Books by Szabolcs Musca
Intellect Publishing, 2019
Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communitie... more Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communities. It considers the aesthetic, social, and cultural aspects of community-conscious theatre-making. While doing so, the volume reflects on recent transformations in structural, textual, and theatrical conventions and traditions, and explores the changing modes of production and spectatorship in relation to theatre communities. The essays edited by Marco Galea and Szabolcs Musca present an array of emerging perspectives on the politics, ethics, and practices of community representation on the contemporary international theatre landscape. An international, interdisciplinary collection featuring work by theatre scholars, theatre-makers, and artistic directors from across Europe and beyond, Redefining Theatre Communities will appeal to those interested in the diverse forms of socially engaged theatre and performance.
https://www.intellectbooks.com/redefining-theatre-communities
Articles by Szabolcs Musca
Refugee Genres Essays on the Culture of Flight and Refuge, 2022
Drawing on the recent UK-based theatre project Migrations: Harbour Europe, the chapter examines m... more Drawing on the recent UK-based theatre project Migrations: Harbour Europe, the chapter examines migrant theatre initiatives that practice resistance, political responsiveness and solidarity while resisting established narratives and fostering new aesthetics of migration and refugeedom. Migrations: Harbour Europe project was developed by the migrant theatre collective Legal Aliens Theatre in collaboration with Migrant Dramaturgies Network. Musca argues that Migrations: Harbour Europe functions as a site for public discourse, positioning migrant identities and experiences firmly in the socio-political realm and advocating a rethinking of contemporary societies as migration societies in which asylum-seeking and refugeedom are structural issues rather than temporary ‘crises’.
Coup de Théâtre, 2021
This article looks at dramaturgical practices within a recent visual and immersive migrant theatr... more This article looks at dramaturgical practices within a recent visual and immersive migrant theatre and refugee performance initiative that questions both the politics and representations of memory. Drawing on Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli’s recent performance work Now Is The Time to Say Nothing (2018), I examine emerging dramaturgical models that deal directly with both lived and witnessed memories of war and refugeedom today. The article maps new aesthetics created through visual and immersive dramaturgical practices and explore the ways in which such aesthetics might challenge and shape existing testimonial narratives of migration. This production is an important work among a growing number of visual and participatory initiatives that build on activist aesthetics. I will argue that such explorations are increasingly important as they challenge dominant media portrayals and foster a re-evaluation of complex identities and ideologies amidst recent shifts in global politics and economics.
Contemporary Theatre Review, 2020
In the summer of 2017, Szabolcs Musca and Graça P. Corrêa followed the production process of Pass... more In the summer of 2017, Szabolcs Musca and Graça P. Corrêa followed the production process of Passajar, an immersive participatory theatre project collaboratively created by four theatre-makers and refugees from Congo, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Zimbabwe. Developed under the curatorship of Portuguese choreographer Madalena Victorino for Festival Todos in Lisbon, this multilingual experimental work focused on representing migrant experiences through a postdramatic artistic gaze. The production refused the forms of testimonial theatre and with it the contradictory role of facilitators, opting instead for a multidimensional fictional aesthetics practice. In this article the authors explore how Passajar performance and dramaturgical processes address difference in actual creative practice; and what are the ‘refugeedom’ aesthetics and ethical affects being generated by working with refugee participants. Similar to a growing number of non-verbatim migrant theatre initiatives, Passajar switched from the real to the fictitious via non-realistic representations and processes of abstraction. Arguably, this practice went against victimhood narratives, but does suspending traditional means of identification and empathy help develop new understandings on migration, or, on the contrary create detachment in audiences? What are the ethical consequences to audiences and refugee participants alike? Drawing upon philosophical concepts by Henri Bergson, Baruch Spinoza and Gilles Deleuze, the article examines how they critically contribute towards a discussion of the dramaturgies of alterity and empathy that were deployed in Passajar. By reflecting on both rehearsal process and final production, it reveals the ethical affects of Passajar, as well as transformative alternatives for migrant representation beyond the stage.
Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre and Performance, 2019/1 (November), 2019
Comunicazioni Sociali. Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies, 2019
This article is concerned with the European public theatre system’s relationship with migration. ... more This article is concerned with the European public theatre system’s relationship with migration. Focusing on the Portuguese theatre landscape and especially Lisbon, the essay will map some of the major issues regarding theatre and migration today, identifying both systemic failures and structural and aesthetic shifts in the public theatres’ engagement with migrant communities. Contemporary performative approaches will be surveyed with a special emphasis on initiatives that go against crisis narratives and position migration as a structural component of society rather than a temporary challenge. The article proposes a shift from aesthesized theatre practices towards activist aesthetics, a politically responsive, participatory and durational practice that would not only introduce counter narratives on migration, but it would be instrumental in re-thinking our national cultural, literary and theatrical canons.
Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 2019
This conversation traces the creation of Todos Festival, one of the most important international ... more This conversation traces the creation of Todos Festival, one of the most important international socially engaged multi-arts festivals in Southern Europe. In dialogue with artistic director, Madalena Victorino, the festival will be portrayed as a space for encounter and performative exploration of difference, linking marginalised migrant and minority communities to Lisbon’s theatre scape and cultural ecology. We discuss modalities of transfiguring difficult (local) realities into performance on the interface between centres and peripheries.
Local and Global Stages: Translating Communities in Hybrid Cultural Spaces
In: Musca, S & Galea, M (eds.), Redefining Theatre Communities. International Perspectives on Community-Conscious Theatre-MakingPublisher: Intellect Publishing, 2019
This chapter discusses the role of translating communities in the context of international theatr... more This chapter discusses the role of translating communities in the context of international theatre festivals and cross-national theatre collaborations. Drawing on a wide range of examples, these international platforms are presented as shared cultural spaces where national and cultural differences are negotiated and where cultural value systems interact and being exchanged. Both international festivals and partnerships establish translocal and transnational identities by encouraging artistic and cultural exchanges. Consequently, they have a development function on artistic, local and national levels resulting in new artistic methodologies, urban re-generation and national cultural branding. All these outcomes nevertheless, raise concerns and tensions between local and global values and communities. I will reflect on these aspects of theatrical exchange arguing towards the importance of a hybrid (European) theatrical space and theatrical community acknowledging translation (theatrical and cultural) as one of the most important channels of negotiations, exchange and collaboration.
The Theatre Times, Jul 9, 2017
Interview with Mark Deputter, Artistic Director of Teatro Maria Matos, Lisbon (Portugal)
Keynote Lectures by Szabolcs Musca
University of Bristol, Department of Theatre, 2019
In her book Theatre and Migration, Emma Cox observes how ‘migration is, at its heart, about encou... more In her book Theatre and Migration, Emma Cox observes how ‘migration is, at its heart, about encounters with foreignness—with foreign people, and with foreign places’ (Cox 2014: 3). Consequently, ‘theatre of migration pays attention to imagining the contact zone between those who arrive and those who lay claim to ownership or custodianship over a territory. But who does the imagining?’ (2014:4-5). Moreover, what are the ethics of such encounters and the dramaturgical politics of such imagining? This lecture wishes to map the interferences between ethical and creative/ aesthetic practices of staging and performing migration, refugeedom and asylum in a contemporary context. I will look at ethical positions and qualities in artistic processes and aesthetic modalities of migrant representation in contemporary theatre and performance in Europe and beyond.
Projects by Szabolcs Musca
[2015-2017] Redefining Theatre Communities
Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communitie... more Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communities. It considers the aesthetic, social and cultural aspects of community-conscious theatre-making. It also reflects on transformations in structural, textual and theatrical conventions, and explores changing modes of production and spectatorship.
International conference jointly organised with the Theatre Studies Department, University of Malta took place at the University of Malta, between 14-16 September 2015.
CFP: https://newtidesplatform.org/2015/01/06/call-for-papers/
Please see conference report here: http://newtidesplatform.org/2015/10/28/conference-report/
Conference proceedings published by Intellect Publishing/ University of Chicago Press, entitled 'Redefining Theatre Communities. International Perspectives on Community-Conscious Theatre-Making '. Editors: Dr Szabolcs Musca and Dr Marco Galea
https://www.intellectbooks.com/redefining-theatre-communities
[2009-2015] Translating Dramaturgies. Theatre Translation and Dramaturgical Practices in the Twenty First Century (PhD thesis)
University of Bristol, 2014
This PhD dissertation is concerned with the interplays between translation and theatre, bringing ... more This PhD dissertation is concerned with the interplays between translation and theatre, bringing together an array of creative practices rarely discussed together in previous scholarship.
As this thesis shows, the process of theatre translation incorporates a multitude of creative practices that contribute to the linguistic, theatrical and cultural transfers between foreign texts and target theatrical contexts. Throughout the dissertation, overlaps and interactions between translation, adaptation and dramaturgy will be discussed reconsidering the borders of such practices. The dissertation introduces dramaturgy to the debate as a synthesising process through which translation and adaptive strategies generate meaning on- and off-stage.
The thesis presents a holistic approach, one that acknowledges theatre translation as a continuum of creative practices (e.g. translation, adaptation, dramaturgy, devising) – both textual and performative – that shape and are shaped by theatre practices, theatrical systems and traditions, hence also directly contributing to the expansion of literary, theatrical and cultural canons. The dissertation wishes to facilitate and contribute to a theatrical turn in the discourse, by establishing translation within theatre.
The dissertation situate itself in a cross-disciplinary space drawing on a variety of perspectives from Translation Studies, translation and identity, Theatre Studies, theatre histories, performance analysis, dramaturgy, minority theatre, sociological approaches to theatre, Adaptation Studies, Cultural Studies and the emerging field of Festival Studies. Crossing thematic, disciplinary, cultural, theoretical as well as physical/geographical borders is an important feature of the dissertation and reflects both the multifacetedness of contemporary theatre (and theatrical activities) and the interdisciplinary nature of present-day scholarly discourses. The issues presented in this dissertation will be supported by a diversity of examples featuring theatre productions from a multitude of social, cultural and national contexts using a variety of approaches to theatre making.
[2013-2015] Representations of the Other: Language, Body and Space in Cross- Cultural Performances (international research project)
Book Reviews by Szabolcs Musca
European Journal of Theatre and Performance, 2025
Royal Court: International (Elaine Aston and Mark O’Thomas, 2015)
Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900-2000 (Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., Siyuan Liu, Erin B. Mee, 2014)
Cultural Borrowings: Appropriation, Reworking, Transformation (Iain Robert Smith ed. 2009)
Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation (Margaret Jane Kidnie, 2008)
Between Memoir and Theory. On Georges Banu's La Scéne surveillée, 2007
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Books by Szabolcs Musca
https://www.intellectbooks.com/redefining-theatre-communities
Articles by Szabolcs Musca
Keynote Lectures by Szabolcs Musca
Projects by Szabolcs Musca
International conference jointly organised with the Theatre Studies Department, University of Malta took place at the University of Malta, between 14-16 September 2015.
CFP: https://newtidesplatform.org/2015/01/06/call-for-papers/
Please see conference report here: http://newtidesplatform.org/2015/10/28/conference-report/
Conference proceedings published by Intellect Publishing/ University of Chicago Press, entitled 'Redefining Theatre Communities. International Perspectives on Community-Conscious Theatre-Making '. Editors: Dr Szabolcs Musca and Dr Marco Galea
https://www.intellectbooks.com/redefining-theatre-communities
As this thesis shows, the process of theatre translation incorporates a multitude of creative practices that contribute to the linguistic, theatrical and cultural transfers between foreign texts and target theatrical contexts. Throughout the dissertation, overlaps and interactions between translation, adaptation and dramaturgy will be discussed reconsidering the borders of such practices. The dissertation introduces dramaturgy to the debate as a synthesising process through which translation and adaptive strategies generate meaning on- and off-stage.
The thesis presents a holistic approach, one that acknowledges theatre translation as a continuum of creative practices (e.g. translation, adaptation, dramaturgy, devising) – both textual and performative – that shape and are shaped by theatre practices, theatrical systems and traditions, hence also directly contributing to the expansion of literary, theatrical and cultural canons. The dissertation wishes to facilitate and contribute to a theatrical turn in the discourse, by establishing translation within theatre.
The dissertation situate itself in a cross-disciplinary space drawing on a variety of perspectives from Translation Studies, translation and identity, Theatre Studies, theatre histories, performance analysis, dramaturgy, minority theatre, sociological approaches to theatre, Adaptation Studies, Cultural Studies and the emerging field of Festival Studies. Crossing thematic, disciplinary, cultural, theoretical as well as physical/geographical borders is an important feature of the dissertation and reflects both the multifacetedness of contemporary theatre (and theatrical activities) and the interdisciplinary nature of present-day scholarly discourses. The issues presented in this dissertation will be supported by a diversity of examples featuring theatre productions from a multitude of social, cultural and national contexts using a variety of approaches to theatre making.
Book Reviews by Szabolcs Musca