Fence Archive

22. Istanbul, May 2016

 Jonathan Meth and Hakan Silahsızoğlu held planning meetings with Leman Yilmaz (IKSV Theatre Festival Director) in New York, Edinburgh, London and Istanbul.

 In May, Leman provided 3 nights’ accommodation, food and tickets to shows for 40 participants.

Eurodram held its Annual Heads of Committee Meeting and made preparations for an EU Creative Europe funding application. Fence and Eurodram members were able to learn more about each others’ work, Sarah Grochala replaced Jonathan Meth as Head of the Eurodram English language committee.

Playwright and Public Space

There was a curated engagement with Turkish playwrights to explore the prototype of the Playwright and Public Space project, and also a session with the Turkish dramaturgs to explore the issue of censorship.

 We collaborated with Yeşim Özsoy Gülan who is the artistic director of Galata Perform, who sourced a number of the participating Turkish playwrights.

We met with Esra Aysun at The British Council to explain our ideas for the Playwright and Public Space project and the feedback we had received from the meeting held with Turkish playwrights to test the idea.

We also met with Mehmet Ergen who runs Talimhane Tiyatrosu in Istanbul to secure his support for the project. From the feedback we received, there is considerable interest in pursuing this project, with a number of very good and cogent questions raised in the process of testing the idea.

The next step will be for Jonathan, Hakan and Leman to meet and review progress. With the news this week of the attempted coup d’etat, this will allow us to determine whether / how we are able to operate. In many ways the need for this kind of project is now more pressing. But also potentially more risky to deliver. This will be the focus of our next joint reflections.

Istanbul ISKV – Fence – Eurodram Participants