The Beginnings, Achievements and Successors of Slovenian Theatre in the Modern Era

A symposium organised by the Research Programme of the University of Ljubljana, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television and the Slovenian Theatre Institute in collaboration with the Maribor Theatre Festival.

The 150th Anniversary of the Dramatic Society in Ljubljana

The founding of the Dramatic Society in Ljubljana in 1867 is considered the beginning of organised theatre activities in Slovenia. The 150th anniversary of that landmark event in the history of Slovenian theatre will be commemorated with a symposium that will thoroughly present the activity of the Dramatic Society, study it from thus far unexplored perspectives and at the same time offer a critical reflection on the established historical accounts. In order to attain a multi-faceted image of the Dramatic Society we have invited researchers from the fields of performing arts, literature, artistic speech, fine arts, music, cultural and art history to participate. They will explore the development of those elements that are constitutive both for the Dramatic Society and Slovenian theatre: dramatic literature, repertoire, theatre iconography, professions, architecture, etc. They will deal with the influence of the Dramatic Society on the development of Slovenian dramatic literature, the beginnings of opera and ballet creations, the Slovenian theatre and acting (speech) education, the gradual professionalisation and specialisation of theatre vocations. They will detect the development from the Dramatic Society in Ljubljana to dramatic societies in the rest of Slovenia, the last decades of the Dramatic Society and its liquidation, the turning points in the work of Society as well as the national iconography in the period between 1867 and 1918. They will present biographical contributions on, for instance, Josip Nolli and the opera singer Emil Scari, the pioneers of the Dramatic Society, along with more specific subjects such as the presence of the French drama, the bourgeois drama or the Jewish thematic on the repertoire. They will also disclose the issue of "national” operetta as well as the problem of Tugomer as a Slovenian tribal hero. Those studies will shed a new light on the period of the first organised form of Slovenian theatre, its consequent professionalisation and the beginnings of Europeanisation, offering a more accurate assessment of the significance of the Dramatic Society in the cultural history of Slovenians.

Symposium leaders: Štefan Vevar, PhD and Barbara Orel, PhD