Three Contemporary Swedish Plays: Hand in Hand, The frozen on the square (1982), and GHOSTS & Zombies. Translated and Edited by Chad Eric Bergman. Chicago: Nordic Studies Press, 2018.
Three Contemporary Swedish Plays
For much of the English-speaking world Swedish theatre begins and ends with August Strindberg. Yet amazing theatre is happening throughout all of the Nordic region that doesn’t reach our shores because of the language barrier. In these new translations three prominent Swedish authors have seen their work on the Chicago stage through Akvavit Theatre productions.
Chad Eric Bergman’s “fleet” translations capture the energy, silence and humor of contemporary Swedish theatre.
"A Performativity of Nordic Space: The Tension Between Ritual and Sincerity Re-embodied Through Each Performance of Sweden's Allsång på Skansen." In Ethnologia Europaea-Journal of European Ethnology. 40:2, 2010.
Drawing on Richard Schechner’s ideas of performance, modern ritual theory (especially the work of Seligman, Weller, Puett and Simon), and Butler’s considerations of performativity, this article considers that the performativity of Nordic Space is located in the tension between ritual and sincerity. Using examples from the 150th televised installment of Allsång på Skansen (a Swedish community sing-along event) I examine how repetition affords us the opportunity to create and re-create a sense of what Nordic could mean in a variety of arenas. Repeating Nordic Space as a blend of memory and re-creation continually reestablishes the refreshing tension between ritual and sincerity.
"We do storefront theatre: Using Chicago's Storefront Theatre Model as the Foundation for a Theatre Curriculum." In Theatre Topics, Volume 20, Number 1, March 2010.
As a result of the changing economic climate, theatre programs at colleges and universities face a range of budget cuts or even the possibility of being eliminated, and they are now looking for different solutions to offer a quality experience at a reasonable cost. At North Park University, a small liberal arts college in Chicago, we have met this challenge by developing an innovative theatre curriculum that is based on the Chicago Storefront Theatre model, where experiential learning is at the core of the program. With over 200 production companies making theatre in over 115 venues, most of the theatre in Chicago is being done in small spaces by groups with limited financial resources. The following describes the model and argues that the curriculum trains students to be creatively effective artists not only in the Chicago theatre scene, but also in other locations such as Boston, Minneapolis, and Seattle, where underfunded yet thriving theatre is happening.
"Performing the Nordic Aesthetic: Explorations in the Power of Ambiguity, of Negative Space, and of Silence."
Workshop presented, Akvavit Theatre for the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and the School of Literature, Science and the Arts, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 19 November 2016.
Workshop presented, Akvavit Theatre for Chicago theatre professionals, Chicago, Illinois, 25-27 January 2016 and 2-3 August 2016.
Conversation with Robby Celestin on his podcast: A Chatter of Fact