CIS News
Thomas Ostermeier in an exhaustive and frank dialog with Gerhard Jörder
The "Camil Petrescu" Cultural Foundation - FCCP is pleased to announce the publication of a new volume in the series Great Directors of the World: Backstage Ostermeier, translated by Ozana Oancea. The book represents the first collaboration of the Foundation with the "I.L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest, through the "Ion Sava" Center for Theatre Research and Creation, opening a series of fruitful projects.
The volume brings to the foreground a captivating dialogue between Gerhard Jörder, renowned theater critic, and Thomas Ostermeier, one of the most influential and acclaimed European directors of the moment.
Gerhard Jörder: While we're here, I'd ask a key question: where do you stand on irony?
Thomas Ostermeier: I won't hide it: for me, this permanent ironic or cynical postmodern "it's working" is the disease of our times. Not just this "it's working", but that "everything is both true and false". I think it's odious to eliminate issues like guilt, responsibility, the ability of public debate, but also of theater, to determine the course of society. Backstage Ostermeier, p. 61
In Backstage Ostermeier the director recounts his path to theater, exploring both the successes and challenges of his career, from his beginnings at the Deutsches Theater to his achievements at the Schaubühne. The dialogue with Jörder offers an intimate look at his creative process as well as his theatrical philosophy, anchored in a commitment to the social and political relevance of contemporary theater. In the pages of the book, Ostermeier offers readers an intimate glimpse into how he succeeds in making theater a non-academic and profoundly human space of confrontation and social reflection.
Gerhard Jörder (born 1943 in Pamplona, Spain) is a leading theater critic with an extensive career in cultural journalism and moderating international theater events.
Thomas Ostermeier, often described as "the face of modern German theatre", has been artistic director of the Schaubühne Berlin since 1999, and his groundbreaking performances are recognized and invited to festivals around the world. From groundbreaking stagings of Ibsen and Shakespeare to intense interpretations by contemporary playwrights such as Lars Norén, Sarah Kane and Jon Fosse, Thomas Ostermeier's productions have conquered not only German audiences but also the international stage, with invitations to numerous festivals on all continents.
The Great Directors of the World series, which includes this work, continues to explore essential directing poetics of the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing to the attention of readers such figures as E.G. Craig, Meyerhold, Kantor, Grotowski, Brook, Strehler, Wilson, Dodin, Warlikowski, Delbono, Olivier Py. Through these volumes, the Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation wishes to contribute to the understanding and preservation of the international theatrical heritage, as well as to the promotion of dialog between generations of theater creators.
The book will be released on October 20, 2024, during the National Theatre Festival (NTF), and the time will be announced in the official festival program, available online.
The book Backstage Ostermeier can be purchased online at www.teatrul-azi.ro and in Carturesti bookstores.
Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu
