2009/09 Rehersals for : The Last Theatre Show Ever… what a chaos!

THE LAST THEATRE SHOW EVER!
or how to dismantle theatre by making an electro-digital instrument out of it.
a collaboration between Gívan Belá and Natalia Borissova.

ABSTRACT AND PAMPHLET.

An experiment about trying to build a new future for an old discipline, in 7 days. Electronic and digital artists use their tools to change all the aspects and parameters of conventional theatre. A computer and electro-acoustic solution has to be invented, and put together.

The participants have to subscribe to at least 2 of the following modules:
1. text, concept, play = online collaborative writing with all possible media: ascii, photo, movie, sound…
2. actors = theremins, coils, autonomous and coded objects
3. props = the people that are accidentally communicating with the actors
4. light = using dmx control, controlled by actors and props
5. sound = the actors performing in a spatial distribution
6. the break = when the world stops for a while
7. audience = virtual and real in a mixed situation disturbing one another

Time = 7 days, monday till sunday and the last day is the last theatre show
Daily schedule: all participants are spending the morning working together, and in the afternoon they work alone or in small groups.
Coordinators: none
The preparations are done online over summer.
Advice: Avoid making things conventional.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION.

From the early beginnnings of 20th century experimental art (futurism, dada), the conventional and pragmatic approaches from theatre were being countered by actions and pamphlets. From modernism on we see the gradual disintegration of all different aspects of theatre and drama, as built up since renaissance. This probably culminates into the works of Samuel Beckett for television, the crossing over of the medium, the final abandoning of the unity of time and space. Since then, after the abominable return of fake narrativity replacing the real media experiments, in norm, form, and content, we have been at a standstill, an aesthetical and creative paralysis. Within a week, we propose to investigate the medium theatre as it could be reinvented in the 21st century. With all the means we know, as electronic and digital media artists, we believe we can take the first steps to free theatre from itself. So we invite all interested artists of any discipline, but working in a contemporary and experimental spirit, to join forces in Muenchen. Our target is to work with at least 21 people, including the organizers, who become facilitators coordinating the process till some realistic outcome is realized at the end of the week. This outcome is per definition unpredictable. It is the nature, the essence, and the formal approach of this project. Structured ad hoc, day by day like the making of Cassablanca, but teleologically driven by the will to lay the basis of a change of the paradigms of theatre, within a week.

During 7 days we are working in various smaller and larger groups on 7 fundamental aspects that make theatre as it is today. We critically discuss each of those and do radical experiments, in order to reconceptualize, reformalize, recontextualize and resynthesize them. The set up is essentially collaborative, but leaves place for personal study, reflection and work, feeding that back into the group process.  Each of the participants will work at least at 2 different aspects. This reassures continuity and exchange. The participants work half a day together and half a day alone, thinking and studying, trying out things, that are later presented and extended by the others.

Some thoughts and observations, setting a certain background:

1. the nature of literature and drama has changed fundamentally by the media. Writing is no longer a purely verbal and linguistic issue. Artists are writing constantly files to disc and memory, that reflect a different nature. Images, movies, sound and all we learned from hypertext is finding its way into a different convergent medium. So the theatre play’s structure and score will be done in a different way than on paper only. And since most of the writing is done online now, we are moving to a collaborative environment on internet. On the Society of Algorithm site currently a content management system is being set up, where the participants will work on, combining all possible media.

2. in the spirit of actor network theory, actors can be human or non-human, they become objects all acting on the same level, in the same environment. That is why it is better to start with the props as actors, and make the actors props. Swapping is allowed, so whatever becomes more intelligent can take a leading role. There will be self-built theremins, coils, autonomous and coded objects, computers, video and sound equipment, light networks. These are the building stones for the emerging theatre plays.

3. over the last century, ecological thinking and environmental/situated approaches influenced science and industry. Now it is time to transform culture in a fundamentally new way. Whatever we were using in the past, at the core or central position, has to go or merge with the surroundings. Only when people and objects mix in a network, in fields of tensions guided by action, new forms and contents can emerge.

4. since space and time died yesterday, and that was already 100 years ago said by marinetti, all illusionary equipment has to be rewired, from the light controls (we can use dmx and reprogram light patterns on the fly, guided by any interaction) to the scenery (any sensors using open source arduinos to control motors) to even the theatre’s heating system or water running through the toilet. The good old boring theatre building can be rewired and be integrated within the content it provides. It becomes a gigantic creative spatially altered stage. The stage is a tiny location only, dominating the direction of sight by the audience. Let the theatre maker take over control of the whole building. Unless we move into daylight and power with windmills or solar cells.

5. same goes for sound, noise and music

6. an important feature of traditional drama is when things have to change physically. So, we investigate the nature of the break, or: when the world stops for a while.

7. finally, enough experiments with audience have shown that they can be an active component, creative and unpredictable. Only when they are allowed to do so. (Remember that one futurist going to any theatre and in the middle of a play or opera shooting a gun in the air. Also, think of Handtke’s Publikumbeschimpfung. Well there are many other things to do.) So, in our case, how can the virtual and real in a mixed situation disturbe one another. Only from chaos new forms can emerge. A line. Silence. Something complex too.

We believe that with starting to make real situations out of rethinking the role, the nature of the above mentioned 7 parameters, we can open up the discipline. And make a new start for the whole sector. This will be documented in its progress, like we already described, online. It will be maybe the resulting play in itself, but for sure it can function as a special document for the  future exploration in future workshops (2010-2022). In the true spirit of open source and creative commons, the invited artists will be accomodated and provided the means to work on this important issue. The results will be freely available for everyone online. That is why the workshop should be free in a radical sense. [For sponsoring reasons we added at first: «That is why we are asking for support. It will bring back Muenchen as again a motor of cultural change. Remember Hans Richter. His first exhibition was in Munich in 1916.»]