All over Europe, underneath our feet or above the ground, circulates the life blood of our economy and lifestyle: oil and natural gas. Those substances pulse through the veins of pipelines, constantly satisfying our hunger for energy; from Tartastan in Russia to Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague; from Trieste to Vienna and Karlsruhe; from Marseille to Strasbourg and so on. With a complex infrastructure raw oil and natural gas are transported from European shipping ports by rail, roads or rivers to the big inland refineries.
And in the opposite direction, money for the liquid gold is flowing back to the Gulf of Persia and to the OPEC countries. Only at the peak of the Corona crisis on 20 April 2020 this circuit stopped for a moment and the oil price dropped to under zero.
Oil and natural gas are still undebated fuels of the modern spirit: road networks, shopping malls, suburban districts, nylons, airplanes, lipstick or plastic garbage – nothing of this would exist without them. Those substances have truly shaped our life. And they have been and still are a political issue with a tremendous amount and constant danger of exploding and causing hazardous situations.
Oil as a fossil resource comes from the depth of time, is the elixir of our present age, and threatens more and more our future. There is a growing wish to end the 100 year old oil rush. How can we sustain our lifestyle that is based on the excessive use of energy? The answer has yet to be found.
An ETC project in many languages and different aspects, connected by the same topic
Inspired by an idea for a play from the Austrian author Magdalena Schrefel, Schauspielhaus Graz would like to invite ETC members to participate in a joint project, in which you can commission a local author to write a dramatic text dealing with the question “Which kind of drama does fossil energy provoke in your country?” The text could then be staged by your theatre or presented in any other form.
Along the infrastructure of the European pipelines several projects could focus on local aspects of this international topic, which bounds us all together. We envision around five or more performances, independently developed and realized in their theatres.. Schauspielhaus Graz would also suggest the translation and publication of the texts into English and the original languages of the texts.
Every place of the project finds its own stories to tell about oil. In terms of content different perspectives of the topic are complementing each other. The big picture is created from various small images that represent local themes. European collaboration and political engagement foster visibility for a burning issue and show that common problems can only be solved when working together: a network of communication circulates words instead of oil and draws energy rather from cultural exchange then from fossil fuel. Participating theatres are invited to reflect their own need of energy and encouraged to experiment artistically or organizationally with energy neutrality.
Timeframe
27 November 2020
Final call for project partners during the virtual ETC conference
31 January 2021
End of application of the project partners with the names of an author and a little concept on how to participate
15 March 2021
Nomination of the project partners by ETC drama committee and official start of the writing process for the authors
8-12 June 2021
Gathering of all participating theatres and invitation of their authors to Graz, Austria, during the ETC conference / International Playwright’s Festival for input, exchange and inspiration, excursion to the OPEC in Vienna and to the oil refinery in Schwechat near Vienna
Season 21/22
- Presentations of the full length plays in the participating theatres (in which way project partners decide themselves)
- Eventually invitation of staged plays as guest performances for the Graz International Playwright’s festival in June 2022
- Eventually publication of the plays in English
- Distribution of the plays to German publishing houses
Support from ETC
Support of five project partners with a grant of €2,000 for commissioning a play and having it translated into English.
Cover of travel expenses and accommodation for five authors to come to the playwright’s festival in Graz 2021 and 2022. Note that this support is for ETC Members only.
Questions
For any question about the application process, contact Hélène Gauthier (hgauthier@europeantheatre.eu) at ETC.
For more information about the idea of the project or practical issues, please contact Franziska Betz (franziska.betz@schauspielhaus-graz.com) at Schauspielhaus Graz.
