Interview with Duygu Dalyanoğlu (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Theatrical and Real Encounter with Zabel Yesayan: A Play by BGST
European Stages, Volume 11, Spring 2018
During the last years, theatre in Turkey has a prosperous landscape. The spectators can find various trends, theatrical forms, new dramaturgical and narrative techniques if they see the works staged in the season, especially by the so-called “independent theatres”. Among these theatrical diversity story-telling, feminist dramaturgy, re-writing and adapting the (auto)biographies and classical texts are very common and popular. Another common subject is also “otherness”: the situation of the women, transgender, homosexuals, and Kurdish and Armenian questions. BGST (Boğaziçi Gösteri Sanatları Topluluğu), one of the leading theatre group in Istanbul, working on feminist dramaturgy and re/de-construction of cultural history in theatre – such as producing meta-theatrical and meta-historical texts- is an obvious example of written above. In addition, they have their own acting and narrative technique which combines the Stanislavski’s acting method with the Brechtian dramaturgy. After staging of their seminal works such as the theatrical life of Lorca (The Tragicomedy of Lorca), Moliere (Mister Moliere), and Muhsin Ertuğrul, the founder of national theatre in Turkey (Who’s There? Mr. Muhsin’s Last Hamlet), BGST’s recent performance is Zabel which presents the life story of the first Armenian socialist-feminist woman writer Zabel Yaseyan (1878-1943) who spent most of her life in exile from Ottoman to Soviets. In this essay I will focus on the production Zabel which was premiered on May 2017 and is being staged during this year’s theatre season.
ankara üniversitesi, sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, 2022
Türkiye tiyatrosunda sıklıkla yinelenen izlek, motif ve duyguların izini sürerek başladığım tez çalışması, 2010’lu yıllarda Türkiye tiyatrosunun geri dönüşlü dramaturgisini açığa çıkarmaya yönelik bir kavrama çerçevesi oluşturma çabasına temelleniyor. Bu çabaya hem tiyatronun kendi doğasına içkin estetik bir özelliği hem de ekolojik bir düşünüş biçimi olarak yeniden kavramsallaştırmaya çalıştığım geri dönüşüm kavramı eşlik ediyor. Tez, Türkiye tiyatrosunun son on yılda siyasette ve toplumsal hayatta yaşanan radikal değişim ve dönüşümlerle ilişkisini göz önünde bulundurarak, tiyatroyu bir imza gibi işaretleyen geri dönüş izleğini ve bu geri dönüşün muhtemel dönüştürücü potansiyellerini odağına alıyor. Geri dönüş izleğinin uğrakları olduğunu ileri sürdüğüm nostalji, metatiyatro ve ütopyayı oyunlardan örneklerle inceliyor. Söz konusu üç uğrağı tiyatro ve geri dönüş(üm) ilişkisi ekseninde geri dönüşüm dramaturgileri kavramsallaştırmasıyla birbirine bağlamayı amaçlıyor.
We are talking about Contemporary Theatre and Politics in Turkey
Arab Stages, Volume 11, Fall 2019
https://arabstages.org/2019/11/we-are-talking-about-contemporary-theatre-and-politics-in-turkey/ Having designed a dialogue between two critics, who co-founded the Critical Collective and co-produced works on contemporary theatre in Turkey, this conversation traces our long-term investigation, concern and curiosity for post-2000s Turkish theatre, which is rapidly changing in its form, content and political function as mentioned above. Raising critical questions, we will try to discuss the changing aspects of theatre and performing arts in Turkey, considering the recent social and political transformations the country has been through.
Theatre Research International, 2023
In the last twenty years, memory has gained broader attention in Turkey's social, cultural and political arena. In line with this movement, independent and subsidized theatres produced plays engaging with Armenian history through diverse political and aesthetic agendas. Among these works, public and state theatre productions remained mostly invisible in theatre scholarship due to their ambiguous position that does not directly align with the framework of political theatre. This article examines the adaptation of the Ottoman Armenian playwright Hagop Baronian's Adamnapuyj aravelyan () as Şark Dişçisi (The Oriental Dentist) () by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres (İBBŞT). While promoting confrontation with the past, Şark Dişçisi eliminates the crucial political insights of its source text and their ramifications for contemporary demands for historical justice regarding the Armenian Genocide. The intersection of revisionist theatre historiography and broader political dynamics in the adaptation process reveals the ambivalences of post-Genocide memory work in Turkey.
Contrasting Landscape of Theatre in Turkey: Resisting (with) Theatre
Critical Stages, Volume. 17, 2018
When I was writing a draft for this report, I realised that in Istanbul, the most populated city in Turkey, more than 150 theatre productions are being staged every evening. It is quite surprising and gratifying to witness this, despite the socio-political crisis and the censorship in art. Actually, for a while it has been discussed that Turkish people are divided into two sharp poles both in terms of political and cultural life, namely the Republicans and the conservatives. However, the landscape of theatre studies presents a contrast. On one hand, especially over the last ten years, theatre productions in Turkey have a very prosperous landscape. One can find various trends, theatrical forms, new dramaturgical and narrative techniques ranging from musical, in-yer-face, feminist theatre, queer studies, performance art to storytelling forms, monodrama, monologue drama, solo-performance, newer adaptations of classical texts and traditional forms. More recently, a number of new groups, new venues, theatre and performance research centers such as GalataPerform, Tiyatro Medresesi, Kadıköy Theatron which are seeking for new theatrical forms, acting styles, narrative techniques, have emerged. Concordantly, the number of theatre critics and new theatre magazines, websites, blogs focusing on current performances have been gradually increasing. Additionally, there are now more than thirty-five academic departments in Theatre, Acting, Performance Arts, Dramaturgy Studies all around Turkey.
From Dystopia to Utopia: Finding Hope in Now You Have A Trial
Arab Stages, Volume 11, Fall 2019
https://arabstages.org/2019/11/from-dystopia-to-utopia-finding-hope-in-now-you-have-a-trial-by-bgst/ Is everything really going well in this country? Or do we really believe that everything will be fine? But, how? Why are the people of Turkey longing for hope and utopia? Might it be because people have been living in a kind of dystopia for a long while as in Now, You Have A Trial? Perhaps the childish, clownish, hopeful girl Melek (angel), the inner voice of everyone, who has been long suppressed and exiled from our lives, is now, “suddenly,” just as she said at the court, about to come back, bringing with herself a piece of hope and “utopian performative” (in sense Jill Dolan uses) for all of us. If it is so, it would be interesting what these dystopian narratives will turn into in the near future, or how it will affect the theatre which is rapidly changing in its form and subject according to the affective dimensions of recent socio-political climate.
HISTORIOGRAPHIES OF ABJECTION: THE ARMENIAN MEMORY IN CONTEMPORARY TURKISH PUBLIC THEATRE
Master's Thesis, 2023
This thesis project started in medias res, building on the theoretical and methodological groundwork of Prof. Rüstem Ertuğ Altınay's European Research Council Starting Grant-funded project, Staging National Abjection: Theatre and Politics in Turkey and Its Diasporas. Without the generous support of the European Research Council and the meticulous guidance of Prof. Altınay, I would not be able to begin or complete my research in any way. I am deeply grateful for all the suggestions, mentoring, and informative and delightful conversations we shared with Prof. Altınay. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Afife İdil Akın, who came to my rescue amidst a bureaucratic crisis and accepted to become my thesis advisor. Prof. Akın was always patient with my questions and generous with her precious time. Additionally, I am indebted to members of my defense committee, Prof. Özen Baş, Prof. Murat Cankara, and Prof. Emine Fişek, for their invaluable contributions to the completion of this thesis. My academic journey started at Boğaziçi University. Every professor I met in this institution guided my whole educational and professional life in various ways; however, three names stand out from this long list: Dr. Esra Dicle, Prof. Emine Fişek, and Prof. Aslı Tekinay, whose courses and guidance have led me to pursue my deep interest in drama, theatre, and performance. Prof. Fişek has been my mentor over the years well after she was my senior thesis advisor, and in fact, if she had not informed me about the Communication Studies Master's Program at Kadir Has University and the Staging Abjection project, I could have quit my deep passion for academia at this point. The years I pursued my Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies at Kadir Has University have broadened my perspective and improved my methodological and theoretical approach to academic research, not only via graduate courses but also through my professional interactions with the members of Kadir Has University. Prof.
Mektuplaşmalar II: " Tiyatroda Ütopya ve Yeniden "Artık Bir Davan Var" Dolayısıyla"
21-24 Nisan 2019 tarihli mektuplaşma http://www.mimesis-dergi.org/2019/05/tiyatro-uzerine-mektuplasmalar-2/
Zehra İpşiroğlu ile Artık Bir Davan Var üzerine mektuplaşmamız devam ediyor. Bu mektuplaşmamızda tiyatro eleştirel düşünce, eleştiride ön yargılar, bir oyunun ütopya yaratma potansiyeli üzerine yazıştık ve bunları Artık Bir Davan Var oyunuyla yeniden düşündük.
A Dismissed Heritage: Contemporary Performance in Turkey Defined through Karagöz
PhD Thesis, 2021
This study focuses on the aesthetics of the contemporary theatre of Turkey through the focal point of Ottoman non-religious and urban performance forms, and particularly the medium of shadow puppetry known as Karagöz . The major signature of Karagöz is its metatheatricality, which was incorporated into the contemporary theatre of Turkey through the various methods discussed in this thesis. Adaptation, epic theatre, ‘two and a half dimensions,’ and ‘narrative theatre’ are all methods that serve this culturally-rooted metatheatrical performance paradigm. As a through line, while tracing the aesthetic hybridities, Western influences, and organizational structures that shaped the contemporary theatre field of Turkey through multiple case studies, this thesis centers itself around the focus of illustrating the patterns of how the archetypes, elements, and techniques of Karagöz were recycled and re-invented on the contemporary stage. This overall metatheatricality sets up the dramaturgy and acting style through its open form, and through the direct engagement of the performers with their audiences.