Round table: Slovenian Theatre on and at the Edge

Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia

With a simple fleeting look at Slovenian theatre history after 1950, we can already detect the systemic connection of the "theatres on and at the edge" into a network of theatre creativity. Its state can be depicted as a split into the cultural centre and the provinces (edge) – in the forefront of the cultural policy is an attempt to widely include people into culture; an unusually fast establishing of theatre houses is taking place, despite insufficient material, personnel and organisational support. The structure of theatre activities is directed by the living consciousness about the need for regionalisation (which was a pan-Yugoslav phenomenon). The cultural policies in the beginning of the 1950s thus established – alongside the central national theatre houses in Ljubljana, Maribor and Trieste – professional regional theatres in Kranj, Celje, Ptuj and Koper. A nation of two-million and its market thus created a network of Slovenian theatres. Such construction and the reinforcement of foundations were to enable the further growth and development of the modern theatre model. What has been happening to it in the past decades and what is it like today? How does it influence the situation in Slovenian theatre criticism?

The round table will be moderated by Primož Jesenko.