East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) supports the
development of contemporary performing arts (dance and theatre)
in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Tomaž Toporišič - Dramaturg, professor, translator, theatre theoretician and critic
Tomaž Toporišič (PhD) works in the Mladinsko Theatre / Slovensko Mladisko Gledališče.
His primary research interests are the contemporary performing arts and literature, specifically the interaction between the two fields.
Research areas:
Cultural Studies, Sociology of Theatre, Semiotics of theatre, XX. And XXI. century theatre and drama, Postdramatic theatre, Performing arts, Performance studies, Performativity, Theatricality, Crisis of the dramatic author.
From 1997 to 2003 Tomaž Toporišič was the artistic director of the Mladinsko Theatre, Slovenia.
In 1995 he co-founded Exodos Festival of Contemporary Performing arts, has published numerous papers on literature, aesthetics, cultural studies and performing arts. Currently he is a dramaturg of the Mladinsko Theatre in Ljubljana and a professor in the department of Cultural Studies at the University of Primorska in Koper.
He is author of books: Between Seduction and Suspiciousness (Slovenian Theatre of the Second Half of the 20th Century), 2004. The Vulnerable Body of Text and Stage, 2007. Ecdyses of Drama and Theatre, 2008. Reader Drama, Text, Scripture, co-edited by Petra Pogorevc, 2008.
As a dramaturg he has worked with most prominent Slovenian as well as other European directors: Vito Taufer, Oliver Frljić, Matjaž Pograjc, Diego de Brea, Eduard Miler, Meta Hočevar, Barbara Novakovič, Jan Decorte, Francisco Ortuño, Damjan Kozole, Branko Potočan, Silvan Omerzu and Zdravko Haderlap.
Some selected performances:
- Herbert Achternbusch-Eduard Miler: ”Susn” (SMG, 1993)
- Ibsen-Meta Hočevar: ”Ein Familienalbum”, (Wiener Festwochen, 1994)
- Dušan Jovanović-Meta Hočevar: ”Uganka korajže” (SNG Drama, Ljubljana, 1994)
- ”Maria Theresia”, Tanztheater Ikarus, Wiener Festwochen, Zdravko Haderlap, 1996
- B. Brecht-Matjaž Berger: ”Galileo Galilei” (SMG, 1996)
- Jan Decorte: ”Song of Songs” (SMG, 2007)
- Shakespeare-Diego de Brea: ”Titus Andronicus” (SNG Drama, Ljubljana, 2008)
- Shakespeare-Vito Taufer: ”The Tempest” (SMG, SNG Maribor, SSG Trst, Cankarjev dom, 2008)
- Dostojevski-Diego de Brea: ”Crime and Punishment” (SMG, 2009)
- O. Frljić: Damned be the Traitor of his Homeland, (SMG, 2010)
A reader (co-editor):
Occupying Spaces: Experimental Theatre in Central Europe, 1950-2010, TACE International Project, SGM, Ljubljana, 2011.
Recent articles in English:
- The Politics Of Performing Arts And Its Strategies: From Pocha Nostra To Refugee Camps For First World Citizens, Artmargins. December 2005.
- The spatial machines and Slovene (no longer-) theatre, Maska, Spring 2008.
- The Political at the Intersection of the Live and the Mediatized, Maska, Spring-Summer 2008.
- Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and Subversive Strategies of Today's Art, Polona Tratnik (ed.): Art, Resistance, Subversion, Madness, Monitor, Koper, Annales, 2009.
- The essay on stage: singularity and performativity. Primerjalna književnost. Letn. 33, št. 1 (2010), str. 217-232.
- Spatial Machines and Slovene (no longer) Experimental Theatre in the Second Half of the 20th Century, in Occupying Spaces, SGM, 2011.
- From Local to Global and Vice Versa: Comparative Literature as a Plural Discipline. LITinfo. Georgian Electronic Journal of Literature, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2011.
Tomaž Toporišič has won Borštnik national award for dramaturgy in 1992. He also was member of BITEF Festival International Jury, 2002.
International cooperation:
Secratary General of Slovene Centre of Mediterannean Theatre Institute,
Curator of the exhibitions:
- 1994 – Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Costumography (National Section: Meta Hočevar),
- 2007 - Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Costumography (National Section: Meta Hočevar),
- 2011 - Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (National Section).