etb English
Theatre
Berlin International Performing Arts Center

Is this love? Is this weakness? Hope or desperation? Why do we do it? Again and again.

Let’s try it together. You and me. Tonight. Tonight will be our story. The story of how we met, how it was magical and easy, how we laughed. Your eyes, your smell, the taste of your skin.

#Instalove is our story. A participatory performance. A real-time attempt at you + me = us. It begins with an impulse, a desire to connect. A dating app sets us in motion. I show you my selves. My many selves. You make a choice. Which of me do you want? Which of you do I want? Who will I become with you? Who will you be with me?

Let’s give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, if it begins to slow down, if the cracks start appearing – the neglect, the tear, the break – we can try again. I can repeat the past, or I can move forward.

Each night is unique. Each night is our own. #Instalove is our chance at us.

After presenting Catherine’s performance Celebrity Bound first as part of the 2014 Expat Expo | Immigrant Invasion Festival and then in two separate additional runs, we are thrilled to be able to produce the world premiere of #Instalove!

A pre- or post-performance event will be held every night, including speed dating, a talk on genderfluidity and modern love, interactive gaming presented by BerlinGameScene.com and more!

Thursday, July 6: A post-performance discussion about intimacy, identity, relationships and sexuality with Franziska Krüger, Lisa Kirchner and Susanne Scheerer | www.cambyo.co

Friday, July 7: A post-performance discussion with Catherine Duquette and Ruth Sergel, moderated by Daniel Brunet

Saturday, July 8: Speed Dating with Elise Terranova | www.eliseterranova.com

Thursday, July 13: Lorenzo Pilia and BerlinGameScene.com will showcase three games by Franziska Zeiner in our lobby, followed by a post-performance discussion moderated by Elise Terranova

Franziska Zeiner is a game designer and print magazine editor, interested in creating meaningful, user-centered experiences. She is passionate about feminism, quirky games, observing mundane everyday interactions and turning them into digital experiences.

The following games will be available to play from Thursday, July 13 through Saturday, July 15:

• social_me – A surreal, socio-political game that mimics players and their social media habits

• Kiss Me Maybe – A competitive kissing game

• Single Player – A speed dating simulator (made with Major Bueno)

Franziska will also be talking about her work together with Elise Terranova, host of Life and Dev podcast.

Friday, July 14: A post-performance discussion with Lovoo about dating in the 21st century, in collaboration with Theater Scoutings Berlin

Saturday, July 15: A post-performance discussion on human interaction in the digital era and how people meet people nowadays with Alex J. Eccleston of the Bad Bruises and The House of Red Doors

Special thanks to Lovoo for their support!

Berlin-based US-American performer, writer, director Catherine Duquette specializes in audience-performer relations and improvisation within scripted drama. She creates intimate participatory works that draw on autobiographical materials to share contemporary experiences with active audiences. Curious about expanding notions of performance, Catherine fuses theater, interactive poetry, scripts, and choice-based narrative for video games. She is currently exploring game design as a dramaturgical approach to theater in order to allow audiences more emotional and personal investment in what happens on stage.

Based in Berlin, her work has been supported by MOMENTUM Gallery, Camden People’s Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, theSpaceUK, TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Poland, a Fulbright Fellowship in Spain, the International Festival of the Delphic Games in Greece, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado, and the Subterranean Art House in Berkeley, California.

Artist and agitator Ruth Sergel creates compassionate works that explode out the boundaries of traditional mediums. Inspired by rebels, visionary pedagogues and magicians, Ruth’s work bridges art and technology, memory and wonder to incite individual and social transformation. Ruth’s films, public interventions and interactive installations have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, New-York Historical Society, Gray Art Gallery, Anthology Film Archives and 3LD Art + Technology Center. Her work has been shown internationally including Clermont-Ferrand (France), Shift Festival (Basel) and Théâtre de la Ville, (Paris) as well as broadcast on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) and PBS.

Ruth’s projects have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Experimental Television Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the 21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund. Ruth was the Resident Researcher in Video at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) where she received her Master’s degree and a fellow in Public Humanities at Brown University. Additional residencies include Yaddo, Squeaky Wheel, CESTA (Czech Republic), Digital Performance Institute, and Here Arts Center. Her work has been widely covered in the press including the New York Times, NY Daily News, NPR, CNN, and the Huffington Post.