.... Program - 2 0 0 6 ....
::: Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatralne - KRAKÓW- PL
Festival dates: April 06-09, 2006_________________________________>>>
::: FESTIVAL EXODOS - LUBLJANA - SLO
Festival dates: May 18 - June 01, 2006____________________________>>>
::: 4+4+4 Days in Motion - PRAGUE - CZ
Festival dates: May 19 - 30, 2006________________________________>>>
::: FESTIVAL BALTOSCANDAL - RAKVERE -EST
Festival dates: June 28 - July 02, 2006____________________________>>>
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::: FESTIVAL BALTOSCANDAL – RAKVERE, ESTONIA–www.baltoscandal.ee
Festival dates: June 28 - July 02, 2006
::: June 28 23:00 and June 29 23:00
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz/Prater-René Pollesch /GER:
"Pablo in der Plusfiliale" 90’ / in German with translation into Estonian (subtitles)
René Pollesch's "Pablo in the Plus" is a product of clip aesthetics, a telenovella between trash and theory, the web and advertising, based on the lurid seventies look and with that epoch's melodic sounds backing big blocks of text. No story, no subject, no offer of identification. Pollesch's characters are objects of all-out capitalisation, multiple interfaces, and social display. Deploying the jargon of technology and neo-liberalism, they talk about their existence as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. (...) Here Pablo (after whom the play is named) is a child who wanders into a branch of Plus by mistake and somehow or other disappears. So you never get to see him. But that's alright. After all this piece is concerned with ideology. Such consumerist meccas as Aldi-Süd and Lidl, Schlecker and Metro, are shown to be monster constructions of capitalism and declared to be a launching-pad for criticism of consumerism verbosely aware that it can communicate nothing and revels all the more in apocalyptic collapse".
(Andreas Rossmann in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 103, 4.5.2004)
::: June 29 16:00 and June 30 17:00
Cesaris Group /LIT:
"Attempts on Her Life" 105’/ in Lithuanian with translation into English (subtitles)
Martin Crimp's ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE is a courageous and fascinating experiment in a new kind of playwriting. It has no plot in the traditional sense, no central character that actually appears on the stage, and it has no supporting character who is likable or who invites anything but a fleeting identification of the audience. The play is divided into 17 scenarios that present in different ways the non-existing character Anne as a personification of contemporary terror and desire. It is also an attempt to understand and explain a young man's rebellion against the present world and the efforts to change it.
Cezaris Group production based on the ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE is a new project of the company recognized as the most innovative newcomers in Lithuanian theatre (Award for the Best Lithuanian Theatre Debut in 2003). Five young actors led by the director Cezaris Graužinis interpret the play by Martin Crimp as a continuation of the quest for the "theatre of imagination" based on the idea that the real performance takes place not on the stage, but in the imagination of a spectator. The method of the Cezaris Group is a kind of manipulation with the audience's imagination confronting reality and fiction by minimalist theatrical means.
The main topic of the Cezaris Group project ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE is a catastrophe of communication as it appears in contemporary media. It suspends a true act of communication by the abundance of communication means and reality is hidden under its interpretations. Therefore, the subject is not "somebody named Anne", but rather the dramatization and absurdity of communication intended to create and consume at the same time. Actors appeal to the clichés of current media and provoke the audience's imagination to "fill an empty screen" – to create an individual version of each episode of the non-existing film. Language plays a significant part in the project. Several languages including Lithuanian, English and Arabian are used thus serving as the tools of communication expressing the impossibility of communication in different linguistic contexts.
::: June 30 17:00 and July 1 16:00
Emil Hrvatin /SLO:
"Miss Mobile" 70’ / in English
In this solo performance, Hrvatin explores the interface of the public and the private spaces. He intrudes into the personal lives of eight anonymous people who are placed on a public virtual stage and put to a test. It is fascinating to see how willingly people get involved and act out their most personal lives. It is remarkable how they tend to submit to the laws of media exposure without any hesitation whatsoever. The performance thus resembles a research project into the power of the new media and their manipulative force. It uses the latest television formats, such as the Big Brother reality soap, to demonstrate how willingly people cross the border between the private and the public spheres. Hrvatin teaches a lesson in manipulation, but the outcome is far from moralistic. It is merely a game.
::: July 1 11:00
FIT - discussion
“Theatre Festivals In Transition (FIT) - The Future Of A Young Network”
The FIT participants will discuss the result of the FIT meetings in previous cities
and the possible future of this young network.
What value has FIT had for the personal participants?
What impact has FIT had on the participating Festivals?
Is it important for FIT to continue and if so why and how?
If FIT is to continue, are there particular projects or issues which should be worked on?
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::: SPIELART Festival: “Perform! Perform!” presents :::
May 19 and 20, 2006 at the Gasteig Cultural Centre in Munich
::: THE NEW RIGA THEATRE ( LV):
::: Long Life
Alvis Hermanis Director
Monika Pormale Set and costume designer
Gatis Builis Sound
Oskars Plataiskalns Lighting
Actors
Guna Zarina
Baiba Broka
Kaspars Znotins
Girts Krumins
Vilis Daudzins
An extraordinary demonstration of virtuoso acting from this Latvian company. There is no dialogue in this tender, absorbing and life affirming play, which follows one day in the lives of elderly retired people living in a communal block in Riga. In these elderly people's world, objects are endowed with a soul; they communicate with each other through the material things that have been their lifelong companions. The actors created hundreds of sketches as the basis for this work and use as props objects which belonged to real people and still carry their life story and soul.
'In the era of mass-production and stress the New Riga Theatre wants to affirm humanism, vitality and emotions and search for the way back to harmony and simplicity!' The New Riga Theatre
In collaboration with the GASTEIG CULTURAL CENTRE and the Cultural Foundation of the Stadtsparkasse Munich in the frame of FIT.
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::: 4+4+4 Days in Motion (19 – 30 May) F.I.T. PROGRAMME
Prague 26 – 28 May, 2006
::: HOME AND ABROAD
Symposium of FIT Network May 27th, 2006
At 4+4+4 Days in Motion Festival (May 19th – 30th, 2006)
Themes
We would like to approach the question of travelling (intercultural work in the theatre) as a tool for inspiration in making theatre – from the point of view of artists and festival programmers.
The symposium will be composed around the basic question: Why do we travel?
Travelling always sounds like a good idea but all of know that it can produce a number of challenging or difficult experiences, too. Is contemporary theatre and dance theatre a big travel agency… or is there a real need for the exchange? What are we gaining by “running away from home”?
Travelling as a programmer: how do I travel, how do I look at the world, at the artists in foreign countries as a festival programmer, how do I put a filter on reality in another way as a tourist to what kind of information am I open, to what kind not, how open am i to grasp at least a little bit of the context artists in other countries work in. Are we caught by the – old? - myth of the exploration of the unknown ?
Travelling as an artist: who travels to experience the world to gather material for his work, to collaborate with other artists, to perform to earn money
Form
We would like to invite people to talk about their passports and all the stamps and visas they have in them, to bring us the “tourist” images, objects from a trip as a starting point for a story to tell us about their worst and their most illuminating experience abroad, what are the things they always pack to go with them… what is their favorite airline… what happened as a result of their trip. What reflections did it provoke? How did it affect their professional work? How did it affect their personal lives?
Participants
FIT Network representatives of international theatre festivals, other theatre and dance professionals. From Czech Republic: Tomaš Žižka – mamapapa organization; Phillipp Schenker and Daniela Voračková – Stage Code company; Lenka Flory - Deja Donne company.
Moderated by : Rose Fenton
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::: State of contemporary art (in the context of festival lanscape) on the brink of
21th century,
FIT - Meeting Festival at the festival EXODOS
29th of May at 11 a.m., in Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana.
Starting-points for the discussion:
What changes did the contents of festivals experience from the 70's of the 20. century until today (has a shift in placing the interest of social reflection occured? has a tendency towards spectacle and carnevalization/trivialisation entered as a kind of 'intolerable competition'?)
What are the changes in the way of producing new theatre – can some authors be labelled as creators of specifically festival inclined pieces (how to evaluate this? as something necessarily bad?)
Is contemporary festival art still a place for critical reflection of society, especially if it ideologically differs from the thinking patterns of the authorities in power
How is this linked to the social role which is currently being assigned to culture
What changes can be observed regarding the audience of theatre festivals, the evolvement of their aesthetic aspirations and perception
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::: Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatralne - KRAKÓW- PL
Festival dates: April 06-09, 2006
The framework of the Theatre/Festivals in Transition (F.I.T.) project during the 31st edition of the Krakow Theatre Reminiscences includes the following events:
April 7, 2006, 10:30 – 14:00, Krakow
FIT-panel:
"Festival As an Essential Element of the Cultural Policy of the State and the City"
Topics: What is the festival for the State and City? Does it perform an essential part in promoting the city and the region? Do the politicians and authorities have any obligations regarding the festivals' organizers and artists? Why and what kind of art is supported? How the festivals function in their respective seats, how and by whom they are financed, what are the criteria to verify their importance?
I n the discussion there will participate the Head of Cultural Department of Krakow City Council and representatives of Polish Ministry of Culture, as well as our partners from other festivals and representatives of the administration from their countries. The aim of the dicussion for us is to create an European perspective, exchange experiences and compare the cultural policies that exist in different countries.
April 8, 2006, 5 PM, Theatre Academy
CEZARIS GROUP ( Lithuania), Attempts on Her Life (directed by Cezaris Graužinis)
The latest production by a representative of the young generation of Lithuanian theatre and already famous director, Cezaris Graužinis. It is a continuation of the research on the idea of the ‘Theatre of Imagination.’ Theatrical means reduced to the minimum reflect the belief that performance does not take place on stage, but in the spectator’s imagination. A non-existing character, Anna, placed in seventeen different situations, representing seventeen different versions of her potential life, is a perfect material for this kind of theatrical experiment. Martin Crimp’s play lacks the traditionally led drama action as well as main and secondary characters. Anna, who does not really exist, is everything: a princess and a girl from the neighbourhood, a mother and a terrorist, an artist and a murderer. She seems unreal, existing only in our imagination, just to become a real person the very next moment, revenging the destruction of her ideals. Cezaris Group manipulates the audience, removing the borderline between reality and fiction. By means of numerous clichés frequently used by media, the actors try to activate the spectators’ imagination, encourage them to fill an empty screen placed right in front of them and create different versions of a theatre reality.
April 8, 2006, 7 PM, Rotunda Culture Centre
NEW RIGA THEATRE ( Latvia), The Ice. A Collective Reading of the Book With the Help of Imagination (directed by Alvis Hermanis)
Alvis Hermanis is a rising star among European directors. His productions are shown during the most important theatre festivals in the world, to the great enthusiasm of both critics and the audience. Hermanis creates a unique style of performances, combining elements from various theatrical and aesthetical conventions. Using symbols of both Eastern and Western culture, as well as referring to his own concepts, visions and fantasies, he develops an unusual stage reality. His brilliant and provocative adaptation of the novel by the eminent contemporary Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin, is marked by great acting and the beauty of the theatrical image. This mystical, but yet logical plot tells the history of a secret organization of the blue-eyed blondes – brothers and sisters. Allowing full play to fantasy, Sorokin combines the Nazi theory of the superior Aryan race, cleansings in URSS and the mystery of the Tunguska meteorite event, to create a whole new conspiracy theory and show us, in his very perfidious way, how beautiful disguises the evil can take. Hermanis completes his production with albums with pictures and drawings, which allow the audience to create their own version of the performance. The novel's text, read by actors, is just a frame, which is to be filled by imagination of each of the spectators.
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.... Program - 2 0 0 5 ....
::: HOMO NOVUS FESTIVAL – RIGA - LV______________________>>>
::: International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra 2005 - SK____>>>
::: INTERNATIONAL VILNIUS THEATRE FESTIVAL “SIRENOS” - LT_>>>
::: SPIELART –THEATRE FESTIVAL MUNICH - D________________>>>
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::: HOMO NOVUS FESTIVAL – RIGA - LV :::
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY THEATRE HOMO NOVUS 2005
Festival dates: September 15-26, 2005
THE ROUND TABLE IN RIGA: FESTIVAL AS A TOOL
16 th September, 2005, 10.00 - 13.00
The aim of the meeting is to advance conversation about the role and the meaning of festivals from different aspects by using the experience of the International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus. Festival as a tool: How to use it? How does it operate in art or in the surroundings of a city or a country? What are the aims of festivals and how do they relate to processes of art and to the society in general? How is the cooperation between festivals and states, municipalities and private sector formed?
The first F.I.T. discussion in Riga introduces a circle of discussions that has continuation in the other partner festivals of F.I.T. during this year. The aim is to ponder and to analyze the role and the impact of festivals on the local, national and European level. The discussions will be documented and in autumn of the next year the ideas, questions and results found in the study will be included in a report handed in to the European Commission in order to develop the European cultural politics related to festivals. To local festivals and to the partners of cooperation the F.I.T. discussions offer possibility to reassess and develop their practice.
Participants
We have invited to the F.I.T. - Homo Novus discussion in Riga the partners of F.I.T., the financial sponsors of Homo Novus from the State Cultural Capital Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, the Department of Culture of the Riga City Council and from Aizkraukles Banka, as well as the supporters from the salon “Grivas mebeles”, representatives of foreign institutions and other partners of cooperation.
Content
On the first half of the discussion the supporters of the festival Homo Novus are asked to express their views about why they are sponsoring the festival, how they see its role from different local aspects and what they are expecting from Homo Novus considered to be a nationally significant cultural event.
On the second half emphasis is directed at international cooperation, as well as at the role of festivals forming a unified European cultural space but respecting the diversity of cultures. The representatives of foreign institutions and F.I.T. partners express their views.
The discussion is moderated by Rose Fenton, an independent consultant, former artistic director of the LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre). She makes a summary after the discussion, runs the meetings also in the other F.I.T. festivals, as well as prepares the report to the EC.
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::: International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra 2005 - SK :::
Festival dates: September 23-28, 2005
FIT-Panel: September 27, 2005, 11.00 am – 2.30 pm
Cultural Landscape and Festivals
Mutual expectations of festivals and local or foreign cultural landscapes. A harmony between visions of festivals and needs and interests of cultural public. Does cultural public need festivals for its development? What are the key characteristics of festivals that are important for local or international cultural landscapes? How can the relation between cultural public and festivals be strengthened?
A discussion between Slovak and foreign guests – practitioners and theorists of theatre, critics, journalists but also the representatives of national and regional administration.
Moderator: Rose Fenton
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FIT Artistic program:
Monday 26th September 2005 , 19:00 – 21:30,
Constanza Macras
Big in Bombay
Constanza Macras / Dorky Park, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Spielzeiteuropa / Berliner Festspiele, Berlín, Nemecko
directed by Constanza Macras
co-production: Sophiensaele, Schauspielhaus Wien, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara
A big multicultural dance production with a large ensemble and interesting stage design parasites on pop-culture of the world. We can find here quotations from Bollywood films, Nicaragua horrors, British sci-fi, Argentina soap operas, American musicals or Greenlandic experimental films of the 1970´s.
A highly nutritious and stimulating cauldron of tastes from all the barnyards of our global village. In her dance/theatre/music project “Big in Bombay”, a young Argentinean dancer and choreographer Constanza Macras and her international ensemble the Dorky Park investigate the themes of cultural identity and the cult of stardom.
in English and German languages, Slovak subtitles
after the performance – a meeting with the company
Tuesday 27th September 2005 , 20:00 – 22:15
Wednesday 28th September 2005 , 20:00 – 22:15
Przemysław Wojcieszek
Made in Poland
Teatr Modjeska, Legnica, Poland
directed by Przemysław Wojcieszek
One of the most interesting Polish productions about the “no future” generation. Skinhead Boguś lives his live in a concrete world of the housing estate of a small town. His aimless wanderings, uncertainty over himself and distrust of his own self explode in waves of aggression but also unexpected emotion and sensitivity. He looks for the meaning of his existence in those who cross his life – mother, teacher, priest.
The theatre debut of the rising star of Polish cinematography (Divadelná Nitra presents also one of his films this year) is attractive by its authenticity as well as charismatic acting in the original stage space.
in Polish language, Slovak subtitles, English synopsis available in the participants materials and on www.nitrafest.sk
23:00 meeting with the company – cafe of the Old Theatre
OFF program
PS Theatre
Open Festival Forum
The OFF as a new programme line of the festival presents four newest texts of European socially and politically reflective theatre as staged readings. The texts were rehearsed by Slovak actors in co-operation with directors from four European countries (Poland, Germany, Estonia, Slovakia).
Are you interested in various views on current political events? Do you want to know the mechanisms by which power can be hold? Do you want to go where media have no access? Are you interested in how philosophers, sociologists, politicians, managers, artists and the middleclass townsmen look at our social situation? Or the citizens antisocials?
OFF Programme is being held in the frame of the F.I.T. project and is co-produced by NEW DRAMA project.
in Slovak language, entrance free
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::: INTERNATIONAL VILNIUS THEATRE FESTIVAL “SIRENOS” - LT :::
Festival dates: September 23- October 2, 2005
FIT-Panel: October 1, 2005
Festivals as such in public discourse of Lithuania are often perceived as
single leisure/entertainement events or solely professional gatherings. They are considered as temporal, eating-money events, just “ pyrotechnics” in comparision with „serious material“ cultural producs (books, paintings, heritage sites and buildings) and daily work of established cultural institutions - state theatres, museums, concert halls or libraries. Only recently (with necessity to approve local/ regional/ national development strategies and with coming of EU structural funds) culture started to be linked with groth of tourism, better quality of life, with impact to social and economic development, and festivals are mentioned as one of the visible examples in this kind of retorics.
The objective of the FIT project discussion in Vilnius is to contribute to the change of one-side perception and to open mind to other functions/roles the festivals perform.
Discussion will touch the following topics:
Festivals as : 1) generators and circulators of new ideas; 2) professional and laboratorial events; 3) community events.
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Festivals as facilitators of dialog between artists and audience (society, community). What is the artistic and social role of the festivals? Why festival organisers shoul pay attention to other roles, isn‘t it enough just to focus on artistic goals and marketing?
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Where festival organisers feel themselves strong and weak: 1) in finding their local, regional, international niche 1) in building local, international partnership, 2) in keeping dialog with cultural authorities and politicians?
Invited participants: FIT project partners, international performing arts festival organisers from Lithuania and guests of SIRENS festival, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, of Vilnius‘ Municipality, of Cultural Committee of Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament).
Moderators: Rose Fenton and Elona Bajoriniene, artistic director of SIRENOS festival
F ollow up event after the seminar on new International cultural
co-operation strategies leaded by Dragan Klaic
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::: SPIELART - THEATRE FESTIVAL MUNICH - D :::
Festival dates: November 17- December 3
::: December 2. and 3. 2005, Muffatwerk, Zellstr. 4, Munich, Germany
Festivals – A Luxury Article or a Generator for Culture?
Symposium in the frame of the theatre festival SPIELART München and the European network Theatre Festivals in Transition (FIT)
What function do festivals have in the cities where they take place? How important - in an international context - are they for the local artists and the artists from out of town? What values do festivals represent in local and European cultural politics? The panel will focus on these questions, and European festival organizers, artists and politicians involved in culture will participate in the discussion.
Moderation: Rose Fenton, independent arts producer, the long-standing artistic director of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT).
::: Friday December 2, 2:00-5:00 pm
Festival and City
Which local aspects influence the festival program?
How is the program related to the program of other festivals and cultural institutions?
What is the function of cooperations with local institutions? Are festivals a catalyst for cross sector conversations and partnerships in the city?
What is the role of festivals in the local cultural policy?
Moderation: Rose Fenton
::: Saturday December 3. 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Artists and Festival
How can the artists’ work be best understood and integrated in a festival?
Can a festival provide chances for the artistic development? Can festivals be a catalyst for cross art approaches?
What does mobility mean for the artist and his work?
What kind of cooperations make sense for the artists?
Moderation: Rose Fenton and Egbert Tholl (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
::: Saturday December 3. 2:00-5:00 pm
Festivals and their national and European Cultural Prospective
What is the reception of the festival outside of the City?
How can local institutions, national and international networks cooperate?
What is the role of international Festivals in the cultural process of Europe?
Do we need a European cultural policy ?
Moderation: Rose Fenton
FIT Artistic program:
19 and 20 November, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
21 November, 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Grzegorz Jarzyna/ TR Warszawa ( Poland):
Risk / Zaryzykuj wszystko
by George F. Walker
German premiere
Life is not worth much without risk, says Carol, and she gets the entire family involved in her criminal plans, takes a porno director as a lover, and plays with dynamite. Grzegorz Jarzyna shows the world of addicts, prostitutes and petty criminals with dry humor a mixture of real life on the streets, film clips and TV shows. Like a cartoon, he exaggerates the characters with sexual overstatements and pop music bombardments. All of this takes place behind a glass façade on a busy street. Passersby who coincidentally walk past become surprised witnesses to erotic and criminal acts, and from the perspective of the paying audience the passersby become involuntary extras in the performance.
Grzegorz Jarzyna celebrated success with his performance The Celebration at SPIELART 2003 in the Residence Theater. For this performance he is using a completely new working method and a young ensemble.
Production: TR Warszawa
2 December, 10:30 p.m.
Anders Härm ( Estonia):
Be drunk, be very, very drunk
A lecture performance: The Estonian art professor and art critic Anders Härm appears and holds a typical speech for an exhibition opening. During his speech he frequently has a drink ... An experiment on himself about the connections between gobbledygook, glibness and concentration. Due to health reasons, Anders Härm only does this performance once every two months.
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