9th Dramaturgy and Playwriting Exchange Days

From 3 to 5 November, the 9th Dramaturgy Days organised by La Central del Circ will take place. This year’s edition, curated by Silvia Capell and Thiago Souza, will focus on the risks involved in exploring new approaches to dramaturgy: pushing boundaries, challenging certainties and sharing diverse perspectives.

Participants will include playwright, director and actress Núria Corominas, from the theatre collective Las Huecas; sociologist, author, director, dramaturg and critical analysis lecturer Jean Michel Guy; and artists Maïra de Oliveira Aggio, Claudio Stellato and Malcom McCarthy, among others.

Advance registration for the relevant activity is required to take part.

PROGRAM

Tuesday, 3 November

‘Dramaturgy in Contemporary Creation’, led by Núria Corominas [10 am – 2 pm – Sala Posada en Escena]

REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION

In the workshop led by Alexandre Duran Davins, circus artist, and Carla Piris Lasaga, dramaturg and choreographer, we will take a practical approach to exploring dramaturgical tools for the performing arts. Throughout the workshop, we will explore a range of exercises that allow us to engage with different aspects of dramaturgy, including reading and identifying the potential of creative materials, establishing a dialogue with our own creative process, using roles to reveal new perspectives, and paying particular attention to the agency of the object, which plays such a significant role in circus creation. The workshop aims to provide tools that approach the creative process as a unique phenomenon with its own agency, and that can support dramaturgical work whether or not a dramaturg is present in the room.

Carla Piris Lasaga is a dramaturg, choreographer and dancer whose work is rooted in the contemporary dance and circus scene. She trained in dance at the Professional Dance Conservatory of the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and in choreography at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance), Austria. She creates and supports performing arts projects, placing dramaturgy at their core and approaching each creative process as an entity of its own, in which the materials and conditions inform and shape what ultimately emerges. Her work has taken her across the fields of dance, voice, circus, physical theatre and film, collaborating with companies and artists such as Alexandre Duran Davins, Companyia Magdalena Garzón and Byström Källblad, among others. She is also co-founder of A l’Encontre, a cultural and artistic project and collective.

Alexandre Duran Davins is a circus artist and creator. He trained at Rogelio Rivel Circus School in Barcelona, École de Cirque de Lyon and École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels. Creator and performer of the circus show Insula, he draws on dramaturgical tools and a transdisciplinary approach in his research and creative practice. Working with both physical and graphic tools, he is involved in a wide range of projects connected to grassroots and community-based culture, public space and artistic protest. He is co-founder of A l’Encontre, a cultural and artistic project and collective, and the driving force behind Impremta a la Fuga.

Wednesday, 4 November

‘How Can We Decolonise Contemporary Circus Arts?’, led by Maïra de Oliveira Aggio [10 am – 2 pm – Sala Posada en Escena]

REGISTRATION

A moment to reflect on the impact of hegemonic Western epistemology on the way we create. How can the counter-colonial thinking proposed by Brazilian quilombola philosopher, poet and activist Antônio Bispo dos Santos, known as Nego Bispo, contribute to contemporary circus-making? Our gathering will take shape through conversations, readings, and activities involving the body, movement and collective writing, with the aim of thinking and creating together to explore alternative paths beyond hegemony, navigating cracks, breakdowns and lines of flight.

Maïra is a multidisciplinary Brazilian artist, independent researcher, mother, educator and student on the Master’s programme in Circus Research-Creation at Paris 8 University. She lives and works between France and Brazil. She is the performer and author of MACACADA, study of a Brazilian female monkey, a solo stage work in which she advocates for a counter-colonial, autobiographical approach to contemporary circus writing, as well as an acrobatics of ideas. Maïra wrote the afterword to the French edition of La terre donne, la terre veut, by Antônio Bispo dos Santos, a Brazilian quilombola philosopher, poet and activist. She is currently developing her new creation, desafogadas – non-noyées – undrowned, loosely inspired by Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals.

REGISTRATION

A practical theatre-writing workshop that transforms intimate emotions into stage material. Starting from personal premises (the loneliness of being among others, the embrace that never came, the things we will never say), each participant explores images, gestures and concrete situations. The outcome will be a collection of creative prompts: theatrical triggers that participants can take away and use as a starting point for further writing, improvisation or directing.

Denise Duncan is dramaturg, screenwriter and director. Founder of Colectivo Tinta Negra and member of the Spanish Academy of Performing Arts. She is the author and/or director of around twenty plays, including 93 metres d’eslora (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya), Títuba. Bruixa, negra i ramera (Periferia, Espai Texas) and El combat del segle (S. Beckett, CDN, Principal de Palma), among others. She co-wrote Hate Songs and was selected for the 5th edition of the Catalan Academy of Cinema’s Screenwriting Residency. She has translated works by Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou and Aleshea Harris. As a teacher, she gives classes at Sala Beckett, Eòlia and El Timbal, among other institutions.

Thursday, 5 November

REGISTRATION

At a time when artists are asked primarily “What do you want to say?”, my interest lies in “How do you want to say it?”. What kind of dramaturgy is needed for a performance that does not seek to convey a message or tell a story? A dramaturgy of action, in which doing becomes storytelling. The concept of “continuous dramaturgy”: a performance composed of organic actions that unfold endlessly. A workshop alternating moments of reflection and exchange with practical exercises.

Born in Milan in 1977, Claudio Stellato is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Brussels. He initially trained as a jazz musician at the Scuola Civica Jazz in Milan, while working in street theatre. In 2001, he continued his training at Le Lido, Centre des Arts du Cirque, in Toulouse. With his company, he has created the performances L’Autre (2011), La Cosa (2016), Work (2020) and People (2026). Alongside his own projects, he works as a dancer and actor with various companies, leads workshops and collaborates as an outside eye on different productions.

REGISTRATION

We will come together to share knowledge, ideas, questions and concerns surrounding contemporary dramaturgy in the performing arts. Drawing on different backgrounds and approaches, we will create a space for listening to one another and sharing experiences.

Moderated by Gina Vila Bruch, a stage director and creator who supports research and creative processes, the roundtable will bring together Alexandre Duran Davins, a transdisciplinary circus artist and creator of performances such as The Chosen Haram and Insula; Carla Piris Lasaga, a dramaturg and choreographer who supports creative processes, responding to the unique nature of each project; Malcolm McCarthy Herrera, a stage creator and dramaturg who explores the relationships between the body, masculinity and colonial memory; and Núria Corominas, a playwright and actress, and co-creator of the theatre collective Las Huecas.

A conversation to share practices, raise questions and bring different approaches to stage creation into dialogue.