And/Or/Pro/Methe by Beyn Theater Group is one of the 10 winners of the Music Theatre NOW competition 2018.
And/Or/Pro/methe is a theatrical event staged in a traditional style, but which takes tradition as far as it can go. The singing is both extreme and controlled, stretching the human voice to its limits. There is no compromise or surrender to Western standards of vocal art. The result is a performance of great honesty and integrity.
Liu sola: jury
Jury Statement:
The 2018 edition of the Music Theatre NOW competition saw 436 applications by artists from all over the globe. These submissions represent a multitude of approaches to the genre of music theatre. The submissions demonstrate the critical role of “heterogeneity” and an “intersectional perspective” across music theatre practices today. This cultural and aesthetic plurality is reflected as well in the composition of the jury panel. The jurors’ diverse backgrounds and expertise allowed us to approach and discuss the diversity of the
submitted works in terms of both their form and content. Despite the variation among each juror’s aesthetic preferences, everyone valued those productions that took creative risks. Artists, we agreed, must acknowledge and address the existing expectations of their immediate geographic, institutional, and cultural contexts while also challenging those expectations, often beyond the cautious programming of art institutions. Innovation should be evaluated in relation to the specific context of the work’s creation. Therefore, in our evaluation process, we privileged artists who demonstrated trust in their communities and audiences but who were not afraid to challenge their preconceptions. We privileged projects that embraced complexity, whether on the level of politics, dramaturgy, or staging choices. We favored new creations and original material, as well as original approaches to extant forms. We also gave priority to those works that explored themes related to the socio-political challenges of our times.
We did not apply a narrow definition of the music theatre genre. Instead, we allowed the artists’ submissions to guide us. We reviewed each work in its national and regional context, privileging those projects that pushed the genre beyond where it currently stands in that local context. Many of the submitted projects are pan-national, involving artists from different cultural and artistic backgrounds. We focused on the works’ artistic and political significance, not on how well-known or established the makers are in their respective fields. Similarly, we decided to acknowledge the variety of forms of music theatre as represented by all the works that were submitted to this edition of the Music Theatre NOW competition. We leave it to the artists to redefine and expand the parameters of music theatre through their processes of experimentation. We are well aware that music theatre comes from a history of clearly defined terms. We searched for new paths of creativity and engagement with the audience. We examined how artists link their local context with international trends and developments.
While we may not have come up with a tightly articulated definition of music theatre, through the selection process, we explored the complexity of the field. We feel that the definition of music theatre as a genre shouldn’t evolve in one direction only. Moreover, music theatre today has been fed by creative tensions present in the field. We believe that the genre will thrive most of all through precisely this diversity of approaches and creators.
Read the full book: Music Theater Now – 2018
