Body Language

Some impressions of Olga Popova, dancer and actress, about her stay at Schauspielhaus Graz, Austria.

During my stay at schauspielhaus Graz I tried to see all performances that were produced by the time of my internship to give myself general and more precise idea about the theatre in Europe.

So one evening I went to see «Volpone oder der Fuchs». As I was sitting in a forth row just in front of the actors - I could see every smallest detail of an actor’s play and the form of the performance, and the way how the characters were created were totally new to me. What I have discovered was that although it was mainly a form used I could still see real people on the stage due to the details that actors had put in it. Especially I liked Volpone's character created by Andri Schenardi, actually I liked it so much that I couldn’t miss a chance to talk to Andri about his role and how he has developed it.

So we had a coffe together and Andri told me so many nice things about how he uses body language and how he came across creation of all these tiny and beautiful details for the character (my favourite one is when Volpone licking his fingers like a fox after slip) and at one point I realized that my impression of the performance has a connection with my overall impression from the stay at Graz theatre as it was a lot about body language: I do not understand German and even though all performances and rehearsals were in German - I think it actually helped me to notice little details of a body language and see how we can develop it and use it while creating a character wich helped me to understand some things I have been walking around in circles but couldn't find a proper answer for myself.

So I probably could describe my stay in Graz as “answering my inner questions experience” answers to which are sometimes placed in the body not in the words that the body produces.

Andri Schenardi and Benedikt Greiner in "Volpone" /

© Foto by Lupi-Spuma

Julia Gräfner, Franz Xaver Zach and Andri Schenardi in "Volpone" /

© Foto by Lupi-Spuma

"Exchange"

by Dmytro Levytskyi

During my residence in the Kote Marjanishvili theater in Tbilisi I have written the play "Exchange". On the last day of the residence, November 26, students of theatrical institute named after Shota Rustaveli did a reading of the play in the theater.
This play is important to me since the text was written in collaboration with the actors themselves, who became donors for stories about Tbilisi, about Georgia. Moreover, the play is written in two languages ​​- Georgian and Russian. I hope this text will be staged at the theater in Georgia.
It is a piece about the Ukrainian playwright Zhenya, who is trying to use his talents - to fit into society, but in today's corrupt Ukraine he is not needed, the State does not need his services. Zhenya has the possible to go to Tbilisi and he wants to use this chance to at last be realized as a writer, as a playwright.

Pictures of the reading:

Karlsruhe as "capital of the radio play"

Julia Gonchar, dramaturge, playwright and scholar at the Badisches Staatstheater Karslruhe, about the ARD Hörspieltage 2015 in Karlsruhe.

Last week I could experience an audio Garden of Eden for playwrights in Karlsruhe: after a long working day I was thrown into the ocean of sparkling sounds and refreshing tones.

This year we could hear twelve plays in the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Remarkably, the festival takes place not only in Karlsruhe, but also worldwide thanks to the online broadcasting. We enjoyed the video live streams of the Festival multimedia reportage and events, even those which took place in Austria or Switzerland.  Via online voting tool Hörspiel motivated audience to choose our favorite play and vote, thus determining winners of the ARD Online Award 2015.

Competitions were underpinned with a unique blend of radio drama performances, live performances, discussions and lectures, concerts and a spectacular "Night of the Winners".

Each year the radio play festival attracts around 10,000 radio play fans from Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) and in the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Karlsruhe. For five days once a year Karlsruhe is turning into a "capital of the radio play" (Jochen Hieber, "FAZ"). The festival is considered to be the largest German-language event around radio play and sound art and takes place in 2015 for the 12th time. I had a great opportunity to talk to radio play directors and eat some German sausages at the “Ear worm stand”. Unbelievable!

P.S. I also got this super cool green bag J

"What is modern Ukraine through the subject, which I do, [...] the theatre"

Dima Levytskyi, author and performer, scholar at Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre in Tbilisi led a seminar about Ukrainian contemporary playwrights.

Arriving in Tbilisi, I immediately noted the ties that have been established in recent years between the Ukrainian and Georgian society. An expression of this were the questions: And what about in Ukraine now? What war? But there comes a Russian? Of course, many asked about the Georgian politicians who are now working in Ukraine. Probably, most of the questions I was not able to respond adequately. But I wanted to meet this request what is modern Ukraine through the subject, which I do, I mean the theatre. I decided to do a report on publications, texts and plays of Ukrainian modern authors, thanks to which, in my view, it may be possible to learn more about the Ukrainian realities.

List of authors
Mariam Aghamyan (Kiev) "Test"
Olga Matsyupa (Lviv-Lublin) "Double"
Pavlo Ar'є (Lviv-Berlin) "At the start and end times"
Alevtina Kakhidze (Kiev), "Live out war"
Stanislav Vasin (Makeevka) Texts of Facebook
Natalia Vorozhbit (Kiev) "Sasha ruled garbage"
Natalia Astaseva-Block (Kherson), "Decabrists’ street"
Piotr Armianovski (Donetsk- Kiev) "Red Plowman"

In addition to Ukrainian authors I decided to introduce also one Polish contemporary author, Szymon Adamczak (Krakow) and his experiments in drama.

 

Impressions of Oleksandr Martynenko

Puppeteer, actor and author, scholar at Schauspiel Leipzig

Autumn in Germany:

The weather was quite bad for the first 10days

During the rehearsals of "Der Herzlfresser":

Mask from production

One of the actors

Scholarship Meeting in Leipzig, 24 - 26 October 2015:

All that problems of Ukrainian theatre

Bolano project