Duration: 14:00–16:00

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Welcome to a public lecture by Laura Luise Schultz, Associate Professor, PhD, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Today, drama as the dominant form of theatre has been supplemented by diverse forms of post-dramatic theatre and performance. Most of these post-dramatic forms of expression make use of some sort of script, scenario, or play text, but often these texts are composed through collaborative devising processes or compiled from different types of text from other socio-cultural fields: A theatre text might consist of witness statements or case files, of statistic material or personal papers, of pop songs or Latin poems, of self-help books or minimalist novels, rather than a classical or contemporary dramatic text.

Where does that leave the playwright? What is her role in contemporary theatre? And how can we widen our conception of the theatre text while still acknowledging the playwright’s specific dramaturgical skills and sensitivity towards language? Can a playwright compose with other means than words – with objects and bodies?  How can we insist on the literary and poetic qualities of the theatre text while at the same time widening our conception of what a play might be? This presentation argues for a heightened awareness of text and language in contemporary performing arts.

Biography:
Laura Luise Schultz, Associate Professor, PhD, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Copenhagen. Research areas include avant-garde performance, Gertrude Stein, post-dramatic writing, archive and performance, artistic research. Initiated the interdisciplinary research group The 1930s Today. Co-editor of A Cultural History of the Avant-garde in the Nordic Countries since 1975 (Brill, forthcoming 2022). Co-editor of Peripeti, a journal of dramaturgical research.