ODIN TEATRET ARCHIVES (OTA) - Documents
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ODIN TEATRET ARCHIVES (OTA) - Documents All the materials deposited at Odin Teatret Archives can be consulted at any time and by any person, on agreement with the person responsible for the archives. The personal letters, i.e. those not addressed to the Odin ensemble, cannot be consulted and/or quoted (not even partially, and not even if mentioned in this inventory) for a period of sixty years from the time they were written. The letters older than sixty years can be consulted and quoted only with written permission of the author or the Odin Teatret Archives. The person authorized to read or quote the correspondence is still expected to respect the private nature of the information. FONDS EUGENIO BARBA Inventory * Series Grotowski * Series Odin Teatret * Series ISTA * Series Letters * Letters * Lett-A * Series Awards * Awards * Awards-A *Series Publications * Publications * Publications-A * Series Miscellaneous (compiled by Mirella Schino in collaboration with Francesca Romana Rietti. The work started in March 2008 and numerous additions and revisions were made during the following years. The information that could not be inferred from the documents, or from books and articles, was provided by Eugenio Barba, and it is here included as a source of oral testimony in support of the documents. The general considerations on the theatrical or historical situations are by Mirella Schino.) Eugenio Barba, born in 1936 in Brindisi, Italy, the second son of an officer. When ten years old, just after the Second World War, he watched his father die from illness contracted during the war. He grew up in the home of his father’s mother in the village of Gallipoli. Together with his older brother Ernesto, he attended high school at the military college of La Nunziatella in Napoli where education was free for war orphans. After this, he hitch-hiked throughout Europe, specially in Scandinavia. He settled in Oslo in 1964 where he earned his living as a welder in the sheet-metal workshop of Eigil Winnje whom he would later often remember as his first master. He became a sailor on a Norwegian cargo ship to Asia for eighteen months. Back in Norway in 1967, he returned to welding while studying at the University where he joins joined the left-wing student intelligentsia. He became a friend of the writer Jens Bjørneboe who gave him the text of Odin Teatret’s first production The Bird Lovers, which Barba renamed Ornitofilene. From July 1960 to January 1961 he lived in Israel, travelling and working in several kibbutz. From there he traveled to Warsaw on a scholarship for the Theatre School to study directing. This was his first real contact with theatre. He left the School in January 1962 to join the small experimental Teatr 13 Rzedów (Theatre of 13 Rows) which was led by the young and then unknown director Jerzy Grotowski and by Ludwik Flaszen, a renowned essayist and theatre critic He remained there until April 1964, alternating theatrical work with travels in Europe to spread information about Grotowski’s activity. In 1963, from July to December he traveled by car to India. In Churuthuruthy, in Kerala, he studied Kathakali and wrote about this theatre form which at that time was unknown in the West. In April 1964, while abroad, the Polish authorities denied him a visa to return to Poland. Back in Oslo, in the autumn of 1964 he created Odin Teatret (which in 1966 he moved to Holstebro, a small town in Jutland, Denmark, with 18.000 inhabitants). Just after founding the theatre, he took his final MA degree at the University of Oslo in Norwegian and French literature as well as history of religions. Since 1983 he has held Danish citizenship. He has directed all the productions of Odin Teatret. The Fonds Eugenio Barba includes materials, letters, working drafts and documents by Eugenio Barba. In 2004 Barba handed over to the CTLS (Centre for Theatre Laboratory Studies, the Odin archives were not yet founded formally) the binders 1-5 of the Series Grotowski. In March 2008, when the archives were established, Barba delivered to OTA almost all materials having to do with Grotowski and the preparation of his productions (series Barba-Grotowski, and series Barba-Odin), as well as some of the material concerning Barba’s work for ISTA and also his correspondence. Other materials were delivered in the following years. Starting from 2009, Eugenio Barba donated to the archives a series of photographs taken by himself or his wife Judy, or belonging to his family. These photographs are now collected in the Photographic Fonds, series Barba. Other photographs were kept inside the documents binders; we included them in the inventory but left them where we found them. Most materials were originally kept in Barba’s office (series Grotowski and part of series Odin); in his home (the binders of the correspondence, i.e. Barba-letters and some of the materials of the series Barba-ISTA); in the corridor beside Barba’s office (the correspondence arranged by year, i.e. series Barba-Lett-A); in the locked cupboard outside Barba’s office (the binder “Eugenio” and the ones on the first ISTA sessions); in Sigrid Post’s office (the collection of articles by Kirsten Hastrup, the binders with the preparatory materials for the performances of the series Barba-Odin). In December 2014 the Fonds Eugenio Barba includes 146 binders and is divided in 7 series (see also the Photographic Fonds, series Eugenio Barba): 1) Series Grotowski (labelled “Barba-Grotowski”): in December 2014 it consists of 25 binders all organised by Eugenio Barba. They include materials about Grotowski (letters from Grotowski to Barba and photocopies of letters from Barba to Grotowski; articles about and by Grotowski, photocopied or typewritten; articles and books by Eugenio Barba on Grotowski; typewritten texts of translations, often with handwritten corrections; programmes; information; drawings by Jerzy Gurawski, architect and stage designer for Grotowski’s productions; other materials which Barba used for his writings about Grotowski, etc.), gathered and ordered starting from 1961 until April 2008. After the first few years, some of the letters from Grotowski to Barba were kept by Barba in the binders of his general correspondence (Barba-Lett-A, arranged by year and not by letter writer). 2) Series Odin Teatret (labelled “Barba-Odin”): in December 2014 it consists of 44 binders. It comprises materials concerning Odin Teatret from 1965 to 2008 and in Eugenio Barba’s possession (for example, working notes about the texts of the performances; working materials of the actors; Barba’s articles, texts by the actors addressed to Barba on various occasions; photographs; collection of articles or books used by Barba on the occasion of a new performance, or of the creation of ISTA; mixed letters and materials concerning Barba’s relationship with South America; articles and cuttings gathered by Barba’s mother in Italy; materials concerning unrealized projects by Odin Teatret; materials of various types concerning the creation of single performances; transcriptions of radio programmes about Odin Teatret; private and theatre photographs etc.) 3) Series ISTA (labelled “Barba-ISTA”): in December 2014 it consists of 7 binders concerning the years 1980-1987 (after 1987 the organising work for the various sessions of ISTA was entrusted to the Odin actors, mostly to Julia Varley). It comprises preparatory materials for Barba’s articles and more generally for the scholarly work in ISTA (scholarly articles gathered by Barba while preparing the first ISTA, programmes, contracts, letters, budgets, lists of partecipants). The binders are few, but significant. 4)Series Letters : a total of 46 binders containing letters addressed to Barba, often including a copy of his reply. It includes two sub-series (Barba-Letters, 22 binders, and Barba-Lett-A, 24 binders). The letters were divided by Barba (and later by us) into two groups: the sub-series Barba-Letters includes letters kept by Barba at home or in his office and is organised for specific people corresponding with Barba (for example, the letters to and from Christian Ludvigsen, Richard Schechner, Marc Fumaroli, Jerzy Grotowski, Ernesto Barba); and the sub-series Barba-Lett-A comprising Barba’s correspondence organised by year. These binders with letters were kept by Barba in locked cupboards outside his office from 1981. The previous correspondence, like many other materials, was deposited in an unorganized state at Holstebro Museum; it was, at least partially, retrieved and included in the inventory. 5) Series Awards: it consists of a total of 10 binders and includes two sub-series. The sub-series Awards, labelled Barba-Awards (9 binders), includes materials concerning honorary doctorates, honours, acknowledgements, awards, letters of presentation, prizes of various types. Among these official documents, Barba has often kept articles of different kinds which we have noted. The sub-series Awards-A (only 1 binder) includes a press review about prizes, books etc. 6)Series Publications: it consists of 7 binders and includes two sub-series. The sub- series Barba-Publications (3 binders) collects materials concerning Barba’s writings (organised by Barba, the binders contain books, essays and previous works that Barba collected while working on a new publication; they include some letters and typescripts 3 with corrections, first drafts etc.). The sub-series Barba-Publications-A (4 binders) collects typescripts by scholars who are or were particularly close to Barba. The writings were ordered by Barba in separate folders each devoted to a single scholar and sometimes to a single work. The essays mostly deal with Odin Teatret’s work and often another copy of the same writing is kept in a different section of the archives; still, we decided to keep the series because the writings often reveal information about the collaboration, trust and mutual intervention on the writings which were the product of the make up the relationship between Barba and some scholars.