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MEDZINÁRODNÁ BANSKOBYSTRICKÁ TEATROLOGICKÁ KONFERENCIA : BLÍZKOSŤ – OSAMELOSŤ- REZILIENCIA
INTERNATIONAL BANSKOBYSTRICA THEATROLOGICAL CONFERENCE: CLOSENESS - LONELYNESS - RESILIENCE
Event by: Ústav divadelnej a filmovej vedy - ÚDFV SAV
Location: Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Horná 3830, Banská Bystrica
About event
We invite you to the 22nd edition of the International Banská Bystrica Theater Conference under the title CLOSENESS - LONELINESS - RESILIENCE.
Closeness, loneliness and resilience represent three dimensions that today influence the (self) reflection and (self) identification of a person in a time of accelerated changes, new challenges and exceptional opportunities. They touch on interpersonal relationships, emotionality, psychological resistance, expressions of identity, as well as institutional background or educational strategies. We need not only to know these phenomena, but also to understand them. Reflect on them, critically accept, transform or reevaluate them. We are interested in how theater reacts to this complex situation: how it thematizes the need for mutuality, collective creation, integration, and at the same time reflects tendencies towards individualism - in the sense of exceptionalism, but also the loneliness of creation and creators, their segregation or isolation.
Closeness and loneliness in the theater are often linked to the experience of our time - they generate the need for resilience as the ability to persevere, adapt and find new ways. We examine these phenomena at different levels: in dramatic texts, scenic and performative work, in cultural and educational institutions, in relation to the audience, but also within cross-genre and interdisciplinary intersections. It is also important to observe how these three dimensions are reflected in the very position of the theater in social and artistic discourse.
The conference thus opens up space for discussion about how contemporary theater moves between continuity and change, how it reacts to social pressures and reevaluates its mission. At the same time, he investigates how the themes of closeness, loneliness and resistance are reflected in dramatic, staged or performative work. It reflects the theater as a space of relationships - a meeting place for creators, viewers and communities, but also as an environment where new forms of interaction, integration or exclusion arise. He observes various forms of scenic presentation of closeness and loneliness - from intimate and minimalist forms to expressive performances and absurd gestures. Resilience is also a theme - theater as a response to crisis, as a way of strengthening psychological, social and cultural resilience. Finally, the conference focuses on the educational and social dimension of theatre, its potential to develop creativity, empathy and the ability to cope with the challenges of the contemporary world.
PROGRAM
📅 FRIDAY 14 November 2025
🕥 10:30 – 10:45
🎤 Welcome of participants
🧩 I. BLOCK: 10:45 – 12:40
MICHAL BABIAK
Slovak drama between resilience, closeness and loneliness
KAROL MIŠOVIC
The period of defiance of the Nová scéna theater
MIROSLAV BALLAY
Cyclical images of a family holiday in the production Children
DAGMAR PODMAKOVÁ
Image of crossing one's own shadow
CARLOS DIMEO ÁLVAREZ – EVA REICHWALDEROVÁ
Language as resilience: Miguel Torrence and the political legacy of Bertolt Brecht
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 13:40 – 15:35
MILOŠ MISTRÍK
Moving away does not have to mean loneliness
JAROSLAV DAUBRAVA
Slowed down versus sped up
BARBORA KRAJČ ZAMIŠKOVÁ
Batolárium – a genre that creates community
ZUZANA TIMČÍKOVÁ
Educated viewer or dialogue partner? About audience education in theaters
DITA LÁNSKÁ
Support of community life and popularization as a means of increasing the resilience of the field
💬 Discussion
🧩 III. BLOCK: 15:50 – 17:30
NADEŽDA LINDOVSKÁ
Strength and fragility of women's confessions (Tears of Janko Borodáč: Outcast)
ELENA KNOPOVÁ
Women's stories of resistance in a time of erosion of the self-evident
NORA NAGYOVÁ
Closeness, loneliness and resilience in Jana's dramatic work Bodnárová
MARTINA KOVAL
The image of renowned psychoanalyst Melanie Klein in Nicholas Wright's drama: women's emancipation as a form of resilience
💬 Discussion
🎭19:00 — 19:50 THEATER PERFORMANCE: LAND OF WONDER
The production is inspired by current events in Slovakia. Directed by Tereza Mankovecká; dramaturgy by Michaela Kapušanská; production Michal Ditte; music by Vojtech Klinec, Andrej Bilik; movement collaboration of Simona Kaščáková; costumes by Lea Mračková
Performers Adrián Urda, Alina Kravchenko, Samuel Janiš, Natália Gladišová, Vanesa Fellegiová, Ondrej Štrkolec, Kristián Schrenk
Theatre of the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, blackb
📅 SATURDAY 15/11/2025
🧩 I. BLOCK: 10:00 – 11:35
DOMINIKA DUDÁŠOVÁ
Applied theater as a space of collective creation and therapeutic closeness
PETER HIMIČ
Loneliness of a character as an image of the times
ANETA GŁOWACKA – DOROTA FOX
The role of employees in democratization processes in public theaters in Poland
GALINA KUBALOVÁ – JANA LOPÚCHOVÁ
Classical dance as tool for inclusive education of visually impaired pupils - research findings
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 11:50 – 13:25
🎓 Part dedicated to doctoral students
JIŘÍ HONZÍREK
Closeness, loneliness and resilience in the site-specific production I DIDN'T THINK
PATRIK KREBS
The theater in prison can humanize: theater production as a space of closeness and resilience
MATĚJ NYTRA
Resistant community against apathy: The phenomenon of close cooperation in documentary projects with Ukrainian immigrants
BARBORA KRISTOFOVÁ
Brexit in theater productions
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 14:30 – 16:00
🎓 Part dedicated to doctoral students
ERIK ŠUPČÍK
From puppet theater to carousels: transformation of nomadic puppet families and their functioning today
TEREZA MANKOVECKÁ
Survive and create: resilience and textual resources of independent theater in Slovakia
ADAM NAGY
The body as an incubator of history
KEVIN IVANKO
Dario Foa's technique and his collaboration with Franca Rame
💬 Final discussion
🎭 ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM
WORKSHOP "PLAYING WITH TEXT AND THINKING ABOUT THE STAGE. RECONFIGURATION OF DIALOGUE: ACTOR, TEXT, SPECTATOR"
📅 When: November 6-9, 2025 (Thursday-Sunday; full-day workshop)
👤 Lecturer: Šimon Spišák
📍 Where: Small theater studio FDU AU Banská Bystrica
maximum number of participants: 8
The workshop is focused on an authorial and playful approach to the text - from the perspective of actors and actresses, directors and female directors or artists - at the same time, also on acting work and existence on stage in relation to the model, to oneself, to the audience.
The emphasis is on conscious acting and the possibilities of conscious reconfiguration of the relationship between "stage and audience". The workshop examines the elements of dramaturgical thinking of actors and actresses during the creation of a production, as well as the perception of the production as a joint and social statement - with the aim of changing the world in the spirit of Spinoza, Marx and Brecht.
Part of the workshop will be a continuous debate about topics that no one has yet known, because we will discover them together on the spot. Debate with yourself, with each other and especially with the author. Since it is a "playful" approach to the text, we will use the classics (B. Brecht, A. P. Chekhov, W. Shakespeare, H. Ibsen, C. Goldoni or others). This debate will be partly the content, partly the form and partly the goal and the result of our efforts, as we perceive the debate (communication, dialogue, discourse...) as a very important (fundamental?) component of the entire theatrical endeavour. INCLUSIVE"
📅 When: November 13, 2025 (Thursday), 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
👤 Lecturer: Patrik Krebs (Institute of Theater and Film Science CVU SAV; Homeless Theater)
📍 Where: Small theater studio FDU AU Banská Bystrica
maximum number of participants: 20
Theater as an artistic language is a unique tool for overcoming social barriers, strengthening individual identity and supporting the community. The Masterclass will present the practice of the Theater of the Homeless, which has been developing a specific form of applied theater since 2006 and has been working for a long time with homeless people, people with medical disabilities, people with psychiatric diagnoses, people after and serving sentences and other adults from a socially vulnerable environment. transformations. In particular, the focus will be on:
• work with autobiographical material and its ethical dimensions,
• building a safe creative space (safe space),
• balancing artistic quality and social inclusion,
• individual and group activities,
• experiences from international projects and the ERROR festival, which brings together homeless theaters from all over Europe.
The masterclass has the form of an interactive 90-minute laboratory: the introductory lecture frames Homeless Theater in the context of contemporary theories of applied theater and drama therapy, followed by practical exercises and joint reflection. Emphasis is placed on the professional connection of the artistic and social dimension of the theater and on the critical discussion about the possibilities and limits of inclusive creation. The aim is to provide the participants with inspiration, methodological starting points and specific tools that they can apply in their own artistic or pedagogical practice.
The conference is held in cooperation with the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica.
The conference project was supported from public sources by the Art Support Fund.
The conference is held as part of the VEGA project no. 2/0112/23 "Poetics of absurdity, nonsense and paradox in contemporary theatre".
The partner of the event is @ScAict
Closeness, loneliness and resilience represent three dimensions that today influence the (self) reflection and (self) identification of a person in a time of accelerated changes, new challenges and exceptional opportunities. They touch on interpersonal relationships, emotionality, psychological resistance, expressions of identity, as well as institutional background or educational strategies. We need not only to know these phenomena, but also to understand them. Reflect on them, critically accept, transform or reevaluate them. We are interested in how theater reacts to this complex situation: how it thematizes the need for mutuality, collective creation, integration, and at the same time reflects tendencies towards individualism - in the sense of exceptionalism, but also the loneliness of creation and creators, their segregation or isolation.
Closeness and loneliness in the theater are often linked to the experience of our time - they generate the need for resilience as the ability to persevere, adapt and find new ways. We examine these phenomena at different levels: in dramatic texts, scenic and performative work, in cultural and educational institutions, in relation to the audience, but also within cross-genre and interdisciplinary intersections. It is also important to observe how these three dimensions are reflected in the very position of the theater in social and artistic discourse.
The conference thus opens up space for discussion about how contemporary theater moves between continuity and change, how it reacts to social pressures and reevaluates its mission. At the same time, he investigates how the themes of closeness, loneliness and resistance are reflected in dramatic, staged or performative work. It reflects the theater as a space of relationships - a meeting place for creators, viewers and communities, but also as an environment where new forms of interaction, integration or exclusion arise. He observes various forms of scenic presentation of closeness and loneliness - from intimate and minimalist forms to expressive performances and absurd gestures. Resilience is also a theme - theater as a response to crisis, as a way of strengthening psychological, social and cultural resilience. Finally, the conference focuses on the educational and social dimension of theatre, its potential to develop creativity, empathy and the ability to cope with the challenges of the contemporary world.
PROGRAM
📅 FRIDAY 14 November 2025
🕥 10:30 – 10:45
🎤 Welcome of participants
🧩 I. BLOCK: 10:45 – 12:40
MICHAL BABIAK
Slovak drama between resilience, closeness and loneliness
KAROL MIŠOVIC
The period of defiance of the Nová scéna theater
MIROSLAV BALLAY
Cyclical images of a family holiday in the production Children
DAGMAR PODMAKOVÁ
Image of crossing one's own shadow
CARLOS DIMEO ÁLVAREZ – EVA REICHWALDEROVÁ
Language as resilience: Miguel Torrence and the political legacy of Bertolt Brecht
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 13:40 – 15:35
MILOŠ MISTRÍK
Moving away does not have to mean loneliness
JAROSLAV DAUBRAVA
Slowed down versus sped up
BARBORA KRAJČ ZAMIŠKOVÁ
Batolárium – a genre that creates community
ZUZANA TIMČÍKOVÁ
Educated viewer or dialogue partner? About audience education in theaters
DITA LÁNSKÁ
Support of community life and popularization as a means of increasing the resilience of the field
💬 Discussion
🧩 III. BLOCK: 15:50 – 17:30
NADEŽDA LINDOVSKÁ
Strength and fragility of women's confessions (Tears of Janko Borodáč: Outcast)
ELENA KNOPOVÁ
Women's stories of resistance in a time of erosion of the self-evident
NORA NAGYOVÁ
Closeness, loneliness and resilience in Jana's dramatic work Bodnárová
MARTINA KOVAL
The image of renowned psychoanalyst Melanie Klein in Nicholas Wright's drama: women's emancipation as a form of resilience
💬 Discussion
🎭19:00 — 19:50 THEATER PERFORMANCE: LAND OF WONDER
The production is inspired by current events in Slovakia. Directed by Tereza Mankovecká; dramaturgy by Michaela Kapušanská; production Michal Ditte; music by Vojtech Klinec, Andrej Bilik; movement collaboration of Simona Kaščáková; costumes by Lea Mračková
Performers Adrián Urda, Alina Kravchenko, Samuel Janiš, Natália Gladišová, Vanesa Fellegiová, Ondrej Štrkolec, Kristián Schrenk
Theatre of the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, blackb
📅 SATURDAY 15/11/2025
🧩 I. BLOCK: 10:00 – 11:35
DOMINIKA DUDÁŠOVÁ
Applied theater as a space of collective creation and therapeutic closeness
PETER HIMIČ
Loneliness of a character as an image of the times
ANETA GŁOWACKA – DOROTA FOX
The role of employees in democratization processes in public theaters in Poland
GALINA KUBALOVÁ – JANA LOPÚCHOVÁ
Classical dance as tool for inclusive education of visually impaired pupils - research findings
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 11:50 – 13:25
🎓 Part dedicated to doctoral students
JIŘÍ HONZÍREK
Closeness, loneliness and resilience in the site-specific production I DIDN'T THINK
PATRIK KREBS
The theater in prison can humanize: theater production as a space of closeness and resilience
MATĚJ NYTRA
Resistant community against apathy: The phenomenon of close cooperation in documentary projects with Ukrainian immigrants
BARBORA KRISTOFOVÁ
Brexit in theater productions
💬 Discussion
🧩 II. BLOCK: 14:30 – 16:00
🎓 Part dedicated to doctoral students
ERIK ŠUPČÍK
From puppet theater to carousels: transformation of nomadic puppet families and their functioning today
TEREZA MANKOVECKÁ
Survive and create: resilience and textual resources of independent theater in Slovakia
ADAM NAGY
The body as an incubator of history
KEVIN IVANKO
Dario Foa's technique and his collaboration with Franca Rame
💬 Final discussion
🎭 ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM
WORKSHOP "PLAYING WITH TEXT AND THINKING ABOUT THE STAGE. RECONFIGURATION OF DIALOGUE: ACTOR, TEXT, SPECTATOR"
📅 When: November 6-9, 2025 (Thursday-Sunday; full-day workshop)
👤 Lecturer: Šimon Spišák
📍 Where: Small theater studio FDU AU Banská Bystrica
maximum number of participants: 8
The workshop is focused on an authorial and playful approach to the text - from the perspective of actors and actresses, directors and female directors or artists - at the same time, also on acting work and existence on stage in relation to the model, to oneself, to the audience.
The emphasis is on conscious acting and the possibilities of conscious reconfiguration of the relationship between "stage and audience". The workshop examines the elements of dramaturgical thinking of actors and actresses during the creation of a production, as well as the perception of the production as a joint and social statement - with the aim of changing the world in the spirit of Spinoza, Marx and Brecht.
Part of the workshop will be a continuous debate about topics that no one has yet known, because we will discover them together on the spot. Debate with yourself, with each other and especially with the author. Since it is a "playful" approach to the text, we will use the classics (B. Brecht, A. P. Chekhov, W. Shakespeare, H. Ibsen, C. Goldoni or others). This debate will be partly the content, partly the form and partly the goal and the result of our efforts, as we perceive the debate (communication, dialogue, discourse...) as a very important (fundamental?) component of the entire theatrical endeavour. INCLUSIVE"
📅 When: November 13, 2025 (Thursday), 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
👤 Lecturer: Patrik Krebs (Institute of Theater and Film Science CVU SAV; Homeless Theater)
📍 Where: Small theater studio FDU AU Banská Bystrica
maximum number of participants: 20
Theater as an artistic language is a unique tool for overcoming social barriers, strengthening individual identity and supporting the community. The Masterclass will present the practice of the Theater of the Homeless, which has been developing a specific form of applied theater since 2006 and has been working for a long time with homeless people, people with medical disabilities, people with psychiatric diagnoses, people after and serving sentences and other adults from a socially vulnerable environment. transformations. In particular, the focus will be on:
• work with autobiographical material and its ethical dimensions,
• building a safe creative space (safe space),
• balancing artistic quality and social inclusion,
• individual and group activities,
• experiences from international projects and the ERROR festival, which brings together homeless theaters from all over Europe.
The masterclass has the form of an interactive 90-minute laboratory: the introductory lecture frames Homeless Theater in the context of contemporary theories of applied theater and drama therapy, followed by practical exercises and joint reflection. Emphasis is placed on the professional connection of the artistic and social dimension of the theater and on the critical discussion about the possibilities and limits of inclusive creation. The aim is to provide the participants with inspiration, methodological starting points and specific tools that they can apply in their own artistic or pedagogical practice.
The conference is held in cooperation with the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica.
The conference project was supported from public sources by the Art Support Fund.
The conference is held as part of the VEGA project no. 2/0112/23 "Poetics of absurdity, nonsense and paradox in contemporary theatre".
The partner of the event is @ScAict
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