Researcher of theater (b. 25 April 1928, Kadıköy /
İstanbul – d. 2014, Ankara). Her real name is Azime Sevda Şener. She attended
primary school in Eskişehir, Uşak and Turhal, Yenişehir College of the Turkish
Association for Education and Eskişehir High School (1947) and graduated from
Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of
English Language and Literature (1950). She began her academic career as first
assistant of the Institute of Theater established at the same faculty in 1958.
She became a doctor with her thesis “Musahipzâde
Celal ve Tiyatrosu” (Musahipzade Celal and His Theater, 1962). She studied
two semesters at Bristol University, Department of Drama in the United Kingdom
and a semester at the University of Vienna, Institute of Theater, in order to
improve her knowledge of theater. Later she entered the Chair for Theater at
Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography and became an
associate professor in 1967 and a professor in 1972. She was the Head of the
Department between 1976-1981 and 1985-1994. She retired in 1995.
She gave undergraduate and
graduate lectures on the theory of theater, criticism of theater, dramaturgy,
theories of criticism, contemporary art, and theater in the modern and
post-modern period and contemporary Turkish literature in theater at Ankara
University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography and Faculty of
Communications. She also lectured at Hacettepe University, the State
Conservatoire and at Bilkent University, Faculty of Musical and Stage Arts,
Department of Theater and Department of Turkish Literature. Besides giving
lectures, she has also participated in symposiums, panels and forums in Ankara,
İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin and Eskişehir presenting communiqués and she has
broadcast on television channels and radio stations.
Her critiques of plays and her studies have been published in the
reviews Maske und Kothurn, Devlet
Tiyatrosu, Türk Tiyatrosu, Ulusal Kültür, Tiyatro Tiyatro, Tiyatro 76-79,
Birikim, Tiyatro Araştırmaları Dergisi, Milliyet Sanat, Türk Dili, Çağdaş
Eleştiri, Oluşum, Adam Sanat, Gösteri and the newspapers Hürriyet and Hürgün. Her critiques have also appeared in Radikal 2, the cultural supplement of the newspaper Radikal.
She collected the Avni Dilligil Jury Special Prize and the Theater and
the Television Writers Association Contribution Award in 1990; the
International Adelaide Ristori Award in 1992; the Critique, Study and Research
in Theater Award of the Ministry of Culture in 1993; the Award for Theater’s
Woman of the Year in 1994; the Afife Award; the Muhsin Ertuğrul Special Award
in 1999; Çankaya Municipality Contribution Award in 2001; Ankara Association
for Art Honorary Award in 2002 and the 9th Ankara International Theater
Festival's Theater Achievement Award in 2004. She served as a member at the
Turkish National Center of the International Institute of Theater. She is a
member of the Language Association, the Turkish Philosophy Association, the
Theater Critics Union, the Turkish Authors Association and the Accomplishment
in the Field of Theatre Association
WORKS:
Musahipzâde Celal ve Tiyatrosu (Musahipzade Celal and His Theater, 1963), Çağdaş Türk Tiyatrosunda Ahlâk Ekonomi Kültür Sorunları (Moral, Economic and Cultural Problems in Contemporary Turkish Theater, 1971), Çağdaş Türk Tiyatrosunda İnsan (People in Contemporary Turkish Theater, 1972), Dünden Bugüne Tiyatro Düşüncesi (Ideas of Theater from Past to Present, 1982), Oyundan Düşünceye (From Play to Thought, 1993), Yaşamın Kırılma Noktasında Dram Sanatı (The Art of Drama at the Breaking Point of Life, 1997), Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türk Tiyatrosu (Turkish Theater in the Republican Period, 1999), Nâzım Hikmet'in Oyun Yazarlığı (The Dramatist Characteristic of Nazım Hikmet, 2002), İnsanı Geçitlerde Sınayan Sanat (Art That Examines Mankind at the Crossroads, 2003), Gelişim Sürecinde Türk Tiyatrosu (Turkish Theater in the Development Process, 2003), İzleri Kaldı (They Left Their Traces Behind, 2005).
REFERENCE: İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Füsun Akatlı / Dram Sanatına Felsefenin Işığıyla Bakmak (Cumhuriyet, 3.12.1997), Ayşegül Yüksel / Sevda Şener’le 2000’li Yıllara Doğru (Tiyatro Tiyatro dergisi, Ağustos 1999), Aynur Demircan / Sevda Şener ile Victoria R. Holbrook Aramızda (Kanat dergisi, sayı: 4, Güz 2000), Yaşamın Kırılma Noktasında Dram Sanatı / Sevda Şener (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 21.3.2002), Ülkü Tamer / Bir Tiyatro Bir Öykü Kitabı (Milliyet, 1.1.2004), Gülşen Karakadıoğlu / Yaşamın Geçitlerindeki Sınavları Kavramak için Bir Yol Gösterici (Gösteri, Şubat 2004), TYB Kültür ve Sanat Yıllığı (2015).
