Yearbook of the Independent Performing Arts Scene in Serbia - TkH

In alternative terms one could address: venues, use of the new media, performingstyle/techniques, visual or any other elements of work in theatre…However, what is common to all local productions which can be claimed asalternative, is the very process of their creation. While the traditional theatrein Serbia is mainly based on (taken-for-granted) drama stagings, alternativecompanies do their research. Theatre they make is postdramatic (in aLehmannian sense) and the verbal text (if any at all) features here merelyas one among equally important codes of creation and analysis of the theatrepiece. Alternative theatre artists often engage in creative workshops,perceiving them as conduits to the final shape of their creations. … It is, additionally,important to note that one might align with the local theatre alternativeall the independent productions (namely, those remaining outsidethe big theatres financed with public money). This makes the definition ofalternative theatre in the local context even broader, as one of the criteriafor considering particular performance as alternative relates to its production‘circumstances’. Even when classical (in terms of their aesthetics),productions of small, independent companies present Serbian theatre withthe different and considerably ‘economy-friendly’ production model. In thatsense, they are alternative by the vary fact that, unlike mainstream theatreproductions, they are not regularly subsidized by public institutions, or taxmoney allocated to culture. And here we come to our next clue, a key tounderstanding the alternative theatre scene in Serbia. That is the budget,and we are not mistaken if we call the local, OFF theatre ‘low-budget’.However, it would be wrong to assume that the epithet relates only to theproduction and technical working conditions for the independent companies.Budgets in this case dictate the aesthetics, and largely the ethics, thatis, ideology of the theatre alternative in Serbia. In this very effort to makemore out of less, all protagonists of the local independent theatre sceneenter the domain of cultural and social engagement. Questioning the waysin which the National and all the other public theatres operate, alternativeartists declare themselves as conscious. Aware of the society they live in, ofthe wider context of their work, but also of the fact that Serbia, althoughextremely poor country, is financing luxury and elitist art – its expendituresfor this purpose exceeding respective amounts in more developedcountries. In that sense, independent theatre makers in Serbia seem morehonest than their institutionally based colleagues. It should be noted thatalternative theatre companies are mainly financed from grants to individualprojects. Their working conditions are no better than those of their audiences’:white-collars, students and many other target groups addressed by(any) theatre.