CONTENTS
The Open Page - EDITORIAL NOTE
Susan Bassnett (England) - BUILDING BRIDGES
ACROSS TIME
Geddy Aniksdal (Norway) -
WOMEN - MYTH - THEATRE
Susan Bassnett (England) - REMEMBERING
THEATRE
Beatriz Camargo (Colombia) - THIRTEEN YEARS ON
THE PATH OF MYTH
Cristina Castrillo (Argentina/Switzerland) - AN
ANCIENT HERITAGE
Gerd Christiansen (Denmark/Norway) -
RECONQUERING OF ARCHETYPAL LANDSCAPES
Anne-Sophie Erichsen (Norway)
- ARCHETYPES AS A REFERENCE IN ACTORS' WORK
Nor Hall (USA) - DAUGHTERS OF MEMORY
Kirsten Hastrup (Denmark) - PRESENTING THE
PAST
Zofia Kalinska (Poland) - MY WORK WITH
MYTHS
Brigitte Kaquet (Belgium) - HIPPARCHIA: ON THE
FRINGES OF MYTH
Elena Marino (Italy) - BARTERS: A PATH TOWARDS
OURSELVES
Lea Melandri (Italy) - THE LANGUAGE OF THE
GODDESS
Dijana Milosevic (Former Yugoslavia) - THEATRE
- WOMEN - MYTH
Tanith Noble (France) - LONG-LASTING
FIGURES
Beate Reker (Germany) - FROM A LETTER
Guandaline Sagliocco (France/Norway) -
MYTHOLOGY AS STORYTELLING THEATRE
Beatriz Seibel (Argentina) - A HEROINE OF THE
MID TWENTIETH CENTURY
Ranjabati Sircar (India) - CASSANDRA:
RECLAIMING THE VOICE
Maria Teresa Telara (Italy) - IN THE
LABYRINTH
Siân Thomas (Wales) -
REFLECTING UPON MEDEA
Julia Varley (England/Denmark) - MYSTERIES,
CONFESSIONS AND PERSONAL MYTHS
Linda Wise (England/France) - A DIALOGUE THAT
CONTINUES
Cristina Wistari (Italy/Bali) - PRINCES AND
WITCHES
The Open Page - NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
EDITORIAL
Myths and mythology were noticeably present in the performances and
talks during the International Magdalena Festival in 1994. Many
other festivals, meetings and performances are happening with myths
as titles or central figures - the language used tends to be
mythical rather than historical. So with this first issue
of The Open Page we have invited different women,
actors, directors to write about their relationship with myth in
connection to theatre.
To facilitate the writing, some of the articles have used the
following questions as reference: 1. Why did you choose to work
with a myth as a theme or character? 2. What does "myth" mean to
you? 3. What relationship do you see between myth and modernity,
between myth and contemporary experience? 4. Do you think that the
creation of our myths will contribute to a new language and to the
creation of our own history as women in theatre?
It has been impossible to find a logical order in the jungle of
myths which appear from the articles. Echo and Narcissus.
Persephone and Mnemosyne mix with the Wild Woman and personal
memories, with cosmic poetics and goddess culture, with Eva Peron
and Balinese witches. References to practical experiences and
theoretical discussions came together in a stream of words and
thoughts which are expressed in poetical forms as well as daily
accounts. We decided therefore to introduce the issue with final
part of Susan Bassnett's inaugural address to the Magdalena
Festival, Cardiff, September 1994 and then to follow the
alphabetical order of the authors' surnames.
In collecting the articles we have given great importance to the
international diversity, but the choice of printing in one language
has forced us to confront the problem of translation.
There are many opinions on the paths to follow when translating. We
are aware of the difficulties and consequences of what necessarily
becomes an incorrect version of the original. Some of the articles
are written in English by women whose mother tongue is not English.
Other articles have been translated. We have tried to be faithful
to the meaning of the texts, even when not respecting English
scholarly form and grammar.
Comments and suggestions for the future of the Journal are welcome.
Good reading.
January 1996,
Geddy Aniksdal, Maggie Gale, Teresa Ralli, Julia Varley
Foreword
Ten years ago Jill Greenhalgh organised the first festival and
from then the Magdalena Project started to exist, first as an idea
and then as a reality. Already during the first year of the
Magdalena Project's existence the need for a newsletter was felt in
order to keep the communication going between women who had been
involved in the Festival and initial meetings. At first it was just
a folded piece of paper, hand typed and photocopied and sent to
those who paid for the postage. The first newsletters contained
only short and immediate information about activities, achievements
and ideas about theatre performance and workshops, about family
changes and the women's whereabouts.
Then the Newsletter grew to the format it has today, four pages
of well laid out print with editorials, articles, news, photographs
and critical forums. Themes for development were chosen and the
Newsletter began to have the function of providing information,
documentation, news and discussion. At first it was necessary to
conquer the space, then fill it with descriptions of what we had
been doing during the year. Then the written words were used to ask
questions and then, slowly, the space was no longer enough.
During every annual meeting of the Magdalena Project's
International Advisory Group, the Newsletter and other forms of
documentation are discussed. Looking back at last year's activity
and especially at the Magdalena Festival in 1994 we noticed that
women involved in the Project were approaching words, theory,
explanations and analysis with more curiosity and familiarity than
before and that this demanded more space. We also felt the need to
stimulate women to write so as to start building their own memory
and critical view within theatre history. On one hand the articles
written were not finding enough print space, on the other hand a
little encouragement was needed to produce even more material. So
we came upon the idea of this Journal.
The Open Page aims to give space to longer, more
analytical articles, leaving the quick, elastic, informative form
to the Newsletter. The aim is also to create an 'open page' in
which many experiences and voices can join and a collective vision,
a transforming knowledge, can be useful to our practice in theatre.
If the Magdalena Project aims to help the work of women in theatre,
The Open Page aims to help the words, the memory, the
reflection, the thoughts of women working in theatre.
The Journal is not ambitious in a formal way, we want to achieve
it with very few means and produce one number every year with
enough copies for all those who are interested. However, the
Journal is ambitious in wanting to contribute towards creating new
and different words for women in theatre to write their own
history. Each issue will be dedicated to a theme and the first one
we have chosen is:
Women - Theatre - Myth.
no. 1 January 1996
Editorial Board:
Geddy Aniksdal, Maggie Gale,
Teresa Ralli, Julia Varley
Cover:
Marco Donati
With special thanks to:
Grenland Friteater
Odin Teatret
This first issue of the journal was published
by The Magdalena Project, Wales, UK
Sold out