1: Theatre - Women - Myth
Contents
- Editorial
- From Building Bridges Across Time: Reflections on Women's Theatre and History, Susan Bassnett (Britain)
- Women - Myth - Theatre, Geddy Aniksdal (Norway)
- Remembering Theatre, Susan Bassnett (Britain)
- Thirteen Years on the Path of Myth, Beatriz Camargo (Colombia)
- An Ancient Heritage, Cristina Castrillo (Argentina/Switzerland)
- Reconquering of Archetypal Landscapes, Gerd Christiansen (Norway)
- Archetypes as a Refernece in Actors' Work, Anne-Sophie Erichsen (Norway)
- Daughters of Memory, Nor Hall (USA)
- Presenting the Past, Kirsten Hastrup (Denmark)
- My Work with Myths, Zofia Kalinska (Poland)
- Hipparchia: On the Fringes of Myth, Brigitte Kaquet (Belgium)
- Barters: A Path Towards Ourselves, Elena Marino (Italy)
- The Language of the Goddess, Lea Melandri (Italy)
- Theatre - Women - Myth, Dijana Milosevic (Yugoslavia)
- Long-Lasting Figures, Tanith Noble (France)
- From a Letter, Beate Reker (Germany)
- Mythology as Storytelling Theatre, Guandaline Sagliocco (France)
- A Heroine of the Mid Twentieth Century, Beatriz Seibel (Argentina)
- Cassandra: Reclaiming the Voice, Ranjabati Sircar (India)
- In the Labyrinth, Maria Teresa Telara (Italy)
- Reflecting upon Medea, Sian Thomas (Wales)
- Mysteries, Confessions and Personal Myths, Julia Varley (Britain/Denmark)
- A Dialogue that Continues, Linda Wise (Britain/France)
- Princes and Witches, Cristina Wistari (Italy/Bali)
- Notes on Contributors
Women - Theatre - Myth
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.
Geddy Aniksdal, Maggie Gale, Teresa Ralli, Julia Varley, January 1996