NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2017
Link to full version here.

The newsletter contains:

  1. Main experiment with Performing Arts Schools
    1. Actors and puppeteers wanted!
  2. Since last
    1. Lecture Hans-Thies Lehmann
    2. Changing of the Guard & General Assembly
  3. Upcoming activities
    1. ACT in the house – artist talk
    2. GAGA
    3. Should you be a member?
  4. Current membership attempts
    1. Tora Balslev – tour
    2. The Olske Orchestra – training trials
    3. Rikke Liljenberg – Shakespeare
  5. Special for members
    1. Training
    2. Renewal of membership

 

MENTION OF MAIN ATTEMPT IN THEATRE NEWSPAPER –
The other day, Teateravisen reported on our main experiment, which is up and running again – the third part of the experiment, ‘The Scenographic Actor’, will take place in October. It is a collaborative project between the Danish School of Performing Arts and Forsøgsstationen and is an investigation of external technique as a pathway to a new method for the creative processes of the actor, puppeteer and set designer. The experiment is led by Øyvind Kirchhoff and Charlotte Munksø from DDSKS Copenhagen. We are pleased to announce that puppet maker and scenographer Rolf Søborg is the scenographer on the experiment.

Read the article in Teateravisen here:

Wanted: professional actors and puppeteers!

We need 3 more professional actors and/or puppeteers who would like to participate in the experiment. Unfortunately, we cannot offer a salary. On the other hand, there will be ample opportunity to develop new technical tools and strengthen professional networks. We will be a group of 12 in total, including 5 third year students from DDSKS Copenhagen. You must be able to attend from Tuesday to Friday from 12-16.30.

Write to Øyvind Kirchhoff to be considered. Applicants will be notified on 1 October.

SIDEN SIDST…
Lecture with Hans-Thies Lehmann

We had the great pleasure to invite one of the pioneers of theatre studies to a lecture: the author of “Postdramatisches Theater” – Hans-Thies Lehmann. The event was also streamed via our livestreaming channel. The lecture and subsequent talk can be viewed in full here. During the ensuing discussion, which was beautifully moderated by Professor Knut Ove Arntzen, many interesting questions and themes were raised by an extremely well-informed audience.

The lecture was organised by Gritt Uldall-Jessen and Øyvind Kirchhoff from Forsøgsstationen. The Danish Performing Arts School has provided a grant for the event. The experimental station is supported by the Danish Arts Council’s Project Support Committee for the Performing Arts.
Change of shift in administration

Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to our long-time administrator at the Experimental Station, Pil Rix Rossel, who has been offered her dream job – as a full-time producer for the Kristján Ingimarsson Company – and will therefore be leaving the Experimental Station on 1 Oct.

We wish her all the best in her new job and thank her for a great cooperation over the years!
Farewell reception

We will be holding a reception to mark her retirement on Tuesday 26 September at 7pm here in the old cinema. It is in continuation of the Annual General Meeting to be held from 17:30 (notice sent to members).

There has been a lot of interest in the vacancy and we have received many good applications. We expect to announce a new administrator very soon.

Upcoming activities
Artist talk by director George Mungai, Kenya.

The next time we have a public event is for a ‘four o’clock’ artist talk with Kenyan director George Mungau.

Mungai will unveil an exciting project ACT is doing in collaboration with the Karen Blixen Museum; Blixen from a Kenyan perspective. The project will be presented both on stage in the form of a play and on the big screen in the form of a documentary.

It takes place on Friday 6 October at 17:30 in the Wittmaack Hall. Registration not required.

Mungai is in Denmark in connection with the staging of Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” – which ACT (Afro Cosmopolitan Thespians), is staging at Baltoppen in October. The setup team is currently working here at the Experimental Station.

GAGA & Research
There will be GAGA with Siri Wolthoorn on the programme this season – both weekly and more intensive. Read more about Siri and GAGA here.

Siri launches with GAGA & Research weekend on 7. – 8 October 2017. Both days 10-13. Participation is free for members but also open to non-members for a fee. It costs 400 for non-members. Register at rikke@forsoegsstationen.dk – first come first served and remember you need to renew your membership to secure a free place.

Are you considering becoming a member?

September is coming to an end and that also means that our season start offers are about to expire. However, it is still possible to become a member for just 950 kr for the remaining season, but you have to be quick. Offer expires on. 30 September.

Who can become a member?
All professional performing artists, dramaturges and theatre scientists, graduates or trainees, can become members of The Lab station.

From d. 1 October a membership costs 125 kr per month and the amount is paid for a whole season at a time. This means that the price in October is: 1.125 kr, November 1.000 kr, December 875 etc.

Become a member of Forsøgsstationen or renew your membership for the 17/18 season by filling in this form and sending it to mail(at)forsoegsstationen.dk. If you have not been a member before, please include a short CV. Payment information will be sent to you after approval.
Current membership attempts
It is always possible to read about ongoing or previous trials on the website, where you can also download trial reports and read the trial intention reports – the trial team’s presentation of the trial itself. Members can apply for time and sparring on trials – see how here. It’s not always possible to get views into the newsletter, so keep an eye on our facebook page and the website if you are particularly interested in experiencing the artistic research processes up close…

Performers Tora Balslev and Cath Borch Jensen have been working with the Splastic project for the past few years, both in-house experiments and performances, lectures and dialogue events. On 17 September they performed at the super exciting Transformation Festival, organised by performer Lotte Arnsbjerg.
A reflection booklet on Splastic is published on the same date as the performance. We have the publication in our small library, so come by and read about this exciting work! See where they’re performing on their upcoming tour here.

Membership attempts in the calendar…

SEPTEMBER

The meeting of poetic narrative and expressionist physical theatre
In August 2017, the Olske Orkester began a three-year research project at the Forsøgsstationen to investigate and develop a theatrical idiom based on a combination of poetic narrative and expressionist physical theatre.

The research project is a further development of the formal language created by the Olske Orkester with the award-winning and much-performed performance “When We Went Away” and forms the artistic basis for the theatre’s upcoming major venture, the trilogy “A Nation’s Self-Hatred – Denmark Between Shame and Self-Evaluation” consisting of the performances “Sugar”, “Salt” and “Who’s Knocking?”

The research project works on a weekly basis and involves a company of 6 actors/dancers and a director.

 

An experiment with Shakespeare in two languages
This season, Rikke Liljenberg has chosen to intensify and focus her Sunday labs with Shakespeare in the form of an experiment – and has already recruited experimental participants for this work. The focus of the experiment will be to see if there is anything to be gained by working with the original English text first, and then working with the same text in Danish translation (or other language if Danish is not your mother tongue.)
Can working with the text in the two languages inspire and open up new possibilities in terms of. character, interpretation and ownership? Or is it an unnecessary, and perhaps confusing, detour?

There has been a great interest in participating (there is now no room for more). If you are particularly interested in this work, we encourage you to join the facebook group ‘Forsøgsstationen – intern’ where there will be news about screenings etc.

Read more about the experiment via the original Sunday Lab page – the experiment is a brand new concept so there is not yet a separate page for the experiment itself.

OCTOBER

MAIN EXAM – The scenographic actor
A study of external technique, as a pathway to a new method for the creative processes of the actor, puppeteer and set designer.

Through concrete physical barriers and obstructions, it explores how external constraints can liberate and open up new possibilities for the actor’s work and expression. Read more here.

The experiment runs in week 43, 2017 – and is a collaborative project between The Danish School of Performing Arts and Forsøgsstationen. The experiment is led by Øyvind Kirchhoff and Charlotte Munksø from DDSKS Copenhagen. We are pleased to announce that puppet maker and scenographer Rolf Søborg is the scenographer on the experiment.
The experiment is part of a three-part study led by Øyvind Kirchhoff entitled “The Actor and the Über-Marionette”. The first part was conducted in autumn 2015 and the second part, entitled “The Aesthetics of Death” was held in October 2016, as a 5-day development project and an open knowledge sharing seminar. Read more about the trial here, and the recently published report is available as a PDF here.

New training offers and workshops

From September 2017 (week 36) there will be new training offers, while we continue the popular voice training with Angelina Watson on Wednesdays at 9-10:45, Rikke Liljenberg’s ShakespeareLab on the first Sunday of the month, and mask work on Fridays at 9-10:30 (the latter only from 27 October).

The MHS training will be scheduled as weekend trainings throughout the season. The first is scheduled to take place on Sunday 29 October from 10-14.

Also read about the upcoming GAGA & research weekend – which is free for members to attend. For non-members it costs 400 DKK.
Basic modern dance training

Monday 18-19:30 ‘Basic’ and 19:30-21 ‘Flow and technique’
We have reached an agreement with Stands&Dans for the coming season. They will have two classes here every Monday between 6pm and 9pm in Boulevarden. It will be possible for 2 members to join the training for free, you sign up for 4 weeks at a time. Read more about the teams on their website here. Stands&Dans is responsible for the talent development of young dance talents through Dansebryggeriet and all teachers are professional performing artists. Stands&Dans is a member of Forsøgsstationen, and we look forward to exciting development projects and experiments from their ‘edge’!

Gaga

Thursday 9-10:30 (from 12 October – week 41)

There will be GAGA with Siri Wolthoorn on the programme this season – both weekly and more intensive.
Siri graduated from Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Amsterdam. After graduation, she danced for three years with Batsheva Dance Company, Ensemble. In 2010 she moved to Copenhagen, where she has worked with Dansk Danseteater, Mute Dance Company, Yossi and Oded Dance Theatre and Recoil Performance Group. Siri teaches, as the only one in Denmark, Gaga People and Gaga Dancers.
Read more about GAGA here.
Siri launches with GAGA & Research weekend on 7. – 8 October 2017. Both days 10-13. Participation is free for members but also open to non-members for a fee. It costs 400 for non-members. Register at rikke@forsoegsstationen.dk – first come first served and remember you need to renew your membership to secure a free place.
From week 41 (minus the autumn holidays) she will be standing in for Gaga on Thursday mornings at 9-10:30am. Registration for this training is not required.

In short, the training offer for the 17/18 season looks like this:

Monday 18 & 19:30 – Modern Dance (Stands&Dans)**
Wednesday 9-11: Voice training*
Thursday 9-10:30: Gaga***
Friday 9-10:30: Mask work***
*) Registration required by 21:00 the evening before by SMS to 20150949.

**) Also read more about the teams on their website here. There are places for two members on each team – you sign up 4 weeks at a time (as a member of the Experimental Station).

***) Masquerade on Fridays from 9-10:30 starts on 27 October, and Gaga on Thursdays from 9-10:30 starting on 12 October (minus the autumn holidays, week 42).
In addition, Rikke Liljenberg offers ShakespeareSundayLab on selected Sundays 10:30-13:00. The first time will be on September 3, 2017 in Boulevarden. Register at least the day before by email rikkeliljenberg@gmail.com / 31 46 40 10. Read more here. This training is also free for members, but is also open to non-members for a participation fee of DKK 100 per session.

Renewal of membership

Become a member of Forsøgsstationen or renew your membership for the 17/18 season by filling in this form and sending it to mail(at)forsoegsstationen.dk. If you have not been a member before, please include a short CV. Payment information will be sent to you after approval.