International
Theatre Conference: Directing and Authorship in Western Drama
Panel
Two
Friday, October 24th, 11-12:30pm
Dr.
Annelis Kuhlmann, U of Aarhus, Denmark
The Mute Tradition--A Silent Heritage
The years between 1948 and 1974 left space to many of the future traditions
of the contemporary theatre in Denmark. In 1948 the Union of Theatre Directors
was founded, but it was not until 1974 that the formal education of theatre
directors was institutionalized by the State School of Theatre in Copenhagen.
The 'autonomous' generation of theatre directors from this period has
had a very notable impact on today's theatre directors and authorship.
But the problem is that the professional dialogue between the director
and the actors or the director's assistant only seldom is documented.
Even rarer you find access to the director's dialogue with himself/herself.
This dialogue is the theatre director's professional authorship, and it
is often loaded with a similar kinf of irreversible presence as the theatre
performance is. As a theatre historian I am in particular interested in
the sources for a transformation of professional knowledge to new generations.
How do we historically approach the tradition of the director's profession?
Which were the 'secret devices' that the theatre directors articulated
in the forming of a context of tradition at a specific time, while formal
educational systems of theatre directors did not exist? How could we approach
the professional heritage and get knowledge from our ancestors?
The directors I have chosen to mention at this conference got professional
skills from masters (i.e. older Danish or foreign theatre directors).
They either had an educational background as professional actors or they
were students at the university. I shall in particular pay attention to
two very different theatre directors in Denmark whose professional careers
took remarkable shapes during the years 1948 to 1974, namely to the late
Sam Besekow (1911-2001) and to Eugenio Barba (b. 1936).
Their individual professional transformations of knowledge into heritage
is seen as particular enunciations of the mythos and the ethos
of a theatre director.