Questions for the Jury

We were wondering how the untraditional online form of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER festival was perceived by our Jury of Uršula Teržan, Riki Benedicto, Elsa Valentim and Vladimír Fekar. Therefore, we asked them for several questions.

• Did you find the way and form the festival had this year, more time-consuming for your decisions on the award? 

Uršula: This way of communicating is not in human nature, this is my full statement, considering all we know about the technology. But.. nowadays the only way to fight the madness we live in! And yes, fight is a strong word.

Yes, it is hard, more time-consuming, more energy-consuming, but worth of time and energy, if that’s all we can do at the moment. But! I would never ever consider not fighting for more. That’s what the past and present topics of the performances are also at this year’s festival, and we must never stop acting in this manere!

Riki: It is definitely time-consuming, draining, and limiting I might say, but worth it. It has pros and cons but I think it’s necessary and there’s a need to adapt. Of course, we crave to experience the live performances again, discuss them face to face, and learn from each other more. But on a positive note, I got the chance to watch it multiple times, there’s time to go back and review what details I missed on the first viewing.

Elsa: Time is a really treacherous thing, chronologically I can’t say that it took more time, but the quality of time-consuming is very different. We have a very different perception of time when we are with people, in the present in the same space. So it is much harder this way but  I think chronologically we use the time in a very efficient way!

Vladimír: The advantage of the online festival is that I can stop the play and find the words and sentences from the subtitles, or go to the context of the events that the play is about, pause the performance, take a breath. But even that is a disadvantage as well because it is not a theatrical experience of spontaneous contact and dialogue of the stage and auditorium. We are doomed to a rational, measured perception of productions. Those who normally intervene by the force of contact with the viewer, by dialogue with him, are handicapped, similarly to those who are recorded more at work.

• Do you think the ensembles evolved or matured in the last two years (because the last year ENCOUNTER festival was canceled), that we can find repeating topics in their performances?

Uršula: I think everyone evolved through the process we are at. It was a necessity, a reflection of the times we live in and as a result of the qualities of people involved in the festival.

Riki: I was a participant a couple of years ago and I was able to watch only a few plays so I really can’t compare. But let me say this – a theater performance is an answer to the call of times and it is evolving. Countries/Schools presenting their work is a response to whatever situation they have in their country. Repetition in topics or themes isn’t a bad thing, but a constant reminder that we need to double our effort to answer those calls to solidify our roles in this world we chose. Our mandate as artists is to create, create, CREATE!

Elsa: It’s my first time participating in the festival.

Vladimír: Many participants with their dramaturgy focus on specific phenomena of society and thus, the characters, in many cases, become a model of individuals in society. The performances indirectly reveal that the problems have not disappeared and I feel it from the students, but also from the teachers, that although each of them makes theater with completely different formal means, it unites them with a certain, perhaps subconscious and intuitive, desire – to move boulders after all this. Maybe the dissatisfaction with the company is really expressed by the festival Jump or Die!

• What do you think the content and themes of the next few years of ENCOUNTER festival (as well as the themes of the theatre ensembles) should be, considering the current situation? 

Uršula: Most probably we will keep on searching for answers and questions for the madness we live in. And this is, I believe, the quest of the arts in general, mirroring the community and times we are all sharing. Especially in extraordinary circumstances, like the ones we are in at this moment.

Riki: Considering the current situation, I strongly believe that the themes and content of ENCOUNTER FESTIVAL for the coming years would be about the relevance of theater. Performances and presentations will be both aggressive and progressive because of the long absence of live performances and audience interaction. 

To make it personal – in the Philippines, theater is considered non-essential, theater practitioners were out of work, and some shifted careers already. We are in a turning point where every artist is back to level zero. We’re back to fighting our position and proving how vital theater is. Most of my colleagues are suffering from depression and anxiety due to uncertainties. RELEVANCE is the word that stuck to me when I think of the future of theater, but my experience with ENCOUNTER made me JUMP once more!

ENCOUNTER is unpredictable, brave, and full of surprises thus I’m positive that it will continue to be so in the coming years.

Elsa: It is important that the theater maintains its freedom of expression that the themes and content are those that the artists need to express themselves regardless of external conditions.

Vladimír: I do not want to present my view of what should be and what should not be. I want to be surprised. Students and teachers of theater schools always stick to life and what is going on around it, bite into them, bite them, etch them, and the results will show whether they were looking for some creative answers or decided to develop above all (also necessary) craft skills, without a more intense relationship to the reality we live. I don’t know, but it seems to me that times are turbulent and the need to respond to the theater will be more stronger than in quiet times.

• Was there anything that touched or disturbed you while watching the performances? Something we should discuss more? 

Uršula: Just staying alive! Jump-ing! That’s all we need.

Riki: Where does the border lie between film and theater performance? And also, ever since I got to experience ENCOUNTER, I’m always curious how The ENCOUNTER TEAM managed to come up with such a huge and exciting international theater festival may it be online or live.

Elsa: I saw in this festival excellent shows, technically very well executed and with very interesting themes and ways of doing. But what touched me deeply was that I felt that despite the conditions imposed by the pandemic, the teacher can resist, the theater is more alive than ever, that the passion with which young actors embrace this art continues with the same fire as always. And as long as there is passion and enthusiasm, Prometheus’ sacrifice to bring men the creative force of the fire would have been worth it.

Vladimír: There are two questions in one. I still get no joy to be touched before the monitor. But I realized, however, that there were several productions, whose ideas and concepts were primarily formed by professionals or teachers at the festival. I repeatedly thought about the issue, if the statements of that particular performances are accepted by their actors. Whether they are purely performers, or they are interpreters of a particular point of view. I know, this issue is not new… But what actually is new in the theater?

Thank you for your responses

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