A new Swedish Web site, http://strindberg2012.se, launched on December 1st, gathers information from Sweden and all over the world about Strindberg activities taking place during Strindberg’s centennial year.
The site was created as a collaboration between the Swedish Cultural Council, the city of Stockholm, Stockholm’s Stadsteater (City Theatre) and the Swedish Institute and is supported by public funds of a million Swedish kronor (about $150,000). The Swedish site features our Web site, www.strindbergfestival.com, as one of its 10 primary links (see http://strindberg2012.se/index.php/sv/laenkar).
Articles in Sweden’s daily papers Dagen’s Nyheter (http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/sajt-samlar-strindbergsjubileum) and Svenska Dagbladet (http://www.svd.se/kultur/sajt-samlar-strindbergsjubileum_6625874.svd) detail the news.
Following is a translation of the beginning of the Dagen’s Nyheter article, published 11/11/2011:
“Site Gathers Strindberg Centennial
The first of December the Swedish Cultural Council launches its one-year-long Strindberg site. The goal is to gather everything that is happening during the centennial year. The Radio Theatre alone will broadcast 30 plays, with commentary by citizens of Gävleborg. At www.strindberg 2012.se the Cultural Council’s coordinator Jan Kärrö hopes to collect all the events taking place during the Strindberg year. “It will be a kind of events calendar, we’ll try to get as much as possible of what is happening out in the world as well, he said.
The site is being created in collaboration with the city of Stockholm and Stockholm’s Stadsteater (City Theatre) but also the Swedish Institute, which is keeping track of what is happening in Strindberg’s name outside of Sweden.
In the U.S.A., the site www.strindbergfestival.com has already been started by American academics and theatre people. At Harvard a special Strindberg Symposium is being arranged for the spring. Even the French have a well-documented interest in Strindberg. At the Sorbonne in Paris a symposium will be held and the summer’s production of Miss Julie at the Avignon theatre festival will tour during the 2012 summer to the Barbican Arts Centre in London, with Juliette Binoche continuing in the lead role.”
The site is beautifully designed and provides links to major Swedish Strindberg organizations. Right now it highlights productions of Strindberg’s plays at Dramaten (the Royal Dramatic Theatre): The Ghost Sonata, and Stockholm’s Stadsteater (City Theatre): The Dance of Death and Intima Teatern (The Intimate Theatre): Lucky Peter’s Journey. I invite you to take a look! I have heard that an English language version of the site is in the works—once I receive confirmation of that I will alert you.
Happy surfing and reading!
All the best,
Ulrika