Sensorial Theatre Language

Barbara Pia Jenič

The sensorial theatre language includes features such as public interaction, multisensorial perception and internationally and interculturally understandable content. It is presented using the example of Senzorium Theatre, officially founded in 2001, but active in Slovenia already since 1996. The paper studies the characteristics of senzorial theatre in comparison to related practices such as those seen in Slovenia by Teatro de los sentidos from Barcelona (directed by Enrique Vargas on the Exodos Festival 1996), seeking its antecedents in the history of peforming arts and placing them in the context of European theatre.

Barbara Pia Jenič is an actress, director and producer, her work is rooted in Teatro de los sentidos from Barcelona, where she collaborated as an actress for eight years (1996–2004) and participated in more than 300 repetitions of different performances on the most important European theatre festivals. She is the co-founder of Senzorium Institute, a pioneer of sensorial theatre in Slovenia. After twenty years of researching sensorial theatre language, she substantiated the methodology of sensorial theatre and its development in Slovenia for her master’s thesis in the course of study Speech Forms at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana.