The Theatre Institute has published a report concerns the work and situation of producers, and the accompanying contextual texts enrich it with an international perspective.
The report stems from the need for a scientific approach to the issue of identity and the needs of people working as producers in theatre and performing arts in Poland. Who are they? How do they define themselves? Do they recognise each other and see themselves as a professional group? Do they work internationally, and are they part of networks emerging in Poland and abroad?
The contextual texts accompanying the report introduce an international perspective. Vânia Rodrigues’ article ‘Whoever is Not Lost Does Not Yet Understand’ shows how important it is to look at production practice, share specific examples of work in culture and draw conclusions that should form the basis for cultural policy-making at the local and international level. The author dispels artificially imposed assumptions and points to solutions that make it possible to make goals, such as those related to sustainability and ecology, more realistic and contemporary. Importantly, Vânia Rodrigues speaks from the perspective of a practitioner and theorist, a university researcher, and a country and production environment which, unlike our region, also has a sense of peripherality.
The second contextual text, ‘Analysis of the Condition of Contemporary Performing Arts in Eastern Europe,’ was written by György Szabó, a Hungarian producer with many years of experience and the founder of Trafó, an important institution on the European performing arts map. The article was commissioned by the Theatre Institute and presents a perspective spanning over fifty years on the formation of the independent performing arts market in the Central and Eastern European region.