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Origins and Developments: A Brief Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2019

Extract

The origins of westernized theatre in Turkey lie in the Tanzimat reform movement, which was in turn inspired by the impact of the French Revolution. The institutionalization of this late encounter was made possible by the foundation of municipal theatres (1914) and of state theatres (1949). The municipal theatres have been most influential, and have had more flexible characteristics as they have been minutely connected with tradition. The state theatres, on the other hand, have been on a mission to educate audiences through their large-scale productions, which the private-enterprise theatres would not possibly dare to produce. They have also been tightly connected with Western-style theatre in their repertoire, and in their understanding of dramaturgy and directing in their productions. Today it is still debatable whether these enormous institutional theatres function effectively or not. The fact that the municipal and state theatres are consistently offering the cheapest tickets and yet not managing to keep a loyal group of audiences is one of the reasons why nearly two hundred plays at independent theatres debut in Istanbul every year. There have been attempts to overcome problems of quality inherent in the structure of these theatres by other theatre groups in premises where more elaborate productions of plays from the mainstream have been performed.

Type
Reflections on Turkish Theatre
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2019 

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References

Notes

1 See, for further information, Constanze Letsch, ‘Turkey Protests Spread after Violence in Istanbul over Park Demolition’, The Guardian, 1 June 2013, at www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/31/istanbul-protesters-violent-clashes-police, accessed 22 February 2019.

2 Eliade, Mircea, Dinler Tarihine Giriş (Istanbul: Kabalcı Publishing House, 2003), p. 380Google Scholar.

3 I am currently working on an article exploring the plays written during and after the Gezi Movement, forthcoming in 2020.