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Engaged Theatre and Contemporary Politics in Turkey

Özlem Karadağ, Özge Ertem, and Ebru Nihan Celkan: November 5 - 9, 2018

BuluTiyatro: an Istanbul Theater company

BuluTiyatro theatre company was founded in 2011 by the playwright Ebru Nihan Celkan with the aim of producing new theatre texts and performing arts pieces, and establishing a theatre library. BuluTiyatro is a theatre company that is home for playwrights, directors, actors, academics, designers and aims to bring together different people from different backgrounds with their talent and passion in theatre. The company’s plays come into being as a result of the meticulous and passionate process of cooperative work of each member on the project(s).

BuluTiyatro's first play was Tetikçi (Triggerman) written and directed by Ebru Nihan Celkan. The play won a prize at Mitos-Boyut Publishing's  Play-writing Contest and listed under the State Theatre Repertoire together with the writer's other play Kabuklu Sürprizli Hayvanlar (Shells with Surprises). Tetikçi has come into being from the reality that how in a small Anatolian town, poverty and deprivation is build up and covered up as "masculinity," "heroism" and "country matter". The play investigates the state customs that includes the unsolved assassinations. Company's second play was Nerde Kalmıştık? (Where Were We?) that had been directed by Mirza Metin in the season of 2012-13, and the play engages with the main character Umut's - who returns to his family after his military service - inability to go back to his old and "normal" life after becoming a witness and a part of the violence of the operations he participated in South-East Turkey. The play was staged at Şermola Performance and SahneHal in the 2012-2013 season. In 2013, in the 18th Sadri Alışık Theatre and Cinema Acting Awards, Cem Uslu was awarded with the “Jury Special Prize for Young Male Actor” for his role in Nerde Kalmıştık? In 2013, Celkan wrote and also directed Evim! Güzel Evim! (Home! Sweet Home!) as a BuluTiyatro production. The play, which discusses domestic violence in an upper-middle class family, was premiered on January 17, 2014 and staged continuously in İstanbul for two seasons and upon request toured different cities of Turkey.

In 2014, Celkan’s play from the State Theatre Repertoire Kabuklu Sürprizli Hayvanlar (Shells with Surprises) was included in the programme of IKSV Theatre Festival as a BuluTiyatro production. In 2015, Celkan wrote and also directed Babil (Babel). This play, a co-production of BuluTiyatro and Kadıköy Emek Theatre, premiered on December 16, 2015. The play was again taking one of the most important problems of the new era as its focus, showing the audience the evolution of a construction site with an aim to draw attention to the safety issues involving workers without insurance on building construction sites.

In 2016, Çiyil Kurtuluş, who was one of Celkan’s students in her play writing workshop, wrote a play entitled Biraz Sen Biraz Ben (A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You) and the play was produced as a BuluTiyatro production and premiered on December 16, 2016. For the new season, BuluTiyatro focuses on research and teaching; as the studies on new play texts and drama theory advances, Celkan continues her play writing workshops with new students.

For BuluTiyatro, which believes in the importance of the playwright in theatre, the power of pen is the way to make the audience question life. In the centre of BuluTiyatro plays, which feed from the "playwright's theatre" understanding, stands "the text" and the text only. BuluTiyatro texts are after the reality that lies beneath the surface.

Check out the Facebook page of the BuluTiyatro