Green Drama

5 May 2019

 

At Nova Drama 2018, the Theatre Institute of Slovakia commissioned 22 professional Slovak playwrights to create works looking at environmental issues and how people are interacting with the environment.  Each playwright is working with a dramaturg to develop a script for potential production. The dramaturgs for this project are: Andrea Domeová, Miriam Kičiňová, Vladislava Fekete, and Svetozára Sprušanského

 

During the Green Drama discussions, 11 of these writers discussed their processes and plays in process. The projects range from comedies and dark humor to educational plays and plays looking at dystopian futures.  

 

Dramaturg Andrea Domeová spoke with three playwrights: Slávka Civáňová’s play for 12 – 18 year olds was inspired by the cutting down of trees in the High Tatras, a mountain range in north-central Slovakia.  Veronika Kolejáková’s near-future play looks at how we treat soil and the futility of environmental struggle. Dušan Vicen’s working title is “Thank You for Not Procreating” which is self-explanatory in its consideration of an “ecological Titanic.”  

 

Dramaturg Miriam Kičiňová spoke with three more of the writers:  Michaela Zakuťanská was billed as a member of the youngest generation, but has 15 plays and her own company, and is approaching the Plastic Era with irony and sarcasm.  Pavol Weiss‘s project is funded by the EU and will focusing on ecology, commerce, and waste.  Marek Godovič is perplexed by people touring toxic waste dumps or pleasure and wonders whether this kind of activity will lead us to a better world.  A fair thing to wonder.  

 

Vladaslava Fekete, Festival director, is one of the dramaturgs on this project and spoke with two playwrights:  Uršula Kovalyk, a humanist and feminist writer is looking at the removal of trees for a park as a lens for a tragicomic discussion between generations with an eco-terrorist twist.  Peter Lomnický’s  monodrama laments the death of a whale and the mosquito and a natural protectant for keeping birds from attacking humans. 

 

In the absence of dramaturg Svetozára Sprušanského, Lenka Čepková (PR Manager and Coordinator of the “Triathalon”) spoke with the final three authors: Gabriela Alexová’s comedy is focused on the close relationshop between trees and people through the lens of trees adopting humans.  Tomáš Procházka’s “I Want You to Panic” tackles information overflow and what we were told when about climage change.  Ján Papuga’s work is inspired by three trees in the neighborhood where he grew up that defined how the neighborhood moved and worked.

​