Vladimir Tzekov. Laboratory of Stage Action. Dependencies and Independence of Contemporary Theatre

Abstract

In spring 2008, Santiago del Hoyo and Manuel Bonillo settled in Granada after having worked for three years with the company @lma @lter in Bulgaria. They brought together an unstructured and heterogeneous group of people with different backgrounds, contexts and profiles, and created a theatrical rarity that they introduced at the Universidad de Granada that same year. It was entitled Rapsodia n.º 2: “La vida es sueño” and was born of the intersection of a Brahms rhapsody, a pseudo-random selection of the text of Calderon's play, and an overactive philosophical obsession. The theatrical experiment was a success, and they received a small grant that they fully invested in renting premises of 40 m² in a deprived neighbourhood in Granada. In September 2009 they boldly opened the venue to the public, where they offer comprehensive courses in "stage creation" and free shows three times a week. Since then they have produced more than twenty shows, toured some of the most important international experimental theatre circuits, and continue with their stage rarities, which critics and audiences alike regard as unclassifiable. Coinciding with the beginning of spring 2019, the 2nd Research Conference on Independent Theatre was held at the Institut del Teatre. The specification ("independent") of the call first caused bewilderment, and then controversy. The Vladimir Tzekov case, which feels challenged by both, is presented here as a bid to discover, denounce, contradict and subvert its own conditions of possibility, which are the conditions of possibility of its (in)dependencies.