The Grappler Special Edition

FALL 2023 PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

THE GRAPPLER

SPECIAL EDITION

TABLE OF CONTENTS A Note from the Editors 1.Camille Rose Pugliese and Liz Bazzoli Opening Night

by Camille Rose Pugliese We Don’t Need More Tributes

by Josephine Clarke

Performance at the PQ: Forms of Protest

by Joan Starkey

I'm Here II

by Camille Rose Pugliese

How Things Go

by Rowen Nowlan

Donald O'Connor Meets Postmodernism

by Kate Shuert

Inaccessibility is a Failure of Imagination

by Artemis Westover

Reimagining the Director

by Josie Moore

A Theatre of Abundance

by Liam Shannon

SCENOGRAPHERS AT THE PQ!

PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

FALL 2023

A NOTE FROM YOUR EDITORS CAMILLE ROSE PUGLIESE AND LIZ BAZZOLI

Late spring quarter, the two of us were approached by Kristin Idaszak, a member of The Theatre School’s dramaturgy faculty. It was at this moment we first learned about a brand new study-abroad trip to the Czech Republic. More specifically, we learned that the trip would take students to the Prague Quadrennial, an international scenography and performance festival that’s taken place every four years since 1967. 2023's festival would be the first since the onset of COVID-19, and this triumphant return set out to celebrate artist’s adaptations to the post-pandemic world. What better opportunity could there be for today’s theatre students, each of whom is coming of age in a professional environment still struggling to address the changes brought by COVID-19?

The trip, led by professors Kristin Idaszak and Shane Kelly, brought together 20 TTS students across departments, including our own editor Camille Pugliese. From 8-18 June, these students explored the city and watched-- even sometimes participated in--a variety of performances from international artists of diverse artistic backgrounds and practices. From these experiences, students wrote a series of essays and reflections. As a publication dedicated to the development of theatre writing, The Grappler happily features the hard work of these students in this special Fall edition.

Congratulations to all who experienced this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thank you for your contributions to this inaugural publication of The Grappler.

OPENING NIGHT

BY CAMILLE ROSE PUGLIESE

“WE NEED NEW FORMS AND IF WE CAN’T HAVE THEM, LET’S HAVE NO THEATRE AT ALL” ANTON CHEKHOV, THE SEAGULL My mind wandered to Konstantin Treplieff’s

These boundary-breaking doers share the

monologue in Anton Chekhov’s 1895 play,

burden of Konstantin’s dreams. The PQ is a

The Seagull during the opening ceremony

realization of his passion: new forms!

of the Prague Quadrennial (PQ). The PQ is

Konstantin seeks to create his own kind of

an international scenography and

theatre that speaks to him and his

performance festival which occurs once

generation– a theatre that directly

every four years in the heart of the Czech

addresses the needs of the new and the

Republic. I joined the ranks of

now. Everyone at the PQ is working

scenographers, theatre makers, and

towards their own “RARE futures”, the

performers from all over the globe,

theme of this year’s PQ, to make theatre

witnessing cutting-edge innovations in

that is beyond imagination. Though

theatre technology and performance. The

Chekhov’s character was ultimately

PQ is a chance for all its attendees to see

unsuccessful, the legacy of his anti-

what the future of performance design will

disciplinary spirit lives on. If only Konstantin

look like.

could see us now.

The festival buzzed with this hope. In the moments before the official opening ceremony, I watched old friends meeting, kissing, reconnecting for the first time in four years or more.

These sweet small reunions reminded me how special it is to be together, to create art together after the tumultuous years of the global pandemic and so much time spent apart. We huddled in anticipation to watch a performer in a glittering gold sequined dress and a cheap, choppy blonde wig kick off the beginning of the festivities which would continue for the next two weeks.

In the first few moments they were silent, the only noise came from the sound of drums which played like the beginning of an ancient ceremony.

“IT FELT LIKE BOTH A CHALLENGE AND A PROMISE”

We will be the ones. The ones who understand what it’s like to create theatre beyond the threshold of what feels possible. The ones who make art because

They carried a gold PQ flag as if it were an

they understand its global impact and the

olympic torch, and it was his sacred honor

capacity it has for change, The ones at the

to light the flame. They walked and the

forefront of change. We are the ones who

crowd blindly followed him through the

make new forms possible.

market. Bodies together, taking up space in a way that felt impossible this time three years ago.

Their journey ended at the center of the market, at an inflatable bull ring adorned in the same gold he wore. They mounted the bull, standing, rotating to face the masses before them. The performer grabbed this metaphorical bull of a changing theatre by its literal horns. At the same time, they called us to make the art that we want to see, art that responds to the unprecedented times we face. It felt like both a challenge and a promise. A strange tension existed in this campy yet urgent and almost solemn performance.

We can’t move forward without remembering the past. We can’t be stuck in the past and forget about the future.

I felt Konstantine’s words in our golden leader’s speech. He gave us a call to action that would only be satisfied with more creativity. More newness. If we are the future, we must think more expansively about what theatre, performance, scenography, entertainment, and even liveness will look like one day.

Scenographers, performers, writers, builders, directors, and of course dramaturgs, it is our responsibility to make a more sustainable and long lasting theatre.

PHOTOS :JAKUB HRAB

CAMILLE ROSE PUGLIESE (SHE/HER) IS A BFA 4 DRAMATURGY & DRAMATIC CRITICISM MAJOR FROM RED BANK, NJ

WE DON’T NEED MORE TRIBUTES

BY JOSEPHINE CLARKE

The exhibit hall at the 15th Prague

Animitas are roadside memorials in Chile that

Quadrennial (PQ) was unlike any exhibition

are designed to pay tribute to and house the

I had ever been to. Rather than still

soul of someone who has died suddenly.

paintings or plaques on a wall, there were installations brimming with life. There was

This particular animita was for 20 different

a fake travel agency, a booth to make

designers that the company Complejo Conejo

flower petals for a wooden tree, a giant

had decided to “kill.” They state, “[w]e have

Styrofoam cube with performers “mining”

killed the masters, and we preserve their spirits

in its caves. The PQ team called for “rare”

in these animitas that are paradoxically

experiences, calling for new forms and

brimming with life, for it is a fact that stage

scenographic innovations, a call that was

designers do not rest in peace.” Indeed, an

clearly answered. As I stumbled through

important aspect.

the exhibition on the festival’s opening night, I found my peers standing in line,

The inspiration behind the piece came from

waiting for something.

the death of the Complejo Conejo’s mentors during the pandemic. Indeed, it felt odd to be

They excitedly told me they were in line to

so celebratory in the face of death after such a

die.

major, deadly event as COVID. However, it didn’t seem like Complejo Conejo was being

This was the Chilean exhibit, aptly titled

disrespectful in their approach. This animita

Memento Mori: Animitas of Chilean

was assembled out of care and deliberation—a

Theater Design. Four performers in official-

simultaneous acknowledgement that

looking slacks, ties, and bunny masks

scenographers never truly die, but a facetious

manned an open-walled structure. As I

“killing of the masters”. In an accompanying

looked inside, I could see the “death” I was

booklet, Complejo Conejo clarifies that their

waiting for. Participants were instructed to

particular animita was not a true memorial,

step into the structure and put their head

asserting “we don't need more tributes.”

through a hole in the wall, with an arrow pointing to it that sported a glib caption of “You Died.” A polaroid was taken, a tag was

“LETTING OLD “MASTERS” GO DIDN’T HAVE TO BE SCARY, AND

handed to the participant, they filled out

INVITING NEW FORMS DIDN’T

the tag and it go stamped. Quite a DMV-

NECESSARILY MEAN THAT

esque process of dying.

EVERYTHING WE ALREADY HAD WAS DEAD.”

However, it didn’t seem like Complejo

Memento Mori translates roughly to

Conejo was being disrespectful in their

“Remember you will die,” which can serve

approach. This animita was assembled out

as a grim reminder, or it can be a phrase

of care and deliberation—a simultaneous

that gives exigence to the present. Killing

acknowledgement that scenographers

the masters gives way to new, rare ways of

never truly die, but a facetious “killing of the

artistically creating. If we don’t get caught

masters”. In an accompanying booklet,

up in our own personal tributes, we can

Complejo Conejo clarifies that their

create new realities as well.

particular animita was not a true memorial, asserting “we don't need more tributes.”

It was not reverent; it was fun. We giggled and laughed as we thought up ways to die that we would write on our tags. When I was dying, there were some technical difficulties with the camera. In an almost Monty Python-style repetition, the attendant kept saying “You are going to die,” only for the camera to not work. I was strangely relaxed and almost reflective as I as led through the process. Something so macabre and sad surely should have

MEMENTO MORI: ANIMITAS OF CHILEAN THEATRE DESIGN

PHOTO :JAKUB HRAB

inspired feelings of reverence or somber ponderings, but I left feeling giddy and inspired. Letting old “masters” go didn’t

JOSEPHINE CLARKE (SHE/HER) IS

have to be scary, and inviting new forms

A RECENT GRADUATE OF THE

didn’t necessarily mean that everything we

DRAMATURGY & DRAMATIC

already had was dead. The revelation

CRITICISM PROGRAM, CURRENTLY

helped me to see the rest of the exhibitions

RESIDING IN CHICAGO, IL.

through a new light.

MEMENTO MORI: ANIMITAS OF CHILEAN THEATRE DESIGN

PHOTO :JAKUB HRAB

PERFORMANCE AT THE PQ: FORMS OF PROTEST

BY JOAN STARKEY

After an opening ceremony that bewildered and riveted me, there were two shows at the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) that particularly affected me. Be Water, My Friend, an interactive and ambulatory experience protested explicitly against oppressive systems of government, and I’m Here II, a dance piece, subtly resisted the equally atrocious forces of ageism and misogyny. Not only did the story of these pieces inspire but their distinct and purposeful dramaturgy supported them profoundly.

Their messages included: If the world I.

could see, what would you write? Who will

Be Water, My Friend is a participatory

protect us? Can you run fast enough? Write

performance art piece made by Hong Kong

fast enough? Do you know first aid and self-

artists Carmen Lee and Chun Shing Au of

defense? Be water to fight. Be water to live.

Theatre du Poulet in Canada in collaboration with German artists Greta Katharina Klein and Levin Eichert. It has had many iterations, but at the PQ it began on the Střelecký island on the Vltava River surrounded by sunlight and greenery.

The artists instructed us to keep water droplets balanced on our hands and then contribute them to a waterfall. Together, the audience manipulated a large tarp holding a small pool of water from the river, observing the interesting movements and shapes we could make. We broke off to individual resting spots on the island and learned via the Telegram messaging app about water as a metaphor for protest strategies used in Hong Kong in 2019-20.

We carried water on plastic wrap in small groups and traveled with it through the city to the courtyard of the Národní Divadlo (National Theatre) of Prague, where we pooled our water for the artists to use for writing protest slogans on the concrete walls and ground with mops, sprayers, and sponges.

BE WATER, MY FRIEND PHOTO: MICHAL HANCOVSKY

Even though we were in a busy public area of Prague, there was little interruption of the performance, until this moment. Not long after the artists began this closing portion of the piece, a semi-official looking man (we later discovered he was from the National Theatre and not a part of Be Water) began spraying over their words with a hose. It was shocking and unsettling to see their art interrupted. To see a realtime example of the authoritative oppression discussed in this piece unfold in front of me, especially in direct response to a work of art, was disheartening.

AT THE SAME TIME THE IRONY WAS CLEAR TO ME, AND THIS UNEXPECTED DRAMATURGY SUPPORTED THE

II. I interpret I’m Here II as a protest piece too, though it addresses oppression artfully through abstract body politics. The dance

PIECE. THIS MAN UNINTENTIONALLY

performance by Israeli choreographer Galit

REINFORCED THE MESSAGE OF THE

Liss featured an ensemble of 65-plus year-

POWER OF WATER, PROTEST, WORDS,

old women from Israel and the Czech

AND ART AGAINST OPPRESSION.

Republic. They began standing on the

The ambulatory and participatory form of the piece activated its audience in the consideration of this message. Its interactive physicality mirrored a protest; we received information and instructions in small pieces over text, gathered and marched through the city, and read and wrote powerful slogans. Kinesthetically feeling physical elements of protest during the piece made me connect to it and consider my experience at protests and protesters in Hong Kong and historically in Prague. The participation in writing messages in water activated me to think about their application to my life. I know I will remember the water metaphors I learned over Telegram, to be “strong like ice and fluid like water,” to “gather like dew and scatter like mist.”

second-floor balcony of the National Gallery of Prague looking down intently at the audience. Their presence was stunning, all gazing with their own strong expressions.

They entered the ground floor playing space where they first walked, then ran, then danced unrestrained up and down the performance space in a staggered pattern that allowed my eye to wander from performer to performer. The women stopped whenever they reached the very front of the playing space and gazed out solemnly. The stillness was striking. In a poignant moment, they stood in a line at the front of the space, a mere foot away from me as an audience member, and each touched a part of their body that held a memory. The gesture was at once secretive and revealing.

The form of this piece allowed it to teach its audience about a current social issue and apply water teachings to real-life protest strategies. Exercising those strategies, for example scattering like mist into the city and gathering like dew to write messages, was built into the structure of the performance. In investigating their focal material of water literally, then metaphorically, then actively, these artists crafted an effective structure for this interactive performance.

I’M HERE II PHOTO: ANNA BENHACOVA

The only spoken words were “What do you

While it is my job to continuously question

see? What do you not see? Look at your

whether theatre can change the world,

hands; is there a memory?”

these performances reinforced my belief that theatre can change people. At least I

“RARELY DO WE GET TO SEE ELDERLY WOMEN ENCOURAGED TO EXPRESS THIS MUCH JOY AND ARTISTRY” In the United States, elderly people— especially women— are hidden away from

have come out changed.

JOAN STARKEY (THEY/SHE) IS A BFA3 DRAMATURGY AND CRITICISM MAJOR FROM ORLANDO, FLORIDA.

public eye because the world is not built to accommodate them. Because of ageism and misogyny, they are told their bodies are unacceptable and should not be viewed at all. Through the freedom of dance, these women boldly proved that

I’M HERE II

BY CAMILLE ROSE PUGLIESE

“Don’t get old.”

notion wrong. Rarely do we get to see elderly women encouraged to express this much joy and artistry.

I’m Here II also had a participatory element. At one point, the performers entered the audience space and did handmirroring with several audience members.

The gesture made me think about aging, the connection between the old and the young, beauty standards, and what I will look and feel like when I am their age. I feel like I gained wisdom about fearlessness from seeing them sing and dance to their own individual music. Spirit never dies, and movement to music is a profound way to express that.

Movement. Protest. Participation.

Activation. These concepts are swirling around my head having experienced these performances at the PQ festival. Through navigating these ideas—like I navigated the city of Prague carrying water—and absorbing new forms of dramaturgy—like the touch of a stranger during a dance—I mentally resituated myself in the world.

My grandma Mary told me this countless times. Most times she laughed, but there were many times she wouldn’t. Times she’d look at me and I knew she was genuinely telling me not to age at all. I felt a warning against the inevitable.

I’ve been thinking about Mary a lot recently, her humor, and her warning. This may be why I was so struck by I’m Here II, a dance performance created by Israeli choreographer Galit Liss at this year’s Prague Quadrennial. It featured mature women from both Israel and the Czech Republic in a movement piece that connected body, heart, and soul.

I knew this performance would be special from its opening moments. It took place in a large, open, yet sterile and white gallery space. The room felt sterile despite its brightness and openness to the rest of the gallery. The women brought warmth to this cold place. They stood on an upper balcony looking down on the audience, smiling strongly together as classical music played. Each wore a brightly colored t-shirt as if to say: I will not be hidden, you will see me.

I’M HERE II PHOTO: ANNA BENHACOVA

One by one, they descended the stairs to

A voice over called them to look at their

meet the audience. Once they reached the

hands: “What do you see? What do you not

ground floor, they began individual

see?”

journeys of running up to the audience, stopping, looking into the crowd, and

They came into the audience, connecting

returning to the back of the performance

with us, having us follow their hands with

space to do it all over again. The running

our hands: a parallel image of young and

slowly morphed into dancing, following the

old. A woman with short dark hair, kind

same pattern of approaching, looking, and

eyes, and a warm smile came up to me.

returning. It was movement that looked like it felt good. I felt their joy move

I followed her hands, and we existed

throughout my own body as I watched.

together in a moment of shared time.

There was so much I admired in this short

I thought about Mary,

performance, which would only last twenty

and all the women before her,

minutes. I was struck by their awareness of

and all women after me.

the audience– the courage it takes to look out into the audience as if to say “I’m here.”

I’m not afraid to get old.

I asked myself why I was feeling this way,

CAMILLE ROSE PUGLIESE

why I couldn’t treat this performance like anything I’d seen at the PQ so far?

It’s because of the way we treat mature and elderly women in the United States. The way we’re meant to fear aging, fear what our bodies may look like in 10, 20, 50, 60 years. Somehow, our society has made us complicit in a system where women lose value when we don’t fight against the natural passing of time. Older women go literally unseen, are too often stripped of their identity and pushed to the margins.

I’M HERE II PHOTO: ANNA BENHACOVA

HOW THINGS GO

BY ROWEN NOWLAN

HUMAN ADJECTIVE /ˈHJUː.MƏN “HAVING THE QUALITIES, FAULTS, AND FEELINGS THAT PEOPLE HAVE, AS OPPOSED TO GODS, ANIMALS, OR MACHINES:” - CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY More than it is hard to be a person, it is hard to make a mistake. In a time of supposed better access to communication, rather than use social media and other platforms to show the ways people connect, there is an aspect of competition to show the most perfectly curated version of oneself. Even as I write this piece, I think and rethink my sentence structure- I write and delete sentences, wishing to have the right words the first go around instead of the second, third, fourth edit.

In life, there is hardly room for error.

HOW THINGS GO PHOTO: ANNA BENHACOVA

I laughed, yet no one else seemed to share my intrigue or delight. Perhaps they feared

Yet, in the performance of How Things Go

the falling--what does it mean to the

at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial (PQ), that

audience if the performance has failed, but

is exactly what the two acrobats performed

that its failure is a success?

at the National Gallery of Prague. At the PQ, theatre artists gather from around the

It is difficult, I noted, to accept that failure

world to showcase avant garde

may be okay, let alone intentional. Words

performance and scenography. How

fail me as I attempt to describe this feeling-

Things Go by Felix Baumann of Denmark

a feeling no god, animal, or machine has

and Sean Henderson of the United States,

experienced. Is this piece successful

reminded its audience that life is about this

because I am questioning my own

continued struggle of losing, over and over

struggle? I can barely accept the emotion

again. In this 40-minute silent piece, “two

as I’m writing about it-because it is a strictly

guys [tried] to build something remarkable

human experience to resist failure in this

for their lives. Along the way, their

way.

encounters with objects set off a chain of reactions in which failure is embodied in

As How Things Go continued, the large

the architecture of the room.” (pq.cz).

wooden planks partnered with four beams.

The performers built structures to simulate

Positioned at the front of the audience, I

climbing up hills and waltzing through

felt the stress and angst around me when

mazes, the figurative twists and turns of life.

the piece began and two wooden planks

The audience sat in shock at what they

fell from their upright, shield-like position.

were able to do with minimal sound design

The wind danced on my arms from their

and raw material. .

immediate collapse.

They were beautiful in their attempts to

that when someone makes a mistake,

DONALD O’CONNOR MEETS POSTMODERNISM

something is gravely wrong. It is what is

BY KATHERINE SHUERT

rise above each setback, they were determined despite the feedback loop seeming unending By elevating their mistakes into art, Baumann and Henderson ask the audience, why are failures hidden? Why is it embarrassing to do what is inherently human? Many of us subscribe to the idea

most feared despite the elevated ways to connect and communicate today.

The show ended with a cacophony of sounds as the two men walked the plank and threw themselves off the edge of a contraption the duo termed the ‘Suicide Machine.’ Even the act of dying, the two couldn’t quite complete. Despite its pessimistic close, the performers were met with raucous applause from the audience, having achieved a resonant connection

Two men with wooden boards and posts in a barren museum lobby transported me to Hollywood’s Golden Age sound stage.

Really, I was sitting on the tile floor in the lobby of the Trade Fair Palace at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial. A macabre counterpart of Donald O’Connor’s performance of “Make ‘Em Laugh” (Singin’ in the Rain, 1952), How Things Go by Felix Baumann and Sean

with their audience.

Henderson, while certainly humorous,

I know I am not immune to the illustrious

failure. The two men attempt to make

calling of perfection. I have written thousands of words but only 674 have made it to this piece. Yet, my experience as an audience member of How Things Go elicits a calm feeling that I hope to pass on to those reading. It whispers to me as my writing comes to a close, that the other 1,000 words I cut were intentional and meaningful.

That it is perfect and right to fail.

reckons with the doomed cycle of human something, anything, of the materials at their disposal. And time and time again, their structures fail or are dismantled or destroyed and the stage returns to its nearly empty state. Their structures served as the vehicles for the performers’ demise more often than not.

I first thought this piece reflected the illfated efforts of human industrialization, but there’s a more fundamental message. In a

Because friends, that's just how things go

conversation with Baumann, he distilled

ROWEN NOWLAN (SHE/HER) FROM

“There is no learning for them.”

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PENNSYLVANIA IS A BFA 4 THEATRE ARTS MAJOR WITH MINORS IN EVENT PLANNING AND PHILOSOPHY.

the performance’s ultimate message:

They disappear and emerge from walls confused and lost. The audience laughs at the absurdity of their actions and the repetition of their futile endeavors.

Donald O’Connor isn’t even listed as reference or inspiration, the artists instead list that their piece is informed by the work of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd. Yet it was O’Connor’s performance of “Make ‘Em HOW THINGS GO PHOTO: ANNA BENHACOVA

The two men may, in their 40-minute exploration of construction and deconstruction, make some progress.

Certain structures hold together longer than others, but it does not change their inevitable failure.

Take for example one of their final structures, a crude ramp. The two men alternated jumping off the back and being spat out either side. Baumann called this “The Suicide Machine”. Oddly the arguably most successful structure is that which “kills'' the characters the most times. They do not learn; they only re-emerge to run up the platform to nowhere time after time, birth after birth, confidently jumping into the abyss. Using the ramp–one of the earliest feats of engineering–is no accident in this case. Technological advancement does not always serve us and, in many cases as it does here, accomplishes just the opposite. They build without purpose and use without thought.

Laugh” in Singin’ in the Rain that immediately came to mind.

The presence of physical comedy is certainly the most obvious of similarities between the two. The two performances strike a similar chord as they comment on the nature of comedy while being in the midst of creating it. They both possess the ability to make light of the humorous potential of pain and failure, an association which is so grim. Donald O’Connor sings the words “Take a fall/ But a wall/ Split a seam/…Make ‘Em Laugh”. In both cases, the audience is meant to laugh at the suffering of the performer. Each bonk to the head, every trip and stumble, any harmful mishap is served to the audience as a morsel of delight. What is it about this kind of process, this cycle of misguided or unguided effort, leading to failure that makes us laugh?

“FACE TO FACE WITH AN EXAGGERATED PORTRAIT OF THE HUMAN COMPULSION TO CREATE, THE INHERENT STUBBORNNESS OF THE

Yet, it’s all done with the light air of

ARTIST, AND THE PRIMAL INSTINCT TO

clowning and slapstick comedy. To a score

KEEP TRYING OVER AND OVER AGAIN

of mechanical banging and drilling, Baumann and Henderson fumble with their boards, trip over their work and each other, and knock their counterpart upside the head or to the ground.

TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY...”

Perhaps it is the concentrated form of human spirit that makes this piece so hilarious and so tragic. Face to face with an exaggerated portrait of the human compulsion to create, the inherent stubbornness of the artist, and the primal instinct to keep trying over and over and over to live another day, I can’t help but laugh at the two bumbling men and myself reflected in them. It mattered not what the men made or how long it lasted or what purpose it served. Rather, this piece calls into question the human attitude toward generation. It mattered how they made it stubborn and uncompromising. These just might be humanity's most laughable qualities, maybe we don’t care what we do as long we do something. Century after century we make things that do us no good at all and, ridiculously, we keep doing it.

KATHERINE SHUERT (SHE/HER) IS A BFA2 DRAMATURGY AND DRAMATIC CRITICISM MAJOR FROM LOMBARD, ILLINOIS.

HOW THINGS GO PHOTOS: ANNA BENHACOVA

INACCESSIBILITY IS A FAILURE OF THE IMAGINATION

BY ARTEMIS WESTOVER

Every four years, theatre makers from all

This piece focuses on my own observations

over the globe gather somewhere in the

and experiences. It is not a comprehensive

capital city of the Czech Republic to spend

accessibility audit, nor does it cover the

two weeks sharing their work and ideas on

majority of my thoughts and feelings

scenography and performance design at

around accessibility as a broader concept.

the Prague Quadrennial (PQ). This year I

My goal here is to focus on just the

attended the 15th edition of this festival. It

experience of being at the PQ itself and to

was a life-changing opportunity to see the

provide my own observations, analysis, and

art being made at the cutting edge of

offerings for this issue.

theatre. The newest and rarest forms.

(RARE was the theme of this year's festival.)

Part One: Observations.

In their definition of scenography, the PQ centers audience experience and

The Space:

participation as a central component of this

This year the quadrennial’s primary site

art form. In the individual theatrical

was the Holesovice Market. Formerly a

performances I saw special attention being

slaughterhouse, processing, packing, and

paid to the way the audience experienced

butchers market, Holesovice is a complex

the theatre. But my experience of the PQ

of one or two-story warehouses connected

itself, as an organized festival, was

by its own network of cobblestone streets

fundamentally different.

and open squares. Cobblestones are ubiquitous in Europe but they are not an

To put it plainly, the Prague Quadrennial

insurmountable obstacle. There were no

has an accessibility problem. On their

ramps or built walkways anywhere around

website, there is a page dedicated to

Holesovice. The PQ constructed bars,

Practical [Information] for Visitors With

outdoor stages, and other booths to

Disabilities/Reduced Mobility where they

prepare for the festival. There is no question

claim “All people, regardless of their

that the resources existed to provide this

disabilities, should be given the opportunity

very simple accessible option. The PQ

to explore the world of art and culture. We

website says this about the exhibitions

recognize that accessibility to cultural

themselves “All exhibition spaces are

institutions is key as this is the area that

barrier-free, entrances to the premises and

connects people the most.” I do not doubt

entrance doors are wide enough for

the fact that this is a true belief held by

wheelchairs.” This phrase, “barrier-free” is

some of the people in this institution.

said several times on this page. I can only

Instead, I want to look deeper into the

assume they mean that there are no literal

materiality of the accessibility of the PQ

roadblocks to access such as stairs or

and try to determine if this belief ever

railings

made it into practical implementation.

I assume this because the physical layout

The Program:

of the buildings were not accessible,

I will not focus on the content of the

despite being technically barrier-free. None

exhibitions or performances themselves. I

of the doors had buttons to open them.

am assuming that any accessibility issues

None of the bathrooms had wheelchair

there are the responsibility of the

stalls or grab bars, and all of them were

performers/artists and not within PQ

small and difficult for me to navigate with

admin control.

just my cane and a large backpack.

However, the way performances, talks, and People with limited mobility are not the

exhibitions were presented was within the

only people who would have found the

festival’s control. There were no content

Holesovice market very difficult to navigate.

warnings of any kind. Here I do not just

There was no non-smoking outdoor space.

mean warnings about the potential

There was no alcohol-free space. There was

psychological stressors within a piece, but

very little built shade. There were no

physical warnings as well such as haze,

sensory-friendly or quiet spaces. The lack of

strobe, loud/abrupt noise, or other sensory

these accessible spaces not only affects the

components that can impact physical

experience of those who might identify as

safety. I recognize content and trigger

“disabled”, but they also affect anyone's

warnings are complicated and fraught, and

ability to enjoy the space at the PQ.

I am disappointed that they were not

Comfortable and safe spaces benefit

included in any performance or exhibition,

everyone and increase everyone’s ability to

but strobe and haze warnings are common

fully engage in the programs that the PQ

in my experience in the United States. I was

has to offer.

very surprised to not see them anywhere.

There was also a lack of translators or

Now it is important I acknowledge that

interpreters. The festival's official languages

several things I am pointing out can be

were English and Czech, but there was no

attributed to cultural norms, whether

sign language, closed captioning, or braille.

Czech, European, or otherwise. Especially drinking and smoking. The point of the PQ

Part Two: Analysis

is to explore new forms. We embrace things that challenge what we think we

The final panel I attended was a Behind-

know theatre to be. So why can we not

the-Scenes look at the organization and

extend this outlook to accessibility? Could

planning of the PQ. All of the main

there have been a conversation where new

organizers attended as well as several

forms of socializing were imagined? The

curators. Many of the things I have

same can be said of cobblestones, uneven

mentioned were brought up in the

ground, and the challenges that historical

audience's questions and the responses

buildings present. Yes, these things are

varied.

ubiquitous and accepted. But why must they be accepted without challenge or

“DESPITE ITS EFFORTS TO UPLIFT THEATRE

contradiction? In a festival so dedicated to

THAT INNOVATES AND EXPERIMENTS

rethinking spaces, why does the

WITH NEW FORMS, THE ORGANIZATION

imagination stop at our present setting?

OF THE PQ WORKS TO REINFORCE GLOBAL STRUCTURES AND HEGEMONIC NORMS.”

The lack of translators was brushed off as a

I came to the PQ with those expectations

budget issue, a question about content

because they form the cultural context

warnings was addressed by asking the

through which I see accessibility. I truly

audience member to name specific issues

believe it is possible that the people in

with specific shows, and when I asked

charge of writing the website statement

about the considerations made to the

thought that they were doing enough. That

accessibility of the chosen venue, Marketa

is again not an excuse, just an explanation.

Fantova, the Artistic Director responded that, when taking budgetary, political, and

The problem of inaccessibility at the PQ is

logistical challenges into consideration,

not one of budget or information, it is a

that accessibility at the PQ was “just

problem of imagination or lack thereof. At

impossible”.

the PQ’s level, this kind of exclusion is inexcusable. Despite its efforts to uplift

Barbora Prihodova, the curator of PQ talks

theatre that innovates and experiments

explained that the subjects and speakers

with new forms, the organization of the PQ

were not decided by her as curator, but

works to reinforce global power structures

rather they were part of the pitches for

and hegemonic norms. They will not be

talks. She also said that visa issues and

able to truly push the boundaries of theatre

global politics had a large impact on who

and scenography if they continue to

was able to attend the festival. It is good to

exclude those who bring the most to the

know that the coordinators of the festival

table.

were aware of these issues and yet it seems like there was no action taken on the PQ’s

A thought that I felt underlying the

part to mitigate the impact of these larger

responses from the PQ team was the idea

issues.

that they cannot possibly include everybody. It is true that true global

The PQ is about innovation and pushing

accessibility and inclusion is hard, not

the imagination, but there seems to be no

impossible, but hard. But who is being left

effort to imagine new ways to include,

out has to be acknowledged and

welcome, or represent artists or attendees.

understood by the creators as a choice, not

The organizers’ response, the statement on

something that is completely out of their

the website, and many of the other things I

control. There was a choice not to hire

witnessed reminded me that there are very

translators and interpreters, there was a

different conversations happening at the

choice not to build accessible bathrooms,

PQ than those that are happening in the

and there was a choice to not acknowledge

United States. In the US we have things like

the ways that people were being left out of

the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

the conversation. Now I cannot speak to

because of the tireless work of many

why or how these choices were made or

generations of activists. I am only used to

even if they were being made consciously,

ramps, accessible toilets, subtitles, and

but I can see the results, and I am

strobe warnings because people before me

disappointed with them.

fought to make those the norm.

Part Three: Offering

Perhaps it is because I am a dramaturg before I am anything else, but to me what

The PQ only happens every four years. The

seems to be missing is questioning. The

team in charge of planning PQ2027 has

Prague Quadrennial is an event that has

ample time to reimagine the festival to be

inspired me to always question what I think

more accessible and inclusive, but if they

the boundaries of theatre can be, and

are going to succeed they must use their

question myself as an artist, because of the

imaginations, or hire people who will.

time I have spent at this festival I will constantly be thinking about new ways to

My observations have shown me that the

approach my work.

ethos of innovation and breaking the norms that define the presentation of the

I only wish that the organizers of the

festival does not extend to the behind-the-

Quadrennial will find that same inspiration

scenes work that goes into planning it. The

to always question what they know

PQ needs to put its money where its

accessibility and inclusion to be and

mouth is, take accountability, and show up

approach their audience with the same

for the artists that they claim to lift up, and

imagination that they ask of us.

accessibility is the first step. I do not know how planning a global theatre festival

ARTEMIS WESTOVER (THEY, THEM

works, I do not know every consideration

IS A BFA4 DRAMATURGY &

that must be made to put the PQ together,

DRAMATIC CRITICISM MAJOR.

that aside, I have one recommendation to begin approaching this problem: Hire one person (at least) and make accessibility their job.

Creating a position whose sole focus is on accessibility will: A) show the PQ’s commitment to increasing the accessibility of the festival.

B) provide accountability and an opportunity for collaboration with every other department.

In order to prevent these considerations from slipping through the cracks, the PQ must make its audience a priority and it starts with making a more accessible experience for everyone.

REIMAGINING THE DIRECTOR

BY JOSIE MOORE

As students, faculty, and staff of The Theatre School, we have a solid understanding of the role of a director within theatre as we know it now. They come in with an artistic vision, they assemble the teams (or work with the teams assigned to them), they lead the rehearsals, they bring a show from the

In one PQ Talk titled “Methods of Collaboration: Performers and Scenographers”, six theatre practitioners across disciplines and continents discussed the different ways they view collaboration between performance and design in their respective fields. This talk included interactive costume design that performers played with; using paper letters as scenographic building blocks that actors improvised with; and a festival celebrating Maori and other Indigenous communities in New Zealand as they traveled by canoe to the harbor.

paper to the stage.

The panel opened with the question: what

This is a hierarchical dynamic, with the

we inherited? These presenters displayed

director sitting at the top. In my roles as an assistant director and a dramaturg alike I have been told to siphon my notes through the director. I sit quietly, take my notes, and ask questions when the time is right, and always have my eyes toward the director. I participate and enforce this hierarchy without my full awareness. I am complicit.

Even in rehearsal rooms that have healthy working relationships between director, cast, and creative team, is this hierarchy something I am interested in replicating? Is it possible for me to be committed to nonhierarchical forms of community-building and collaboration while also training to be the person that holds the power in a

legacies, hierarchies, and assumptions have how they pushed against traditional models of performance-making that restrict collaboration. They showcased how they break down barriers between performer and design. While I greatly enjoyed each deep dive into a different method of performer-scenographer collaboration, I also felt overwhelmed. I wanted this talk to inform how I can be a better collaborator in the role of a director, and yet I left feeling like the director was unrecognizable in each example. In my tiny notebook I scribbled a question for myself.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF A DIRECTOR ANYMORE, ANYWAY?

rehearsal room?

I could be making a generalization here, Honestly, I’m struggling with this.

but I don’t think people like to ponder the point of their once-dream career a whole

At this year’s Prague Quadrennial, I

lot. I am filled with less existential dread

encountered theatrical theory and practice

than I once was, but I still struggle with the

across the globe through performance (PQ

uneasiness this question raises. I cannot

Studio and PQ Performance), scenographic

deny the work that needs to be done if I

installation (Performance Space Exhibition

want the role of a director to continue to

and the Exhibition of Countries and

exist in any capacity, but I only find myself

Regions), and lectures (PQ Talks).

with more questions to sit with.

Are all hierarchies bad, or just the ones we

Do you know a place that doesn’t exist

don’t interrogate? What is the outcome of

anymore?, an interactive performance

director-less work, and how different is that

about memory and the impermanence of

from what we have now? What is the

place was devised by a team of four artists

function of the director right now, besides

from Lebanon: En-Ping Yu, Kirstine

holding the power and vision? At the PQ, I

Hupfeldt Nielsen, Mara Ingea, Susana

experienced forms of collaboration and

Botero Santos. Ingea is credited as the sole

direction that challenge hierarchical

director.

legacies that have been passed down through time. Of course a festival

During Do you know a place, audience

celebrating new and RARE (this year’s

members were asked to draw a place that

theme) forms of performance and

no longer exists anymore and drop the

scenography should also showcase new

drawing into a box. As one performer sat at

and RARE forms of collaboration and

the drafting table, continuously updating a

creation. With this in mind, these questions

floorplan of the performance space as it

I ask that interrogate the role of a director

shifted and changed, the other three

invoke excitement and curiosity, not dread

performers bustled around in orange

and dismay.

harnesses, pulling various props and furniture from the storage room in order to

In the 11 days of the festival, I saw solo

bring these drawings to life. Each of the

performers who wrote and directed

three “angel architects”, as the performers

themselves with some collaborative

were called, worked directly with the

support; dynamic duos who worked side-

audience to help bring these spaces to life.

by-side; and directing/devising teams that worked as a cohesive unit. And, even still,

Slowly, audience members turn into angel

there were still performances created in a

architects, with power being bestowed as

more traditional sense, with one director

they each slip on an orange reflective vest.

leading a team of artists.

Ingea walked up to me and asked if I could help build something with her and

In Be Water, My Friend, Carmen Lee of

together we built a mountain overlooking a

Hong Kong originally came up with the

river under the stars. Ingea and the other

idea of a performance piece discussing

angel architects brought me into the

protests in Hong Kong using water as a

performance and gave the audience

metaphor. She worked with her close

authority to build our own worlds. Together,

creative partner, Roland Chun Shing Au, to

we reconstructed the places that had been

further bring this piece to life. While Lee

stripped from us, until it was time to break

and Shing were confident in their

them down once again.

teamwork and collaboration, they brought in collaborators who don’t share the same personal connection to the Hong Kong protests that Lee and Au do. They brought on Greta Katherina Klein and Levin Eichert to help facilitate the performance and add their own cultural contextualization. All four are co-directors and the piece’s performers.

BE WATER, MY FRIEND PHOTO: MICHAL HANCOVSKY

A Galit Liss took a more traditional position as the lead director/choreographer on I’m Here II, but this performance still pushed against a traditional directorial hierarchy.

I’m Here II was a movement piece featuring mature women exploring their joy and how they’re perceived by the world. These performers do not identify themselves as dancers. In fact, on Liss’s website, she states her devotion to working with “older women who are non-dancers”. Even with Liss as the lead director, this performance felt very personal and individual to each of the women. They each danced down the stage in ways that looked and felt natural to the performer. At one point, each woman touched a part of their body that holds a memory: some touch their womb, some touch their chest, one woman touched just

MAYBE, IT’S TIME FOR THE DIRECTOR TO SHIFT ITS FORM, TOO. We are moving from a top-down, omniscient model towards facilitators, collaborators, performers AND scenographers at the same time. We are blurring the divides between creative teams, scenography, and performers. We work in teams, not just alone–even if we are the sole “director”. Perhaps this is why being multi-disciplined is so important to my artistic identity. Perhaps this is why I smiled every time someone on this trip to the PQ didn’t know I was an aspiring director. I hope I always stay like this, shifting forms with the art I dream of working on.

her neck. This dynamic resembled a community-driven performance process that is frequently seen in Chicago, and is what I am the most familiar with from my educational background and production history.

Perhaps the question I scribbled down first arose because I was confronted with so many forms of art-making that I am unfamiliar with. Perhaps the traditional hierarchy within academic institutions has been a comfort, a crutch that I have leaned on in my complacency. Through the Prague Quadrennial I witnessed so many new forms of art and performance that completely shatters the theatrical conventions that I am used to. Even with my background in performance studies

DO YOU KNOW A PLACE THAT DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE? PHOTO: JAN HROMADKO

and my experience with devising, I still feel like I am seeing the director disappear. But

JOSIE MOORE (THEY/THEM) IS A

when we look at everything that surrounds

BFA4 THEATRE ARTS-DIRECTING

us, all of the matter in the universe down to

MAJOR WITH A MINOR IN

the smallest atom, we can see that nothing

PERFORMANCE STUDIES FROM

disappears: it just changes forms.

THE ST. LOUIS AREA OF MISSOURI.

A THEATRE OF ABUNDANCE

BY LIAM SHANNON

In the opening ceremony of the Prague

Beer’s most powerful statement, “Waste is

Quadrennial, an international theatre

a failure of the imagination” is a strong

festival focused on scenography and

guiding principle for beginning to digest

performance, a performer in a gold

the complexities of ecoscenography.

sequined dress and white bob wig riding a mechanical bull repeatedly orated into a

The PQ Performance and Studio series

megaphone “we need new forms” while

showcased many pieces with zero actors,

falling off and climbing back on the bull.

and the rest complicated what an actor is

Over the next ten days I would see 20

and does. The most memorable and

performances, attend nine talks, and visit

innovative works I saw were ones that

over 50 exhibitions and installations. Only

inspired audience performances driven by

one would be a traditional play with a plot,

audio and visual cues. The Crowd by

characters, and story structure.

Norwegian company Teater Leikhus was the theatre’s version of a “silent disco”. The

New processes and theories around

audience wore headphones and walked

making theatre were platformed at the PQ

around the theatre, which had no seating,

Talks lecture series. For example,

viewing two sets saturated with props and

ecoscenography, a term coined by

containing no actors. The headphones

Australian scholar and scenographer Tanja

played music and monologues by people

Beer. Ecoscenography takes an ecological

delivering personal stories. About five

lens during the production process to

minutes in, the voice in our ears asked

create theatre that is environmentally

“Who will stand on the sidelines and watch,

sustainable. Sustainability is used as a

waiting for someone brave enough to be

holistic and generative framework instead

the first to act?”

of a limitation. A core tenet of ecoscenography is the three C's:

I was the first.

Collaboration, Celebration, and Circulation.

In Western theatre practices these would

I stepped forward, breaking the barrier of

translate to pre-production, performance,

light that marked the border of one of the

and post-production, however, Beer’s Cs

sets, and removed a Jenga piece from a

offer a new perspective on the artistic

Jenga tower within, placing it on top. My

process that is circular. No single step is

choice inspired an explosion of interaction

more important than the other, when

as the rest of the crowd embraced this new

beginning step one the creative team

freedom to touch the sets and props.

should be designing with circulation in

Someone nearby rode a scooter that was

mind. In Beer’s model, a performance is not

leaning on a chair. Another took and wore a

a final product that then leaves behind

yellow leather jacket hanging from the

waste, it is a step in a cyclical process that

ceiling. We were meant to touch and play

gives back to the environment rather than

with this space..

taking from it.

It was a playground for the audience to

InThe Story of Larry by Moritz Praxmarer

explore their relationship to how they exist

from Switzerland, the soaring dreams of

in a crowd and how they interact with

Larry Walters, a man who built a flying

performance spaces. People like me, who

machine out of lawn chairs and weather

would kill a man to be an audience

balloons, are retold using only a box of tea

volunteer, played in the room like a child in

bags.

a sandbox. Others stood in the darkness of the edges and watched. I had a picnic with strangers and drove an RC race car through a pyramid of paper cups someone else had built. We all held a birthday party for someone who wasn’t there.

This event was form-breaking, adventurous, and innovative. The lack of actors left the “performance” of the piece entirely in the hands of the audience. We were free to create our own experience, to play or observe in a way that is right for us. The piece reveals to themselves and possibly to observant others each individual's relationship to performance and their comfort in social spaces. Reflecting on my time in The Crowd, I am reminded that I am active and participatory in social spaces and that I constantly seek to perform for both myself and others. I cannot speak with certainty for the internal experience of others, but I imagine that other audience members walked away from this experience knowing more about themselves and how they relate to the people and spaces that surround them.

I came to the festival searching for new forms and processes, and with these groundbreaking pieces and talks I have more than enough inspiration to grapple with. Yet, as stories go, I found something I wasn’t expecting at the festival. I was shocked by how much I loved The Story of Larry, an object theatre performance with a linear narrative and traditional conventions.

Moritz uses a pocket knife to cut a tea bag into five sections, twisting four of them into arms and legs and the last being crumpled into a head-like shape to become Larry Walters. This piece, which was not strange, reminded me of the power of the ordinary to tell stories filled with imagination, wonder, and splendor. I left the tiny black box theatre with a renewed love for the familiar and the comfortable of theatrical styles, something that I thought I would be moving away from, maybe even abandoning at this festival. I am happy to have been shown otherwise.

The festival brought a variety of forms from over 100 countries to Prague. It showcased forms of performance I have never even dreamed of as well as traditional forms that were exceptionally well done. Through my love of the innovative and experimental, and my reminded love for the traditional, I have discovered that I am pursuing the value of abundance.

A theatre artist should constantly seek new forms to verse themselves in without abandoning the skills they have already created. Stylistic variety triumphs over stylistic specialization and produces a higher quality and diversity of work.

THE PATH FORWARD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEATRE IS NOT LEAVING THE OLD BEHIND, IT IS TAKING IT WITH US AND UTILIZING IT ALONGSIDE EXPERIMENTATION AND REIMAGINATION. There is value in stylistic diversity for both the artists and the audience. Much like how learning another language strengthens your brain, learning many artistic styles expands an artist’s ability to create, to imagine, and to express.

Modern US audiences, who are ruled by the power of Broadway and the influence of American psychological realism would benefit greatly from being given something other than the meat and potatoes they know and love. In other countries, audiences are exposed to more challenging material and the arts receive greater financial support allowing for greater artistic risks. Their artists are across the board more inclined to non-traditional forms. The audiences and artists in the US need to be cultivated to the same standards. Through an abundance of artistic ability and style, as well as an abundance of material being presented to audiences, we can change the life of theatre in this country. If there is one thing that I learned from the PQ, it is that the theatre is strongest when it is changing and diverse.

THE STORY OF LARRY (ABOVE) THE CROWD (BELOW) PHOTOS: JAN HROMADKO

LIAM SHANNON IS A BFA 4 THEATRE ARTS MAJOR WITH A CONCENTRATION IN DIRECTING.

SCENOGRAPHERS AT THE PQ!

NORA EVISION (SHE/HER) IS A BFA3 THEATRE TECHNOLOGY MAJOR

ROMAN JONES (THEY/THEM) IS A BFA 4 THEATRE TECHNOLOGY MAJOR FROM CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

OLLIE (THEY/THEM) IS A BFA4 THEATRE TECHNOLOGY MAJOR FROM DENVER, CO.

JAMES DOOLITTLE (HE/HIM) IS A BFA3 THEATRE TCHNOLOGY MAJOR FROM DENVER, COLORADO.

THE THEATRE SCHOOL AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY MANAGING EDITORS: CAMILLE PUGLIESE AND LIZ BAZZOLI EDITING SUPERVISOR: KRISTIN IDASZAK COVER PHOTO: JAKUB HRAB