directed by Piotr Waligorski .

On 11th and 12th July there will be the stage presentations of Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins, with the direction of Aldona Figura.

From 23-25 September, Interkulturelles Theaterzentrum Berlin will host the Mob-Pro Germany, the three-day training programme focused on the role and the work of the playwrights in contemporary society.
The theme of this session will be Translation and it will see the involvement of international experts with the participation of eleven Fabulamundi playwrights: Katja Brunner (Germany), David Drabek (Czech Rep.), Azar Mortazavi (Austria), Artur Pałyga (Poland), Pier Lorenzo Pisano (Italy), Guillaume Poix (France), Gabriel Sandu (Romania), Fabrizio Sinisi (Italy), Robert Woelfl (Austria), Joan Yago (Spain), Petr Zelenka (Czech Rep.).
During the MobPro, on September 23rd, there will also be presented a short version of Natura morta con attori by Fabrizio Sinisi and Nationalstrasse by Czech author Jaroslav Rudis  at Haus der Statistik.

Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins with the direction of Aldona Figura will be presented on December 19th at Teatr Dramatyczny m. st. Warsawy.

On 11-12 February Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins will be on stage at Teatr Dramatyczny m. st. Warsawy, with the direction of Aldona Figura.

On the 23, there will be the stage reading of the text Potato Eaters by Icelandic author Tyrfingur Turfingson.

On March 19th Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins will be presented at Teatr Dramatyczny m. st. Warsawy, with the direction of Aldona Figura.

5.10.2020, 19:00
Raven from the Tower
by Andrei Ivanov
translation by Bożena Majorczyk
direction by Aldona Figura

“We are lonely. We love no one. And our life is screwed up.” The teenage Kostia, after the death of her father, lives in conflict with her mother. He spends his free time in front of the computer, hates the world and family, is depressed and depressed. He is cold, there are no feelings in him, will say the mother, who, concerned about her son’s condition, decides to conduct an unusual pedagogical experiment. By creating a fake Facebook account, she decides to establish a contact with her son that he doesn’t really experience. The virtual relationship between Toffee and Raven from the Tower turns into a painfully honest conversation between lonely people who long for normality. In his shocking drama, Andrei Ivanov tells about the despair that becomes a companion in everyday life and about the risky fight that every mother will undertake to get her beloved son back.

Andrei Ivanov (born in 1984, Blagoveshchensk, Russia). He lives in Minsk. He is a philologist and playwright. In 2007 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University. A. Pushkin in Brest. He worked as a journalist, as an editor in a feature film studio, as an editor in a children’s book publishing house. His play “It’s all because of her” (the only one that the author considers completed) was written in 2012 and published in 2013 in the Russian monthly “Oktiabr”, it was first staged in 2014 at the Dramatic Theater. W. Majakowski in Norilsk. Currently, the author works as a screenwriter at the Animated Film Studio in Minsk.

12.10.2020,  19.00
Victims. Belarus
by Andrei Kuriejczyk
translation by Jakub Adamowicz
direction by Marcin Liber

“Victims. Belarus” by Andrei Kuriejczyk is a play devoted to current protests and post-election events taking place in Minsk and the rest of the country. Battles like this – between society and power, happen once every hundred years … battles between good and evil – says one of the heroes of the play. Old Belarus, symbolized by the relentless Alexander Lukashenko, collides with New Belarus, whose face is Svetlana Cichanouska and young citizens. In a country on the verge of civil war, people are asking what a person can do in the name of hatred. The Kuriejczyk is ruthless in showing the truth about how a system that seems to be a monolith is slowly falling apart from the inside.

Andrey Kuriejczyk (born 1980, Minsk) – playwright, actor, director, screenwriter. He lives in Minsk. Author of stage works, incl. Skaryna, Theatrical art (Tieatral’naja pjesa), Bright house (Light house), Kindergarten (Dietskij sad). The writer’s plays have been staged on many stages, incl. MChAT im. Chekhov, Dramatic Theater of them. Majakowski (Moscow), the Belarusian National Theater J. Kupała and the Russian Drama Theater. M. Gorky (Minsk), the Ukrainian National Theater L. Ukrainka (Kiev).

He has participated in many drama competitions, incl. Eurasia (Yekaterinburg), Debut (Moscow), competition organized by the Belarusian Ministry of Culture. For several years he worked as a rapporteur for the daily “BiełGazieta” (he published over two hundred articles). He is the author of two anthologies, the last of which – Skaryna – was published in 2006. Four plays have been translated into Polish: Klan Blindców (translated by Karolina Niewiadomska), Niebo (transl. Piotr Mitzner), Russia offended (transl. By Dariusz Jezierski) and Skrzywdzeni. Belarus (translated by Jakub Adamowicz). The drama Klan the Blinds was published in the anthology Nowa dramaturgia Belaruska. Vol. 1 (edited by Andrei Moskwin, Warsaw 2011). The second, Niebo, under the pseudonym Nikita Mickiewicz, first published the monthly “Dialog” (2005/12), and then – in the anthology Nowa Belarusian dramaturgia (volume 6, Warsaw 2017).

The play “Victims. Belarus”, based on recent events in Belarus, is read in 50 theaters in 13 countries around the world.

19.10.2020, 19.00
Penaty
by Timofiej Iljewski
translation by Jakub Adamowicz
direction by Artur Tyszkiewicz

Instead of talking to each other, they reach for phones, the always-on TV becomes a companion of everyday life, screaming replaces words, and headphones on their ears help to escape from everyday life. Timofiej Iljewski in his comedy-drama portrays a three-generation Belarusian family locked in one apartment, condemned to their presence. Grandma – for thirty years she was the secretary of a party organization and it’s hard to part with the past, father – a frustrated lecturer, tired of explaining the basics of knowledge about culture and art to students, mother – locked in the kitchen with a pot of potatoes, she has no strength to raise children, daughter – a typical teenager experiences emotional crises related to boys, the son – a young rebel stuck to the computer screen, wants to escape from a country where power takes away people’s freedom. There is also my grandfather – a former journalist, a silent observer of crazy family life, whose main occupation is reading notes and memories from the war times at dinner. What must happen for the family to start talking to each other again? Are the crisis of communication and lack of understanding inherent in our everyday life?

Timofiej Ilijewski (born 1961, Brest) – director, playwright. A graduate of the Belarusian State University of Culture. In the years 1988-2001 he worked at the Youth House in Brest, headed a theater club there and was the artistic director of the folk theater “Rajok”. He is the author of eleven stage pieces, incl. Existence (1997), Fokstrot (1997), Homo ludens (2001), West Fort (2008), Chapter Seven (2008), Solar Circle (2011), Penaty (2016), Francysk. A Parable (2016), The Last Hero (2018).

26.10.2020,  19.00
Live until the premiere. A comedy in two acts
by Nikołaj Rudkowski
translation by Bożena Majorczyk

In order to be credible on a theatrical stage, does one have to experience in reality what the protagonist experiences? For Vera and Katia, young actresses who are preparing a war-themed performance, empathizing with a role becomes synonymous with losing a sense of reality. Their ambition dictates that in order to create authentic figures of partisans, they must, like them, “soak up the smell of war”. Hunger, poverty, fear, difficult conditions, escapes, torture, pain – actresses are trying harder and harder to feel the danger and risk associated with conspiracy and conflict. Their attempts quickly turn into crazy and absurd actions, which the husband of one of them looks at with pity. It is he who loudly declares that in the modern world there are things worse than war, and the basic question for today is the question of how an ordinary man is to live in times of ubiquitous reduction, crisis and unemployment? Mikołaj Rudkowski’s surreal comedy is a perverse story about a theater that tries to get closer to life and a life that resembles an ordinary farce.

Nikołaj Rudkowski (born 1971, Minsk) – playwright, journalist, actor and director. A graduate of the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University in Minsk and the Faculty of Directing of the Belarusian University of Culture and Arts. Actor in the National Academic Dramatic Theater M. Gorky (1995-1999). For this group he wrote a production by Pierrett (1995) based on the works of Arthur Schnitzler. In this play, he acted as an actor and served as an assistant director. He was also the director of his own plays: The Blind Star (“On the Balcony” Theater, 2007 and the Center for Belarusian Drama and Directing, 2008); Bergman’s Women (“On the Balcony” Theater, 2007). Since 2000 he has been working on the Belarusian-German radio “Unistar” as an editor.

At this link it’s possible to download the final report about Audience Development within Fabulamundi, written by Cristina Da Milano, for CAE-Culture Action Europe.

REPORT: Audience Development within Fabulamundi