Roberta Levitow is one of the leaders behind Theatre Without Borders, a community website for international theatre artists committed to exchange. Roberta became well known in the United States as a director and dramaturge for new plays. Most recently, she has been traveling as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at The National University of Theatre & Film, Bucharest, Romania and the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and leading the “East African Theatre Workshop” in Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania, and “The Three Continents Workshop” at the Warsaw Theatre Academy, Poland.

In this interview, Roberta talks about how this completely volunteer initiative has created both a virtual and face-to-face community of artists working across borders, including their connection to the plays in translation site, Words Without Borders, and how Brandeis University is working with them to explore Theatre and Peace Building. All this from four friends getting together for a coffee.

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In its 2005/2006 season, spielzeiteuropa presented twelve productions with a common focus on theatrical research into memory — the memory of the body, and the memory of the mind. As a special project for this season, the festival introduced a Jugendtour (youth tour), with the explicit goal of bringing a younger audience into the theater festival community. Hartmut Schaffrin was in charge of the Jugendtour. He is a production manager of youth projects, mostly related to theater, and is associated with JugendTheaterWerkstatt Spandau in Berlin. In a short interview Hartmut Schaffrin shares his ideas about the mission of the Jugendtour, the achievements and failures involved in putting the idea into practice for the first time, as well as a few words about his personal impressions from the most recent edition of spielzeiteuropa.

This interview is translated from the original German by Sofiya Skachko.

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spielzeiteuropa 2005/2006 hat zwölf Produktionen vorgestellt, die einen gemeinsamen Fokus auf Theaterforschung über die Erinnerung körperliche, sowie geistige Erinnerung – hatten. Während der Festspiele gab es dieses Jahr auch ein besonderes Projekt. Es wurde eine Jugendtour eingeführt, mit dem Ziel jüngeres Publikum in die Theater und Festspielgemeinde herein zu bringen. Hartmut Schaffrin war der Leiter der Jugendtour. Er ist ein Produktionsleiter von Projekten die mit Jugendlichen arbeiten, hauptsählich im Theaterbereich, und gehört der JugendTheaterWerkstatt Spandau in Berlin an. In einem kurzen Interview teilt Hartmut Schaffrin seine Ideen über die Mission der Jugendtour mit. Er gibt auch Auskunft über die Erfolge und Fehlschläge ihrer ersten Ausführung. Zusätzlich sagt er ein Paar Wörter über seine eigenen Eindrucke von der letzten Saison spielzeiteuropa’s.

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Wlodzimierz Staniewski is the founder and artistic director of Center for Practices “Gardzienice”, one of the world’s most prominent theatre companies. Based in the village of Gardzienice, on the eastern border of Poland, for almost thirty years Staniewski and his company have created some of the most significant productions of our time. In addition to their performances at hundreds of festivals all around the world, Staniewski has led cultural expeditions to “hidden territories,” initiated a training Academy, and developed international projects for the integration and exploration of cultural life.

Staniewski sat down in our studio to talk about his recent theatrical creations based on ancient Greek literature, music, and visual art: the relation between indigenous and ancient cultures; inspiration from ancient art’s physicality; his process as theatre archeology; and the need to recognize history in ourselves.

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