Yearbook of the Independent Performing Arts Scene in Serbia - TkH

The impact of the Bitef Festival, as one of the oldest and biggest Europeantheatre festivals, on the theatre life of the local communities in Serbia, isdemonstrated by its other fringe program, organized for more than a decadeunder the title Bitef Polifonija. Conceived as a program reviewing newtrends in theatre for children and youth, Polifonija gradually surpassed itsinitial concept. Although the core of this theatre review is still composedof the best mainstream performances for young audiences, throughout thelast few years it has been featuring many alternative theatre forms. BitefPolifonija has presented projects by numerous non-governmental organizationsemploying theatre as means or strategy of promoting differentsocial values. Tolerance to people of different religious or sexual affiliations,awareness of the position of marginalized social groups, like convicts,disabled children and adults, or HIV positive persons, are but few of the‘objectives’ of this event. Many of the projects featured here engage withexperimental or less established theatre forms, like psycho-drama, educationtheatre, interactive and forum theatre. Balancing on the verge betweentheatre and paratheatrical phenomena, this off-Bitef program organicallyrelates to the Serbian theatre alternative. This meta-festival, (that is, festivalwithin the festival), assembled many organizations whose work shouldnot be ignored in the context of the alternative theatre in our country. Forexample: Žene na delu, Centar E8, Suno e Rromengo (as the only Romatheatre in Serbia), POD teatar (Projekat Objektivna Drama), ERG status,BAZAART and others.For (self)organization, detailed mapping, intense information flow betweenthe alternative theatre artists, including numerous multimedia projectsaimed at educating theatre makers, Serbian theatre can credit the TkH-Centre for performing arts theory and practice. In the last few years,Walking Theory (TkH), conceived as a platform for promotion of newtheoretical and critical currents in performing arts, proved itself to be oneof the most significant OFF institutions of Serbian theatre. Walking Theoryhas almost become a school of thought for young intellectuals interestedin contemporary theatre. From the TkH Journal, which has advanced or, soto speak, sanctioned many current theories and practices of performingarts through series of workshops, conferences, talks, and round table discussionsattended by numerous prominent theoreticians and artists, all toexceptional theatre productions, like the ready-made theatre project BoxingMatch (Boks meč) or the first local Internet-performance Psychosis andDeath of the Author (Psihoza i smrt autora), TkH have earned their right tobe considered a relevant institution of the Serbian theatre alternative. Noless important is Dah teatar, one of the longest enduring and most success-