Site-particular Dramaturgy in Theatre Festivals
For theatre festival organizers, the use of space can pose challenges when it comes to clustering venues in a small range while maintaining their accessibility. Festival d’Avignon and Toronto Fringe house multiple productions in these venues to facilitate functionality and for revenue generation. For the Fringe, their lottery structure factors into their venue decisions, having artists rank their top three choices (Wong 2017). In contrast, Festival d’Avignon supposedly allows curated artists to tour the different venue options to choose the appropriate space for their show. Frank Castorf’s Die Kabale and Grensgeval (Borderline) utilized the same space, however the latter failed to recognize the importance site dramaturgy has on the performance text.
Both productions were performed in Parc des Expositions d’Avignon, a 6,000 metre squared hall about a thirty-minute drive from downtown Avignon (“Hall A”). The space is primarily used for conferences and events, with an option to hold 4600 people (“Hall A”). Knowing the history of the space, Castorf decided not to integrate into piece, but instead productively explored the particularities of the space, which allowed the production to adapt to the site when acknowledging its particular quality, rather than vice-versa (Noé 150). For example, the set was spread out through the entire space, meaning Castorf intentionally incorporated the bare design of the space into his performance text (Knowles 19).
In contrast, Grensgeval curtained off much of the hall to create a black-box type setting, something that could have been achieved better at another venue or an actual black-box theatre. In their case, the use of projections and mediation in the first section “contained” (Dixon 130) the actors to the screen, and the choreography by the background dancers was lost as audience members either watched the screen or the subtitles. A similar argument can be made about Die Kabale, however Castorf involved the audience in this experience with a dinner at intermission and an intentional breaking of the fourth wall, which can change the energy of the space and the production (Dixon 132).
Artists should do more specific site dramaturgy, especially when give a chance to view the site beforehand, as was the case with Grensgeval. Specifically, companies must not depend on the play’s text, but rather their production conditions in order to effectively utilize their situated space (Turner & Behrndt 36).
Works Cited
Dixon, Steve. “Liveness.” Digital Performance : A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. Cambridge, Mass., US: MIT Press, 2007. 115-34. Web. 24 July 2017.
Gilbert, Sky. "Dramaturgy for Radical Theatre." Canadian Theatre Review. 1996: 25-7. Web. 23 July 2017.
"Hall A." Avignon Tourisme. Web. 23 July 2017. http://www.avignon-expo.com/espace-congres/ le-parc-des-expositions/espace-salon/hall-a-40-1.html
Knowles, Richard Paul. "Theory: Towards a materialist semiotic." Reading the Material Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 9-23. Web. 12 July 2017.
Noé, Ilya. “Site Particular." Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research. - Scholarly Acts and Creative Carthographies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 149-50. Print.
Turner, Cathy, and Synne K. Behrndt. "What is Dramaturgy?" Dramaturgy and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 17-37. Print.
Wong, Kevin Matthew. DRM398 Seminar #2. University of Toronto, Toronto. 6 July 2017. Seminar.
