Eugenio Barba (born 29 October 1936) is an Italian author and theatre director based in Denmark. He is the founder of the Odin Theatre and the

International School of Theatre Anthropology The International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) is an international and multi-cultural network of performers, directors, scholars and academics of the theatre. Based in the Odin Teatret, Denmark, the organization has the nature of an itine ...

, both located in

Holstebro Holstebro is the main town in Holstebro Municipality, Denmark. The town, bisected by ''Storåen'' ("The Large Creek") and has a population of 36,489 (1 January 2022).Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...

and grew up in

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...

Lecce Province The Province of Lecce ( it, Provincia di Lecce; Salentino: ) is a province in the Apulia region of Italy whose capital is the city of Lecce. The province is called the "Heel of Italy". Located on the Salento peninsula, it is the second most-po ...

, Italy. After leaving the

Nunziatella military academy The Nunziatella Military School of Naples, Italy, founded November 18, 1787 under the name of ''Royal Military Academy'' (it.: ''Reale Accademia Militare''), is the oldest Italian institution of military education among those still operating. Its ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

in 1954, he emigrated to Norway to work as a welder and sailor. He also took degrees in French, Norwegian literature, and history of religion at

Oslo University The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. In 1961 he went to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

in Poland to study theatre direction at the State Theatre School, but left one year later to join

Jerzy Grotowski Jerzy Marian Grotowski (; 11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rze ...

, who at that time was the leader of Teatr 13 Rzedow in

Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city l ...

. Barba stayed with Grotowski for three years. In 1963 he traveled to India where he had his first encounter with

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

. He wrote an essay on the form which was published in Italy, France, the U. S. and Denmark. His first book, ''In Search of a Lost Theatre'', was published in Italy and Hungary in 1965. When Barba returned to Oslo in 1964, he wanted to become a professional theatre director, but as a foreigner he faced opposition. He and Norwegian author

Jens Bjørneboe Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society a ...

gathered a group of people who had not passed their admission test to Oslo's State Theatre School and created the

Odin Teatret Odin Teatret is an avant-garde theatre group based in Holstebro, Denmark. It was founded by Italian theatre director and investigator Eugenio Barba in 1964. Odin Teatret is a part of NTL, Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium, which also includes the Intern ...

on 1 October 1964. The group trained and rehearsed in an air raid shelter. Their first production, ''Ornitofilene'', by Bjørneboe, was performed in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. They were subsequently offered an old farm and a small sum of money by the Danish municipality of

Holstebro Holstebro is the main town in Holstebro Municipality, Denmark. The town, bisected by ''Storåen'' ("The Large Creek") and has a population of 36,489 (1 January 2022).International School of Theatre Anthropology The International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) is an international and multi-cultural network of performers, directors, scholars and academics of the theatre. Based in the Odin Teatret, Denmark, the organization has the nature of an itine ...

(ISTA). He is on the advisory boards of scholarly journals such as ''

The Drama Review ''TDR: The Drama Review'' is an academic journal focusing on performances in their social, economic, aesthetic, and political contexts. The journal covers dance, theatre, music, performance art, visual art, popular entertainment, media, sports, r ...

'', ''

Performance Research ''Performance Research'' is a specialist performance arts journal published bi-monthly (from 2012). It is an independent, peer-reviewed journal published by Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd for ARC, a division of the Centre for Performanc ...

'', ''New Theatre Quarterly'', ''Teatro e Storia'' and ''Teatrología''. Among his most recent publications, translated into several different languages, are ''The Paper Canoe'' (

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

), ''Theatre: Solitude, Craft, Revolt'' (Black Mountain Press), ''Land of Ashes and Diamonds: My Apprenticeship in Poland'', 26 letters from Jerzy Grotowski to Barba (Black Mountain Press) and, in collaboration with Nicola Savarese, ''The Secret Art of the Performer'' and the revised and updated version of ''A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology'' (Centre for Performance Research/Routledge). In 2021 he has founded the open-access ''Journal of Theatre Anthropology''.

References

''Eugenio Barba''
Jane Turner, Routledge, 2004,

External links

Odin Teatret ArchivesJournal of Theatre Anthropology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barba, Eugenio 1936 births People from Brindisi Living people Italian male writers Italian theatre directors Acting theorists Theatre practitioners Recipients of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Recipients of the Delmira Agustini Medal