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EVENTS
The award to Wieslaw Holdys for adaptation of text Dr K. Hommage a Franz Kafka at the Festival of European Classic's Dramaturgy organized by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
 "Myths of Middle Europa: Dr K. versus Golem" - project of international
cooperation between Studio of Mumerus and
High Actors School - PiDivadlo,
Prague
Cracow - Prague, November 2006 |
LAPUTA & LAGADO based on
Jonathan Swift
or
Gulliver's third travell
-
Mumerus in international theatre's coproduction
On 4th
and 5th November 2004 The Mumerus Theatre association
took part in a Nationwide Survey of Off-art organised by The
Municipal Community Centre in Jaslo.
We inaugurated the festival with a performance of “ Travel to the Moon”, and then Wiesław Hołdys and Robert Żurek conducted a workshop for participants from Sanok and Jaslo. An open air performance “Four substances” shown around the building of The Community Centre on November 04 was the effect of the workshop.
We would like to thank Helen and Sławomir Gołębiowski and all the staff of The Municipal Community Centre for creating a unique festival. We also want to thank all participants of the workshop and actors of the performance
If you want to watch the slides (prepared by Sławomir Gołębiowski) from "“Four substances” , click here: FIRE , WATER, AIR, EARTH
YVONNE
A German-Polish youth theatre project together with JugendKulturZentrum PUMPE (Berlin)
Mumerus
on the way to Vilnus (Troki castle)
On the 25th and 26th October 2004 The Mumerus Theatre visited Vilnus. We performed “A Trip to the Moon” in a Polish Community Centre. Our performances in Wilno were partly financed by The Polish Ministry of Culture.
We would like to thank Beata Czaplińska and all staff of Polish Community Centre for unique hospitality.
Between 10th
and 12th June Theatre Mumerus Association participated in VI
Nationwide Word Festival in Lubaczów. For the inauguration of the festival
we showed the performance “ A Trip to the Moon” . Wiesław Hołdys and Robert
Żurek took part in the jury and gave a workshop for participants of the
festival.
We would like to thank Grażyna Bielec and the staff of Municipal Community Centre for organising a wonderful festival and all participants for a fantastic atmosphere.
Theatre
Mumerus Association took part in “Isn’t it Magic” festival which took place
in Cork (Ireland) between 2nd and 6th June 2004. Two
coproductions with Mumerus participation were shown: “Devil’s Hours” and “The
Starving poet - El poeta
hambriento”. The festival took place within the confines of
Magic – Net.
Performance
in coproduction between Theatre Mumerus,
Theatre Guirigai (Spain) and Theatre
Toihaus (Austria) in the frames of
Magic-Net
Between 26th and 29th March a workshop devoted to
the next project within the confines of
Magic-Net took place in Saloniki.
This time the project will be inspired by “The Odyssey” and 12 theatres
from all over Europe will participate in it. Twelve writers associated
with all theatres will create a modern version of the myth – Mumerus
Theatre will be represented by Zbigniew Machej. Other playwrights taking
part in the project participated in the workshop: Lutz Hubner (Germany),
Volker Schmidt (Austria), Lorenz Langenegger (Switzerland), Richard
Hurford England), Jon Fosse (Norway), Eva Mathijssen (Holland), Jaime
Rocha (Portugal), Chuch Kruger (Ireland), Augustin Iglesias (Spain), Borys
Iwuszyn (Russia) oraz Aleksanros Efklidis (Greece). Every playwright
invited to the project will write a unique version of one episode of “The
Odyssey” and then all texts will be translated into English. Based on the
thus created scenario all theatres taking part in the project will start
rehearsals in close co-operation. The premiere of the performance is
expected in 2005.The directors and literature advisers also participated
in the workshop (Wieslaw Holdys from Mumerus) which was organised by The
National theatre of Nothern Greece in Saloniki.
DEVIL’S
HOURSbased on Fernando Pessoa’s textes
Co-production byTeatro O
Bando(Palmela/ Portugal), Teatr Mumerus (Cracow / Poland),carrousel Theater(Berlin / Germany) andTheater an der Sihl(Zurich / Switzerland) in
frames ofMagic-Netproject.
"All religions are true, irrespective of how contrary they may seem. They are different symbols of the same reality. They are the same sentence said in several languages, in such a way that those who are saying the same thing do not understand each other." (Fernando Pessoa, The book of Disquiet)"
Fernando Pessoa was the most important Portuguese Modernist
poet and is deeply rooted in Portuguese culture; his texts are regarded as an
expression of the Portuguese attitude of mind and attitude towards life.
From among Pessoa’s numerous poems, prose texts and fragments, director Joao Brites (Theatre O bando) selected religious texts, those dealing with a philosophy of nature, and those inspired by Buddhism. The texts are to be combined to create a script that characterises the relationship between three world religious groups, but secondly and primarily, to point our the places at which these religions meet, and the similarities between them.
The decisive impetus in turning this project into a
co-production was provided by the basic idea for the staging: to represent the
three world religions on stage though three individual actors. Three actors
characters, one Christian (played by Portugal actress, Maria Gil), one
Jew(played by Polish actor from Mumerus, Jacek Milczanowski)and one
Muslim (played by Dilek Serindag - Turkish actress from German theatre
“carrousel”/ Berlin) appear.
The fact that these three religions, different though the may seem at first, often deal with the same issues and the same questions, is expressed with the device of having the three characters speak the same lines. However, the lines is spoken simultaneously in three different languages. In this way, the absence of a joint language and the misunderstanding between the different religions is expressed in a dramatic form. Just as the three characters in the production are incapable of understanding each other, so are the three religions – although they are looking for answers to the same questions. This type of theatre, which deals with the impossibility of verbal communication, benefits particularly from working with actors from different countries, who, along with their different linguistic capabilities, also contribute their differing cultural and religious contexts.
The world’s three greatest religions in the voice(s) of one
of the most internationally known Portugal poets. In Portugese, Turkish, polish
and Turkish, the same words – clues, perchance, to a better understanding of the
multiple religious and ethnic interrelationships that have led to some of the
great conflicts of our time; a reason to believe that, despite everything,
mutual understanding may still be possible...
Opening night of “Devil’s Hours” was 26 February 2004 in Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon. Performance was successful played in Portugal (Lisbona, Porto, Palmela) Cork (Ireland, during Magic – Net’s festival), Zurich, Krakow and Berlin.
Polish opening nights were June 8 –10 in the frames of International Festival of Street Theatres in Cracow
Project is financial supported by Polish Ministry of Culture.
Directed by Joao Brites, Literary Adviser – Teresa Rita
Lopes, Body expression – Luca Aprea, Set and Costumes – Clara Bento, Director
Assistant – Andre Amalio, Theatre educator – Mira Sac
Actors: Maria Gil, Dilek Serindag, Jacek Milczanowski
"But than krakow!wow what a change!wieslaw and his little crew took care about EVERYTHING!we performed in the yard of the goethe institut which was a very beautiful yard.on our first day it started to rain a bit,we decided to play and hoped the rain wouldnt get more.it got more and at the end we were playing in big rain,it was amazing!it was magic!because some of the words of the performance became reality,for example:rain,rain is something real....words of caeiro saying to pessoa.the audience room was packed!no one left!everybody was curios about our play,it was incredible!that night i will never forget,i was so happy because we made so many peole happy!we could give them so much and they gave it back to us!thank you beautiful krakowien people!the second day nonstop raining and actually it was also very dangerous to perform because of the wet floor and danger of slippery. because wieslaw was so proud of our play and so many krakowian people waiting to see us,we decided to play,and at the end we were happy that we did it!its strange in the very beginning our performance was "fragile"because of the actors but now its fragile because of the technik! i also realised how important andre amalio was/is for our performance,because he is the one who knows everything,where which light and which sound.,because in krakow,we had sometimes no light or sounds on wrong time. i realised how good it is if everything works!i also appreciate his working attitude very much,he is very disziplined and you can always count on him!thank you andre! at the end krakow was a full sucsess and i would like to thank wieslaw and his generous crew who made our performance unique and possible! i would also like to thank to chico,serginho and sven who also helped us!!!!thank you sven!and of course thanks to dirk(du weisst schon,dafür dass ihr mir vertraut habt!) and joao always worried about us and created this unique play!i can not wait to perfom the next time! we should carry our play to more theatre communites!thank you my sweet friends at obando(you will always be in my heart) and last but not least thank you to my beautiful sweet collegues!yazek for showing us his beautiful krakow and maria for giving me joy.thank you my sweet collegues,you make this performance complete with your fantastic work!in you i found friends for a lifetime! i hope i didnt forget anyone!i love you all and i kiss your beautiful souls! LA CURDA"
Letter from Dilek Serindag, actress
MUMERUS IN ODENSE (DENMARK), November, 6 – 11. 2003.
The Theatre Festival in Odense has existed since 1981 as a bi-annual event, which presents the best contemporary Danish and International theatre performances supplemented with workshops and discussions. The festival has a broad though radical understanding of the stage arts, and the program included text-based theatre, dance, street theatre, children’s theatre, music theatre, contemporary opera as well as more radical experimental performance works. Festival was organisated by Theatre Gadesjakket. The 11th Theatre Festival in Odense chose as its theme “Comic Identity“ in Europe.
Theatre Mumerus presented during this festival a performance“A Trip to the Moon”.
Other theatres performing in Festival were: Chapertons Comic Teatre (Barcelona), The Shqrurx Team (Luxemburg), Lidna Marlowe (London), Opera Cirkus (London), Le Compagnie des Chemis de Terre (Belgien), Companyia Pep Bou (Barcelona) and groups from Denmark: AbstraXteater, Teater Artibus, Frueflaesk og Boffer, Odsherred Teater i Teatret Ditto.
More information about Festival:www.teaterfestival.dk.
CHILDREN OF MUMERUS IN WALDKIRCH (GERMANY), November 2003
Youth from Mumerus Theatre Studio (students from Mumerus’ partner school -
Institute for Blind and Partially Sighted, Cracow) took part in International
Meetings of Youth’s Thetres in Waldkirch (Germany) with presentation of
“Forefather’s Eve. Part II” by Adam Mickiewicz. In this festival also took part
following theatres: “Centre Dramatique national d’Alsace” (France),
Jugendtheater Willisau (Switzerland) and Theatre-pedagogical Centre Brixen
(Italy).
MUMERUS IN PALMELA (PORTUGAL), September 22-27, 2003
Second Annual Meeting of Magic Net
A European Theatre Night under Olive Trees
Teatro O Bando from Palmela extended an invitation to host Magic-Net’s Second Annual Meeting. The theme for this event gathering is ‘The Four Elements of Nature’. Each participating theatre prepared a short presentation incorporating theme “Four Elements”.
All episodes performed by all participant’s theatre created night’s outdoor performance showed at hill right in the heart of the Parque Natural da Arrábida. This place is area of Teatro O Bando. Down at the hill are twin pavilions house the everyday life of the theatre where actors, technical and administrative staff met at shared mealtimes. Going to the theatre here doesn't mean consuming a performance. Observing is also acting. It was contemplating the stage in a natural environment, while smelling lavender and rosemary.
Mumerus prepared and showed a etude titled: “ELE MELE DUDKI or EENIE, MEENIE MINIE MOE: A SIMPLE STORY
When I imagined Mumerus taking part in the European Theatre
Night under Olives Trees, I dreamed about a GAME: Very ironic and slightly
serious – just a game that children play. The subject of this game is about
Everyman which:
And mother earth gives birth to a child: The next Everyman – the new player on the World’s Great Stage – and the whole procedure begins time after time after time again.... – until eternity. This simply story is a clichéd piece of writing and a clichéd piece of everyone’s life.
This is a standard mediaevalist morality play. As in Mumerus play “Morality” there will also be a Magister Ludens – God and Creator. He interrupts Everyman’s acting whenever he feels like it, and it is usually at moment when Everyman is least expecting it. Using the command, “You out!” the Magister Ludens removes Everyman from the stage of life to the depths of the Earth. But in Water, Everyman’s life begins a new and the Magister Ludens watches him carefully, and once more he interrupts his performances, over and over again...
We filled this play with sequences of banal events out of the life of Everyman: childhood, school, marriage, work, travels, meetings, funerals. We used only basic colours in our apparel and props: blue as water, red like fire, white symbolizing air and black is the earth..
Subsequently, we wanted to use kiddie games and nursery rhymes (like the English "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe" or Polish: “Ele mele dudki”) in all the various languages of our partners from Magic Net.
Wieslaw Holdys
Director
Elements of Art
Nearly 100 young
people from partner schools of Magic- Net’s theatres participated in the Annual
Meeting. From Mumerus participated a youth from Institute for Blind and
Partially Sighted, Cracow.
During their stay, they focused on the effects of nature and its safe guarding in society and the consequences it has on social structures. They familiarized with various forms of expression, so that they can transform their ideas and perceptions into an artistic concept. Next to methods of communication, the young people experienced and leart to respect the richness of European culture during their multi-national encounters.
The incomparable energy, which can emerge through the competitive team spirit among peers, was one of the essential experiences. The results was presented to the citizens of Palmela in a big procession through the town centre. This event was directed byEmergency Exit Artfrom London
The big day had
three important stages. At first, the youths used the remaining preparation time
to do the last dry run in the school area; secondly, they spent some time after
lunch on rehearsals at the place of action itself, that is, at the location of
the parade in Palmela. The final and most important stage was of course the
parade itself. After breakfast in the cafeteria, the youths started the day off
with a vocal warm up and the preparation of the musical elements for the finale
with Gail and Pablo. In order to do this, everybody gathered in the
amphitheatre-like stage on the school ground where they did a couple of
exercises and practiced the aqua-song for the spectacle at the castle.
Then, the youths returned to their element groups in order to rehearse the two interactions between the elements that had not been practiced the day before: Air meets Water and Earth meets Fire. After a short lunch break, the youths went together to the square of Săn Joăo, the location for the opening of the parade in Palmela. There, they practiced the introductory dancing scene on the steps of the fountain followed by the first two interactions. The leading element at this first stage, Earth, was drenched with Water when the Water people passed through the Earth people, and afterwards, Air entered and blew Earth dry again. Now led by the Water group, that was followed by Air, Earth and Fire, the groups proceeded to the next stations of the parade, thus rehearsing the whole procession for the evening one last time. At the Water stage, Air entered the fountain that Water had created agitating it like sparkling water. At the third stage, the Air people were suffocated by Fire. At the final stage, the Fire square, the Fire people lifted the Air people; since through the heat, the Air became lighter and was eleveated.
At the end of the
rehearsal procession, the groups returned to the square of Săn Joăo for some
fingerfood at the courtyard and to prepare for the big event itself. They put on
their costumes, did their make up, blew up dozens of huge water balloons, took
pictures of each other and in general got into the mood for their big
performance. Finally, after a little "Have-fun" speech from Ajay, the parade
began, and the city of Palmela was turned upside down and then put back in order
by Earth, Water, Air and Fire. The audience that the elements passed by became
part of this experience as well. They received as gifts shells from the water
waves, were burned - meaning, they were painted with red make up - if they
uncautiously passed too close to Fire, or were blown by the wind. The castle was
the highlight, where all the elements gathered together. When their well earned
applause had ended, the youths ended the day with a party at the castle, where
they celebratedeach other - and of course,Water, Fire, Earth and Air.
By Paul Walton
More information:www.4-elements-palmela.net.
MAGIC-NET IN CRACOW (July 1-5, 2003)
MONUMENT FOR A HERO
Young people from the Escuela de Formation Teatral, associated toTeatro Guirigaiand students from the Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted in Krakow, associated to Teatr Mumerus, as well as a group of young people from Lubaczów and Gorlice - small cities in South Poland on the Ukraina and Slovakia borders, gathered to participate in workshop and street performance.
Magda Arenal, Guirigai, and Wieslaw Holdys, Mumerus, prepared the street performance “Monument for a Hero” during a workshop at The Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted, which was presented at the last day of the 16th International Street Theatre Festival.
The performance was constructed in two parts: The youths
from both countries began moving down Florianska Street towards the Main Square
singing and chanting like discoverers who had just found a new land. Before
entering the square they were met by Twardowski (Mumerus actor Robert Zurek), a
sort of Polish Faust, who gave the new discoverers requisites, symbolizing
“Heroes” from the past (Copernicus, Chopin, Don Quixote, Sancho Panza etc.),
assisted by the actress Katarzyna Gladyszek.
The young people stormed onto the square singing and
gathering an audience as they moved towards the monument of Adam Mickiewicz,
Poland’s most famous romantic poet with a status of a Goethe or a Pushkin. At
the monument, “Wieszcz” (a nickname for Mickiewicz), played by actor Marcin
Popczynski, greeted and invited each “Hero” individually to join him on his
monument. At this moment our event was interrupted as the heavens opened up and
a torrent of rain poured down upon our young “heroes”.
They dauntlessly continued to perform despite the fact that
they were soaked through and through and the complete music and sound equipment
had broken down. They finally took shelter under the arcades, but they were so
motivated by the experience that they returned once again to the monument in the
pouring rain. Taking a last pose to the cheers of the audience, who were
standing safely under the protection of the arcades, the young people found an
appropriate finishing touch to an exciting and very wet event.
“The finale of our artistic production could not be shown to those we were performing for (the audience) because of a summer storm (but I do not think this is the place to express the disappointment we suffered when that happened), but some of the other things we learnt were luckily water-proof, and will be kept among ournicest memories”
, says Luis Martinez (participant).THE FEAST OF MADNESS
Teatro Guirigai also presented “The Feast of
Madness”, a 40 minute satirical show which was inspired by Medieval Fools
and originally created in 2001. In the centre of the narrative is a commoner
from the 21st century whose wild fantasy plays a cruel joke on him. The real
protagonists are the Zangarrones, creatures from the North of Spain who have
descended from the mountains. Three stages were set up for the Guirigai actors
at strategic points on the Main Market Square. The
performers moved the crowds from one venue to the other depending upon the scene
of action. The costumes, masks, and music fit perfectly into night air, with the
night lights of Rynek Głowny’s enhancing the atmosphere of the
work.
CO-PRODUCTION “NATIONAL HERO”
Three workshops searching for a joint approach to the co-production “National Hero” (working title) betweenGuirigai,Toihausand Mumerus were conducted. Apparently the success and results of these workshops will be the basis for the co-production between the three companies.
First sessionwas directed by Agustin Iglesias, director of Guirigai, who focused on the direction of production.
“ Unfortunately for Europe, the history of the 20th century is full of innumerable heroes who, in the name of religious, ideological or national causes, have led different peoples to numberless disasters and frustrations. To put forth such a subject as the national hero for a European co-production, means to fully enter the numerous contradictions of today’s Europe,with its continuous conflict between its national interest and those of the European Union. It occurred to me that we could venture to find a hero from our own historical conflicts but within a magic, mythical structure.”
(Agustin Iglesias)Second sessionwas shared by Wieslaw Holdys and Dorota Morawetz (set designer). Wieslaw Holdys focused on the question “What is a National Hero” and worked on some etudes with actors of Gurigai and Mumerus. This enabled everyone to imagine what their future performance might be like and was a good starting point for their common work.“It was also a very significant experience for all members of our group and, I hope, for the other participants as well, because it has helped us to find a common point of view for the future creation,”(Wieslaw Holdys)
Dorota Morawetz gave an introduction on her aesthetical approach to scenography. To her it was a very important experience, because“it opened up the possibility for the mutual observations of working methods and artistic and aesthetical susceptibility of each company and its artists,”as Dorota Morawetz puts it.
Third sessiondirected by Herbert Pascher and Myrto Dimitriadou, Toihaus focused on music.
Herbert wanted to free the work from the seriousness of a discussion about a concept on theatre music, while making it enjoyable through playful doing and trying. The participants – actors from Poland and Spain and the directors and dramaturges from the partner theatres – put their heart and soul into it. His idea worked in giving a glance at the possibilities of music in theatre, and in addition to choose tasks which allowed various accessibilities for the participants. The actors moved on from their fundamental situation, from their habitual working methods/styles and could accept and implement Herbert’s associations. The enjoyment with the trans-boundary theatre work with the emphasis on music – which in this form was apparently new for some – became an important stimulant for this workshop.
“With this,Herbert Pascher says, “I already received during the workshop positive feedback, which was also confirmed verbally later. As a result of his participation in my workshop, Agustin doesn’t want to use me purely as a musician (in the co-production), but he also wants to implicate me in the development of the dramaturgy and is planning a running brainstorming session per e-mail. …”
LECTURES
At theGoethe Instituteon the Rynek Glowny a lecture meeting took place with contributions by Dirk Neldner, Elisabeth Kahn, Marta Arenal, Myrto Dimitriadou and Wieslaw Holdys concerning the topic of international cooperation in culture and education titled: “Are the international cultural networkers the new European ‘Heroes’?”
MUMERUS IN FRANKFURT AND SLUBICE (October 20 – 27, 2002)
“LOVE in EUROPE”: A Magic-Net Event with participants from
14 European Countries in Frankfurt Oder / Germany and Slubice (Poland)
Magic-Net is a European theatre project funded by Culture 2000, introducing classic works to a young audience for three seasons (2002-2004). The project is a merger of more than 15 European theatre companies who participated in an artistic exchange. Magic -Net aims at bringing together the partner theatres in co-productions of classic European drama and is currently the largest project of its kind.
In the first season, participating theatres under the leadership of thecarrouselTheater an der Parkaue,Berlin/Germany were:Boomerang Theatre Company, Cork/Ireland,Teatro O Bando,Palmela/Portugal,Teatro Guirigai,Madrid/Spain,Maladie d’Amour Theatre of Arts,Larissa/Greece,Theater der Jugend,Vienna/Austria,Toihaus am Mirabellplatz,Salzburg/Austria,Kopergietery, Gent/Belgium,HetMUZ Theater, Zaandam/the Netherlands,Teatret Vart,Molde/Norway, and associated were in 2002:Theater an der Sihl, Zürich/Switzerland,Theatre for a Young Audience, St. Petersburg/Russia,The Experimental Stage of Baltic House,St. Petersburg/Russia ,Teatr Mumerus,Cracow/Poland,Theatre Day Production,Gaza/Palestine.
Magic-Net’s first season placed bilateral encounters at the centre of attention to further intercultural understanding and concluded with the Annual Meeting 2002. The so-called “Magic Love Festival” took place in Frankfurt/Oder at theKleist Forumpresenting classic love scenes from seven European countries,guest performances“A Trip to the Moon”byTeatr Mumerus,Theater des LachensFrankfurt/Oder, Germany andcarrousel Theater, Berlin, Germany. In addition, there was a directors’ workshop with actors, a workshop for dramaturges to further the idea of future international European co-productions, as well as a platform to discuss a European network for theatre work directed towards a young audience.
It is the policy of the project that each theatre works with a partner school. Along with the European theatres attending Magic -Net’s first Annual Meeting in Frankfurt/Oder, young people linked to Magic -Net through their local theatre were given the chance to participate from October 20-27. Mumerus’ partner school was Institute for Blind and Partially Sighted, Cracow.
One week camp for young theatre people from every participating theatrewas devoted to introduces classic texts for and by young people. Every group prepared a performance from their’s own classic and performed it to all participants. Mumerus’ youth group prepared and showed “Forefather’s Eve” by Adama Mickiewicz – Polish romantic drama.
WHY THE “FOREFATHERS EVE”?
We started work with youth by selecting together a drama belonging to the literature of classical Polish romanticism. This type of literature created a certain type of the main character who finds reality unacceptable and fights God and the entire world. We were trying to choose (via reading and discussion) between “Kordian” by Juliusz Slowacki , a drama dealing with a young man’s initiation and his entry into the world full of contradictions, ruled by Satan, and “Forefathers Eve” by Adam Mickiewicz, which for a long time was considered a literary work with political connotations dedicated to the struggle of a romantic hero for national liberation. Yet this is a multi-level drama of irregular structure which also includes an underlayer of mysteries and rituals. The second part (on which we are working) is written in the form of an old, primeval ritual dedicated to summoning spirits of the forefathers. This part is a poetic-ethnographic reconstruction of that particular ritual, which goes back to the beginnings of ancient drama.
The young participants selected “Forefathers Eve”, because
this ritual form was more familiar to them and there was a clear desire on their
part to create this ritual in a form of a drama.
It seemed to us too that the universal topic of summoning spirits of the forefathers would be understandable to the workshop participants from other countries. We started our work by placing on the stage a table which would unite participants in the ritual, the acting and the observing, the living and the dead, the young and the old.
Wieslaw Holdys
"Forefathers Eve" - young actors and audience after the performane in Frankfurt
The young people (also from Mumerus’ partner – school:Institute for Blind and Partially Sighted, Cracow) partook in a weeklong workshop directed byEmergency Exit ArtsLondon, preparing for the celebratory event exploring the theme love, performing their own works and viewed performances by the professional youth theatre companies.
The young people were asked to arrive at the theatre camp with a poem of love in their own language. From this colection of international love poems a parade with dancing, acting, music, costumes and masks was created. The procession moved through Frankfurt (Oder), past the city bridge, to one of the festival´s performing venues.
The Magic of Love
Today there begins in Frankfurt the theatre festival “Magic-Love”/including 150 young people from all over Europe
The warehouse on the
premises of Frankfurt’s Ziegelstraße, right next to Theater des Lachens, is
large, empty, and cold. A single heater near the door tries to heat up the room
in vain. This doesn’t seem to bother the some 30 odd young women and men that
are sitting at long tables on the other side of the room, diligently scribbling
sketches and ideas on large pieces of paper. Based on these over life-sized
figures, banners, masks, and costumes will eventually emerge, which are
decorations for “Love in Europe” - a major parade at the Oder Bridge on
Saturday. This workshop is called “making.“ (…) And in the theatre camp of the
European theatre festival “Magic Love”, whose official opening will take place
at the Kleist Forum this evening at 20hr, plenty will be made. Next to the 150
young people from 12 different countries who are participating in the theatre
camp, there are also approx. 120 theatre professionals from all the corners of
Europe. They have come to Frankfurt as guests in order to engage with the
subject “Love”. The annual meeting of the cultural project Magic-Net is the
occasion, which hopes to develop the interests of young people towards classic
European drama. The 15 theatres, whose artistic direction is mainly targeted
towards a young audience, have already presented classic productions and
discussed their artistic views. It will also be possible to see three of these
works here in Frankfurt. In addition, each director will create a scene from “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream”, using an international cast of actors, and these
scenes will be performed tomorrow evening at the Kleist Forum.
It was through the professional theatres that the young people were able to participate in this exchange in Frankfurt. “Our participating partners are obliged to work with young people”, states Dirk Neldner, Magic-Net’s Project Leader. Whereas some of the professional theatres can afford youth theatres and theatre educators, others have developed intensive relationships with schools. At the theatre camp, teachers, students, and young members of the youth theatres from all around Europe are meeting for the first time.
One of these youths is Jesús from Spain. This 16-year-old came to Magic-Net through his school’s theatre group. Now he’s part of the “making” workshop, and is thinking about original cardboard figures. “I like to create things”, says Jesús. Lydia, 16 and from Austria, also decorates at home. “I hope I can learn something new here”, says Lydia. Furthermore, she says she is having fun “sniffling" about in other cultures.
You can do the same thing in four other workshops, which are all being led by the specialised team from the theatre group Emergency Exit Arts. In the music and dancing workshop, Christie from Great Britain and Pablo from Italy are teaching rhythm exercises. One, two, three and the hands slap the thighs, the stomach, clap together, and finish with a snap of the fingers. Did you loose the beat? “No problem.” And they start once more from the beginning. “The goal is not to be perfect”, explains the Magic-Net’s trainee Constanze Demuth. “It’s not about who is the best clarinet player, but about making a joint effort to put something together.”
In the large ballet studio of Theater im Schuppen, which together with Theater des Lachens and the Kleist Forum are supporting this festival, the participants of the “acting” workshop are getting to know one another in the meantime. They are supposed to tell a story that has to do with love. One of them talks about his orphaned cat, another tells about hugging a small child. The experiences are as varied as the many nationalities.
A couple of doors away, the “writing” workshop is thinking out what the actors will perform during the parade on Saturday. Naturally, everything should be centred on the subject love. A newspaper published by the reporters’ group is going to write about how the students will put this into practice.
“So far everything is going fantastic”, says Dirk Neldner, and informs us about the welcoming party. “Suddenly the Irish started beating out a rhythm on their table, other groups answered, and at one point every group presented something or other. It was like a competition that was completely out of control.” Sometimes a cultural exchange can be so simple.
by Stephanie Lubasch
MOZ, October 24, 2002
MUMERUS IN ST. PETERSBURG (Russia),May,10-17,2002
Mumerus at the way to Festival in St. Petersburg: White Nights in Lotva
Theatre Mumerus took part in Third International Theatre Festival “Rainbow” in Sankt Petersburg. This festival was organized by TJUZ – Theatre for Youth Audience in Petersburg. Mumerus performed a play“Hell – Heaven’directed by Wieslaw Holdys.
Actress from Mumerus, Elwira Romańczuk, received a prize of jury for doing a female part.
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