Book, Burning down the house: origins of a director[LS]

Almost half a century after founding Odin Teatret, leaving a legacy of a different way of doing theater, a series of legendary shows, the desire to embrace scenic traditions from other continents and, also, a precious amount of theoretical writings, Eugenio Barba makes here an analysis of his life as an experimental creator, in a work of great historical importance. As this is an essential text for understanding contemporary dramaturgy, the publisher Perspectiva decided to bring it to the public and theater professionals, certain that this contribution is as valuable as dozens of other volumes already published on the art of staging. In Queimar a Casa: Origens de um Director, the master distills his long experience, from the first attempts, to trusting, to those looking to create their own theater, how to imagine, dream or even overcome discontent regarding the spirit of the time. And it does so without ever departing from the solidity of craftsmanship, that of a dramaturgy that involves the intertwining of scenic action, organization and direction, with the aim of achieving direct communication with any spectator, so that each one can achieve experience your own show. Dialoguing with great masters who have passed away and talking about his past, the author seems determined not to hide any of his anxieties from the reader, to whom he confesses, without veils, his own experience. In this way, the work borders between a treatise of a technical nature and an autobiographical novel; from his father's death to entering military school, from his arrival in Sweden, hitchhiking, to his experience as a sailor, from his childhood in Gallipoli to his meeting with Grotowski, starting from a strange childhood memory: a spectacle that ends in flames.