Here is the latest news from the Experimental Station, where you can read about the upcoming activities in season 15/16.
Screening of the performance “Absalon”
The Narrative Theatre presents the performance “Absalon” at the Experimental Station as part of the Vesterbro Festival.
The group writes the following about the performance:
“This is a terrific narrative journey through the tumult of major events in the 12th century.
It’s a story about a boy who gets caught up in a power play.
About his life, where he is closely connected to his younger brother, King Valdemar.
About Axel, who becomes Absalon, and how he created a special peace and the price he had to pay for it.”
Age: 9 years and up
Duration: 50 min.
The event will take place on Sunday 13 March at 11.00 at the Experimental Station in the foyer of the Experimental Station.
Tickets: free tickets can be ordered from The Narrative Theatre at post(at)detfortaellendeteater.dk
Workshop “West African Storytelling” and screening in fm. the EARTH YEAR experiment
Kristian Husted (playwright and director) in collaboration with the Burkinabe actor, playwright and director, Thierry Oueda for the experiment EARTH YEAR.
The experiment addresses the following questions:
Is there a particular conception of time in the European drama, a chronological conception of time that underpins and reflects the economic notions of growth, progress, development?
You are invited to an informal screening of the preliminary results of the EARTH YEAR experiment, in which Thierry Oueda and Kristian Husted use West African narrative traditions to explore economics, globalisation and migration.
Time: Saturday 19 March, 16.00-17.00
Meeting point: foyer of the Experimental Station
Language: French with Danish translation by Kristian Husted.
For further information and registration, please send an email to: kristian.husted(at)gmail.com
A workshop on West African storytelling with Thierry Oueda will also be held on the day before the screening, Saturday 19 March, 10.00-16.00.
Thierry Oueda writes about the workshop:
“Stories, riddles and proverbs of the Maoga culture (Mossi culture), a society based exclusively on oral traditions. Orality: how to acquire it and pass it on? How do you become a storyteller of your own time?
Together we will change continents, and as for the stories, you will see that they are very different from yours. First of all, we need to explore what it means to belong to a society based entirely on an oral tradition.
What does it mean that the only communication tools you have are live speech and imitation?
I will try to show you, with examples from the stories I have collected myself, how oral storytelling enables a progressive development of mental structures through the information that the spectator/listener receives through the live speech.
After a thorough introduction to the tradition and technique of storytelling, together we will create various games with riddles, verbal jousts and simple scenarios that give a practical insight into the work of the storyteller.”
You are welcome to attend the workshop only – or just to come to the screening.
Thierry Oueda (born 1983) is a Burkinabe actor, playwright and director and is among Burkina Faso’s most promising young performing artists. He has written and directed numerous plays and is currently working on a play about the genocide in Rwanda. In recent years, he has also collected and translated the traditional Burkinabe stories (from Mooré into French) that he himself was told as a child, among the older generations of the Mossi culture.
Kristian Husted (born 1976) is a Danish playwright and director who works primarily with devising. He made his debut at the Copenhagen Music Theatre in 2011 with the autobiographical performance ‘Thomas Iratus’, which was about the encounter with the Burkinabe storyteller Carlos Ouédraogo and the shared past of Europe and Africa.
EARTH YEAR is a continuation of that work and fascination with West African storytelling.
Link to recording of seminar “Drama without drama”
In connection with the seminar “Drama without drama”, held on 12 February 2016 at the Experimental Station, we tested for the first time at the Experimental Station to livestream an event.
Unfortunately there were some technical problems, so it didn’t work.
But the seminar is now posted on our YouTube channel.
You can watch the seminar here or replay it here
No more tickets available for seminar “The Playwright’s Workshop”
There are no more tickets available for the upcoming one-day seminar “The Playwright’s Workshop”, a look into the playwright’s workroom.
The event will be documented on video and will subsequently be posted on our YouTube channel.
The event will take place on Monday 14 March 2016 from 12.00-17.00 in the Boulevarden at the Experimental Station.
Here, playwrights Astrid Saalbach, Tomas Lagermand Lundme, Joan Rang and Thomas Markmann explain their working methods, illustrated by examples from their own works.
They share their own experiences of working on specific works, including plot, story, character work, rehearsal or other.
The following actors will perform in a reading of excerpts from the playwrights’ works: Angelina Watson, Neel Rønholt and Christopher Læssø. There will be a total of four actors participating in the different readings.
The seminar is organised by Forsøgsstationen in collaboration with Dramafronten.
It is supported by the Danish Dramatists’ Association and the Danish Arts Fund’s Project Support Committee for Performing Arts.
Two new blog posts
Two new blog posts were published on 1 March 2016 on the Experimental Station website.
One post is entitled: “I get an acute and uncontrollable urge to go to the toilet when I hear the word growth”.
It is written by theatre worker and critic, Kristian Husted.
Here is a short excerpt from his speech:
“I get physically sick when I hear the word ‘growth’. I feel and experience that the socio-economy is connected to my body in a very concrete way. Therefore, I can do nothing but make art that deals with economics. That’s my idea of a general economy: it’s all connected.”
The second post is entitled: “I’ve gone theatre vegan!” and is written by stage director/dramatist and MA, Dorte Madsen.
Here is an excerpt from the post:
“Can you remember the last time you saw a show with a female playwright, a female director and a female lead in the same play? And/or a play with three ethnically diverse cast members directed by one? Can you remember the last time you saw the exact opposite? Eventually I had enough, that’s for sure. I have become a theatre vegan. But what does a theatre vegan do?”
You can read the blog post here and feel free to join the debate!
Trainee at the Experimental Station
Since October 2015, the experimental station has had Rikke Jeppesen Rod in internship.
Here she has been responsible for various types of documentation work and has helped with the other daily ad hoc tasks related to the running of the place.
Rikke has worked with dance, more or less intensively, for the past 20 years as a practitioner, performer and (research) mediator of dance and movement, and has, among other things, in her thesis work at the University of Copenhagen, dealt with boundary-seeking “academic” ways of communicating bodily artistic practice.
Today, her focus is on investigating her own artistic practice and that of others.
Rikke Jeppesen Rod is currently working on a documentation project describing the special voice training technique developed by Nadine George (Voice Studio International), which is offered on a weekly basis to members of the Experimental Station. Here, Angelina Watson is in charge of teaching. Together with Angelina Watson, she will organise an event during CPH Stage 2016 at Forsøgsstationen. Rikke Rod Jeppesen will present her report. More information about the event will follow.
Experimental overview for season 15/16
As you know, the Forsøgsstationen is a workshop that aims to promote research, development and training in professional performing arts in Denmark.
Here, research and experiments can be tested without risk, after which experience will be gathered and disseminated in order to hopefully have a long-term influence on new initiatives and current trends in the performing arts.
Here is an overview of the ongoing/upcoming trials at the Experimental Station and of the trials that have taken place during the 2015/16 season.
Ongoing and upcoming trials:
29 February – 31 March 2016
Theatre 1760, Ida Kenskov
“Neighborhood Lift”. Based on the urban renewal of Vesterbro, the concept of renewal is examined in relation to city, home and identity.
26 February – 10 March 2016
Kristian Husted
“EARTH YEAR 2016”. Is there a particular conception of time in the European drama, a chronological conception of time that underpins and reflects the economic notions of growth, progress, development?
11 – 30 April 2016
Julie Schmidt Andreasen
“V Figurines. What do women share and in what ways can we empower and understand ourselves and each other? What exercises in empathy are there through breathing, contact, sound and movement?
Platform: Friday 17 June 2016, 17:00-21:00
The Platforms event is for those who have run trials at the Experimental Station in the last six months and the people involved in their trials. It is an artistic exchange of experiences in words and practice between experimental projects. The event is dedicated to the experimental actors involved, but interested parties are also welcome to register at the following email address: mail(at)forsoegsstationen.dk
Trials already held in the 15/16 season:
17th – 23rd August 2015
Angelina Watson, Anja Owe, Birgitte Prins and Dea Fog
What happens to physical and vocal training in an older body? Experiments based on, among others. Suzuki method and Nadine George technique.
12-14 August, 17 August, 18 September, 8-9 October, 19 October, 9 November, 12 November. 2015
Anna Kruse, Maria Myrgård and Helena Berglund/Kompagni Kalas
“Around the North. A study of similarities and differences in pedagogical communication and artistic expression.
1 – 13 September 2015
Seimi Nørgård and Boaz Barkan
“HOME – building and rebuilding from the known to the unknown”. Experiments on audience involvement and ownership of a work and thus possibilities for a meditative presence.
1 September 2015 – 30 June 2016, every Tuesday evening
Ellen Kilsgaard, Anu Rajala-Erkut, Birgitte Lundtoft, Rosa Isaldur
“DAILY DANCE. A weekly exercise group and physical think tank. Development of sensual dance practice.
24 September 2015 – 29 February 2016, every Thursday
Øyvind Kirchhoff, Rolf Søborg Hansen and Malte Claudio Lind / Main experiment at the research station
“Über-marionette and the actor”. An exploration of the relationship between the biological and artificial body, between representation of the dead and representation of the living.
12 October – 9 November 2015, every Monday evening
Livingstone’s Cabinet
“QUIET.” A study of a performing introvert form of expression.
The show will be performed at Dansehallerne until 12 March 2016.
16 November – 4 December 2015
Livingstone’s Cabinet
“R.P.G – Random Performance Game.” An experiment to develop a hands-on game that could be used as a structuring and inspirational tool in a performing arts creation process.
On 24 .- 26 November 2015 and 2 – 4 and 23 – 25 February 2016
Jesper la Cour Andersen/The Narrative Theatre
“Story Play. A study of creative and innovative tools in the creation of oral narratives as performing arts expressions, developed in a non-competitive context.
Platform – Friday 4 December 2015, 17.00 – 21.00
30 November 2015 and 20-22 January 2016
Anette Asp Christensen
“Second skin experiment.” The doll as a second skin. Using body fragments based on casts of the performers’ own bodies, the transition and encounter between puppet and human is explored.
Artistic directors of the experimental station in the performing arts project “Asylum 34”
Forsøgsstation’s artistic directors, Lotte Faarup and Øyvind Kirchhoff, participate in the performing arts project “Asyl 34” on Teaterøen.
The project “Asylum 34” uses the government’s 34 asylum restrictions as an artistic material.
A total of 34 artists, including directors, writers, visual artists, actors, musicians and others. have been invited to create an artistic interpretation of the asylum package.
“The Olske Orkester, with Lotte Faarup and Øyvind Kirchhoff as artistic directors, is one of the groups taking part in the event.
34 hours before the event, each of the 34 artists is assigned one of the government’s 34 proposals for tightening the asylum law.
The individual artist or group is then free to interpret and transform the bill into a work.
The intention of Asylum 34 is to focus on the 34 proposals for tightening the Asylum Act, which the government presented last November, and to create a favourable framework for the use of art as a vehicle for Danish asylum policy.
The event will take place at the Theatre Island on 13 March from 17.00-21.00.
Doors open at 16.00.
All artists perform for free. Ticket and bar proceeds from the project go in full to Trampolinhuset, a community centre for asylum seekers and refugees.
Asylum 34 is a collaboration between Teater Tugt and Teaterøen.