Would you like to participate in a project based on audience movement patterns in the theatre together with 15-20 other volunteers?

 

 


The Shape of the Audience
is an experimental project initiated by Forsøgsstationen and shaped by choreographers, dancers and performers Antoinette Helbingand Katrien van der Velden, which focuses on the movement patterns of the audience, both as a collective organism and as individual individuals.

The project is based on observations of the audience’s social signals and physical movements in and around the theatre space (in Copenhagen autumn 2020) and takes as its starting point the spaces offered to the audience such as the foyer, the theatre hall, the audience rows, the cloakrooms, the entrance/exit, the bar, the toilets.

 

… They stand in line, sneak past each other, sit shoulder to shoulder, walk lonely across a floor, run hurriedly to a door, turn their heads, rummage in their bags, hold their breath, clap in time, look at their mobile phones, sit in the dark, sink into their chairs …

We rehearse from the end of April ’21 until the end of May ’21 about once a week (see schedule) at Forsøgsstationen on Vesterbro, where we perform the show
The shape of the audience
four times during the theatre festival CPH Stage. Participation in the project does not require any particular physical ability or skill, just the desire to explore, move and perform with others and be part of a diverse group of volunteers. To register, please send a few words about yourself. Remember that you are only guaranteed a place after you have received an email confirmation.

 

Registration and more info at:

Antoinette Helbing: antoinette.helbing@gmail.com Katrien van der Velden: katrienvelden@hotmail.com

 

We hope you will join us in what we hope will be an interesting and fun process. On the way, both we and the Experiment Station provide good food and there is always hot coffee on the pot. (In relation to possible corona restrictions, we will of course follow the authorities’ recommendations during the process.)

Welcome!

 

 

Schedule:

Thursday d. 29 April 18.30 – 20.30 First rehearsal day

Friday d. 7 May 18.30 – 20.30 Rehearsal

Friday d. 14 May 18.30 – 20.30 Rehearsal

Friday d. 21 May 18.30 – 20.30 Rehearsal

Saturday d. 22 May 12 – 14 Rehearsal

Friday d. 28 May 16 – 20 Rehearsal and GENERAL TEST

Saturday d. 29 May 13 – 17 PREMIERE and SCREENING, CPH. Stage.

Sunday d. 30 May 13 – 17 TWO VIEWS, CPH Stage.

 

Experimental station

Sønder Boulevard 81, 1720 Copenhagen V www.forsoegsstationen.dk – mail@forsoegsstationen.dk

 

For the past 5 years, the experimental station has focused on audience relations in an artistic context; primarily to develop an understanding of audience identity and capacities in theatre. In the 2016/2017 season, we launched the EU-funded research project
The Sound of the Audience
in which 40 Vesterbro citizens from different social backgrounds, together with professional musicians and performers, created a sound work based exclusively on the sounds and actions of the audience in the theatre. The project culminated in presentations at the Experimental Station and the Royal Theatre, and was subsequently invited to the University of Turin for presentation at a European conference. In 2020 we carried out the pilot project:
Silence – Pause – Reverberation
, again a sound work based on audience observations. With the attempt
The Shape of the Audience
Forsøgsstationen continues its investigations into audience identity – this time based on the audience’s movement patterns transformed into choreography.
All of these projects seek to understand audience relations from an overall artistic and social motif. There is a great need for reciprocity, exchange and respect between the performing arts and the public, so as not to “educate” or “develop” the public, but rather to extend the relationship, albeit still in a context of high artistic quality.