East West Theatre Company (Bosnian: East West Centar) was established in 2005 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a nonprofit cultural institution which produces performing arts programs, publications, films, and music events. It also organizes touring shows, discussions, forums, master-classes and workshops. Important components of its work include a creation of new work and a commitment to international cooperation.[1]
Haris Pašović, Director of the East West Theatre Company is a theatre and film director whose achievements include: co-founding of the Directing Department at the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo; managing the International Theatre and Film Festival MES during the siege of Sarajevo (during which he produced a production of Waiting for Godot directed by Susan Sontag ); founding of the Sarajevo Film Festival "Beyond the End of the World" during the siege of Sarajevo; founding of the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo.
Haris Pašović, director of East West Theatre Company.
History and repertoire
The East West Theatre Company has been performing extensively in the Balkan region and around the world.[2] Some of the venues it performed at include the Edinburgh International Festival; Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, National Arts Festival of South Africa; Singapore Arts Festival; International Theatre Festival Poland as well as the festivals in St. Petersburg, Sibiu, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Zagreb, and many others.[3]
William Shakespeare's Hamlet was performed in several countries and it was set in the context of the Ottoman Empire.[4] It was one of the Balkan's largest regional co-productions in the past twenty-five years and it involved artists from eight countries.[5] British Reuters, CNN as well as many other media outlets reported about the production. Amar Selimović, as Hamlet, was awarded the Best Young Actor Award at the International Theatre Festival MES Sarajevo.
Faust (produced in 2006) opened the MES Festival Sarajevo 2006 and in only two days attracted (for Bosnia and Herzegovina) record breaking 2,000 spectators. Based on Christopher Marlowe's masterpiece, this production was set in the near future and it examined the impact of the rapid development of technology on contemporary life.
As the first Balkan company ever, the East West Theatre Company participated at the Edinburgh International Festival 2008 with Nigel Williams’ play Class Enemy (produced in 2007).[6] It is a play about juvenile violence and disillusioned youth adapted to Bosnian circumstances. The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Herald, The Independent, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, BBC, BBC World Service and many other British media reported extensively about the East West Theatre Company. Class Enemy has been pronounced as the Best Contemporary Show at the International Festival Kontakt, Toruń, Poland, and as The Best Play of the Year in Singapore's leading newspaper Straits Times and the leading theatre portal The Flying Inkpot.[7]
In 2008, East West Theatre Company toured with Class Enemy in Scotland in the small cities such as Cumbernauld, Rutherglen, and Stirling. With the same play, East West Theatre Company also toured to more than thirty Bosnia and Herzegovina towns. Most of the tour towns have not hosted a single theatre production for several decades prior to the arrival of the East West Theater Company's Class Enemy.
In 2010, East West Theatre Company was invited to create an international theatre and dance production Football, Football. The show was written and directed by Haris Pašović, and produced in cooperation with Napoli Teatro Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Les Ballet C de la B, legendary contemporary dance company and Flota Institute from Slovenia. Since the May 2010 opening, the show has been performed fifteen times on three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). The artists coming from four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia) and seven countries (Italy, Slovenia, Singapore, Burkina Faso, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China and Australia) gathered to work on the project.
Football, Football was a highlight of the National Arts Festival in South Africa that was taking place during the FIFA World Cup 2010. During the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia the East West Theatre Company organised a workshop presenting the story of football to 300 kids coming from deprived areas of the region of Campania.
Activities
In February 2009, the East West Theatre Company hosted one of the highest-profile theatre companies in Europe, Schaubühne Berlin, as a central part of the project East West Fest – Berlin in Sarajevo. This was one of the events in Europe that marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Schaubühne Theatre presented themselves to local audience with three of their productions:
Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Thomas Osteremeir played in the Olympic Hall Zetra before more than 2,500 spectators, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman directed by Luk Perceval and F. Richter Under Ice in the National Theatre for more than 1,300 spectators.
In 2007 and 2008, East West organized events in the National Theatre Sarajevo celebrating April 6 – The Liberation Day of the City of Sarajevo.
In February 2011 East West Theatre Company co-produced a show called Europe Today. Their co-producer was the largest Slovenian theatre – Slovene National Theatre, Maribor and European Cultural Capital 2012 Maribor.[8] The show was written by Miroslav Krleža and directed by Haris Pašović with some of the finest artists in the region: Miki Manojlović, an actor; Edward Clug, a contemporary dancer and choreographer and the industrial, neoclassical band Laibach. The dramaturge of the production was the Zagreb Youth Theatre director, Dubravka Vrgoč. Financial Times gave it excellent reviews rated it with four stars.[9]
In the past three years East West Theatre Company has organized master classes and workshops with some of the Europe's leading directors, producers and choreographers such as Thomas Ostermeier (artistic director of Schaubuhne), Luk Perceval (artistic director of Thalía Theatre Hamburg), Tobias Veit (chief producer of Schaubuhne), James Morrison (producer of Guthrie Theatre Minneapolis), Mark Russel (director of Under the Radar Festival New York), Steve Kirkham and Madelaine Brennan (choreographer from Mathew Bourne's New Adventures), Larisa Lipovac and Tamara Curić (directors of Contemporary Dance Center TALA, Zagreb). Haris Pašović, artistic director held workshops for Scottish theatre and film directors in Edinburgh and master classes for professionals in Belfast, Singapore, Zagreb and Subotica.
In October 2011 East West Theatre Company, in co-production with Prime Cut Productions from Belfast, the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica and the Slovenian Youth Theatre of Ljubljana organized a five-day workshop in Zenica on the theme "Do the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland have the right to be happy? ". This workshop was greatly inspired by Bertrand Russell's work The Conquest of Happiness, and materials generated there will serve as a basis for a future production.[10]
East West Theatre Company and the City of Sarajevo are the main organizers of a large-scale event called Sarajevo Red Line which in April 2012 commemorated the Siege of Sarajevo's 20th anniversary. This drama and music poem dedicated to citizens killed during the 1992-96 siege of their city consisted of 11,541 red chairs placed on the main Sarajevo street and it also included a street exhibition and a concert.[11]
Partners
East West Theatre Company has collaborated with many partners, such as British Council, MOTT Foundation, Open Society Fond, Goethe Institut, LOTTO Foundation Berlin, Schaubuhne Berlin, US Embassy, UK Embassy, Norway Embassy, French Embassy, NATO, EUFOR, OSCE, the Council of City of Belgrade, the City of Sarajevo, the City of Zagreb, the City of Ljubljana, the Ministry of Culture of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canton Sarajevo, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH. We also collaborated with some of the most prestigious world festivals, such as Edinburgh International Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Napoli Teatro Festival Italy, International Theatre Festival Kontakt (Poland), Sibiu International Festival (Romania), EX Ponto (Slovenia), Sterijino Pozorje (Novi Sad), International Theatre Festival MES Sarajevo, International Theatre Festival Ohrid Summer (Macedonia) and Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, Kosztolany Theatre in Subotica, Mladinsko Gledališče in Lubljana, Zagreb Youth Theatre, TALA Centre etc.
East West Theatre Company won the 2009 Golden Wreath for Contribution to Theatre at the International Theatre Festival MES Sarajevo.[12]
Productions
The Conquest of Happiness,[13] new work theatre production
Creators of the Whole: 20 years of Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo's Directing Department[14] (Original title - Tvorci cjeline: 20 godina Odsjeka za režiju Akademije scenskih umjetnosti u Sarajevu), book
Related Research Articles
The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in Southeast Europe, and is one of the largest film festivals in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an extensive variety of feature and short films from around the world. The current director of the festival is Jovan Marjanović.
The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz is a famous theatre in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, located on the Kurfürstendamm boulevard. It is a conversion of the Universum cinema, built according to plans designed by Erich Mendelsohn in 1928.
Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.
The University of Sarajevo is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the largest and oldest university in the country, tracing its initial origins to 1537 as an Islamic madrasa.
Haris Pašović is a Bosnian theatre director. Over the course of his career, he has also worked as a playwright, producer, choreographer, performer, and designer. He is best known for his productions of Wedekind's “Spring Awakening”. He is the artistic leader of the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo and tenured Professor of Directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
Tomi Janežič is a Slovenian theatre director, professor at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a psychodrama psychotherapist. He is also one of the founders and the artistic director of the Studio for Research on the Art of Acting which runs its activities mostly at Krušče Workcenter for Artistic Research, Creation, Residency and Education in Krušče, Slovenia.
Roses for Anne Teresa / Football Stories is a joint theatre production of East West Theatre Company from Sarajevo and Bosnian National Theatre Zenica. The show is dedicated to Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, a choreographer and her masterpiece Rosas danst Rosas. The show, directed by Haris Pašović and choreographed by Edward Clug, premiered 23 September 2011 in Zenica's Bosnian National Theatre. After that it toured eleven Bosnia and Herzegovina towns. Those towns have included Prijedor, Bihać, Jajce, Gradiska, Sarajevo, Sokolac, Rudo, Tešanj and Srebrenik.
Europe Today is a theatre show produced in cooperation between East West Theatre Company and Slovene National Theatre. The show is based on an essay written by Miroslav Krleza and directed by Haris Pasovic. Production also included Miki Manojlovic, an actor; Edward Clug, a contemporary dancer and choreographer; as well as the industrial, neoclassical band Laibach. The dramaturgy of the production was done by Dubravka Vrgoc, director of Zagreb Youth Theatre. The artists, who reside in Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, rehearsed in Maribor's Slovene National Theatre during February 2011. The show opened February 16 and it provoked great regional and international interest.
Football, Football is a theatre show produced by the East West Theatre Company in cooperation with Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Singapore Arts Festival, Flota Institute from Slovenia, Ballets C. de la B, and patronage by Fondazione Cannavaro Ferrara Napoli Teatro Festival. Football, Football was directed, conceived and written by Haris Pašović. Since the opening in May 2010, it has been performed for fifteen times on three continents. The artists from four continents and seven countries participated in this project.
Class Enemy is a 1978 play by the British playwright Nigel Williams, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre.
Faust is the name of the show produced by the East West Theatre Company and directed by Haris Pasovic. The action is set in the foreseeable future and the script is based on texts by Emil Cioran, Bertrand Russell, Christopher Marlowe, Bill Joy, Werener Heisenberg and Haris Pasovic.
Nora is a theatre show directed by Haris Pasovic and produced by the East West Theatre Company based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The show is based on Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House, which was translated into Bosnian by Munib Delalic. Nora is the story of a young successful couple who seemingly live a perfect life but suffer from marital problems under the surface.
Bolero, Sarajevo or shortened Bolero is the name of a theatre show produced by the East West Theatre Company from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Tala Dance Center from Croatia. Authors, choreographer Tamara Curic from Zagreb, Croatia and director Haris Pasovic, created a dance performance in which Sarajevo and choreography impressed with Maurice Béjart's work are in interaction. They were largely inspired by the flux of Sarajevo, Ravel's music and 'Béjartesque' swinging bodies. Performance included dancers from Zagreb who regularly collaborate with the TALA Dance Centre, actors of the East West Theatre Company from Sarajevo, and the members of the Sarajevo National Theatre's Ballet Company.
Edward Clug is a choreographer in the field of contemporary ballet born in Romania
Aida Čorbadžić is a Bosnian opera singer. She was born in Zavidovići and lives in Sarajevo. She primarily sings soprano. She received a special award at the secondary competition of music schools in Bugojno.
The Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo is a faculty within the University of Sarajevo in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, dedicated to the performing arts.
Darko Lukić is a Croatian theatre scholar, writer, cultural theorist and playwright living and working in Germany. As an expert in multi-disciplinary expert pool for capacity building for European Capitals of Culture worked at audience development program ADESTE+. and Rijeka, European capital of Culture 2020. Lukić also publishes scientific papers and participates in international conferences and seminars and translates from English and Spanish language. He is the member of Programme Board of Maribor 2012, European Capital of Culture 2012. He was a member of the European jury of theatrologists for “Premio Europa per il teatro” award (2009), member of the jury for “Marko Fotez” theatre award of HAZU (Croatian Academy of Science and Arts, president of the Board of Gavella Theatre, editor in Hrvatsko glumište magazine HDDU, artistic advisor of HAVC, Hrvatski audiovizualni centar, artistic advisor of Ministry of Culture - Ministarstvo kulture RH and HRT for film, member of the Cultural Council for Performing Arts of Croatian Ministry of Culture, president of the Theatre Committee of the City of Zagreb, member of the Council for International Cultural Cooperation of the City of Zagreb, and President of the Cultural Council for International Cooperation Ministry of Culture - Ministarstvo kulture RH, and member of Croatian centre of PEN International, member of IETM, CAE, ENCATC, Memory Studies Association, IFTR and EASTAP.
The MESS International Theatre Festival (MESS) is a theatre festival that takes place annually in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the oldest living theatre festival in the Balkans, programming international experimental performances and emerging artists. MESS was the largest theatre festival in the Former Yugoslavia and was named one of Living Theatre's international showcases in 1974. It survived the Siege of Sarajevo, during which it hosted directors such as Susan Sontag and Peter Schumann. It organized the first edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival in 1993 and still acts as a collective board member today. Today it is the largest theatre festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the largest in South-Eastern Europe. In 2009 it expanded its activities to the city of Zenica, which now hosts parts of the regional program.
Emma Jordan is a Northern Irish actress and theatre director.
Amir Bukvić,, is a Bosnian actor, documentarist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His works have been awarded the most prestigious literary awards in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, namely the “Alija Isaković Award” and the Marin Držić Award, and included in anthologies.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
