Tata Tavdishvili is a Tbilisi based professional actress and drama director who graduated from the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film, Georgia State University, Faculty of Drama with BA and MA degrees. In 2020 she completed her PhD studies as a teacher of acting and currently teaches at her alma mater. She has more than six years-experience of teaching psychological drama, stage movement, choreography, contact improvisations etc. Tavdishvili has an extended record of working as an actress as well as directing at different theatres of Georgia including the Movement Theatre (Tbilisi, Georgia), A. Tsereteli State Theatre of Chiatura (Chiatura, Georgia), Meskheti State Drama Theatre (Akhaltsikhe, Georgia), Liberty Theatre (Tbilisi, Georgia), Dumbadze Youth Theatre (Tbilisi, Georgia), La Baule Theatre (Alternative Cultural Space, La Baule, France). She has served as a jury member of the Istropolitana project in Bratislava (Slovakia), as chairman of a student jury in Setkani Encounter in Brno (Czech Republic), of the Festival of Etudes in Tbilisi (Georgia); and as general manager of the Tbilisi International Student Film Festival “Amirani“ (2017 and 2018). Tavdishvili has worked as a trainer on different courses in Georgia (Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University), UK (Rose Bruford College in London) and Israel (Yoram Lowenstein Performing Arts School in Tel-Aviv).
Abstract title: THEATRICAL EDUCATIONAL PROCESS AND PHYSICAL THEATRE IN GEORGIA IN THE PERIOD OF COVID-19
2020 brought with it new global challenges when reality found itself face-to-face with the Covid-19. One of the urgent issues which needs clarification attempts to find out: where lies the border between tangible culture and digital art? Theatre means a live interaction and an accompanying process, which results in empathy – one of the attractive features of this field of art. This is a profession that makes all those related to it think, feel and enable others to live through in-depth exploration of real relationships. The current situation has stripped us of this opportunity. Online modes of working resemble artificial breathing equipment that only helps to prolong the days. Now we need to get more oxygen, to take a deeper breath and move more. I believe that the processes of theatre education have been most affected. We found and tailored ways of sharing the knowledge. However, they proved not to be sufficient. Educational process means everyday development, the need to listen, touch and see. The actors grow professionally through feelings of constant empathy. Theatrical art can’t be downsized to sharing of information only. In order to reach anticipated results, it is important to realize all ideas in practice and conduct diverse experiments. Of course, co-existence with Covid-19 makes our imagination work more actively (sometimes even more intensely, as one has more time to reflect), however, all attempts to engage in different endeavors are put on hold.
