The IOTF: The International Online Theatre Festival, Future Directions: R3, showcased 33 global productions made and/or captured during the lockdown as artists, theatres and audiences adapted to the challenges of making work during the pandemic. As the move to digital spaces has shaped all our lives the possibilities of using this new online ‘space’ to engage audiences as ideas of the ‘live’ are refashioned. All the work in this year’s festival – from Chile’s Reminiscencia and the US/Russian chekhovOS /an experimental game/, to the UK’s A Feast in the Time of Plague and Ukraine’s Viňo – forged a path to the redefinition, reimagining and Renaissance of 21st-century theatre.
May 20, 2021 – June 4, 2021
Future Directions: R3
the redefinition, reimagining, and Renaissance of 21st-century theatre
The 2021 festival, Future Directions: R3, was divided into three sections. Redefining Theatre, Drama Schools Imagine, and Renaissance: Five-Minute Windows, which inaugurated a new collaboration with the European Theatre Convention.
Redefining Theatre included productions from nine countries from South Africa to South Korea. While different in style and tone, these productions are united by a common desire to explore the limits of lockdown-created theatre, whether through the use of innovative Zoom techniques, socially distanced recording(s), physical and musical engagement, or the blurring of cross-disciplinary boundaries.
Drama Schools Reimagine looked at work created by training institutions across the globe, exploring how the artists of tomorrow use the languages of this present moment to envisage the future of theatre.
In association with the European Theatre Convention, Renaissance: Five-minute Windows, provided a lens into projects realized by some of Europe’s leading theatres. The featured selection of 10 works from ETC’s ‘Renaissance’ project — a collection of 22 pieces screening on the ETC website until 4 June — spoke to our theme of Future Directions.
The IOTF is a celebration of innovative global theatre artists working in diverse mediums and styles. Previous editions have included the work of acclaimed companies and theatres as well as new, emerging artists just launching their careers.
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IOTF ARTISTIC TEAM
Maria Delgado
Executive Director of IOTF Professor at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
Xunnan Li
Artistic Director of IOTF Doctoral candidate at Royal Holloway University of London
Alma Prelec
Artistic Director of IOTF Doctoral candidate at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
Gabriel Vivas-Martínez
Artistic Director of IOTF Doctoral candidate at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
Magda Romanska
Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of TheTheatreTimes.com
Kasia Lech
Executive Director and Director of Research and Global Initiatives at TheTheatreTimes.com
REDEFINING THEATRE
The International Online Theatre Festival
May 20 – June 5, 2021
chekhovOS /an experimental game/
Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” and drawing from recordings of Chekhov’s letters and dreams, this interactive online theater experience accesses the operating system behind both Chekhov’s computer and the world in which his characters live, searching for happiness.
ONE LIVE PERFORMANCE ONLY!
Sunday, May 30 at 11:00am ET | 5:00pm CEST
Waiting for Godot
In Wang’s online version of “Waiting for Godot,” Estragon and Vladimir are two people separated by the pandemic. Covid-19 loomed large in the production. Members of the cast and the production team were scattered in various cities in China, including the epicenter of the pandemic, Wuhan, which was still in hard lockdown. The online theater piece was live-performed and live-streamed in April 2020, drawing a record-breaking 290,000 audience to the single performance.
ONE DAY ONLY! MAY 20!
Insulted. Belarus.
“Insulted. Belarus” draws from the controversy surrounding Alexander Lukashenko’s highly contested presidential victory in August 2020 against opponent Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya. Statements by Lukashenko and Tikhanovskaya are here interwoven with the interjections of fictional characters, portraying how citizens from all walks of life imagine the future of Belarusian society.
An Opera Boy and His Paradise
After being immersed in Chinese Traditional Theatre, a boy’s childhood is far more than ordinary. The award-winning short film was completed by ‘Remote on-line directing’ during the 2020 lockdown.
Balladyna
Polish seminal Romantic verse drama “Balladyna” by Juliusz Słowacki is a starting point for creating an innovative story about how technology intertwines with loneliness, fear, obsession, love, and murder in the times of global isolation. EIGHT DAYS ONLY! MAY 24-31
A Feast in the Time of Plague
An opera commissioned during the U.K.’s lockdown and designed with social distancing shaping the actors’ performances. The story begins with people gathering for a feast but ends with them killed by the plague.
Reminiscencia
Through the delicate use of Zoom, Google Earth, and other digital tools, the author invites the viewer to discover a geographical and personal topography of Santiago. Embracing aspects of memory, territory, and emotion, “Reminiscencia” shows the power of theatre to bring people closer at a time where distance and digital presence no longer seem that far apart. SEVEN DAYS ONLY! MAY 24-30
VIÑO
“Viño” is a Ukrainian physical theatre production that visualizes our ‘almighty’ bodies getting wasted and lost between the realistic and the imagined. Think of a slightly drunken moment during lockdown and you might get close to the spirit of this imaginative piece. THREE DAYS ONLY! MAY 27-29
Ruth
In this visceral and poetic piece, writer and director Leanetse Seekoe introduces us to Ruth, her family’s history, and the gendered expectations that are imprinted both in her mother and in herself. Ruth guides us through a pathway in which tradition, opposition, and freedom are key for defining the character’s future.
Book of Magdalene
Loneliness and disconnection from the natural world are key themes in this poetic piece by Obie-award winning playwright Caridad Svich. Staged with deft minimalism by Amelia Rico, the play re-imagines the Biblical Magdalene as a young sex-worker facing loss, grief, and a desire to transcend reality.
Pandas
Two strangers wake up in the same house. They only remember fragments of the night before. They need each other to put together this great puzzle of feelings and memories. This experience was conceived during the Covid-19 quarantine, in São Paulo, Brazil, while the artists were isolated in their homes. Adaptation of the theatrical text, “The Story of Panda Bears (told by a saxophonist who has a girlfriend in Frankfurt).”
Nacht
The day is at its end. The silence slowly covers all of Fryslân, a Dutch province. A nurse, a seeking woman, a journalist: all going somewhere at night. What are they doing out so late? PERFORMED LIVE ON MAY 28 and 29!
Borderline
Borderline is a theatrical piece that began with the research of German theater critic and playwright Jürgen Berger. Traveling between Germany, Thailand, and Korea over the past few years, Berger met people who were looking for a new place to settle down, away from their familiar homes. He conducted interviews in diverse forms and wrote a text based on them. ONE DAY ONLY! JUNE 1, 2-8 PM EST
DRAMA SCHOOLS REIMAGINE
A young woman deals with the consequences of breaking with external expectations as she forges her own path.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama. UK. BA (Hons) Acting. Created and Performed by Aoife Gaston. Videographer and Editor: Daisy Gaston & Joyce Nicholls. Composer: Xexa.
With more than a touch of humour, Newlands re-imagines our ever-increasing dependency on the internet.
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Directed by Leemore Marrett Jr, produced by Amanda Brennan and written by Alisa Bailey, featuring MA Acting for Screen students.
An experimental piece exploring creative possibilities in connection to nature as site-specific performance.
Escuela de Teatro UC. Directed by Álvaro Pizarro, featuring Devenir Colectivo.
Antigones form a powerful chorus against a plague’s restrictions and impossibilities.
UC Davis Department of Theater and Dance. Directed by Margaret Laurena Kemp and Sinéad Rushe, featuring and created with UC Davis students. SHOWING May 24 – May 28.
No more yielding but a dream… On Zoom…
The Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (CDTPS) University of Toronto. Directed by Dylan Trowbridge and Graham Abbey.
Shakespearean drama reimagined on streets of Dublin… But on Zoom!
The Lir Academy. Directed by Mikel Murfi, performed by the 2020 final year acting students.
The world has ended but there is still life… Let’s play in a game called theatre!
National Academy of Theatre Arts, Puppetry Department in Wrocław. Written by Piotr Rowicki. Directed by Arkadiusz Buszko. SHOWING May 21-23
As pandemics spread, secrets in the family are revealed.
LASALLE College of the Arts. Written by Alfian Sa’at and directed by Peter Zazzali. Featuring Level-2 students from BA (Hons) Acting in collaboration with students from Diploma in Theatre Production and Management and Diploma in Audio Production.
Time for a game of Baccarat! Do we have to wear a face mask? Yes or no…
University of Melbourne. Victorian College of the Arts, Australia. Co-devised by The German Romantics, featuring graduate BFA Theatre Co’20 students and VCA School of Production students
Violence, murder, and supernatural meet in the series of podplays set in Los Angeles.
The joint Theatre and Drama Studies program at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto Mississauga (TDS). Written by David Yee, directed by Nina Lee Aquino, featuring students from the 2021 graduating class.
This is something shiny something only for you .
Yale School of Drama (YSD). Co-curated by Lily Haje & Madeline Pages, with contributions from over 40 interdisciplinary artists.
Renaissance: Five-minute Windows
HNK Croatian National Theatre (Croatia). A kaleidoscope of images presenting theatre’s re-birth in these uncertain times. PLAYING ON 28 MAY 2021.
Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg). Filippo Brunelleschi’s 1425 experiment on perspective here provides a catalyst for re-imagining theatre.
Teatru Malta (Malta). A young girl’s magical adventure relating to the Renaissance through the stone streets of Malta. PLAYING ON 24 MAY 2021.
Göteborgs Stadsteater – Backa Teater (Sweden). How can we make the theatre great again? PLAYING ON 04 JUN 2021.
JK Opole Theatre. Poland. The theatre transforms into a land of possibilities, even if this land may temporarily appear a space of ’suspension’. PLAYING ON 29 MAY 2021.
Teatro Stabile di Torino (Italy). Is the pandemic an opportunity to die or to be reborn? PLAYING ON MAY 2021.
Staatsschauspiel Dresden (Germany). “You write, we play”: Do Instagram comments work as play-texts?
Volkstheater Wien (Austria) Three solitary figures ask themselves: has the world’s theatre been lost? Old times dissolve, new ones begin. PLAYING ON 03 JUN 2021.
CCA Dakh. Ukraine A futuristic response to the idea of Renaissance mixing Shakespeare, new texts, and music from DakhaBrakha band. PLAYING ON 19 MAY 2021.
Národní divadlo – National Theatre Prague (Czech Republic). A man’s search for the heart of theatre leads to a renewed sense of purpose.DISCUSSION PANELS
TRANSMEDIA AND ADPTATION IN THE PANDEMIC THEATRE
LIVE! MAY 24, 12 pm EST | 5 pm CET – REGISTER HERE!
Multilingual Theatre in the Age of Pandemic
LIVE! JUNE 2, 12:30 pm EST | 5:30 pm CET – REGISTER HERE!
Drama Schools Reimagine: Panel on Theatre Futures
Transmedia & Adaptation
Directing Under Covid
Bodies, Space, Performance
Multilingual Theatre
European Theatre Convention
Drama Schools Reimagine
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Yizhou Zhang, Allison Taaffe, Nuria Alkorta, Kee-Yoon Nahm, Walter Byongsok Chon, Daniele Avila Small, Mercè Saumell, Dan Hetherington, Elaine Henry, Kate Pitt, Marlena Lukasiak from Polish Cultural Institute in London, Bernadette Cochrane, Yizhou Huang, Alyson Campbell, Joanna Crawley, Leanetse Seekoe, Monika Kwaśniewska, Allison Newey, metaLAB at Harvard, and to all the artists and companies who generously shared work for us to view and consider.
OUR SPONSORS
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