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The cast of Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq. Photo by Alexander Iziliaev.

Questions of Practice: Wilma Theater's Blanka Zizka on Risk in Theater-Making

Questions of Practice: Wilma Theater’s Blanka Zizka on Risk in Theater-Making

“Theater is about choreography, about sound, about our breathing, about human relationships,” says Blanka Zizka, Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater. She describes the way some theater-making has become an “assembly line…the process of putting text on its feet,” and explains how she takes risks in her work by looking beyond the written script.

Blanka Zizka, Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater, on risk in theater-making. Filmed at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage on November 17, 2014.

Blanka Zizka is the Founding Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater, and focuses on practices and programs for local theater artists that support creativity through continuity and experimentation. In 2014, she directed Paula Vogel’s Don Juan Comes Home From Iraq, a world premiere developed with Center support. In 2011, Zizka was the recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer transforming the regional arts landscape.