MY TEACHING MOBILITY IN LJUBLJANA: Ivan Medenica, Faculty of Dramatic Arts

Ivan Medenica

University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic Arts

Erasmus+ Mobility for Teaching at:

University of Ljubljana – Academy for theater, radio, film and television (AGRFT)

I entered the Erasmus mobility project upon an invitation from my colleagues from the Academy for theater, radio, film and television (AGRFT), University of Ljubljana. It was based on the fact that my academic work and other professional occupations are well known and acclaimed in Slovenian theater circles. My book “The tragedy of initiation” was translated and well-received in both academic and artistic circles, I was a member of the jury of Slovenian national theater festival Borštnikovo srečanje, as the artistic director of Bitef (Belgrade international theater festival) I follow and internationally promote Slovenian theater which is one of the most vibrant and interesting in the European context.

The topic of my cycle of lectures was directing classical plays in contemporary theater. It consisted of an analysis of the different approaches to staging classical plays in contemporary theatre (actualization, deconstruction, intercultural theatre, rewriting, etc.). All the approaches were both theoretically elaborated and analysed on the concrete examples of performances based on classical plays. The directing of classical plays is the main field of my scientific expertise and the examples on which this topic was analysed refer to two other fields of my expertise: the new streams in the world theatre that BITEF festival presents and the concept of “tragedy of initiation”. This is the title of my book on a tragic model connected with the challenges of the initiation of a young hero into society.

Slovenian students were very motivated, active in the discussions. I got very enthusiastic feedback from them that was expressed in an appropriate, theatrical way – I have been getting strong applauses after each of my lectures.