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Berlin International Performing Arts Center

Blog Archive

Telion’s Garden (Dirty Granny Tales)

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairytales of Tim Burton and Guilermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

Telion’s Garden, a tale influenced by migration, invades human instincts. Indignation and fear lead to desperate decisions. The pursuit of a perfect, flawless, godly world becomes the goal: a world that no flames can destroy, a world that has no room for hellish fire. Alas, the lack of fire can only create an emotionless world. Perfection is an illusion. Life is an inseparable bond of light and darkness. Respecting this bond is the only key to our survival.

 

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero): Percussion, Backing Vocals

Ruby Wilson: Dance

Giulia del Balzi: Dance

 

The Color of Honey

The Color of Honey is a glimpse into the daily life of a woman who finds herself a stranger in a strange land.

The story, based on the writer’s experience, explores themes of isolation, privacy, memory, loss and love. The woman in the play envisions a place far away from everything she knows, only to find her fears are not so easy to shake. Coming to Berlin full of hope and with a thirst for discovery, she now finds herself unable to leave her apartment. When her upstairs neighbor falls to his death, a sense of anxiety renders her even more alone, locked inside, communicating only with a dead man. As an alien in a city foreign to her, a city so full of unshakable history and with a spectral quality, where spirits are everywhere, Berlin seeps through the walls of her apartment and she is confronted by the very questions she wishes to hide from.

In The Color of Honey, we put the city on the stage, the woman on the stage and the woman in the city on the stage. Although the woman has already arrived, she still finds herself preparing for a move of huge proportions. It is up to her to come to terms with her next step. Will she survive? Or, like the neighbor upstairs, will she fall down?

After presenting an initial version in the 2014 Expat Expo | Immigrant Invasion festival, we are very pleased to welcome back The Color of Honey in a new and substantially further developed form.

July 2016 International Comedy Showcase

In recent years, Berlin’s transformation into the cultural capital of Europe has also brought about an explosion of English-language comedy.

While most open mics and showcases feature stand-up comedy in bar venues, ETB | IPAC’s monthly International Comedy Showcase combines international headliners with multiple forms of comedy by local artists, including stand-up, short-form and long-form improv as well as musical comedy in our gorgeous 120-seat auditorium.

Featuring musical comedy by Luke Burrage (UK),  stand-up comedy by Katja Gerz (USA/Germany) and Captain Khalid (Tanzania), clown and physical comedy headliner Plague of Idiots (Europe), hosted by Paul Salamone (USA)

In cooperation with Egg & Bear Comedy Productions

Watch Plague of Idiots on Vimeo:

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Didi’s Son (Dirty Granny Tales)

In a world where everything is reversed and objects come to life while the human beings are subservient to them, a writer becomes part of the story that he is writing.

thanos didiHe falls in love with the leading lady of his fairy tale, threatened by his own story creatures, and in the end redeems them and is himself redeemed.

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairy tales of Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero): Percussion, Backing Vocals

Anna Athanasiou and Katerina Liana: Dance, Puppets

 

Two For A Girl

“When a Traveller tells a tale, they’re listened to.”

It’s 1946, rural Ireland. Josie Connors, a young Irish Traveller, sets up camp with her nomadic family on the edge of Ryan’s farm. When she crosses one of the deeply entrenched cultural lines between her Irish (ethnic minority) travelling community and the Irish (settled) community, we are catapulted through decades of unthinkable consequences. “Stuck between two worlds” in abject isolation and poverty, Josie keeps moving, presented with the most compelling reason of all to survive.

“It is hard not to be struck by the raw emotion generated by Mary Kelly and Noni Stapleton’s outstanding  work – Two for a Girl…. this is theatre stripped down to its basics and it works.” Sunday Business Post. Five Stars *****

ETBIPAC_Two for a girl_Pic_Gerald WesolowskiTwo for a Girl is an homage to the intimacy and simplicity of traditional Irish theater, a style that can be as affecting on the back of a cart or the corner of a pub as it can on a formal stage. As Mary Kelly seamlessly embodies the five main characters, you will be drawn across generations and to every corner of Ireland in this unique look at identity, freedom and loss when two distinct Irish communities collide. This is a play about the transformative power and absolute necessity of being heard and bearing witness.

“A very moving piece that leaves you walking out of the theatre in a daze with the smell of a campfire in your nostrils.”  Doireann ni Choitir UTV.ie

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, ETB | IPAC continues its exploration of new Irish theater with Mary Kelly’s and Noni Stapleton’s Two for a Girl. The play is performed by Mary Kelly, a Berlin-based actor and playwright who is part of Berlin’s burgeoning international Freie Szene.

MARY KELLY is an actor and playwright. She graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, in 2002. Five of her plays have been produced, two of which are published: Unravelling the Ribbon and Two for a Girl. Unravelling the Ribbon toured Ireland in 2008, and had its U.S. premiere in 2010 with the Tennessee Women’s Theater Project. It has recently been translated into French. Since moving to Berlin, Mary was commissioned and has written The Scarlet Web for Big-Telly Theatre Company, Northern Ireland.

Mary’s theater work includes Christine Linde in A Doll’s House (Alan Stanford, Second Age Th. Co. Ireland), Lydia in All My Sons (Robin Lefevre, The Gate Theatre) and The Little Mermaid world tour (Big-Telly Th. Co.). TV and film work includes Parked with Colm Meaney (Ripple World Pictures), Fran (Setanta and TV3) and The Clinic (RTE). Radio work includes The Hit List with Brendan Gleeson, written and directed by John Boorman, and Mayday written and directed by Veronica Coburn.

Mary’s previous work at English Theatre Berlin includes: two staged readings of new Irish drama during English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center’s Irish festival The Full Irish (2013) and in ETB | IPAC’s Science&Theatre production of Isaac’s Eye by Lucas Hnath (2013/2014/2015). In January 2016, Mary presented her prose work within the literary event Inkblot Berlin at ETB | IPAC.

Two for a Girl is published by The Stinging Fly Press, Dublin.

Photo: Gerald Wesolowski

Berlin International Youth Theatre: Sinner’s Circle – The Salem Witchcriers

Out of the gloomy mists arises the Sinner’s Circle, a girl gang not to be messed with.

They’ve got nothing to lose and no prospects – but they do have wild imaginations. A deadly combination. Based on the events surrounding the Salem witch trials of 1692 and some of the historical characters who appear in Arthur Miller´s epic play The Crucible, this fresh new play follows the perspective of a rebellious teenage Puritan and spotlights their inner frustrations with surprising moments of mischief and light shining through the foreboding shadows.

Complete with curses, full moons and witches, this Gothic horror tale also offers some clues as to how scaremongering can overturn the common sense of an entire town and how good people can do bad things, resulting in a macabre chapter in North American history that still resonates today.

BIYT has been part of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center since 2009 and is made up of young people from many different countries, cultures, religions and schools. The goal is to to create a social exchange between different cultures, promote integration and to make high quality theater using the global language of English.

WitchCriers

2016 EXP(L)O(RE)

New this year is ExpLoRE, a format for newcomers, shorter performances and work-in-progress. Spend an entire afternoon taking in nine performances on stage, in dressing rooms and in our beautiful courtyard.

In between the performances, you can enjoy fantastic food, luxurious libations and magnificent music by international, Berlin-based musicians.

2pm (Studio) WORK IN PROGRESS by 6 Hours Theatre Group
Directed by Amy Nolan (Ireland) | Written by Alejandro Niklison (Argentina) | With Alejandro Niklison, Alan Ward (Australia) and Jinzhao Wang (China)

2:45pm (Main Stage) RIGHT ON! by Daniela Marcozzi
Concept, Performance and Co-Direction by Daniela Marcozzi (Italy) | Co-Direction and Artistic Collaboration by Peter Rose (USA)

3:30pm (Studio) ZYGOTE CRISIS by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff
Written and Directed by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff (Canada)

4:15pm (Main Stage) IVO by 3LK
Written by Billy MacKinnon (Scotland) | Directed by Emily Kuhnke (Germany) | Performed by Tizo All (Brazil)

5pm (Studio) BABA by Gabrielle Miller
With Gabrielle Miller (Australia), Lola Fonseque (France), Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts (Australia/Russia) and Youka Snell (Australia, Japan)

5:45pm (Main Stage) BRUTAL ARCHITECTURE by Tegan Ritz McDuffie
Text by Keller Easterling (USA) | Directed by Tegan Ritz McDuffie (USA) | Design by Julius Zimmermann (Germany) | With Sura Hertzberg (USA), Marcus O’Shea (Australia), Nadine Trushina (Russia)

Eight individual performances THIS IS MINE. WHAT’S YOURS? by Lauren Hart
Devised and Performed by Lauren Hart (England) | Project Management by Normen Skok (Germany)

Durational (Dressing Room) HAPPINESS IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ART by Kate McCane
Created and Performed by Kate McCane (Australia) | Found Sound Compiled, Arranged and Edited by Kate McCane

Durational (Dressing Room) ANCHORS by Jennifer Williams
Jennifer Williams (Australia)

 

 

The Present Imperfect

This is a coming of age story. At age 47.

Once upon a time, there was an Italian adventurer who sailed the Pacific and fell in love with a Tongan princess. They moved to Australia, where they raised a family to help demystify the culture (sport) and food (vegemite) shock. It took them 20 years and 4 children to begin to understand the language (lingo). One of their daughters was very interested in drama and language and bossing people around. She grew up to be a talented and exciting young actress and was headed for glory…just when life happened. Dammit!

That girl is now an ESL (English as a second language) teacher in Berlin who has taught the present perfect tense over and over for/during/since the past 200 years and is now well and truly over it.

Fiona is a full time professional foreigner, wife and mother who is sometimes also an actor, writer and English teacher. She has always tried to be respectful and forgiving, and understanding, and patient and tolerant and knowledgeable about her own cultures and her husband’s culture and each of her kids’ cultures, and of her new culture with its many rules; as well as being mindful of her kid’s feelings, and her neighbors feelings and even the feelings of her old drama school classmate Cate Blanchett. But now…she’s over it!

In this uplifting, amusing and soul searching autobiographic solo show, Fiona takes us on a world tour of her extremely questionable, crazy and ever-challenging life. Journeying through some of her favorite countries and introducing us to a myriad of delicious characters she reveals some of her most colorful stories and demonstrates why she is just so over teaching the present perfect, learning German articles, parenting third culture kids and teenagers in Berlin, dealing with female civil servants in Italy, attending international school PTA meetings in India…and saying “Si” to Cate’s stupid Armani ad. She is definitely over that!

Now work in groups to the find examples of the present perfect tense, the meaning of the phrasal verb “I’m over it” and any hints of desperation in the above life description.

Lovers 1

Two male performers explore the connection between them in a partially realistic, partially dreamlike surrounding.

They are blindfolded. Each one of them has a different mission: one has to carry the other and the other has to be carried. They repeat this procedure as a ritual they cannot avoid until it is exhausted.

The connection between the performers shifts between a range of aspects: it is romantic, sexual, aggressive, brotherly and existential. They address each other with gestures which are not aesthetic but instead searching for the pure motivation which lies behind them.

The goal of this work is to distill “love” into basic physical performances in order to reveal its actual mechanism.

“No purpose intervenes between I and You, no greed and no anticipation; and longing itself is changed as it plunges from the dream into appearance. Every means is an obstacle. Only where all means have disintegrated encounters occur.”  ― Martin Buber, I and Thou