The artistic research began in 2014 as doctoral research of the director and Aldente’s founder Jitka Vrbková, who was then studying at the Theatre Faculty of JAMU in Brno. The topic of her thesis was The Potential of Theatre of Actors with Down Syndrome. (Jitka eventually changed the title of the doctoral dissertation to Theatre Actor-specific: Down Syndrome as a Theatre Stylization.)
Artistic research does not research art; it researches through art. This means that one cannot gain certain knowledge externally (by analysis) but only “internally”. Engaging in artistic research implies that the researcher-artist creates and at the same time analyses their work.
The results of such research subsequently differ based on the employed perspective: it can be very subjective (i.e., director’s perspective), very personal (actor’s view) or even very distant (academic literature, other people’s experience).
The title of this dissertation, Theatre Actor-specific: Down Syndrome as a Theatre Stylization, refers to one of the possible ways of working with actors with Down syndrome. It does not perceive Down syndrome as a disability; it instead sees it as full of theatrical potential, which should be used as a given theatrical stylization.
The term actor-specific presents a parallel to the site-specific theatre inspired by the specific (originally nontheatrical) space. Even though theatre actor-specific might describe theatre employing actors with any otherness, the presented dissertation uses the term for theatre of actors with mental disabilities or autism spectrum disorders. The main focus of the thesis is on actors with Down syndrome.
The first part of the study is theoretical, reflecting the attitude of society to people with disabilities. This reflection is paying attention especially to theatre – how the opinions of the society influence the message of actor-specific theatre. In addition to this, the first part also introduces actor-specific theatres in the Czech Republic and abroad, together with their basic ideology.
The second part consists of artistic research – using the examples of four productions by Divadlo Aldente (Theatre Aldente), which Jitka Vrbková directed and also written, and experience from the two research stays in actor-specific theatres abroad, the author demonstrates the potential of such theatre, looks for suitable theatrical tools and explains the genesis of the theatre’s message.
Why not? Have a look at the comic strips created as part of the applied research supported by TA ČR.
