Antonio Attisani

Siamo in tanti a ricordare Mario Mieli (1952-1983) a quarant’anni dalla sua morte per suicidio dopo una vita straordinaria che aveva abolito, tra i tanti, anche il confine tra privato e pubblico. Prendendo spunto da una intervista che gli aveva fatto nel 1978 (qui riproposta) e dalla memoria dell’allora “teatro gay” di cui Mieli era uno dei maggiori esponenti, l’autore di queste note propone di pensare alla sua poetica teatrale come un aspetto centrale e altamente significativo della sua biografia e della sua eredità.

RESUMO Segundo o autor, no século XXI se descobrirá a importância fundamental da investigação realizada pelo mestre polonês e, sobretudo através da mediação do Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, se poderá aproveitar os resultados artísticos daquela história e uma concepção da práxis dos atores e dos diretores livre de preconceitos ideológicos e morais, de modo que o legado grotowskiano seja um dos fundamentos de uma cultura teatral nova, baseada na presença e no encontro.

RESUMO Depois de delinear brevemente a premissa que move a pesquisa artística e individual dos dois ramos do Workcenter, este texto procura contar a experiência do espectador, ou melhor da testemunha, no encontro com The Living Room e I am America nas versões de 2009-2012. O apelo crítico dessa forma de arte (somente dessa?) não pode deixar de passar por uma problematização radical do papel do interpretante.

Atriz, diretora teatral e intérprete (italiano-português-italiano). Dirige o projeto de extensão " Teatro italiano da história à cena " , UFSC lubitavares@yahoo.com.br RESUMO: Performer é um texto que, por diversos motivos, ocupa um lugar bastante particular na obra de Grotowski: talvez por ser o último documento do mestre e ter sido esculpido, por esse motivo, palavra a palavra, ou porque, desta vez, o mestre não se limita a falar de algo que experimentou, mas delineia uma espécie de ideal, ou, ainda, porque o seu conteúdo não diz respeito apenas a um devir possível do ator e do teatro, mas propõe uma reflexão, de certo modo " última " , sobre as potencialidades peculiares à condição humana, potencialidades que podem ser completamente desenvolvidas com auxílio da arte performativa, aqui cuidadosamente redefinida. Este comentário foi publicado pela primeira vez em 2006 e, depois, em outras ocasiões e contextos. Aqui é proposta uma releitura que agrega alguns esclarecimentos e citações. O texto de referência-Performer-é aquele elaborado pelos curadores das Obras de Jerzy Grotowski, até então editadas na Polônia e na Itália 1. Palavras-chave: Performer / Grotowski / comentário ABSTRACT: Performer is a text that, for various reasons, occupies a very particular place in Grotowski's work: perhaps because it is the last document of the master and has been sculpted, for that reason, word of the word, or because, this time, the master is not limited to speak of something that he has experienced, but he delineates a kind of ideal, or, moreover, because its content concerns not only a possible becoming of the actor and the theater, but proposes a reflection, in a sense "final", about the potentialities peculiar to the human

Le Jardin di François Kahn
è il Mimesis Journal Book 8
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Les évangiles, canoniques ou apocryphes, écrivent quelque chose que le maître n'avait pas l'intention d'écrire. Ce sont des témoignages à la fois de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur. C'est la même chose que François Kahn fait avec Jerzy Grotowski, l'un des plus grands maîtres du siècle passé. Témoignage : martyr (auto-exposition totale) et trahison. C'est son vécu qui accueille l'écho d'une présence et la trace d'une transmission ; c'est la contradiction sans solution entre un sens, saisissable et transmissible seulement à travers la vie des corps, et une écriture qui ne peut pas le représenter. Mais c'est une chance que cette écriture existe, car elle a une vie propre, autonome et fertile, sous deux aspects : d'une part c'est un Bildungsroman, le roman de formation d'un jeune homme qui, comme tant d'autres à la fin du XXème siècle, était à la recherche de lui-même et frôlait le désespoir, incapable de se reconnaître dans les églises et les idéologies dominantes ; d'autre part c'est un protocole scientifique, ou plutôt un discours subjectif mais tellement précis dans ses paroles et dans sa langue qu'il peut être une aide effective pour nombre de ceux qui, encore aujourd'hui, sont dans la même situation et sur la même route. Une aide, pas un manuel de recettes, pas une solution à bon marché, mais un savoir qui met en évidence la complexité de la question essentielle : comment devenir soi-même. Et cela explique comment il se fait que l'un puisse y arriver alors que l'autre, cédant à l'opportunisme, à la faiblesse ou à la hâte, à ce que Grotowski appelait « histrionisme », devienne à peine une caricature de sa propre utopie de jeunesse. Par un choix scrupuleux des paroles et une composition colorée et fluide, Kahn a créé ce que suggérait l'enseignant : un jardin, un beau jardin, pas un engin insensé de l'ego. Dans son jardin quiconque peut méditer pour imaginer, pour travailler à la création de son propre jardin. Certes, pour réussir dans cette entreprise il faut être très créatif et avoir un guide adapté afin de réaliser par une juste progression, que cet « être soi-même », la liberté finale, n'est pas un petit ou un grand « moi » mais une manière consciente de passer dans le monde en étant le monde. Il n'est pas difficile de prévoir que Le Jardin aura, au cours du temps, de nombreux et passionnés lecteurs. (a.a.)

Venerdì 30 aprile è andata in onda, su " Radio Radicale " un'edizione straordinaria della conversazione che settimanalmente Marco Pannella conduce solitamente con il direttore Massimo Bordin. La conversazione, moderata da Paolo Martini, consisteva in un interessantissimo confronto con Piero Verni, esperto conoscitore di Tibet, le cui posizioni sono divergenti da quelle di Pannella e dei radicali; anche se, naturalmente, Verni è un sostenitore della causa tibetana. Per dirla in termini molto grossolani, obiettivo comune, ma da conseguire percorrendo strade diverse. Carlo Buldrini, giornalista anche lui conoscitore ed esperto di quella parte di mondo che comprende Cina, Tibet, India, attraverso il nostro amico e compagno Francesco Pullia, ci ha fatto pervenire un intervento critico nei confronti di Pannella, ma certamente utile e prezioso per la riflessione di tutti. All'intervento di Buldrini è seguita una risposta dello stesso Pullia, pubblicati su " N.R. " del 4 maggio. Il 5 maggio abbiamo pubblicato una replica di Verni, in particolare alle considerazioni di Buldrini. Il 6 maggio il dibattito è proseguito con un intervento di Guido Biancardi. Oggi " Notizie Radicali " pubblica un intervento del professor Antonio Attisani, docente di Storia del Teatro per molti anni a Cà Foscari e oggi all'università di Torino; è stato uno dei più anticonformisti direttori artistici del Teatro di Santarcangelo di Romagna, ed è uno dei principali esperti di teatro tibetano al mondo. Il prof. Attisani ha inviato il suo contributo per il blog di Verni, che ce lo ha " girato ". Attisani, dice Verni, per " diverso tempo si è trovato molto vicino alle posizioni radicali, ma adesso è piuttosto critico ". Anche per questo è interessante pubblicare il suo intervento. Nel frattempo se altri vorranno intervenire e arricchire la discussione e il confronto, benvenuti. (Va.Ve.) Caro Piero, da dove cominciare quando ci si trova in un torrente in piena? Non siamo noi a decidere i punti d'appoggio e il bisogno di un approccio razionale anche a una questione complessa come quella tibetana è continuamente sfregiato dalle informazioni che riceviamo quotidianamente dal Tibet occupato e dall'esilio, dai governi del mondo e persino dal variopinto fronte dei simpatizzanti di quel popolo. L'altro giorno, ascoltando Marco Pannella nel dialogo con te, ero triste e stizzito per la sua ottusità e non capivo il tuo ostinato rispetto per lui. So di avere provato un sentimento sbagliato, se così si può dire, ma il fatto è che una differenza di opinioni sulla questione tibetana non è una sfumatura tra gentiluomini che in fondo vogliono la stessa cosa (ossia la convivenza democratica tra cittadini diversi per etnia e convinzioni religiose e politiche, insomma quei " diritti umani " che sono soltanto il punto di partenza per la creazione di un mondo meno ingiusto del nostro, meno crudele verso i più deboli); no, quelle sfumature sono alla base degli atteggiamenti con i quali tutti noi, sapendolo o non sapendolo, volendo o non volendo, prendiamo parte ai processi storici in corso e, aiutando o meno il perdurare dell'ingiustizia, siamo corresponsabili di ciò che accade, dei feriti e dei morti che questa vicenda sta accumulando giorno dopo giorno.

This is still the only existing document concerning the life of Master Norbu Tsering (1927-2013), artistic director of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts for many years. It was edited by Antonio Attisani by means of various interviews between 1991 and 1998. Some other written sources have alsobeen used. In June 1998, the Master corrected the manuscript, with the careful help of Sonam Phuntsok, his successor as dance master. Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy met the Master in Dharmsala (Nov. 1998), asked some more questions and elucidated several passages. David Bryant checked the English, respecting the style of the conversations. The English version was published by © Legenda (Torino 1999) as a homage to Master Norbu Tsering. All the printed copies of the booklet have beenpresented to TIPA.

The logical contradiction according to which writings about theatre outlive the artworks to which they bear witness, giving them meanings different from the original work, is particularly problematic in the case of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, because here we have something that is theatre in the full sense, yet simultaneously something very different from theatre as it is commonly understood. Since in this case the fundamental link is constituted by the essence of theatre and not its current norms, the reader cannot fall back on his or her own ordinary experience to fully understand, nor can one use other experiences of essential theatre as a key. If one thinks of a well-known theatre of this type, for example that of Peter Brook, adherence to the same ontological principles manifests in extremely dissimilar types of work, and it is difficult to recognize what belongs to the same species. Moreover, few indeed are the critics and scholars who know how to awaken the necessary sensitivity in younger, less experienced spectators. The non-narrative dramaturgy of the Workcenter is influenced by the fact that each of the two branches from which it is comprised continues to develop Grotowski's research on the distinctiveness of theatre in a contemporary world hegemonized by mass media. Of course, Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini are by no means the only proponents of a theatre conceived not as a collection and exchange of ideas, but rather as an encounter and intense exchange among human beings. Since June 2009, after many years of sowing and tending seeds, the Workcenter has experienced a bountiful spring that includes the blossoming of several new works. This means, among other things, that the true summer harvest is yet to come. The work currently led by Richards and Biagini offers continuous surprises to those who accept the invitation to witness it. Professional observers can only report their own impressions and (if they are able) those of other passersby met on the field, yet nothing prevents one from hoping that the sense (significance and direction) of these events can be delineated through the interweaving of different descriptions and reflections. In this case, therefore, the absurd proposition of recording by means of writing an artistic phenomenon still in its birth phase could be useful in directing someone's attention to the Workcenter's new-yet-ancient way of broadening and deepening the craft and the art of theatre. Someone has said that in a theatre not devoted exclusively to representation, what matters is to " be oneself. " However, philosophy and other disciplines have demonstrated that to be oneself is impossible, since being is an activity, as already explained by Aristotle, the first theorist of Western theatre. So the true question is to become oneself, and one can do this only while carrying out an activity to the best of one's ability. There are different definitions of the final objective: for Leo de Berardinis at the end, it was a matter of conquering the true Silence, while Carmelo Bene always maintained the need not to be artists who make works, but rather to make the artist himself the work (he, a masterpiece).

Great progress was made in the art of acting during the 20th century thanks above all to the endeavours of practitioners like Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) and Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999), who were able to combine practical experimentation with theoretical reflection. It cannot be said, however, that we now possess a scientific system for acting, nor indeed that we should be satisfied with the knowledge gained. The actor's art remains to a large extent a mystery which cannot be investigated merely with theoretical tools. Scholars and students of drama can only really arrive at an understanding through first-hand experience; just as every actor, while benefiting from a common stock of knowledge, has constantly to start over from scratch and adapt the basics of the performing art to the specific historical and cultural circumstances in which they find themselves operating. Stanislavsky approached the question of acting and the actor's work in a new light. Whereas previously the emphasis had been mainly on expressive codes, on the profession and its secrets (one only has to think of the great volume of theoretical elaborations produced in the Enlightenment and thereafter) in the context of the primacy of texts and content, Stanislavsky set out to convert the secrets of the great actors into scientific truths, into method, highlighting the inner processes, whether psychological, physiological or spiritual. He made this attempt starting from strictly subjective premises. This is what Grotowski had to say on the subject: Stanislavsky was looking for the possibility of creating the character starting from his inner life. However, one has to be careful with the word " inner ". The term " inner " might mean all of the psychological and mental processes that to some extent exist for both archangels and cows. And there is a different notion of " inner " that concerns the inner life of the great mystics. It's not the same thing, it's a different field. The first kind of " inner " life relates to psychology, to the soul, while the second one relates to the spirit. And one should not mix up those two spheres. So, when I say that Stanislavsky tried to search for his character starting from the side of his inner structure, his way of thinking, his way of reacting to the stimuli received, his way of feeling, reacting to the others, his psychological rhythms, the colour of his energy, etc., it's clear that he decided to start not from the exterior character traits, but rather from the character itself regarded as inner structure. But, you know, Stanislavsky was not extremely gifted as an actor, his body, when he was young, was quite handsome but somewhat wooden. The most simple things other actors were capable of doing quite spontaneously for him meant a hell of technical mastery. He was really not gifted as an actor, or, one would say, gifted on a rather primitive level. It's precisely because of this that he invented his method. The whole of Stanislavsky's method, as well as all his research in this field, was nothing else but his desperate struggle with the lack of talent. Nothing was given to him lightly; nothing could be solved by itself, through divine inspiration. He had to understand everything himself, he had to arrange everything, he had to spend a lot of time gradually approaching the essence, finally acquiring a clear understanding of everything he was doing.

In the absence of records documenting what the Tibetan scenic arts really were, we can at least examine the indirect observations of old and new visitors to the Roof of the World, without forgetting that we must always take into consideration the personality of the observers, for anthropology is first and foremost the anthropologist's culture. From 1300 down to the present, big and small Tibetan events have mainly been seen on the background of a «fantastic Middle Age», to use the appropriate definition given by Jurgis Baltrusaitis (1993), who adds: «The 14th century is a Franciscan century in the Far East» (Baltrusaitis 1993, 195). This is a shrewd observation with a lot of consequences, as we shall see. The scarcity of material on scenic arts, on the other hand, also depends on the very low consideration, if not outright contempt, traditionally associated with actors at all latitudes. When outlining a cultural history one must make a virtue of necessity, on the one hand working on the scanty material available, on the other looking for sources previously ignored and carefully assessing them. Fernand Braudel tells us that cultural products move in time and space along with people, but they follow no traceable routes and often, when we meet them at their final destination, they do not indicate their provenance or their author, so that «when we deal with ideas, feelings, even techniques, any error is possible». The French historian is also used as witness by Nicola Savarese, the author of a comprehensive study of theatrical links between East and West, who also adds: If on the connections between Eastern and Western theatres we only have a considerable and reliable evidence starting from the second half of the 17th century—and this because of the low social and cultural status enjoyed in both Europe and Asia by actors and performing arts—for a very long time migrations, influences and contaminations in theatrical arts and techniques took place without the record of a literary and historiographic tradition attesting their presence and promoting their movements. With such a starting point in theatrical historiography it is no wonder that credit is given, to begin with, to a witness who never was in Tibet—Marco Polo. In his case we can fully accept Luciano Petech's statement: «His description is the first one worth considering to a European, and it does justice to the discernment of the great Venetian traveller». Today there are even doubts that the Venetian ever was in China, but Il Milione (The Travels of Marco Polo) is in any case a text containing no negligible amount of information on Tibetan culture, and the uncertainty about its true source stimulates the formulation of new intriguing hypotheses. Much disconcert was caused by Frances Wood in 1996 with her theory according to which Marco Polo would never have been to China and his memories would only be the fanciful and contradictory elaboration of a traveller who would in fact never have gone beyond Persia. The arguments put forward by the eminent British Sinologist are convincing and are based on both an analysis of Polo's text and on a number of historical facts. The opening quotation of the Lithuanian author is also meant as a tribute to his method of research. Here we should note, as Massimo Oldoni remarks in his Italian preface to Il Medioevo fantastico, that Baltrusaitis' definition of research on the life and on the ways of forms is shared by other authors. In addition to F. Saxl and E. Panovsky, Emile Mâle should be mentioned, «true anticipator of the developments towards the East of Gothic decorative motifs». (Baltrusaitis), and above all H. Focillon, the unsurpassed author who in his La vie des formes, 1990, formulates a true theory of critique. However we should not forget that at times morphology is self-referential or even obtuse in attributing to certain classes of objects a univocal and rich information, tending to underestimate the witness's culture. For instance Baltrusaitis quite rightly prefers travellers' reports, but he often forgets that they see what they already know, they project their visions. Thus his ability to put the forms of the works into perspective is often based on an excessive reliance on the «accounts of the eyes», that is he does not duly consider the anthropological paradigms and the languages within which the selected witnesses operate.

The theatrical culture of Tibet is probably the last to remain virtually unknown to the
outside world, and to the West in particular. As well as describing the current situation
of studies on Tibetan theatre, the current volume also provides an essay on
imagination and how it is concretely manifested by the Tibetan people and their actors.
Recent decades have seen radical change for Tibetan theatre, ache lhamo, now
performed by a diaspora for whom a declining artistic and technical change derives
from an uncertain politics concerning secular and popular culture, as well as the
ongoing cultural genocide caused by China’s subjection of Tibet.

                                                        TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 7
Preface
Massimiliano Polichetti 9
To today’s readers 19
1. The immediate causes of this book 23
1. One remarkable difference: ache lhamo
in 1992 and 2022 23
2. 1989-1991 39
3. New friendships and some disagreements 58
4. What “theatre” means today 79
2. First Modern Scholarly Reactions
to Tibetan Performance: What was it? 87
1. Focussing on the question 87
2. The first Tibétisant and his teacher the Tibetologist 98
3. The ideologic dependency 121
4. Culture and politics in exile and occupied Tibet 135
5. Aporias of the political 153
3. Western Witnesses and their Visions 161
1. Who was there and who not 161
2. The Other according to the missionary fathers 179
3. The 19th century and the performing arts 194
4. The magical and unprejudiced 20th century 199
5. Sensibility and difference in Jacques Bacot 205
6. The missionary with an eye for theatre 211
7. The (still) festive fresco by Fosco Maraini 218
8. Last visitors before the storm 225
4. A Fairy-tale Dramaturgy 241
1. Interpretations of the repertoire 241
2. An amateur touch 275
3. Between orality and writing 278
4. A poetics of transformation 289
5. The ache lhamo as Performing Art 305
1. Listening to ache lhamo 305
2. Watching ache lhamo 320
3. Behind the listening and the vision 333
4. The silent theatre of the temple 335
5. A farewell 353
6. Lhasa and Dhasa. Endless present, beginningless future 359
1. The dramatic consequences of
the “Peaceful Liberation” 359
2. Freedom in exile:
the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts 419
Essential glossary 465
Bibiography 469

Nous nous sommes occupés ou nous nous occupons de théâtre. Mais l'idée de théâtre qui nous occupe, quelle est-elle ? Dans l'histoire de chaque civilisation et dans chaque biographie humaine, le théâtre est quelque chose de différent. Il est, dans des proportions jamais semblables, un savoir su et un savoir non su. Notre collection rend compte, entre autres, de cette oscillation, ou, si l'on préfère, de cette ambiguïté qui peut être tout aussi bien signe de richesse que d'abrutissement. Si on la subit, on devient exécutant passif de l'ordre social dominant alors que lorsque l'on apprend à la remettre lucidement en question, on peut décider de sa propre bio-performance. Ce préambule n'entend donc pas expliquer un récit qui, bien qu'il ait l'apparence d'un documentaire autobiographique, est et doit rester une fable, autrement dit la trace d'un cheminement initiatique et d'une transformation. Je me limiterai à inviter le lecteur à créer son propre cadre où il pourra insérer ce tableau avant de lui trouver un emplacement idoine sur l'un des murs de sa « maison ». Ce livre, je l'ai jusqu'à présent feuilleté plusieurs fois, comme on le fait d'un atlas. Dès demain, je le lirai et cela signifiera — c'est-à-dire « mettra en signe » — le passage de la cartographie au voyage. Bien sûr, le voyage qu'entreprend le lecteur est celui des sens internes, pensées et sentiments, différent de celui de l'auteur, qui en a fait l'expérience esthétique. Il est probable que beaucoup, comme moi-même, s'apercevront d'emblée que ces cartes indiquent certains lieux et certaines personnes qu'ils connaissent plus ou moins bien, plus ou moins directement. Peu à peu, ils rencontreront de nouveaux personnages, fantômes de noms et de mots, de pensées et d'actions évoqués par l'auteur. Pierre Guicheney a composé dans ces pages une sorte de court-métrage irréalisable, car la plus grande part des événements relatés reposent exclusivement dans sa mémoire, dans sa vie. Comme dans le cas du volume précédent de cette série, Le jardin de François Kahn, nous sommes les destinataires d'un témoignage et d'une fatale trahison, nous assistons à des événements qui restent ineffables dans leur objectivité et qui sont présentés comme propulseurs d'une vie de recherche. L'auteur la décrit comme « un apprentissage de la liberté » lequel consiste à reconnaître le pouvoir savant de certaines forces que les Gnawa appellent « génies », les Haïtiens « mystères » et ainsi de suite. Comme pour Kahn, la recherche a commencé aux côtés de Grotowski, dans les années 1980, quand celui qui ne voulait pas être appelé maître, même sans majuscule, laissait croire qu'il avait abandonné le théâtre alors qu'il était en chemin vers son origine, mais avec de nouveaux compagnons. Cette petite communauté nomade provisoire professait une religio de la liberté. Chacun de ses membres désirait une vie tout autre que la simple survie et, a fortiori, que celle promise par un « emploi stable ». Ils voulaient avant tout un « vivre » comble de sens, une chasse à l'âme poussée jusqu'à ses conséquences les plus extrêmes, peut-être jusqu'à l'explosion de l'idée même de liberté. Quant au terme « origine », il faut l'entendre comme l'entendait Walter Benjamin, à savoir qu'il ne « ne désigne pas le devenir de ce qui est né, mais le tourbillon de ce qui est en train de naître dans le devenir et le déclin » : rien à voir avec les appareils idéologiques, les schémas comportementaux et les codes émotionnels à partir desquels on mène, pour utiliser la synthétique et efficace définition de Grotowski, « une vie de merde » (« La vie séparée de la recherche, c'est de la merde », m'avait dit à l'époque un de ses collaborateurs du Théâtre des sources). En effet, même si l'on peut assurément être d'accord avec Carlo Sini sur le fait que le théâtre est « à l'origine de tous les arts et de tous les savoirs »...

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A Odessa fu Jacob Adler, giovane campione di boxe e di ballo, a dare vita al primo teatro yiddish russo. Negli Stati Uniti Boris Thomashefsky, giovanissimo immigrato senza alcuna formazione specifica, fondò la prima compagnia yiddish professionale. Adler diventò un attore-mito con il soprannome di Grande Aquila, Thomashefsky fu il re dello shund, l’amato e disprezzato teatro-spazzatura. Per oltre un ventennio l’amicizia e la concorrenza tra i due diedero l’impulso più rilevante a un genere spettacolare al tempo stesso popolare e innovatore, capace di proporre in scena episodi biblici e scabrosi fatti di cronaca, controversie filosofiche e battaglie politiche.
Le donne che i due incontrarono e che li affiancarono come attrici e compagne di vita furono altrettanto fondamentali nel determinare la fisionomia del teatro yiddish nella transizione dalla vecchia Europa a quella Amerike nella quale le più diverse etnie e culture cercavano di costruirsi un futuro di benessere e felicità.
Sempre mescolando divertimento e commozione, risate e lacrime, il teatro yiddish realizzato durante pochi decenni tra il XIX e il XX secolo da alcune centinaia di artisti straordinari non fu soltanto il principale elemento identitario di una comunità ma anche un incredibile laboratorio senza il quale il teatro contemporaneo sarebbe molto più povero.

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Il teatro yiddish è una fiorente anche se breve civiltà teatrale fiorita tra l’Otto e il Novecento, che ha accompagnato milioni di ebrei dell’Europa centrale e orientale nelle nuove dislocazioni in tutto il mondo. Era un popolo in fuga da persecuzioni e miseria, alla ricerca di benessere e felicità, un popolo cheì si chiedeva se e come fosse possibile conciliare tradizioni e valori millenari con la modernità. Il teatro yiddish si è sviluppato in dialogo con l’operetta, il melodramma e il teatro borghese del tempo, creando proprie forme del tutto originali, soprattutto il cosiddetto grottesco yiddish. Popolare e sperimentale, attraversato dalla musica e dal canto, soprattutto espressione di grandi attrici e attori che ispiravano i drammaturghi e si confrontavano spregiudicatamente con i grandi autori del passato, il teatro yiddish ha poi cessato di esistere soltanto in apparenza, perché – come qui si dimostra – ha irradiato con le proprie invenzioni recitative, drammaturgiche e registiche il teatro e il cinema di oggi nelle sue migliori espressioni sia popolari che d’avanguardia.

The Future of a Tradition – Dare to Change. Tibetan Performing Arts in the Third Millennium is my contribution to the international conference on Tibetan Performing Arts held in Dharamshala from 29-31 October 2019. The conference is jointly organised by TIPA and The Tibet Policy Institute (TPI) and convened by Tashi Tsering Josayma, Director, Amnye Machen Institute, Dharamshala. ​

The postdramatic fans are ignorants!
They ignore what Aristotle did say about drama, and the contemporary quest for a poetic theatre.
On the same topic please see recent Gregory Scott's book!

The concept of mimesis needs to be re-evaluated in every era. Nowadays, this task seems particularly urgent for at least three reasons: 1) it is now clear that the term " mimesis, " as it was used by the Greeks, has been systematically misunderstood and corrupted. Moreover, it has been simplified in order to fit the established models of cultural development that have dominated since then; 2) in late modernity, the greatly enriched repertoire of critical tools and languages with which we can approach mimesis offers the potential for creating a new and generative framework; 3) given the globalization of the (new-, late-, post-industrial) West, there is a real need to face and understand other traditions of art and thought, whether they be 'defeated' ancient civilizations or marginalized or geographically distant cultures in our present age.