{"id":2131,"date":"2023-02-27T12:55:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T12:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/beckett\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2023-02-27T12:55:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T12:55:39","slug":"the-university-of-gdansk-samuel-beckett-seminar-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/beckett\/the-university-of-gdansk-samuel-beckett-seminar-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who Wrote Godot?<\/strong>
\n18-19 May 2023<\/strong>
\nUniversity of Gda\u0144sk, Poland<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title of the seminar \u2013 Who Wrote Godot? \u2013 was suggested by Professor S.E. Gontarski (Florida State University, USA). During the seminar, he will be in Gda\u0144sk\/Sopot to launch his new book Bad Godots: \u201cVladimir enters from the barrel\u201d and other Interventions, published in the Cambridge University Press \u201cElements in Beckett Studies\u201d series. Professor Gontarski\u2019s keynote address will be followed by a showing of the films and documentaries in which he has been involved since the early 1980s. We invite scholars who are eager to share their current work on Beckett in a variety of (global) contexts. We suggest that the question posed in the seminar title and in the following note by Professor Gontarski might trigger papers and discussions of a variety of works, in a variety of ways, and through a variety of approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho, finally, wrote the script for the Waiting for Godot we are reading, or who \u2018authored\u2019 the performances we watch? The answer may depend on what one means by such a question, which edition one is holding, say, or how much attention the producer and director (at least) have paid to the script they at least began with before other theatrical professionals \u2013 producers, designers, directors, actors, and investors \u2013 entered the scene? Some texts of Beckett\u2019s first produced play were censored, others localized, overtly re-written, and, as published, these remain in circulation, part of the marketplace amid serial reprints and resales. They are seldom withdrawn or destroyedfor reasons of corruption or infidelity, and so they remain in circulation, sitting in libraries, school closets and on personal bookshelves to be lent to friends and reused for performances.<\/p>\n

The alterations in these texts may be minor on the whole, but they are almost never inconsequential. \u2018French\u2019s\u2019 or \u2018Samuel French\u2019s Acting Editions\u2019 are high water marks of textual corruption, the product of unauthorized intervention even as they have attracted little attention from Beckett scholars. Minor as each may be individually, the range of these alterations is vast, as Beckett\u2019s terse, astringent prose is continually inflated, the silences rendered less so. In the London premieres, for example, the sparse, arid set is littered with a barrel, cattails, hanging vines, \u2018A rostrum\u2019, and other cluttering \u2018details\u2019 \u2013 some of Pozzo\u2019s whip-wielding cruelty is eliminated. As strangers approach, our two waiters \u2018huddle together, behind the barrel\u2019 (SF 10). What barrel? Who wrote this? Not Beckett! But this is the text as performed in London in 1955 and subsequently published repeatedly.<\/p>\n

While all theatrical performance is subject to variation \u2013 from show to show, from theatre space to theatre space, from night to night, from actor to replacement actor \u2013 so that all performance is adaptation, to one degree or another, but the degree of variation, the differences between the contingencies of performance, the failures of memory, say, and the deliberate reconfiguration of a script and its staging are the issues at play here. The productions of Waiting for Godot that premiered in London at both The Arts (August 1955) and Criterion Theatres (September 1955-March 1956) and the Dublin premiere at the Pike Theatre (October 1955) were co-authored texts, as was the American premiere that opened in Coral Gables, Florida, in January of 1956 \u2013 each director tampering with, localizing, regularizing, stamping the text as his own by intervening and altering in the script far beyond what the author would deem acceptable (if he knew). Both credited (the LC in the UK) and uncredited interventionists (producers, directors, and actors on both sides of the Atlantic) shaped and altered what audiences saw in performance, some of what was subsequently and repeatedly published.\u201d (S.E. Gontarski)<\/p>\n

Confirmed keynote speakers for the seminar are:
\n\u2022 Professor Octavian Saiu (Hong Kong Metropolitan University): Rereading,
\nRewriting, Reimagining Beckett: Text and Context Beyond the Canon;
\n\u2022 Professor Robson Corr\u00eaa de Camargo (Federal University of Goi\u00e1s, Brazil): Samuel
\nBeckett and Maskara at the Brazilian Savannah: Lost and Found.<\/p>\n

In addition to the above, Dr hab. Tomasz Wi\u015bniewski, Prof. UG, will discuss two recent productions Z\u00e9 Celso\u2019s Esperando Godot by Teatro de Oficina Uzyna Uzona (S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil) and Jaros\u0142aw Fret\u2019s Back to Beckett by Teatr ZAR \/ The Grotowski Institute (Wroc\u0142aw, Poland) as examples of experimental Beckett for the present times.<\/p>\n

The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar is part of the Between.Pomi\u0119dzy Dispersed Festival, which also includes the conference The Geography of the Theatre Imagination (18-20 May 2023), performance workshops run by Katarzyna Pastuszak, open discussions with Teatr Amareya and the Sopot Dance Theatre, and other events. For more information on Between.Pomi\u0119dzy see: www.between.org.pl<\/a><\/p>\n

We invite proposals for 15-minute papers that provide insight into current Beckett scholarship.The deadline for a 200 word proposal is 15 March 2023 (tomasz.wisniewski@ug.edu.pl<\/a>). The seminar fee is 200 PLN \/ 50 euros.<\/p>\n

The conference is organised by the Beckett Research Group in Gda\u0144sk (University of Gda\u0144sk) in partnership with TheTheatreTimes, The Grotowski Institute in Wroc\u0142aw, and Teatr ZAR.<\/p>\n

The Beckett Research Group in Gda\u0144sk was founded and is led by Dr hab. Tomasz Wi\u015bniewski, Prof. UG. It is affiliated to the Department of Theatre Arts in the English and American Studies Institute at the University of Gda\u0144sk. It brings together people in English, Romance, and Polish studies and artists from various centres in Poland and abroad. Its honorary patron is Professor S.E. Gontarski of Florida State University in the USA. BRGiG works together with Beckett scholars from Poland and the world (Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, the Federal University of Goi\u00e1s in Brazil), and with translators and artists engaging in work related to Beckett. Indeed, the encounter of academic and creative worlds \u2013 searching for varied and not always complementary ways of seeing Beckett\u2019s work \u2013 is the main axis of the activities of BRGiG. We organize regular Beckett seminars in the Three Cities area, and also theatre workshops\/laboratories and discussions with poets, writers, film makers, and theatre workers. We also engage in publishing activities and support various artistic projects. In 2012, the collections of essays Samuel Beckett. Tradycja-awangarda, and Back to the Beckett Text opened the Between.Pomi\u0119dzy series published by the University of Gda\u0144sk Press. In 2017, the eleventh volume in the series appeared, entitled Beckett w XXI wieku. Rozpoznanie. In 2016, from Maski publishers, the book Przedstawienie Becketta (Representing Beckett) appeared, containing Polish translations of essays by S.E. Gontarski. Cooperation with the Sopot Dance Theatre has led to the production Wszystko co wida\u0107. Ohio, and the film All This This Here. Professor Gontarski\u2019s laboratory work from the Festival is documented in the film \u201c…but the clouds…,\u201d which has been shown in Poland and the USA, during the Beckett Summer School at Trinity College Dublin, and at the Charles University in Prague. In 2010, the documentary film Back to the Beckett Text (Beckett na Pla\u017cy) appeared, and at the 2019 Between.Pomi\u0119dzy Festival, S.E. Gontarski\u2019s film Beckett on the Baltic had its world premiere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023 Who Wrote Godot? 18-19 May 2023 University of Gda\u0144sk, Poland The title of the seminar \u2013 Who Wrote Godot? \u2013 was suggested…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":540,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023 - The Samuel Beckett Research Centre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/beckett\/the-university-of-gdansk-samuel-beckett-seminar-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023 - The Samuel Beckett Research Centre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The University of Gda\u0144sk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2023 Who Wrote Godot? 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