In Pursuit of Theatre People
September 2023 - February 2024
KARS, VAN, ERZURUM, TUNCELİ, İSTANBUL
In Pursuit of Theatre People is a YouTube Channel project that will focus on current and traditional theatre practices in the cities of Kars, Erzurum, Van and Tunceli.
During the two-month research phase of the project, writer, director and actor Nadir Sönmez will scan academic articles and theses on the history of theatre in each city, examine visual sources and exchange ideas with people who know the cultural and artistic world of these cities. Throughout this process, videos will be shot following examples of genres such as visual anthropology and ethnographic film to bring a new aesthetic approach to video content shot in Vlog format. Then, he will visit a different city every month and shoot videos.
For the content production of videos that will be prepared separately for each city, collaboration will be made with a theatre writer, researcher or academician living in that city. Duygu Çelik in Tunceli, Elif Candan in Erzurum, Emre Yalçın in Kars and Cem Düzova in Van will be the consultants of the project.
With the guidance of these consultants, Nadir Sönmez will meet theatre actors, researchers, oral narrative tradition performers and students in these cities. He will film testimonies, stage practices and narrative representations. He will also display regional experiences and traditions that he observes to have a performative aspect in the city. When these videos, each lasting approximately twenty minutes, are edited, the final product will be both a reference for academic research and provide information to those interested in theatre about current theatre practices and heritage in the city in question. So the video content will serve as documentaries.
