THE GREAT RENEWAL

study of european avant-garde theatre between 1890 and 1930

What shoulders do we stand on when we think we are inventing the wheel in our rehearsal room?
Is the modern performing arts in a state of rapid evolution or nothing more than a motley collection of variations and cross-cuts of what was new and modern more than 100 years ago?
The Forsøgsstationen organizes three Wednesday evenings with instructor and cand.mag. in Theater Studies Marc van der Velden – a small study group that offers you an introductory encounter with and insight into 40 breathless and crucial years in the development of the European theater avant-garde.
Besides Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Brecht, we also meet Edward Gordon Craig, Isadora Duncan and Antonin Artaud and get to know many other names from the period between 1890 and 1930. Every Wednesday evening we also read some of their theoretical texts and look at a large visual material that places the period’s theater development in a larger political, social and artistic context.
A week before each session, a few texts are sent out, which we expect you to have read before the following gathering

Read more about Marc van der Velden here:
Marc van der Velden, born 1956 in Tilburg, the Netherlands, actor, director, dramaturge and playwright.
Cand. Mag. in Film and Theater Studies at Utrecht University.
Since his arrival in Denmark in 1988, he has gained recognition as a director and playwright for his
productions for children and young people, several of which have received awards and nominations: From 1988 – 2005 he was
co-director of Theater La Balance, from 2005 – 2009 of the State Ensemble for Children’s Theater Corona La Balance and from
2010 – 2020 of ZeBU, small city theater in Copenhagen. From 2021 he works freelance