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©Bart Dewaele What is the essence of theatre in your opinion? If there is such a thing, probably it lies in people being together, exchanging thoughts and images, challenging ideas and practicing new & other ways of looking at the world. A place to briefly escape, and experience the world in a different way. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Yes, and no. No, because it would be silly to think theatre can change the world. However, people will. And those people can visit a theatre building. So theatre for us is one way - among many others - to pull at the fabric of collective consciousness. To interact with the way people look at and interpret the world around them. So step by step, yes. When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? The main source of inspiration is the people we talked to during our research, and the conversations we had. Apart from that we don’t really watch a lot of other shows or films, or visit exhibitions while we are working...

  What is the spirit of theatre/performance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre/performance?    It’s live art. It creates unique moments between people. But I prefer to make it instead of defining it!  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? It has the ritualistic strength for us to connect offline to our very direct surroundings. It establishes utopian relation-ships. This is certainly powerful but also quite unmeasurable in it’s effects. Which is great - finally something that doesnt need to be efficient! How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future? It has certainly slowed us down a bit in an overproducing world (also in an overproducing art world). Some of this new perspective may be good to keep. The toughest impact this certainly had for the generation that is just about to start their carreers now - they have spent more than a year of their...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our fifth guest is Prodromos Tsinikoris. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] Prodromos Tsinikoris  What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today? I see theatre as a publically staged political act to which everyone should feel free and invited to participate. It should ask the important and right questions for our time and open a new place of discourse for daring and provocative approaches in order to create a proposal for a future as we imagine it. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?   By presenting different stories and creating alternative narratives against a mainstream ...