Glej Theatre

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The oldest independent performing arts venue in Ljubljana, since its establishment as an experimental theatre in 1970, Glej Theatre has played an important role in the making of the Slovene theatre scene. Still the place for most unorthodox authors, whose aesthetics are often on the verge of the theatrical, the theatre has profiled itself as an alternative theatre of different poetics and genres with a programme that attracts very different audiences.

Glej enters co-productions with a number of Slovene organisation, such as Maska Institute, City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts, ŠKUC Association, Ljubljana City Theatre (MGL), Integrali Cultural Association, KUD Nor, etc. In 2012 it joined forces with Mladinsko Theatre for the Overflight International Theatre Festival.

Background

The theatre emerged in the 1970s from a need for an alternative space for theatrical production in Ljubljana. It was founded by a group of directors, who were inspired by evolving experimental theatre approaches and introduced them into the Slovene space, such as Lado Kralj, Dušan Jovanović, Zvone Šedlbauer, and others. Aiming for innovative and experimental approaches as well as new, more radical contents and sensibilities, the theatre chose its name (in English: Look) in view of the notions, developed by the American avant-garde theatre theoretician Richard Schechner. Since its beginnings, Glej has produced works that did not fit into the existing institutional theatre structures. Already in its formative years, Glej staged a number of successful performances, most notably Bojan Štih's Monument G [Spomenik G] (1972), directed by Dušan Jovanović, and Milan Jesih's The Bitter Fruits of Justice [Grenki sadeži pravice] (1974), directed by Zvone Šedlbauer, which strongly influenced the then Yugoslav theatre production.

In the 1980s, the theatre slowly moved away from radical experimental production. However, it retained its main orientation to produce works by emerging, innovative authors who were able to offer new aesthetics and emphases, and collaborated with a number of still influential Slovene directors, such as Vinko Möderndorfer, Matjaž Zupančič, and Eduard Miler. In the 1990s Glej opened up to various poetics under Nevenka Koprivšek's programme direction, producing works of non-verbal, physical theatre by Iztok Kovač, Matjaž Pograjc, and Tomaž Štrucl, as well as promoted unorthodox approaches, exercised by Nevenka Koprivšek, Matjaž Berger, Igor Štromajer, Tomi Janežič, Sebastjan Horvat, Diego DeBrea, Jernej Lorenci, Ivana Djilas, and Emil Hrvatin. It also produced comedies by Iztok Lovrić and the group Grejpfruit ("Grapefruit").

In the last decade, Glej has continued to produce works of different aesthetics and genres, from classical stagings of dramatic texts and comedies to puppet and "post-dramatic" performances. However, Glej has always attracted authors whose work can be seen as unprejudiced, fascinated with the products of pop culture, and responding to new urban and anthropological phenomena. Its often-challenging productions were enthusiastically accepted by the audience and the expert publics, for example, Diego de Brea's Stab in the Heart [Dvoboj] (2002), which won the special award at the Borštnik Theatre Festival and was invited to numerous international festivals (among others the invitation was extended also by the legendary director Peter Brook), and the chamber opera Mnemosyne by Iztok Lovrić and Gregor Strniša, which won the Šeligo Award as well as the Audience Award at the 2007 Week of Slovenian Drama in Kranj.

Programme

Following its policy to promote new ideas, approaches, and aesthetics, Glej Theatre annually produces or co-produces over a dozen performances of different genres, ranging from classical dramatic stagings to physical theatre and even dance works. A number of Slovene directors and authors have collaborated with the theatre on a regular basis, among others, Simona Semenić, Alen Jelen, Jure Novak, Nick Upper, Ajda Valcl, Dušan Teropšič, Nebojša Pop-Tasić, etc. The theatre has also co-produced and hosted several Via Negativa performances.

During the last years, Glej strives to attract larger audiences with its productions. In 2009, it produced several successful mixed-genre performances, such as the engaged agit-prop musical Out of Principle [Iz Principa] (2009), based on the figure of Gavrilo Princip, who set the seed for the start of World War I with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand; the comedy Čefurji Raus (2009), directed by Marko Bulc, co-produced by No History Institute of Contemporary Arts, and based on Goran Vojnović's novel, which won the 2009 Prešeren Foundation Award; and Jelena Rusjan's debut Screetch Orchestra [Škrip Orkester] (2009), all of which toured extensively throughout Slovenia.

Glej regularly invites authors to collaborate with innovative, engaged, and proactive concepts, projects, and texts. The projects thus include independent evening-length productions, solo projects, débuts, children's performances, and miniatures (research of concepts or fragments), which can offer topical investigations and contextualisations of contemporaneity, contemporary identity, ideology, and demand an active response from the spectator. Glej Theatre also hosts small-scale home and international performances of theatre, comedy, mime, puppetry, and multimedia works.

In 2000, Glej launched the programme for children Little Glej that presents puppet performances and organises theatre workshops for the youngest. Thus far, in the frame of the project Glej has produced many classical stories (Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, etc.), directed by renowned Slovene puppet artists, as well as entered co-productions, for example with the Fru Fru Puppet Theatre in 2006 for the performance Goldilocks and the Three Bears [Zlatolaska in trije medvedi], directed by Irena Rajh and Ajda Rooss. The programme invites other producers to present their performances for children on the Glej stage.

Glej also organises the all-year-round platform School of Creative Criticism, which offers opportunities to young writers to master and contextualise their practice in view of classical and contemporary performing arts. The participants are included in the activities and programmes of Glej Theatre.

Promoting Slovene playwriting

In collaboration with the Integrali Cultural Association, Glej has introduced the pioneering programme for the promotion and development of quality Slovene playwriting with the programme PreGlej. Offering a wide range of activities, PreGlej aims to establish necessary and tighter connections between young playwrights and directors and actors, as well as offers opportunities for the presentation of dramatic texts. Further, PreGlej organises the PreGlej Laboratory, a series of meetings of playwrights, directors, and dramaturgs who analyse dramatic texts before they are included into the PreGlej readings. Works developed in the PreGlej Laboratory have been staged at Ljubljana City Theatre (MGL), Prešeren Theatre Kranj, Glej Theatre, and have been published in different compendiums and journals.

In the frame of the programme, the annual PreGlej na glas! Playwriting Festival is organised in collaboration with the Week of Slovenian Drama, Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT), and Public Fund for Cultural Activities of the Republic of Slovenia. The 2009 festival published a bulletin and a compendium of four plays, read and analysed at the festival.

International cooperation

Glej is a member of the international project Development of New Art (DNA) that supports talented emerging artists in the interdisciplinary field between physical, dance, visual, non-verbal, and experimental theatre, who are seeking new approaches in their work. The goal of the project is to support artists' creative growth, transnational mobility, and professional connections with fellow artists and the audiences from all over Europe. In the frame of the project, a number of workshops, residencies, and guest performances are organised. The project's partners come from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

In December 2009, Glej presented its productions and activities in Volksteater in Vienna, at the festival Die besten aus dem Osten!!. Beside discussions and round tables, the festival also hosted Via Negativa's performance Incasso, Simona Semenič's reading of her Grum Award-winning play 5boys.si [5fantkov.si] (2008), and the performance You Didn't Forget, You Just Don't Remember Anymore [Nisi pozabila, samo ne spomniš se več] (2008).

External links

Gallery

Puppet created by Jasna Vastl for Kako je Jaromir iskal srečo, directed by Ajda Rooss, Jasna Vastl & Brane Vižintin, premiere at Glej Theatre 11 March 2011

Press image for Šajning [Shining], directed by Borut Bučinel, premiere in Glej Theatre, 2010

Press image for Life®ranti, actors Maja Nemec and Luka Cimprič, directed by Miha Nemec, premiere at Glej Theatre 6 March 2011

R9-42U, directed by Marko Čeh, Glej Theatre 2010

Butcher Shop, conceived and directed by Sabina Schwenner as a musical and physical operation for the dismemberment of everyday questions. Produced by Glej Theatre in 2011.

Misterio Bufo, directed by Marko Bratuš, premiered at Glej Theatre, 8 April 2011

Prometheus: An apology for a split personality and a chorus of hungry men, based on Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, directed by Simon Belak. Produced by Glej Theatre, 2013.

Alice directed by Tjaša Črnigoj. Produced by Glej Theatre (Glej Miniature series), 2014.

Freedom based on Ivan Cankar's essay White Chrysanthemum, conceived and performed by Branko Jordan and Miha Golob. Produced by Glej Theatre, 2014.

Katarina Stegnar and Jure Novak in a devised performance entitled Katarina on Demand at Glej Theatre, 2014.

We are coming, the third part of the theatre trilogy Silent City staged within the Glej Theatre residency programme under the direction of Jaša Koceli, 2014.

Sebastjan Starič in a devised performance entitled Razor: a duet for a performer and his character at Glej Theatre, 2015.

The conference of the birds, performance directed by Nina Rajić Kranjac; at Glej Theatre, 2015.

Performance The conference of the birds, directed by Glej’s 2015 resident Nina Rajić Kranjac at Glej Theatre.

A Potential Performance by Urška Brodar and Eva Nina Lampič at Glej Theatre, 2016.

Devised performance Nikita. Born in 1985. by Miha Golob, Maruša Majer and Maja Šorli at Glej Theatre, 2016.

Documentary performance Stranger Than Paradise by Mark Požlep at Glej Theatre, 2016.

Katarina Stegnar in An Orgy at Glej Theatre, 2017.

sz3 residency project led by Ivan Mijačević and Aleš Zorec; at Glej Theatre, 2017.

Soulshine guerrilla - lighting graffiti by Borut Bučinel at Glej Theatre, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2013

Glej Theatre

Contents

Background

Programme

Promoting Slovene playwriting

International cooperation

See also

External links

Gallery

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