International Physical Theatre Lab in Austria

International Physical Theatre Laboratory

October 25-31, 2009
Retzhof Castle, Leitring bei Leibnitz
Austria

PARTICIPANTS:
Actors of physical, dramatic, dance and musical theatres, dancers, choreographers, circus performers, directors.

PROGRAM:
The programme includes intensive training, lectures and discussions. The Lab is open to performers from different creative genres and techniques inspired by Physical Theatre as a bold, vibrant and multidimensional approach to contemporary theatre performance. Practical physical training is the core of the Lab programme. Participants will explore physicality as the key to form, style, atmosphere and emotional palette in contemporary performance. Practical sessions develop in the form of various exercises which progress from simple to compound. Gradually the group is proceeding to group improvisations and structures. Every day is setting advanced creative tasks, developing the preceding steps. Through the system of consecutive exercises the group is growing common language and trust, ability to collaborate and create together.

STRUCTURE OF THE DAY:
Each day begins with morning warm-up which combines breathing, movement and imagination. It will help participants to wake up and to prepare for the intensive practical process during the day.

Practical training. Part I. Training by method of improvisation.

Practical training. Part II. Structural Improvisation. From exercises to performance.

Practical training. Part III. Principles of Biomechanics. Meyerhold's etudes.

Lectures & Discussions: Performer's Physicality in the methods of Meyerhold, M.Chekhov and Stanislavsky.

VENUE:
The Lab will take place in Leitring bei Leibnitz, the beautiful town located within 30 min from Graz Thalerhof Airport, 2.5h from Vienna by car, 40 min from Graz by car, and 20 minutes from the Slovenian border. The public transportation to the venue is easy. The programme will take place in the historic castle of the 16th century. Accommodation and meals are organized for the group.

PROGRAM & REGISTRATION DETAILS:
http://www.iugte.com/projects/PhysicalTheatre.php

Protests and Death Threats over Fritzl Satire

An update on our January 14th post, the comedy based on Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned, abused and impregnanted his daughter, has raised a tremendous amount of controversy. Police were on guard at it's opening in Vienna the other night after huge protests for the play to be banned. The production's director and star, Hubsi Kramar, has received death threats and the theatre, 3raum-anatomietheater, has been vandalized. Kramer has said the critics have been too quick to judge the show and that, far from being a "comedy about incest", it's a "satire about the media". Click here for a detailed article.

Oberender to Stay as Director of Salzburg Festival

Thomas Oberender will not step down as Director of the Salzburg Festival as previously announced. Oberender claimed creative differences for his early departure and said the last 3 seasons were “the most painful time of my life”. He told the AP that disagreements and personal conflicts with management led to his early departure. Ulla Kalchmair, the Festival spokeswoman, said that Oberender would stay on, and in an email, that his contract would be reinstated thru 2011.

Josef Fritzl Incest Soap Opera to Open in Vienna

A German producer once told me she thought the English-language theatre (primarily Broadway and the West End) were all about appealing to the lowest common denominator and filling the houses with as many people as they could, where German-language theatre in Austria, Germany and Switzerland were about alienating as many people as possible. This theory may be put to the test soon. The 3raum-anatomietheater in Vienna says it will mount a satirical soap opera based on Josef Fritzl, the man accused of holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered her 7 children. Fritzl, whose trail is set for March, is accused of rape, incest, false imprisonment, enslavement and murder. The production is being directed by the well-known Austrian comedian, Hubsi Kramer, who, in the past, attempted to attend Vienna’s Opera Ball dressed as Adolf Hitler. The show is titled Fritzl’s Bed and Breakfast and opens February 23.

2009 European Capitals of Culture: Vilnius & Linz

Vilnius, Lithuania and Linz, Austria are the European Capitals of Culture for 2009. Check out their respective websites for the year’s upcoming programs: Vilnius and Linz.

Austrian Actor's Accidental Suicide On Stage

Daniel Hoevels, 30, accidentally slit his throat on stage last Saturday night when the prop knife for his suicide scene was actually a real one. Hoevels was performing his final scene in Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart at Vienna’s Burgtheater, when he committed the unfortunate act. When blood began pouring from his neck, the audience applauded, thinking it was a very life-like ‘special effect’. The police have questioned the cast and crew to determine whether it was a mistake or an attempted murder. Hoevels survived only because he missed his carotid artery. The knife was reportedly bought at a local shop and one possibility is that the props staff forgot to blunt its blade. After emergency treatment at a hospital, Hoevels declared that ‘the show must go on’, and returned to the stage on Sunday night with a bandage tied around his neck, ready to once again meet his mock demise. So the valuable lesson to be learned here for any actor is: Always check your props.

"Gulliver Connect" Call for Applications

The Central European Foundation (Bratislava), Kulturkontakt (Austria) and The Felix Meritis Foundation (Amsterdam) are proud to present the Gulliver Connect program 2008 - 2009, a mobility program for young and up-coming artists, arts managers and cultural operators in Europe in 2009.

Thanks to a large network of cultural organisations throughout Europe and beyond, Gulliver Connect offers hands-on work experience. It's unique ability is to use such an extensive range of host organisations to match the individual talents of young people. And it enables the host organisations to find valuable working partners in future.

The work placements will lead to new professional skills and establish new forms of international co-operation. Both the visitor and the host organisation benefit from each other's working practices. They share information, experiences and ideas, and establish far reaching professional contacts.

By creating a dynamic network Gulliver Connect adds a new dimension to the social, artistic and cultural development of Europe and beyond - a stepping stone for the future co-operation in the arts. Click here for guidelines and applications.

Actor's Visa Rejected by Homeland Security

by Phil Gallo (Variety)

The visa application for Austrian actor Martin Niedermair has been rejected by the Dept. of Homeland Security, forcing UCLA Live to cancel the first production of its Intl. Theater Festival. Niedermair was to star in Barrie Kosky’s one-man show "The Tell-Tale Heart," which was scheduled to open Wednesday.

UCLA Live asserted that the labor union Actors’ Equity automatically rejects visiting visas to any actor performing in English, which has happened for every English-speaking production they have imported. The union has long had a role in regulating the number of acting jobs that go to foreign actors in the U.S.

"This physically challenging role was written specifically for Martin Niedermair," David Sefton, UCLA Live’s executive/artistic director, said in a statement. "It is our intention to challenge what we believe to be an unfair decision and reschedule the show later in the season." The seventh edition of the UCLA fest will now open Oct. 14.

Salzburg Festival's Young Directors Project

Since 2002, the Young Directors Project, initiated by Jürgen Flimm, has taken place annually at the Salzburg Festival – a competition for young, international theater directors and their ensembles. The goal of the project is to introduce audiences to young artists whose works are considered to be seminal for the future of theater; directors whose international breakthrough is imminent. Now in its seventh year, the project is becoming even more international. As well as German-language productions, there are now for the first time ones from Japan, Norway and the USA.

The whole theatre project is completely financed by Montblanc, as in every year. In addition, Montblanc donates the prize for the best piece of direction. The winner of the Montblanc Young Directors Award 2008 will receive prize money amounting to €10,000 and the Montblanc Max Reinhardt fountain-pen, which was specially designed for this project. All performances are new productions and will be shown in the original language with English or German super-titles.

This summer, the topic of memory, the reconstruction of human experience, characterizes the four productions presented as part of the program: the New York-based company Nature Theater of Oklahoma goes in search of our memories of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In his new work, Marius von Mayenburg examines the process by which memories are corrected and deleted within a family, so that people can continue living with a past thus rewritten. From Bergen in Norway, a form of “musicalized theater” has been invited: in Brecht’s Die Maßnahme (The Measures Taken), four people are judged for shooting a comrade; they justify this with the course of events, recreating them. And the Japanese company chelfitsch tells of five history-making days in March of 2003; the perspectives of the figures dreaming of the future and letting the present pass them by is just as fleeting as the memory of those days. More here.