Cairo's 'Radio Muezzin' Hits Berlin

Conceived by Swiss director, Stefan Kaegi, Radio Muezzin is a one-act docu-drama performed in Arabic with subtitles. The concept arose after a decision by Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, Egyptian minister of religious endowments in 2004. Zaqzouq announced that the noise disturbance caused by Cairo’s hundreds of muezzins leading the daily calls to prayer at different times and over fuzzy loudspeakers was becoming too much for citizens to bear. It was determined that the ministry would choose the 30 best muezzins to broadcast the call over a radio channel. Read the full article from the NYTimes here.

Germany Confronts Its Past on the British Stage

This season, the Royal Court in London is presenting a series marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall entitled “Off the Wall” starting with Marius von Mayenburg's The Stone, which tackles the legacy of Nazi guilt. The series continues with Mark Ravenhill’s Over There which is the story of identical twins who grow up on opposite sides of the Wall (which to me sounds stolen from Agota Kristof’s Hungarian trilogy of novels The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie). The reading series includes The Final Fire by Dea Loher, Black Beast Sorrow by Anja Hilling, To the South Seas by Gherkin Plane by Christoph Nussbaumeder, The Uncertainty of the Situation by Philipp Loehle and The Pigeons by David Gieselmann. Check out an article about it here or the Royal Court’s website here.

'Feasting or Flying' in Berlin

" Feasting or Flying: Art into Theatre – Theatre into Art". Orchestrating a dialogue between the visual arts and theatre, this project sets out to explore the reciprocal impact and attraction between the two media. On view across the three stages of the Berlin Hebbel am Ufer theatre are works by visual artists, newly emerging commissioned works, together with existing installations. Out of a series of discussions and on-site inspections with artists, there evolved a festival program, which is to be performed over 16 days on the three stages of the HAU. Here the focus of interest lies both in the theatral moments of the visual arts, and in the encounter of a diverse array of artists with the specific aesthetic of the theatre. This raises the question of the significance of mimesis describing processes, which oscillate between representation and imitation. Sharing the same title of the festival "Fressen oder Fliegen", the work by Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann alludes to the statement: "Some dissect a bird in order to eat it, others in order to discover how to fly".

With Jérôme Bel, Phil Collins, Keren Cytter/Susanne Sachsse, Thomas Demand, Diedrich Diederichsen, Tim Etchells, Harun Farocki/Antje Ehmann, Anselm Franke, Peter Friedl, Tellervo Kalleinen/Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Katarzyna Kozyra, Melissa Logan/Thomas Meinecke, Mobile Academy, Rabih Mroué, Peaches, Rimini Protokoll, Christoph Schlingensief, Tino Sehgal, Tris Vonna-Michell.

Dates: November 1 - 16, 2008
Location: Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany
http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
http://www.siemensartsprogram.com

German Cultural Foundation’s Wanderlust

Wanderlust is the urge to travel and broaden one’s horizons. The German Federal Cultural Foundation is committed to fulfilling this dream for municipal and state theatres in Germany which would like to establish a partnership with a foreign theatre.

Wanderlust is an application-based fund that finances theatre partnership and exchange for two to three seasons. In the first year, the theatres could exchange artistic personnel. In the second, they might choose to host a guest production from their partner theatre. And in the third year, the theatres could organize a co-production to be performed at both locations. The partner theatres are free to organize the details of their working arrangement themselves according to their interests. The goal is to involve as many members of each theatre in the cooperative venture as possible. The fund also provides the option of continuing an existing partnership in the case that both partner theatres begin a new project.

The Federal Cultural Foundation can award a maximum of 150 000 EUR per partnership. The applying theatre or third-party sponsors must finance at least 25 % of the entire cost of the project. The fund runs for five years, within which time theatres have two opportunities to apply for funding. Application forms are available here and can be submitted online. The first submission deadline is 15 October 2008.

Germany's Wanderlust

Wanderlust is the urge to travel and broaden one’s horizons. The German Federal Cultural Foundation is committed to fulfilling this dream for municipal and state theatres in Germany which would like to establish a partnership with a foreign theatre.

Wanderlust is an application-based fund that finances theatre partnership and exchange for two to three seasons. In the first year, the theatres could exchange artistic personnel. In the second, they might choose to host a guest production from their partner theatre. And in the third year, the theatres could organize a co-production to be performed at both locations. The partner theatres are free to organize the details of their working arrangement themselves according to their interests and capacities. The goal is to involve as many members of each theatre in the cooperative venture as possible. The fund also provides the option of continuing an existing partnership in the case that both partner theatres begin a new project.

Project applications are selected by the Executive Board of the Federal Cultural Foundation based on the recommendations of an independent jury.The Federal Cultural Foundation can award a maximum of 150 000 EUR per partnership. The applying theatre or third-party sponsors must finance at least 25 % of the entire cost of the project. The fund runs for five years, within which time theatres have two opportunities to apply for funding. Application forms are available here and can be submitted online.

Schedule:
15 October 2008 1st submission deadline
January 2009 1st jury session for partnerships starting in the 2009/2010 season
15 October 2009 2nd submission deadline
January 2010 2nd jury session for partnerships starting in the 2010/2011 season

Contact: Anita Kerzmann,
German Federal Cultural Foundation
Franckeplatz 106110 Halle/ Saale
Tel. +49 345/ 2997 161 / Fax. +49 345/ 2997 333
anita.kerzmann@kulturstiftung-bund.de

PACT Zollverein Residencies

From January to June 2009 PACT Zollverein is offering a residency program for the development and realization of projects and productions, which is open to professional artists from both Germany and abroad working in the fields of dance, performance or media art. Awarded twice yearly by jury, residencies provide artists with rehearsal space and local accommodation. By arrangement and subject to requirement, PACT Zollverein also offers its residents technical support and advisory assistance with press and public relations and dramaturgy.

A residency can incorporate the following:
> Studio space (from 63 to 173 sqm)
> Technical equipment (by arrangement and subject to availability)
> Stage rehearsals with professional technical supervision and support
> Daily professional open class
> Local accommodation (maximum 6 people)
> Professional advice in: Project funding, project management, press and public relations

Closing date for applications: August 18th 2008 (post-marked)

Click here for information in English and German.

The American Model in the German System

Check out this great article from the NYTimes that specially focuses on the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and how it has Americanized its not-for-profit festival. Europe as a whole, and Germany in particular has always had a strong subsidized arts culture. Just a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to ask private donors and foundations for money. But now that the cuts to public funding are increasing, organizations are being forced to rethink their fundraising activities. Here’s a taste.

"It’s a trans-Atlantic looking-glass situation. Germany alone this year, including all city, state and federal support, will dole out a total of $12.4 billion on culture — libraries, theaters, museums, musical and dance groups — including $4.6 billion just for music and theater, according to the country’s department for statistics. There are no fewer than 80 state opera houses, staging 7,000 performances a year.

That sounds great, astonishing even. But the system, bloated and not everywhere well managed, inevitably produces much mediocrity. The reality is that about 20 percent of the budget for Berlin’s three struggling opera companies today must come from private contributions. Bayreuth scrambles to raise nearly half its budget from donations and ticket sales. It would have gone bankrupt by now if donors hadn’t made up for deficits due to bad leadership."

Commie Brecht

Amusing little article in this Sunday’s Guardian by Nick Cohen about Brecht and how most people (theatre artists and audiences alike) overlook or ignore that he was a communist playwright. Cohen suggests that people either a) “deodorise him by pretending he was really a liberal humanist” b) “have an adult argument” or c) “shrug and walk away”. I’m guessing it’s mostly the third, with a little of the first, and almost never, if ever, the second. Does it matter that he was a communist and, if many of his themes actively embrace that philosophy, are his plays even relevant anymore? We can certainly credit him with giving us ‘alienation’, but has he cursed that fate upon himself?