..Una Bauer: The dramaturg as a negotiator or a mediator

SUNDAY, 16.05.2010
15:00 Dramaturgy symposium: Una Bauer, PTL

Una Bauer:
The dramaturg as a negotiator or a mediator

In a short essay “Dramaturgy on Shifting Grounds” published in Performance Research 14.3 issue On Dramaturgy, Hans-Thies Lehmann and Patrick Primavesi articulate the shift in the notion of the dramaturg as ”the controlling power of the theatre”, ”the guard of the institution” or ”the advocate of the audience” towards the idea of the dramaturg as a negotiator. I will explore this idea of the dramaturg as a negotiator or a mediator (placed in the middle); arbitrator, conciliator, peacemaker, go-between, middleman, intermediary, moderator which is a position that fits perfectly with the context of contemporary capitalist production & web 2.0 technologies oriented primarily towards incessant communication and exchange and the dispersion of the authoritative voices in a situation where everybody is a broadcaster.

Una Bauer is a PhD student in Dance and Performance at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research is funded by the Vice Chancellor of the University of London. She graduated in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her theatre and dance reviews and analysis have been published in various Croatian and UK journals, magazines, newspapers, web portals, and broadcasted on radio programs. She was the dramaturge of and performed in D.B. Indoš’s Wolf Man, As an executive producer, she was involved in two of BADco’s performances, Deleted messages and Fleshdance. From 2003 till 2006 she was the office manager and assistant for performing arts of Centre for Drama Arts (CDU) in Zagreb. She is on the editorial board of performing arts journal Frakcija and cultural magazine Gordogan. She was the editorial assistant of Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge) from 2006 till 2009.