Experimental Theatre in Austria 1945-1983

The project, "Experimental Theatre in Austria 1945 - 1983", is a study of experimental theatre performances and workshops conducted in Austria during the period between the end of the second World War and 1983 (end of aera Kreisky), including the cultural-political developments generated from the Arena Movement in 1976 in Vienna. Although focused on the subject of experimental theatre in Austria, the interdisciplinary project draws together theatre history, media science, and contemporary social history to explore the interrelations, reciprocal influences, and networks operating among theater groups and individual artists. Additionally, a feature of the project will be the collecting and cataloguing of written records of experimental theatre which will preserve significant events in Austrian cultural history. The project is unique in providing a historical critique grounded in theater-science, to produce a re-evaluation of the cultural-historical importance of national and international experimental theatre in Austria. A method-bundle will be used for theatrehistorical analysis. Since textual records and documentation are limited, research for the project will be derived among others from oral histories. As many of the most influental participants in early experimental theatre are now advanced in age, it is imperative that such interviews be conducted immediately, so as to prevent the history of experimental theatre in Austria from dying with these men and women. Interviews will particularly attempt to identify such information as: the theories of art which influenced the founders of experimental theatre in Austria, the relationships and intersections among various arts in Austria, the effect on Austrian theatre of trends in international experimental theatre, and the impact on "conventional" theatre in Austria of the activities of the experimental artists. The resulting analysis will identify and explore the continuities and relationships between exceptional phenomena such as the actionism or the language- and demonstration-art of the Wiener Gruppe, and less known, but no less significant events and personalities which contributed to the history of experimental theatre. By electronically documenting and archiving related data at the Institut für Theater, Film-, und Medienwissenschaft of the University of Vienna, the project will also contribute to the establishment of a professional-calibre international centre for the study of experimental theatre in Austria. The results of the project will be publised separately.

During two years (2003-2004) of intense research activities in the field of Experimental Theatre in Austria 1945- 1983 appeared a rich quantitiy of a multilevel and different material which has been analysed in the light of performative aspects. Among these there are theoretical texts (manifestos) as well as documentations of practical work (in some cases even "drama texts" - formal experiments) and handwritten protocols. Discovering these primary sources - mostly found in private collections and archives - has been a special challenge. Some of the important sources are photographs, also videos which exist from the 1970s onwards. At the same time the later represent a part of the experimental piece. In the centre of the research there have been theatrical and performative experiments in Austria, even blurring the borders in all senses. On one hand some artists provoked by their work (shock effects) and received invitations to the US, on the other hand some were leaving "voluntary" the Austrian social and political circumstances due to the same reasons. Regarding Austria the central position has been proofed. Apart from singular exceptions like Theatre 107 in Innsbruck or Bregenzer Randspiele, cultural centres like Petersbrunnhof (Salzburg), Posthof Linz - there has been Graz, which took on an alternative position, e.g. practicising so called Dunkelkammer Lesungen. Also Forum Stadtpark, Steirischer Herbst and the literary movement in Styria allowed a public appearance for quite a number of experimental performers. The Dramatische Zentrum functioned as a special platform for experimental ideas of individuals and groups in Vienna. It represented a centre for training and working, a school for actors and dramatists, for communication and a laboratory for a couple of years. It was the most important impulse for the Austrian theatre avant-garde. Scholarships for working and travelling abroad enabled young artists to develop and realise their radical visions of theatre. At the same time it allowed contact and exchange within the international theatre scene which was hosted by Dramatische Zentrum as well as by Schlachthof Arena. One was supported by the state and institutionalised, later closed down, the other born to be wild and divided later into diverse alternative places (Gassergasse, Amerlinghaus, and WUK). These theatrical experiments which took place at the fringe are still alive in the memories of several people - artists, mediators, journalists and audience. Some of them have been for disposal for documentations and supported the research project.