The Rhodopi International Theater Collective

The Rhodopi International Theater Collective (or The RITC) is the former name of the Leon Katz Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory (or RITL), an annual summer gathering of theatre practitioners and scholars, which allows professional participants to work with and train students and each other in distinct approaches from around the world. The name was changed in preparation for the 2009 session. The program operated under the previous name during the summers of 2005 to 2008.

Held primarily in Smolyan, Bulgaria, in the center of the Rhodopi Mountains (or Rhodope Mountains), The Laboratory is hosted at the Rhodopi Dramatichen Theatre complex (or Rodopa Drama Theater / RDT), and co-directed by theatre directors Peter K. Karapetkov (Bulgaria) and Jared J. Stein (United States). It was founded by Stein, Karapetkov, RDT Artistic Director Krustyo Krustev, and American dramaturg Benjamin Nadler, with the partnership of the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, The HyperMedia Studio at the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television, and the University of Zagreb's Academy of Dramatic Art. Serving as a meeting ground for international collaboration, individual professionals and students from theatre companies and conservatories in several countries attend The Laboratory, to train as well as to develop work with international collaborators. Projects developed at the RITL have gone on to performances at a number of theaters, including the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, the Long Wharf Theatre, the McCarter Theater, and the Mixed Blood Theatre Company in the United States.

The Rhodopi Mountains is the mythological birthplace of Orpheus and the original terrain of the cult of Dionysus, thus the mythological birthplace of Western theater and performance. In 2010 the RDT merged with the company of the Dramatichen Theatre in Plovdiv (or Drama Theatre Plovdiv / PDT) at the foot of the Rhodopi Mountains, and the unified company now operates facilities in both locations. Since the RITL holds events of each session's performance schedule at the Plovdiv complex, and takes research trips throughout the Balkans.

Contributors have included Mara Isaacs of the McCarter Theater, choreographer and dervish Ozden Akturk, Dostena Anguelova-Lavergne of the International Delphic Council, Dr. Sue-Ellen Case, the International Theatre Institute's Martha Coigney, Russian actor Valeri Garkalin (IMDb profile, “Valeri Garkalin”), Aleksandr Morfov of the Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theatre and Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Philip Arnoult of the Center for International Theatre Development, Kalamandalam Piyal Bhattarcharya, Yasen Peyankov of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, master teacher of Cham Dance Lobsang Lama, master teacher of Wayang Kulit and Topeng Masked Dance Nyoman Sedana, Vera Stoykova of the State Puppet Theatre Varna, and Jed Allen Harris of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Leon Katz, a mentor to co-founder Jared J. Stein, served on the initiative's board of advisers and was a dramaturg and lecturer during the inaugural session in 2005.

The RITL has since its founding arranged for its professional participants to provide workshops and contribute to collaborations at theaters and universities throughout Europe and the United States, e.g., Southwestern University, UCLA, Whittier College, and Carnegie Mellon University.