Women Practitioners and Scenography of Trauma in Contemporary Russian Theatre

The aim of my project is to explore scenography of trauma in works of women practitioners in contemporary Russian theatre. Thus, the project has a twofold intention. The project’s aim, to explore the representation of trauma in contemporary performance practices, is endorsed by problems in the sociocultural sphere in contemporary Russia, where the subjects of trauma and diverse traumatic experiences can be perceived as undesirable and even threatening for the state’s agenda. At the same time, the project aims to attract attention to women theatre directors and women stage artists in contemporary Russian theatre and thus, to challenge hidden discrimination of their creative practices. While trauma, alongside memory and history, is continuously fractured and molded to sustain the political narrative, women practitioners continue to challenge the limits of articulation and apprehension of trauma in their work. To analyze the representation of trauma, this study relies on a recent theoretical development in the field of scenography and combines first-hand observation of performances with interviews with women practitioners.