EEPAP can trace its origins to a conference of Central and Eastern European artists, critics, and theatre historians in Budapest in November 2008 addressing the state of political theatre after 1989. It was there that we discovered that despite our common history we have virtually no common experience. Not only do we have dissimilar development paths and systems, but we also know surprisingly little about each other.

In the past two decades we have observed a burgeoning growth of international theatre festivals in both Central and Eastern Europe, occasionally verging on almost absurd excess, but this phenomenon rarely translates into genuine cooperation between the artists. We do not go to our neighbour’s festivals nearly often enough, nor do we carefully observe foreign artists, and the interests of theatre critics and curators continues to be directed toward the west of the Old Continent. Matters are slightly different when it comes to dance, where out of necessity international contacts are more developed.

The connections between Eastern Europe and Germany, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands are much stronger. They are a direct result of the soft - power strategy and cultural policies adopted by these countries. To put it bluntly and shortly, contacts and communication develop where the money is. Moscow, however, still remains an important point of reference (especially for the countries of the Eastern Partnership).

Additionally, in the realm of the performing arts, Central and Eastern Europe suffer from a poor flow of information and a still dominant sense of isolation (especially in the countries excluded from the European cultural circuit because of their unstable political situation). Cultural production has become dominated by small, private organizations, often located in apartments or makeshift studios, with no public support. And those very projects, carried out beyond institutionalized theatre - in performing arts and in artistic ventures on the border of disciplines and norms - are where the most interesting artistic events take place - events that are capable of generating discussion and questioning the prevalent opinions and stereotypes.

It was out of this that we came up with the idea for the Eastern European Performing Arts Platform. The project, initiated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polish EU Presidency, has thus far reached eighteen countries: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, the Ukraine, Belarus, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. The program has been created as a result of cooperation between independent experts from Central and Eastern Europe, the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw and close contact and collaboration with artists from the representative countries.

The following report is the result of the first year of EEPAP’s operation. Its aim was to gather information about the state of theatre and dance in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Our goal is not to present ready theses, for it is much too early for that. This publication is the result of the first stage of a research project planned for several years, whose aim it is to try to map out the directions for development of theatre and dance in Central and Eastern Europe. We hoped to gather information about the consequences of the transformation of the political system at the turn of the 1990s on the organization of theatre and dance. We examined the structures that determine the work of artists in this European region and how they have been shaped in the past twenty years. We collected data based on reports prepared by specialists (critics, researchers, artists) from each of the countries listed above.

Collecting information is only the beginning of our work; it will allow an open discussion that requires amendments and counterarguments from other researchers. 

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Marta Keil, EEPAP meeting, Krakow, 5th – 6th October 2011 photo: Joanna Kiernicka