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Blog Archive

Daniel-Ryan Spaulding

Because you demanded it: Daniel-ryan spaulding returns to ETB | IPAC following his two completely sold-out shows in June and August! These will be Daniel-Ryan’s last shows in Berlin in 2018 – two nights only!

Daniel-Ryan is an internationally touring Croatian-Canadian stand-up comedian who has performed in over 45 countries worldwide and is the star of the recent hit video series about a hipster expat It’s Berlin!

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Expect a solid hour of sharp, hilarious, sassy, brutal stand-up about expat life, Eurotrash, sex, Yugoslavia, culture, nostalgia, the Dutch and, of course, Berlin!

“Daniel shines when engaged in storytelling, timing his humour well in an admirably relaxed fashion, while his mannerisms and confrontational attitude entertain, as he lets his inner frustrations spill out into hilarious and, at time, brutal anecdotes. Daniel’s combination of camp enthusiasm and fearless outspokenness serve to create a very entertaining show.”
– **** Three Weeks (UK)
“Brilliant, hilarious subversion” – Huffington Post
“Intelligent, and above all very funny. His material is tight. His delivery is strong, and his timing is perfect.” **** Scotsgay Magazine

Watch Daniel-Ryan Spaulding’s viral hit (over 2 million views) on YouTube:

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Songs At The Theatre

Get ready for an evening of music in the theater! Following the success of last year’s event, we are very pleased to invite you to once again enter the world of songs through the lenses of two Berlin-based singer-songwriters. Viktor’s Joy and Alex Spencer will share new material from their own songbooks and invite special guests to join them on stage. Brandon Miller will release his new album, Blue Blood Eclipse, and perform it live with a full band.

Vikor’s Joy sings about life. With precise observations about people, neighborhoods, bus journeys or other people’s concerts, Viktor’s Joy takes you and shows you exactly how his interior and exterior world looks. Like being drawn into a painting or a good book, the listener never wants the songs to end. With tear-jerkingly beautiful plucked guitar and a voice steady and low, each feels like a masterpiece.

Brandon Miller is a Berlin based singer/songwriter whose music immediately takes the listener by the hand and into a story. His live performances are disarming, subversive and authentic. On stage he has supported such artists as William Elliott Whitmore, Michael Nau, Hawk and a Hacksaw, Deertick, Nina Nastasia, John Fullbright, and many others. As of the 2017-2018 season, he has been working at Theaterdiscounter Berlin writing and performing original “apocalyptic campfire” songs for the Internil performance group theater project GOG/MAGOG. A disinformation campaign in four parts (Ukraine/Syria/Israel/Europe). Many of the songs he has written for this project are collected on his new album, Blue Blood Eclipse, which will be officially released at this concert.

Alex Spencer is fresh out of the studio from recording her second album. With a conscious move towards her roots in jazz music, she has teamed up with one of the hottest trios in town: Ben Lehmann (double bass), Martial Frenzel (drums) and Paul Engelmann (alto sax). Drawing inspiration from such diverse subject matters as insects, painters or parenting, the songs themselves defy categorization, sometimes jazzy, other times more folk, sometimes tipping over into pop. Each of them sung with a voice strong enough to transport the whole auditorium.

Listen to Viktor’s Joy on Bandcamp and visit his artist page on Facebook

 

 

 

 

Listen to Brandon Miller on Bandcamp and visit his official website

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to Alex Spencer on SoundCloud and visit her artist page on Facebook

 

 

 

Fuck me i love you

The circular motion and fluctuation of desire, power, ambition and the endless search for the unattainable love we all crave for is explored by an international cast of seven multi-talented performers. Together they create a station drama inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen (La Ronde).

A series of encounters strung together depicts a society locked in a cycle.

“This city is no place for love. The people are too fragile to be genuine, too shrewd to be open. One becomes accustomed to immerse oneself in so many vain interests and ultimately lose sight of what is real.” Heinrich von Kleist, 1800.

Rebecca Rukeyser

The U.S. Embassy Literature Series

Rebecca Rukeyser reads from The Homestead – a novel in progress

From 1862 to 1986 the Homestead Act allotted 160 acres of land free of charge to any American man who could work the land for five years. The last decades of this Act populated Alaska, a state that still bears the nickname “The Last Frontier.”

Set in the early years of the 21st century, The Homestead looks into the final days of one of these Alaskan homesteads. Having lived on an unpopulated island in the Kodiak archipelago for decades, Lew and Megan Jenkins face economic strain and open their property to tourism. Their “remote lodge” aims to give vacationers a sense of the real West and the real Alaska—a pristine landscape molded by hard work. But Jenkins’ lodge is failing as a tourist destination and their marriage is dissolving.

Rebecca Rukeyser is a fiction writer, co-founder of the Berlin Writers’ Workshop, and the recipient of a 2018 “Arbeitsstipendium nichtdeutschsprachige Literatur” –  Grant for Non-German Literature, awarded by the Berlin Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa. Her work has appeared in such publications as Best American NonRequired Reading, The Massachusetts Review, and ZYZZYVA. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teaches creative writing at Heinrich Heine Universität.

Yaa Gyasi

The U.S. Embassy Literature Series

Yaa Gyasi will read from her critically acclaimed debut novel, Homegoing (Knopf, 2016), which probes the legacy of the slave trade as it impacted two sides of an Akan family. Homegoing received 2017’s American Book Award, the National Book Critics’ Circle’s John Leonard Award, and PEN’s Hemingway award for debut fiction.

Yaa Gyasi was born in Mampong, Ghana, and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She received a BA in English from Stanford University and MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. Gyasi’s short stories have appeared in African American Review, Guernica, Callaloo, and Granta, which designated her a Best Young American Novelist in 2017.

We Keep Coming Back

by Selfconscious PRODUCTIONS (Toronto)

The (mostly) true story of an odyssey to Poland that a son and mother – both descendants of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors – took while accompanied by Katka Reszke (Polish-Jewish scholar and author of Return of the Jew) as their guide.

We Keep Coming Back is a story that Michael Rubenfeld set in motion and one that now involves a core co-creative team. It was a trip of return to the country of Michael and his mother’s cultural origin. While elemental in its urge to reunite mother and son, the work is also steeped with a contemporary politic. While seeking to understand Poland’s complicated history, the narrative takes an unexpected turn in discovering a vibrant contemporary world of Jewish life in Poland.

In her book Return of the Jew, Katka Reszke refers to this narrative as the ‘Generation Unexpected’ – this is a new generation of young Polish Jews who are mostly descendants of Jewish families who had hid their roots to survive both the pogroms and later, the Shoah. It was only after the fall of Communism in 1990, that it became safe to once again practice as a Jew in Poland. Subsequently, thousands of discoveries of unexpected Jewish histories have been made – and these stories are growing every day.

In the performance, the concept of ‘generation unexpected’ is realized both in the retelling of Katka’s own story of personal Jewish discovery, and by dissecting Poland’s confrontation with the energy of a revitalized Jewish narrative in Poland, and the deep roots of a North American antipathy towards Poland. To borrow from and broaden Katka’s term, ‘generation unexpected’ characterizes the surprising positions each of the four characters in We Keep Coming Back are revealed to hold. It also elementally sits at the nexus of unexpected results forever revealing themselves in the other generation.

We Keep Coming Back is presented in a visually and audio rich environment, incorporating video footage from the team’s research trips, archival material (photographs, maps), and live and recorded music. The creators play themselves.

It was developed in Toronto and Poland.

SELFCONSCIOUS PRODUCTIONS is the performance company of Canadian theater makers Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Garton Stanley. They both share the belief that other people and being alive are both very confusing. They think that this is probably why they get along so well and also why they both remain interested in using the theatre as a place to explore how hard it is to do and be the things they most want to do and be. But they also believe that it is possible. So they keep trying. Their shows are The Book of Judith, The Failure Show, mothermothermother…, and We Keep Coming Back.

In cooperation with the 31st Jewish Culture Days Berlin

2019 Expo Info Abend and Artists Mixer

Calling all Berlin-based performing artists! We’re holding an information night and artists’ mixer for our annual festival! Come by on Tuesday, October 30 beginning at 7pm to meet potential collaborators, see our space and find out everything you need to know to apply to have your work included in the festival! Over the past six years, numerous Expo productions have been created as a result of artists meeting at the festival’s Info Abend and deciding to make new work together.

Since 2013, this annual festival has presented selected performances from the diverse yet often still undiscovered international independent performing arts community of Berlin with a working language of English. Over six evenings featuring one or two evening-length performances, the festival presents a cross section of this community across all performing arts genres and beyond all language barriers. Within ExpLoRE, the newcomer’s platform, the Sunday afternoon is open to smaller formats or work still under development — these will be performed on two separate stages.

The 2019 schedule of programming will be curated by festival founder Daniel Brunet, Producing Artistic Director of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, as well as choreographer Olivia Hyunsin Kim and theater director Shlomo Lieberman, from the applications received based on the criteria of artistic excellence, internationalism and creative diversity.

The festival accepts proposals both for world premieres as well as restaging of existing productions and provides financial and dramaturgical support. Over the past six years, numerous Expo productions have been created as a result of artists meeting at the festival’s Info Abend and deciding to make new work together.

The 2019 edition of the festival will be held from April 28 – May 4, 2019.

This year, we’re looking to showcase one or two professional productions by Berlin-based artists each evening from Monday, April 29 through Saturday, May 4. Works should be between approximately 45 and 105 minutes in length.

We can also consider shorter works for performance on two separate stages during the day on May 4, 2019.

Learn more about the festival and see the lineup from last year right HERE!

Applications for the 2019 Expo are due by midnight on November 30, 2018 and the complete lineup will be announced on or about January 5, 2019.

The Land of Milk(y) and Honey?

Israelis in Berlin

Special preview event on Sunday, October 14 at 6:00 pm at Radialsystem (Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin), free admission

LIMITED SEATING: Please note that there are only 50 tickets available for each performance at etb | ipac

“I pity those who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandon Israel for a pudding.”

This statement, made by Yair Shamir, then Israeli Minister of Agriculture, to the Jerusalem Post in October of 2014, marked the climax of the so-called “Milky protest”. In a post that launched a thousand ships, the Facebook page Olim L’Berlin (Aliyah to Berlin) urged Israelis to move to Berlin due to a markedly cheaper cost of living. The primary evidence? Aldi’s Dessertcreme & Sahne, a dessert comparable to Milky, the dominant pudding brand in Israel, sold for less than a third of the price. This Facebook post received more than one million likes within four days and created headlines around the globe.

Nearly 75 years after the end of the Second World War, Berlin’s Israeli community is estimated to number in the tens of thousands and impossible to verify due to issues of multiple citizenship. Is Berlin truly this promised land of milk and honey?  Are people from Israel really immigrating here only because of the standard of living, nightlife and Berlin’s fabled cultural reputation? What about those Israelis who leave the country due to the current political climate? And what affects do 20th century history as well as multiple reports of rising antisemitism have on emigration from Israel to Germany?

Three Israeli performers explore these questions using verbatim text from 60 interviews with the widest possible spectrum of partners; Israelis with an active religious background, Israeli Arabs, highly politicized Israelis as well as Israelis who have absolutely no interest in politics.

The ID Festival is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Szloma-Albam Foundation and KIgA e.V. – Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus

EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS

Ein Rührstück auf dem Minenfeld der Wahrheiten

von Deborah Zoe Laufer

A melodrama on the minefield of truths | by Deborah Zoe Laufer

Die erste deutschsprachige Produktion am ETB | IPAC (natürlich mit englischen Übertiteln): EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS von Deborah Zoe Laufer, die achte Produktion im Rahmen unserer SCIENCE & THEATRE-Reihe.

The first ever German-language production at ETB | IPAC (With English surtitles, of course) : EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS by Deborah Zoe Laufer, part 8 of our SCIENCE & THEATRE series.

So langsam ist alles bekannt. Unser Genom erzählt vieles darüber, wo wir herkommen und weiß einiges von dem, was uns erwartet. Was also wollen wir tatsächlich wissen? Was wollen wir der Wissenschaft zugestehen? Und brauchen wir Religion und Mythen noch?

It is slowly starting to seem like we know everything. Our genome says a lot about where we come from and also has a notion about what awaits us. What do we actually want to know? What do we want to allow science to do? And do we still need religion and myths?

Eine junge Genetikerin forscht mit einem Stamm der Native Americans im Grand Canyon nach den genetischen Ursachen von Diabetes. Im Übereifer nimmt sie wenig Rücksicht auf die Interessen des Stammes und stößt dabei an die ethischen Grenzen der Wissenschaft. Und auch in ihrer Familie wird sie mit heftigem Widerstand konfrontiert, als sie Gentests an ihrer eigenen Tochter durchführen will.

A young geneticist conducts research into a tribe of Native Americans in the Grand Canyon in search of the genetic causes of diabetes. In her excitement, she fails to take the interests of the tribe into consideration and finds herself at the ethical crossroads of science. She also experiences tremendous resistance in her own family when she seeks to conduct gene tests on her daughter.

Deborah Zoe Laufer verknüpft in ihrem Stück einen historischen Fall – ein Paradebeispiel für die Missachtung der sogenannten ‘Informierten Zustimmung’, der von Information und Aufklärung getragenen Einwilligung der Betroffenen in Forschungstest – mit dem ganz persönlichen Kampf einer Wissenschaftlerin gegen unterschiedliche Interessen, aber auch gegen den Verlust des Gedächtnisses.

In her play, Deborah Zoe Laufer connects an historic case, a perfect example of non-compliance with so-called “informed consent”, which is the permission provided by the subject of the research test on the basis of having received sufficient information, with the very personal struggle of a scientist against a variety of interests, as well against the loss of her own memory.

EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS wirft ein Licht auf eine Reihe von Dilemmata und Fragen, mit denen die Wissenschaft sich konfrontiert sieht: Den Clash der Kulturen, den Gegensatz von Wissenschaft und Religion, die ethischen Implikationen genetischer Forschung und nicht zuletzt die Frage nach unserer Identität.

EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS shines a spotlight on a series of dilemmas and questions that science sees itself confronted with: the clash of cultures, the contradictions of science and religion, the ethical implications of genetic research and, not least of all, the question of our identity.
Group photo: Gerald Wesolowski | Scene photos: ETB

Daniel-Ryan Spaulding

Because you demanded it: Daniel-ryan spaulding returns to ETB | IPAC following his completely sold-out evening in June!

Daniel-Ryan is an internationally touring Croatian-Canadian stand-up comedian who has performed in over 45 countries worldwide and is the star of the recent hit video series about a hipster expat It’s Berlin!

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Expect a solid hour of sharp, hilarious, sassy, brutal stand-up about expat life, Eurotrash, sex, Yugoslavia, culture, nostalgia, the Dutch and, of course, Berlin!

“Daniel shines when engaged in storytelling, timing his humour well in an admirably relaxed fashion, while his mannerisms and confrontational attitude entertain, as he lets his inner frustrations spill out into hilarious and, at time, brutal anecdotes. Daniel’s combination of camp enthusiasm and fearless outspokenness serve to create a very entertaining show.”
– **** Three Weeks (UK)
“Brilliant, hilarious subversion” – Huffington Post
“Intelligent, and above all very funny. His material is tight. His delivery is strong, and his timing is perfect.” **** Scotsgay Magazine

Watch Daniel-Ryan Spaulding’s viral hit (over 2 million views) on YouTube:

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