Theatre today is expanding, especially in terms of the environment in which it operates outwards and inwards. The first direction refers to the urban and natural context of human life and creation, to the ecological connotations of theatre practice. The second direction moves away from the natural context and shows the possibilities of theatre in cyberspace. Both these directions have become more significant in recent years, as the theatre has been prevented from using its traditional modus operandi during covid lockdowns.
Following this complex spectrum of the environmental turn in the theatre, the contributions in this section together form something akin to a dramatic arc. Jovana Karaulić showed that a consistent eco-turn in the theatre still faces significant limitations. A consistent ecological way of thinking is only slowly permeating artistic institutions. On the other hand, Attila Antal showed how the performance Counting Sheep is composed of various digital components in the space of new media (originally intended to cater to audiences who could not go to the theatre due to the pandemic). His contribution was valuable because he attempted to organically combine the body-centred methods of performance art with the complex possibilities of new media – which are used both to analyse a performance into its components and to synthesize it, incorporating traditional theatrical methods such as bodywork and puppetry. Finally, the topic of the performance Counting Sheep is also linked to the internet – it is about a girl’s journey to her first personal encounter with her online counterpart. Finally, António Baía Reis and Mark Ashmore took this environmental turn in the theatre a step further. They showed the possibilities of leaving the context of theatre stage altogether and moving the performance into virtual space. Here, the use of avatars and digital modelling no longer serves merely as a tool to complete the performance: it produces the actors, who follow the principles of the digital environment, and so bring a distinctly non-human element to the performance.
This entire section was an invitation to rethink the relationship between the theatre and non-human actors, whether natural or artificial – “virtual.” The question of virtuality, i.e., what is actually simulated, takes on a new dimension: after all, simulation is the eternal principle of the theatre. How can virtuality be drawn to materiality by ecological creation on the one hand, and how can it find new ways of exploring our world in digital space on the other?