News
Maria participated in the IFTR 2024 conference in Manila (Philippines).
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She became a member of the Political Performances Working Group (PPWG) where she gave her presentation:
“How Performing Presidents Confront National Tragedies.”-
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Maria's German Theatre and August von Kotzebue’s Theatrical Success and Pitfalls in Russia is available in the 2023 publication--
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The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration,
edited by Y. Meerzon and S. E. Wilmer, Palgrave, 2023
Maria attended the IFTR conference in Accra, Ghana (July 24-28, 2023) and presented her paper: Historical Drama by Catherine II and Gustav III: Theater and Myth During Enlightened Absolutism
Maria presented the paper, Y. Knyazhnin’s “Vadim of Novgorod” as a Threat to Catherine the Great’s Absolute Power at the ACLA Annual Meeting, March 16-19, 2023, Chicago
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Additionally Maria presented the paper, A Literary Duel Between Catherine II and Gustav III: The Dramatic Works of the Monarchs During the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) at the International conference 350 years of Russian theater, December 8-10, 2022, GITIS-SIAS, Moscow
SWEDISH AMERICAN CULTURAL UNION
(SACU)
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DATE: Tuesday, May 25, 2021 12:30 PM EST
SPEAKER: Maria Berlova
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Performing King Gustav III
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SACU is pleased to announce that the speaker for its May meeting will be historian Maria Berlova, who will discuss how Sweden’s 18th century “performing king” Gustav III made use of theater to support his political goals.
Berlova, an internationally acclaimed Russian scholar who focuses on 18th Century literature and art, is Senior Research Fellow at the State Institute of Art Studies in Moscow. In January 2019, she gave a luncheon talk to SACU on “Sleeping Beauty – Why was the Drottningholm Theater Lost for 130 years”, recounting the history of the famed theater outside Stockholm that was built for Queen Lovisa Ulrika in 1766 and flourished during the reign of Gustav III.
Maria returns to SACU, this time via Zoom, on Tuesday, May 25 to discuss her newest book, Performing Power -- The Political Secrets of Gustav III. In her book, Maria presents Gustav III as a performing king who strategically used political events as a framework through which he could embody the ideal or enlightened monarch as conceived by Voltaire. She explores the history of the relationship and complex bond between theatrical arts and politics. This unique talk will be of great interest to students and scholars of theater studies, 18th-century culture and politics -- as well as to all SACU members.
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Maria attended the conference, Amateur Acts: Why Amateur Theatre Matter at the Warwick Venice Centre (September 8–10, 2025).
She presented her paper, Gustav III and Marie Antoinette as Royal Amateur Actors: Navigating the Challenges of Cultural Expression and Identity.
