ABSTRACT
EU G E N I O B A R B A , T H E D I R E C T O R of the Odin Teatret, is one of thoserare theatre people who combines the creativity of an artist with the more reflective skills of a researcher, theorist, and teacher. Since 1964, when he founded the Odin, he has created over sixty original works, ranging from intimate theatre pieces to large-scale outdoor spectacles. He has established one of Western Europe’s only government-funded theatre laboratories, the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (NTL), which, apart from researching performance, incorporates a publishing house, a film and video archive, and production facility. He also heads the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA), which he founded in 1979 to investigate the connections between traditional Eastern and contemporary Western performance. In addition to his practical successes, Barba has produced many articles as well as books which together encompass important writings on actor training, dramaturgy, performance, and theatre sociology. Besides this published material, Barba has also lectured and taught on both the practical and theoretical aspects of his work in Europe, North, and Latin America, as well as in Asia. He is an advisory or consultant editor to journals such as TDR: The Drama Review and New Theatre Quarterly. Barba’s combination of insightful theatre scholarship and artistic achievement has garnered him numerous international awards. These include honorary doctorates (from the universities of Aarhus, Ayacucho, Bologna, Havana, Warsaw and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre), the ‘Reconnaissance de merité scientifique’ from the University of Montreal, an award from the Danish Royal Academy of Science and Letters, the Pirandello International Prize, and the Sonning Prize from the University of Copenhagen.
