Susan Tsu, Dmitry Rodionov, Igor Roussanoff

Syposium participants

RACHEL HANN Ph.D 

Panelist 

Co-founder of the biennial conference and exhibition- Critical Costume. Teaching, writing and research focuses on material cultures of costume and performance design as well as architecture.  United Kingdom. 

Dr. Rachel Hann is Senior Lecturer in Scenography at the University of Surrey and Deputy Associate Dean, Doctoral College. Hann’s teaching and research focuses on the material cultures of costume, performance design, and architecture. 'Beyond Scenography’ is her first monograph (Routledge, 2019) and provides the first theory of scenography in response to the expanded practices of contemporary theatre and performance. The book argues how a scenographic perspective applies to fine art, architecture, propaganda and human geography. Hann has also published several chapters and peer-reviewed articles on subjects such as costume politics and the performativity of architecture. 

In 2013, Hann co-founded the biennial conference and exhibition Critical Costume (www.criticalcostume.com). This international research network has since expanded with events in Liverpool (Edge Hill University, 2013), Finland (Aalto University, 2015), Czech Republic (Prague Quadrennial, 2015), and Guildford (Surrey, 2018). Hann has led a number of Critical Costume's core activities including co-convening the events at Edge Hill and Surrey, co-editorship of a special issue of Scene (Intellect) and writing the organization’s first constitution. 

In terms of external positions, Hann has held the positions of Associate Editor (reviews) for the journal Theatre and Performance Design. From 2014-2018, she was an Executive Officer for the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA), having previously co-convened the Scenography working group (2010-2013). 

Hann studied for a BA Drama at the University of Hull (2002-2005). At the University of Leeds (2006-2011), Hann’s PhD thesis employed computer-based 3D visualization as a research method to investigate unrealized utopian theatre architecture (www.utopiantheatres.co.uk) including the unrealised theatre building of Vsevolod Meyerhold. 

NIC ULARU 

Panelist 

Scenographer, playwright, director and professor well known in Romania, the Netherlands Germany, Sweden, the UK, Denmark and Hong Kong. Ularu is also National Curator for Romania.   United States. 

Nic Ularu has extensive design credits in USA and Europe, including theatres in Sweden, Northern Ireland and Romania.  Ularu was the head of scenography at the National Theatre of Bucharest - Romania, and served for four years as a board member of The European League of the Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has taught scene and/or costume design in Romania, Germany, Sweden, UK, Italy, Denmark and Hong Kong.  Ularu is a Professor of Theatre Design at the University of South Carolina and holds an MFA in Scenography and a Ph.D in Theatre Direction. Prior to USC, he taught at Smith College, National Theatre School of Denmark and The University of Theatre and Film, Romania.  

In 2003, Ularu received an OBIE award for outstanding achievement in Off-Broadway theater.  Ularu’s designs appeared in the USA entries at the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibitions of scenography in 2007, 2003 and 1998.  In 2005, Ularu co-designed the exhibit and designed the poster of the World Stage Design Exhibition, Toronto - Canada, and was appointed by the United States Institute of Theatre Technology as the lead designer and curator of the USA National Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibition of 2007. 

Besides his national and international design activity Ularu is a playwright and director. His recent freelance work as playwright and director includes several acclaimed productions at LaMaMa ETC - New York, Sibiu International Theatre Festival - Romania, Teatrul Foarte Mic, Bucharest - Romania, “O” Teatret - Sweden, National Theatre of Constanta - Romania, and National Theatre of Cluj - Romania. 

MARIAELENA ROQUÉ 

Panelist 

Visual artist, costume-character creator designer/scenographer, writer, visual poet, model, dancer, performer and professor in Spain, North and South America, Europe, Asia in costume, contemporary, experimental arts. Since the 70´s, researches, performs and exhibits around the world.  Roqué is also National Curator for Spain/Catalonia/Venezuela and has been a Consultant  Curator to Peru, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica.  Spain/Catalonia/Venezuela 
 
1980’s Venezuela, NY, Philippines, Spain, began Mariaelena Roqué’s solo actions   with performances, exhibits and installations with   costume-characters, photo, film, sculpture and others  in art galleries and alternative spaces. In 1985-2010 Barcelona, she co-founded with Carles Santos the re-known experimental music and visual theatre-arts company Companyia Carles Santos, touring their own works yearly in important theatre-opera festivals worldwide.  

Festivals: F.d’Automne de Paris, F.Edinburgh, Berlin, F.Grec-Barcelona, F. Otoño- Madrid, F.Nuits de Fourvierès-Lyon,  National theatres in Europe, America. In 2005-2018, she has been honoured for her wide trajectory and is invited by museums to create and perform retrospective solo expo-install-actions with the accumulated costumes, scenic elements, photos, films specially created for new visual poetic talks in motion and  specific fusion with their heritage. Roqué has also been invited to perform in contemporary, urban and nature parks.  Some: Metrònom,  MAC-Cerdanyola,  MTI- Barcelona, MEP Premià de Mar, Lo Pati d’Amposta, Mas de Bernis-  L’Aldea, F. Miró, Picasso, Palau, Guinovart  Catalonia, F. Mira Toulouse, / Conservatoire de musique, MTAD de Lyon.  Collective exhibitions include: Les Insolites-CNCS de Moulins, MBA Caracas Extreme Costume Veletzrini Palace Prague, Costume at the Turn of the Century: 1990-2015- Bakhrushin Museum Moscow, USA, Taiwan, China, Poland.  

Roqué imparts conferences and focuses in the teaching of the costume into visual scenic arts   looking to empower the high  creativity in the students. In close work, she empowers students to  search for the radical experimental self- artist language with the transdisciplinary costume-character as main tool.  For students performing in today talk, for an individual, social- political -poetic  committed expression, Roqué has conducted workshops at:  UCM,  CDN -Madrid, Elisava, LLotja, Bau, Massana, IED, IT/ Barcelona, UT Texas, CMU Pittsburgh, CISD Fuzhou NACTA Beijing , Zhurgenov Arts Academy Kazakhstan, Aalto University Finland, Damu-Prague.   

Roqué participated with Spain in PQ 07/ 11/ 15. 2014-2018 and is president of PCD-Oistat Spain. She has been awarded for her contribution in innovation in the theatre-multimedia language, and has extensively published catalogues.  

PAT OLESZKO

Panelist 

Multi-disciplinary seams-trickster and art activist working from the street, party and parade, to forest, mountains and sea, and to diverse stages, festivals, film, television and popular media including the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Sesame Street and the Esquire Burlesque. United States 
 

Pat Oleszko has a large body--of work--laboring heavily under absurd disguise. Transforming herself into pedestrian sculpture has been the access to excesses in a variety of situations, subversions and insinuations. Her work in the populist art forums of the street, restaurant, beauty contest, sporting event and parades have lead to the more proscribed forums of the one-person show, films, conventions, installations and sprawling spatial events. 

Oleszko has worked in scale from performances at Documenta, the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center and King Tut’s WahWah Hut, to her annual appearance in the Easter parade in New York. In addition to making a spectacle of herself, she has costumed trees, knees, fountains, breasts, butts, elephants and index fingers as commensurate characters for performance. Her inflated sense of self has also created myriad pneumatic sculptures that range from costume to a fool-scale rocket ship. 

Chosen as part of the US cultural presentation at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, she has continuously toured the US, Canada, Europe and Asia in the past years, performing at museums, galleries, colleges and theaters. Oleszko's magazine appearances cover a similar range, from articles in Penthouse and Esquire to cover girl for Ms (as the Statue of Liberty), as well as features from Artforum to Sesame Street. She has created dozens of short films and been awarded a variety of grants and awards including 5 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, 4 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowships, a Jim Henson Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the DAAD to live in Brrrrlin for a year among others. Recently, she received the NY Dance and Performance Award for Sustained Achievement (a “Bessie”) and was twice nominated for the New York Theater Wing Award (a “Tony.”) 

Oleszko was featured in Bette Midler’s Mondo Beyondo on PBS and spent a year in Italy as a recipient of the Rome Prize which resulted in much controversy and an inimitable evening in Vatican jail for posing as The Nincompope. 

There has much teaching and workshops in the US and internationally and many exhibitions. An overview show of her diverse works traveled to 11 museums and artist’s spaces around the United States. And she continues to challenge the authorities at large by pumping irony to disparately bring home the beacon. 

Dr. Margo Barton, Presenter : Citizen Stylist-Innovative Costuming of the Self  New Zealand.

Ditta Sandico, Presenter : Morphing Identities- How do we embrace changes in our rapidly growing society? Philippines.

Sue Prescott, Presenter : Costume Travelogue-A Narrative of Found Thing . New Zealand. 

Nattaporn Thapparat, Presenter : The Inspiration of Costume Design Through the Innovation of Heritage Craft Knowledge. Thailand.

Zhao Yan, Presenter : New Century, New Association . China.

Erik Bergrin, Presenter : Shadowwork . USA.

Anastasia Nefedova, Presenter : Fashion and Theatre-Actual Language. Russia.

Galya Solodovnikova, Presenter : Costume as a portrait of a person. Russia.

Polina Bakhtina, Presenter : The authenticity of the Russian national costume in the theatre and design . Russia.

Roman Ermakov, Presenter : Architectural costume. From sculpture to image. Russia.

Nefeli Myrtidi, Presenter. Greece.

Andrey Bartenev, Presenter.  Russia.

Julianne D'Errico - Assistant to Susan Tsu