Multilingual Dramaturgies
Towards New European Theatre
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Beschreibung
“A brilliant book on the practices and politics of making multilingual theatre in a in a European continent in flux where language is anything but stable.”
— Professor Maria Delgado, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
“Profoundly impactful for our understanding of dramaturgy, translation, collaboration.”—Professor Patrick Lonergan, University of Galway
Multilingual Dramaturgies provides a study of dramaturgical practices in contemporary multilingual theatre in Europe. Featuring interviews with international theatremakers, the book gives an insight to diverse approaches towards multilingual theatre and its dramaturgy that reflect cultural, political, and economic landscapes of contemporary Europe, its inhabitants, and its theatres. First-hand accounts are contextualized to reveal a complex set of negotiations involved in the creative and political tasks of staging multilingualism and engaging the audience, as well as in practical issues like funding and developing working models. By bringing voices of artists together and providing a critical commentary, the book reveals multilingual dramaturgies as webbed practices of differences that also offer new ways of understanding and performing identity in European context. Multilingual Dramaturgies sheds light on an exciting theatre practice, argues for its central role in European future, and highlights potential directions for its further development.
Kasia Lech is a scholar, actor, storyteller, dramaturg, puppeteer, and Associate Professor in Global Performance History at the University of Amsterdam. Her research and creative practice explore theatre through practice-based and traditional scholarship and primarily focus on theatre in relation to multilingualism, verse, translation, migration, dramaturgy, and cross-cultural encounters. Kasia is the author of Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre (2021). She performed internationally and co-founded Polish Theatre Ireland, a multilingual theatre company based in Dublin. She is an Executive Director at TheTheatreTimes.com, a global theatre portal which seeks to decolonize theatre criticism. She co-convenes the Translation Adaptation Dramaturgy working group at the International Federation for Theatre Research.
Multilingual Dramaturgies provides a study of dramaturgical practices in contemporary multilingual theatre in Europe. Featuring interviews with international theatremakers, the book gives an insight into diverse approaches towards multilingual theatre and its dramaturgy that reflect cultural, political, and economic landscapes of contemporary Europe, its inhabitants, and its theatres. First-hand accounts are contextualized to reveal a complex set of negotiations involved in the creative and political tasks of staging multilingualism and engaging the audience, as well as in practical issues like funding and developing working models. Using interviews with practitioners from a diverse range of theatrical backgrounds and career levels, and with various models of financial support, Multilingual Dramaturgies also offers an insight into different attitudes towards multilingualism in European theatres. The book illuminates not only the potential for multilingual dramaturgies, but also the practical and creative difficulties involved in making them. By bringing the voices of artists together and providing a critical commentary, the book reveals multilingual dramaturgies as webbed practices of differences that also offer new ways of understanding and performing identity in a European context. Multilingual Dramaturgies sheds light on an exciting theatre practice, argues for its central role in Europe and highlights potential directions for its further development.
Winner of The Janovics Center Award for Outstanding Humanities Research in Transnational Film and Theatre Studies, BEST BOOK IN THEATRE STUDIES 2024.
Provides a study of dramaturgical practices in contemporary multilingual theatre in Europe Provides insight into diverse approaches toward multilingual theatre and its dramaturgy Sheds light on an exciting theatre practice and argues for its central role in the future of Europe
Autor*in
Kasia Lech
Themen in »Multilingual Dramaturgies«
Multilingual Dramaturgy Theatre-making European theatre European identity
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“Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre not only succeeds in corroborating the transformative potential of linguistic diversity in theatre by working consciously with difference, but it also provides a set of tools including a list of guiding questions in the closing chapter to help rethink and navigate instances of not-knowing, failings, and gaps inherent to multilingualism. ... By dismantling social and linguistic hierarchies and reinforcing collaboration, multilingual dramaturgies can serve as a gateway to an imaginative practice ... .” (Corina OSTAFI, Forum Modernes Theater, Vol. 36 (1-2), 2026)
“This interesting book in Palgrave’s ‘New Dramaturgies’ series examines the work of European theatremakers whose productions are performed in more than one language onstage. ... this work a unique addition to the literature on European theatre.” (The Polish Review, Vol. 70 (1), April, 2025)
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“A brilliant book on the practices and politics of making multilingual theatre in a in a European continent in flux where language is anything but stable. Kasia Lech shows the complex ways in which theatre has served as the site for navigating ethical questions in relation to difference, colonialism, displacement, memory, and ableism. Drawing on insightful interviews with theatre makers, and analysing an impressive range of productions, Multilingual Dramaturgies provides a bold examination of how language operates in theatre, the relationship to funding and what the deployment of diverse media means for the process of making and engaging with work across different cultural contexts.”- Professor Maria Delgado, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
“Kasia Lech's brilliant intervention into the relationship between theatre and language fills the gap in our understanding of multilingualism and its potential for post-national identity formation, and the pivotal role that theatre might play in the process. Blending critical theory with close reading and dramaturgical analysis of specific works and artists, together with the insightful interviews, she provides much-needed framing of multilingual theatre as essential to understanding the processes of both globalization and digitalization of our lives.” - Professor Magda Romanska, Emerson College, Boston, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
“Kasia Lech’s Multilingual Dramaturgies represents an urgent intervention into Theatre Studies, exploring how European theatre performs, understands, and re-imagines difference. Enriched by the presence of detailed interviews with professional practitioners, the book is also a sensitive and politically-engaged exploration of what it means to make and receive performances in multi-lingual contexts. This combination of theory with practice makes this study profoundly impactful for our understanding of dramaturgy, translation, collaboration, and the role of the theatrical spectator. At a time of growing fragmentation and polarisation, Lech’s work points us towards new forms of European theatre -- but also identifies new ways of living ethically in the world, for theatre-makers, audiences, and citizens everywhere.” - Professor Patrick Lonergan, University of Galway
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