Entscheidung der Jury 2012

2011 lief in Rumänien auf Initiative von Dr. Christian Papke bereits zum siebten Mal der durch osteuropäische Länder wandernde, österreichische Dramenwettbewerb ÜBER GRENZEN SPRECHEN, ein Theater- und Literaturprojekt, das AutorInnen einlädt, sich vornehmlich mit dem „Lebensgefühl in Zeiten des Wandels“ auseinanderzusetzen:

Der Preis ÜBER GRENZEN SPRECHEN 2010, gestiftet durch das österreichische Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem P.E.N.-Club Österreich, dem Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe, dem Rumänischen Kulturinstitut, dem rumänischen Kulturministerium und dem Staatstheater Temeswar, geht dieses Jahr an:

Alice Monica Marinescu und David Schwartz mit ihrem Doku-Drama:
AM FALSCHEN PLATZ GEBOREN (Nu ne-am nascut in locul potrivit).

„Am falschen Platz geboren“ dreht sich um aktuelle Fragen der Minderheiten in Rumänien. Basierend auf drei Langzeitdokumentationen eines Bukarester Heims für Flüchtlinge und Asylsuchende, eines jüdischen Altersheims und eines Auffangbeckens afghanischer Flüchtlinge in Tajikistan werden Menschen unterschiedlichster Nationalitäten beschrieben: Drei Frauen und zwei Männer zwischen 26 und 74 Jahren erzählen ihre Geschichte. Alle fünf leben im heutigen Rumänien, stammen aber ursprünglich aus Kuweit (Palästina), Iran (Afghanistan), Serbien, dem Irak, nur eine Person aus Rumänien selbst. Die jeweils spezifischen Kulturhorizonte und Religionen werden im Rahmen der jeweilig beschriebenen Einzelschicksale mitverhandelt. Somit visualisiert sich die unsichtbare Welt staatenloser Personen und ihrer Flüchtlingsschicksale in ihrer Komplexität vor dem Hintergrund zeitgenössischer Geschichte. „Born in the wrong place“ ist lebendig erzählt, authentisch umgesetzt und besticht vor allem auch durch die innovative Struktur des Stückes, klar und kraftvoll gezeichnet. Fragmente und Auszüge aus dem Vorbereitungs-Führer für Asylwerber in Rumänien (ein Text der wiederum auf rumänische Verfassungsparagraphen verweist) werden als Klammerfunktion und Bindeglieder zwischen die erzählten Geschichten gesetzt. Ansonsten verzichten die beiden Autoren stilistisch weitgehend auf gängige theatrale Ausdrucksmittel. Ziel des Textes ist es, weder verallgemeinern noch urteilen zu wollen. Doch kontrastieren die geschildeten Erfahrungen der fünf ErzählerInnen die legislative Theorie und die zu lebende Praxis in Rumänien.

„Am falschen Platz geboren“ erzählt nicht nur von Rumänien, sondern ist in seiner Allgemeingültigkeit auch für andere Länder Europas und darüber hinaus anzuerkennen.

Die Jury

Ada Lupo Hausvater, Generalintendantin, Nationaltheater Temeswar
Cristina Modreanu, Theaterkritikerin, Herausgeberin des Kunstmagazins Scena.ro, Kuratorin des Europäischen Theaterfestivals FEST-FDR
Gerald Bauer, Chefdramaturg, Theater der Jugend, Wien, Professor am Max Reinhardt Seminar Wien
Axel Preuß, Chefdramaturg und stellvertretender Generalintendant, Staatstheater Braunschweig &
Peter Spuhler, Generalintendant, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

Die Jury wählte aus über 70 anonymisierten Einsendungen den Siegertext aus.

DECISION OF THE JURY, 2011

The drama competition TALKING ABOUT BORDERS was running 2010 in Bulgaria. This literary and theatre project is mainly aimed to invite authors to reflect the topic of „Life Experience in Times of Changes”.

The prize 2011, donated by the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs, in cooperation with the Austrian PEN Centre, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, the cultural institute of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bulgarian P.E.N. Centre, the National Culture Fond, and the theatre of Osnabrück, goes to:

UNMUSICAL MOMENT
PETRANA ZLATEVA

The jury’s decision for the winning play was unanimous:

Beside of its exactly balanced analytic structure the winning drama convinced also because of it s five vivid and contemporary characters, who have an huge psychological impact; characters with a credible biograhic background of nowadays peoples lives. For the jury it is a pleasure to announce that the winning follows in its dramaturgy the structure of a contemporary and well-composed comedy, full with plenty of surprising and unguessable turning points, which change the protagonists lives in many moments. Everything is different as expected in the beginning situation which seems to be an average real estate purchase. The unpretentious and unspeculative access to the work shows the authors capacity about theatre needs.

The jury is convinced that the play will find it´s audience not only in Bulgaria but also abroad. We wish the author a big success, also the Theater Osnabrück who will do the first performance of the play in May 2011.

The Jury also wants to thank all the participants of the Competition who gave, due to their aesthetic and contentwise accesses, a widespread glimpse about the contemporary dramatic work in Bulgaria.

Gerald Bauer, Svetla Beneva, Youri Datchev, Jürgen Popig, Peter Spuhler

DECISION OF THE JURY 2010

The subject of the winning play – among many other surprising elements and turning points – is the unique and everlasting matter of the relationship between father an son referring to the aspect of reintegration which was a often used sujet of many plays and seems to be a general matter in contemporary Albanian Culture.
The convincing speciality of the awarded play was its access to an innovative and surprising aesthetics.
The text, working with stylistic elements known from crime scenes, keeps it`s secret and its suspense from the first to the last line because of it´s perfect dramatic structure, its vivid and eloquent dialogues between well developed characters.

While describing the complex relationship between the acting persons it inspires the reader to new questions.
Despite of it s surprising structure the play never looses it´s original aim of the original conflict between father and son, which never looses it s desire of enlightenment. The author succeeded in finding the perfect balance between keeping secrets and the concreteness, which is important for a dramatic situation in general.

Finally the jury wants to thank all the participants, the authors, but as usual for a competition, there is – alas – only one winner.

Gerald Bauer
Adonis Filipi
Mark Marku
Christian Papke
Christian Römer

Presentation “The Sandman”

Stefanie Dvorak, Florentin Groll, Gerrit Jannsen, Dunja Sowinetz, Moritz Vierboom

May 28, 2010
Burgtheatre Vienna

TALKING ABOUT BORDERS 2009 – FINAL DECISION OF THE JURY

The jury, that is
Ferida Durakovic, writer
Dino Mustafić, director
Dušan Gojkov, editor, director and writer
Gerald M. Bauer, dramaturgue
Christian Papke, director, spokesman of the jury,

wants to thank the 15 writers that they have taken part in this competition to give an impressive overall picture of the intensity of creative and artistic life in Bosnia-Herzegovina because the basic idea of this competition is to further mutual knowledge and communication among people in South Eastern Europe and Austria by stressing contemporary cultural achievements. Even if the quality of the texts, which were submitted, differed – in some cases the jury had the impression of a certain lack of dramaturgic or maybe theatrical experience – the texts offered a huge range of talents. Having accepted this invitation of “Talking About Borders” as invitation to an exchange of views, a dialogue and also a meeting point of ideas, all the authors helped to support this important initiative.

The jury is therefore pleased to announce unanimously the winner, presenting the best text of all submissions: „I don’t like Mondays“ written by Zlatko Topcic.
„I don’t like Mondays“ combines glimpses of Bosnian and Herzegovinian history, also reflecting the Austrian positions in a critical way. It’s an empathic impact of views on human fates of different origins.

The story reflects the difficult topic of a rape victim vicegeral for the war crimes but absorbs the shocks of harshness of this tragedy through the clever montage of scenes where diverse characters are brought together.

The complex play is (mostly) well structured also including loops of repetition, narrative moments and other – sometimes even cinematic – solutions leading through the story. The audience certainly will be kept in suspense. The combination of montage and repetition lead into an well thought rhythm which will be a challenge for the realisation on stage.

The jury of “Talking About Borders” rewards Zlatko Topcic a price fee of 3.500 EUR. Also part of the price is a translation into German language, a publication in a first edition of 11.000 copies, distribution of the play among all relevant German speaking theatres and a public reading in Vienna also inviting the author.

March 2009

2008

In Croatia the drama contest was especially supported by the Austrian Kultur Forum in Zagreb.

In March 2008 the drama contest for Croatia was finished. The Jury, consisting out of five people among them are the chief of the ITI in Croatia and script editor Željka Turčinović, the prizewinning Croatian author Tena Stivicić, she lives in London, the former headmaster of the University of Vienna, the present president of the P.E.N.- Club Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Greisenegger, the producer Christian Papke and the Serbian winner from the year before Emilija Andrejević, this jury chose the winner out of all the handed in manuscripts.

In 2007 the winner of “Talking About Borders” was Goran Ferčec with his play “Letter to Heiner M.”

Goran Ferčec was born in Kopribnica in 1978. He took classes in history of Art and did Polish Studies at the University in Zagreb. He also graduated from the Academy for Script Writing in Zagreb. Today he writes prose, dramas and theory of theatre, he lives and works in Zagreb.

The jury based its decision on the high linguistic and narrative quality of the text that unrolls the drama by stream-of-consciousness-technique and puts the reader in a very atmospheric, strange world of ideas.

At first the jury couldn’t decide if the text, that is formed like a story can be taken as a drama, but regarding the latest developments in theatre in which texts and text piece are used as material for the collage for the production the jury decided to accept it.

Ferčec uses for his continuous exciting text elements one usually knows from thrillers and combines them with a very detailed almost scientific way of arguing.
Society is described as a gathering of ‘micro-idea-worlds’, that may be combined or not and so they create conflicts. Communication is defined as a continuous change of borders of individual worlds of ideas.

And anew, 2008 “Talking About Borders” takes place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

2007

In Serbia “Talking About Borders” could take place especially grace to the great support by the Belgrade’s municipality, the local Ministry of Culture, the BITEF Festival and the Austrian Kultur Forum.

In Serbia, in February 2007 the drama competition was finished. Again the international jury, consisting of five persons had to choose from all of the handed in drafts the best one. Members of the Jury had been
• the theatre director Andreas Beck,
• the drama critics and festival directors Jovan Cirilov and Ivan Medenica,
• the producer Christian Papke,
• and the winner of the last contest Goce Smilevski.

The new international jury under the chairmanship of Dr. Papke consisted of especially in the South Eastern parts of Europe highly respected persons and their names guaranteed again for the winner’s play’s quality.

The Serbian winner Emilija Andrejević (31) is about the same age as Smilevski but contrary to him not known in the world of literary. She learned the play writing autodidactly. In her play “Boon Bartender“ she does a take off of the generation’s disappointment with missing promotion prospects. She’s interested in “globalized” human beings, she criticises the citizens’ drifting off as citoyen.

Misled by a soulless entertainment officer of Europe, the characters betray their friends and themselves. The end is a lonely and disappointed one, the promised paradise is not at all better than the situation before.

Andrejević creates carefully modern, almost funny personalities, and she even makes fun out of their complaints.

There are many ways to interpret the very well structured play, e.g. on the one hand it may referrer to the Serbian political situation at the moment, but the play also might be a metaphor for life and the disappointment of many young people, living in the EU. Her characters are open-minded, well-educated, their only perspective is the world, not the nations. (…)

Andrejević play was presented in a production by Christian Papke in the theatre Atelje 212 in Belgrade due to the international theatre festival BITEF.

Emilija Andrejević got three of the five votes, and so referring to the rules of the voting, she was the winner.

But in that year there had also been a special prize to honour the work of Milica Konstantinović: “The Hyperbolic Paraboloid”.

The Jury points out the poetic language and the interesting structure of the play. In this play dialogues and stream-of-consciousness statements are related to each other. Also the Jury found the many remarkable hints to Serbian history of literature needed to be rewarded.

With this special prize the jury wants to even out the of course not totally available different judgement due to the different cultural background.
And again, on the World- day of theatre in 2007 “Talking About Borders” was tendered for all Croatian writers.

2006

In February 2006 the first Drama Competition “Talking About Borders” for all Macedonian writers was over. An international jury consisting out of 5 persons (Aleksandar Popovksi, Goran Stefanovski, Klaus Detlef Olof, Christian Papke and Vida Ognjenović) had to choose the winner out of all the handed in manuscripts.

Since the two “Balkan-Theatre-Icons” Goran Stefanovski and Vida Ognjenovic were part of the jury – their names guaranteed the quality of the play that had won: A quality that was mainly judged by the modernity and the artistic style of the play.
The winner was Goce Smilevski with his play “Three dance steps to cross the border”.
In 2000 Smilevski had already won the “Blazhe Koneski-Price” for his essay “Incest in Sound and Fury by William Faulkner”. His first book “Conversation with Spinoza” was right away rewarded with the most important Macedonian literary award “Novel of the Year” and his first play won the Austrian competition “Talking About Borders”.

The Jury explained its decision by the high artistic quality and originality of his play. Form, content, pictures and metaphors are independent creations.

His main focus lies on the poetically situational floating description and the minimal psychological-social development, the action itself is not so important.

The central issue of this play that actually seems to be rather made for reading than for the stage are self-reflections that take place in the present without any craving of recognition.

The ‘ego’ needs all its power for preserving itself in a hostile environment. The desire and need for participating in shaping the environment is not recognizable.
While appointing Goce Smilevski as the first winner of “Talking About Borders”, the drama contest had already been announced in Serbia.

2005

Macedonia had been the first stop of the drama competition that has been drafted for the western Balkans.

“Talking About Borders” is a theatre- and literature project that invites the authors to mainly focus on the experience of life in times of change.

In 2004 Dr. Christian Papke initiated the cooperation of
• the Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs,
• the P.E.N.- Club Austria,
• Kultur Kontakt Austria,
• the Translation and the Linguistic Rights Committee
• MOT Festival
• and the Macedonian Ministry of Culture.

The project was drawn up and posted in 2005.

The drama competition was born out of an idea, a curiosity to get to know the people that actually live not far away from Austria, by their contemporary and artistic achievements.