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Fairytales in English – The Frog Prince

“A promise is a promise. . .”

A princess learns to look beyond appearances when the man of her dreams turns out to be… a frog! Will she pucker up to the slimy toad, or let love hop away?

This fairytale of “The Frog Prince” is acted out by one actor, who in a very moving performance, acts, dances and sings all the different characters in the play. It is especially suited for children with limited vocabulary, as they get to participate in telling the story.

Workshop

This fairytale is followed by a workshop including fun games, music and movement. The children have the chance to react to what they saw in the play before and are encouraged to use the English language too express themselves.

Florian Korty studied theater and film acting in Sydney, Australia and graduated with an advanced diploma in performing arts. In 2013 his one man show An Aussie Affair was part of the international Sydney Mardi Gras Festival. Florian has been part of the Galli Ensemble Berlin since June of 2013 where he performs up to seven shows a week including story acting and workshops in English. Florian performs at schools and kindergartens all over Berlin including the Metropolitan school in Berlin-Mitte.

Lucid Body

Our bodies are home to our emotions and reflect our deepest character. The Lucid Body technique is dedicated to enabling the growth of the human being through a safe and deep psycho-physical process of introspection, exertion and mental challenge.

This process has been developed as an aid to the actor in need of breaking out of habitual body in order to develop a clear vehicle for anybody. The renowned Lucid Body technique has helped shape award-winning performances for both film and stage.( Oscar for Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years A Slave) The key to all character is in the body. Expand your pallet, play roles you never thought possible.

Monika Gossmann was born and raised bilingually (German and Russian) in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. At the age of six she moved with her family to Germany. After high school, she underwent three years of training as a singer, dancer and musical performer at the Contemporary Dance School in Hamburg. From 2003 until the summer of 2007, she studied acting at the University of the Arts Theater in Moscow (partner school of Harvard University’s ART program). During her training she performed at the Moscow Art Theater as Anna Petrovna in Chekhov’s Platonov and the Moscow Theater for music and film in the musical Chicago. Monika is a member of the Moscow Theater CDR. She has performed with the Tiger Lillies Circus and at many German theaters, notably as Lady Milford in Kabale und Liebe and as Miss Julie in Miss Julie. Monika also starred in the TV films Artdetektiv Mozart and Judgment Day both of which were aired on the first program of Russian television. Monika has also performed extensively on German television (SOKO, Coast Guard …). After studying acting in Moscow, Monika traveled to Los Angeles for three months to further develop her range of acting techniques (Method Acting / Meisner) and practice her English. In New York, Monika met Fay Simpson (director / Lucid Body Technique practitioner / Yale Drama/ NYU Tisch). Monika trained in the Lucid Body acting technique and a Lucid Body Trainer and opened her own Studio in 2014, the LUCID BODY room berlin. In 2013 ,she directed the play Stripped by Stephen Clark and is recently working on her new project TY-SON.

Archetypes and Status

Our lives and art are represented by the universal characters of archetypes (king, lover, fool, to name a few) and by the interplay of status.

Learn to access these archetypes through worksheets and exercises, and how to apply their attributes through improvisation. Discovering archetypical behavior can give you more creative options in everyday problem-solving and as a performer. Participate in storytelling exercises that reveal how status and character intertwine.

Brian Kapell is the Executive Director and Artistic Director of ComedySportz Berlin. He was also the co-founder and General Manager of Spirit Yoga Berlin. He began working in ComedySportz in 1985, and was instrumental in bringing the form to many cities, including CSz Washinton D.C., where he established the Laughing Lizard Lounge Comedy Club. He has 2 BA degrees from UW-Madison (Theater- Acting Specialist and Communicative Disorders) and an MFA (in Theater Management) from Cal. State University- Long Beach. He worked for many years in the medium of theater for the deaf, culminating in the production of the revival of Big River on Broadway, which was nominated for a Tony Award in 2003. He has been producing comedy improvisation in Berlin for 9 years, performing and teaching almost every week. His current projects are in bringing CSz to the Public School System, and offering ComedySpricht, which utilizes comedy improvisation as an English-language-learning platform.

Shon Abram, Leah King and Norman Vladimir

A taste of new music by three different Berlin-based musicians originally from the United States.

Shon Abram is an international singer/songwriter from Hollywood, CA and has performed in Japan, Russia, South Africa, Namibia, Mexico just to name a few. He has just completed his first lead role in the feature film ”The Key” with Gedeon Burkhard and Sven Martinek. Audiences all over the world have called this man “The Entertainer” and He wants to entertain YOU! With two past projects under wrap, Demo EP and Journey of a Man – Body, Mind, Soul, Shon is excited to complete his third project which consists of dance tunes that have received a warm welcome throughout Germany. Now, experience Shon live and let his warmth as a performer awaken and capture your heart.

Leah King is a vocalist, musician and producer from Brooklyn and San Francisco. After moving to Berlin in 2012, she launched Leah King Live – a Soul Electronica act combining soulful vocal loops with live synths, bass heavy dance beats, and original video art. She has since performed at V-Day Berlin, Fete de la Musique, LaDIYfest, Soho House, Südblock, Prince Charles, Schokoladen, and the first annual Listen Up! Festival sponsored by the Berlin Music Board, which she also co-produced. Leah’s live act creatively combines digital technology with live improvisation showing off her many years as a performance artist in New York City.

In a time of high technology and autotune, Tennessee-born, NYC-grown singer and songwriter Norman Vladimir is trying something new. Vladimir uses soulful, big range vocals and raw talent combined with live loops and live instruments to create an authentic sound with a definition of “pop” that is all his own. In 2010, Vladimir became the lead singer for world-renown director and choreographer Bill T. Jones’ production of Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray. Later that year, he sang for President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sir Paul McCartney, and many others for Jones’ tribute at the nationally-televised Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC. He has recently moved to Berlin, Germany to expand the reach of his work.

the rapture will be televised III

CALVIN KLEIN has been developing the rapture will be televised series since 2011. In what began as an investigation of disaster fantasy, the rapture will be televised III has evolved into the number one most viewed show anywhere. This potpourri of famous guests, original musical acts, wild animal stars, and hilarious sketches have kept this show at the top of pop culture conversation for over 3 years!

The show pioneers a new dawn of sensational entertainment to draw a wide range of audiences. With pride, CALVIN KLEIN can say that the rapture will be televised III never misses a beat, and never fails to please!

the rapture will be televised III was seen in it’s original form in the 100grad festival 2012, and hasn’t stopped delighting both live studio audiences and viewers at home since!

CALVIN KLEIN was founded in 2011 by Alexander Coggin, Michael Norton and Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor. The three performers participate in various mediums within an art context. Having come together under the umbrella of theater, they engage in a collaborative arena that combines this with dance, performance, video, and music.CALVIN KLEIN challenges themselves to make genre-specific performance creating parameters that adapt to each piece. Over-saturation is ever present is their work, yet mundanity and the commonplace are highly valued. CALVIN KLEIN explores interpersonal relationships and the dualities of emotional experience that lie within them.

Their series, the rapture will be televised, has been shown in Hebbel-Am Ufer’s 100Grad Festival, the English Theater Berlin and curated at Kunstfabrik Berlin in collaboration with AUNTS IS DANCE(NYC), at Basso Berlin in collaboration with Jeremy Wade’s Creature Feature and at ROCKELMANN & Gallery Berlin in their INTRODUCTION group show. They presented the latest episode at Sophiensaele Berlin in January 2014 as part of TANZTAGE Festival.

Alexander Coggin is an American photographer and artist based in Berlin. Recent projects outside of CALVIN KLEIN include: Apartment with Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel (New Theater Berlin), The Machine with Orion Maxted (Month of Performance Art – Berlin), Hotel Obscura Draft #1 with the Triage Live Art Collective (Month of Performance Art Berlin), and Now! Now! Neverland! with Michael Burditt Norton.

Michael Burditt Norton is an American artist based in Berlin. Recent projects outside of CALVIN KLEIN include: Research and Reporting with Liz Magic Laser and Sanya Kantarovsky (Badisher Kunstverein and KW institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin), Apartment with Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel (New Theater Berlin), The Machine Orion Maxted (Month of Performance Art – Berlin), Hotel Obscura Draft #1 with the Triage Live Art Collective (Month of Performance Art Berlin), and Now! Now! Neverland! for which he served as artistic director.

Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor is a performance maker from Florida, USA. Recent projects outside of CALVIN KLEIN include: Dissolved: The Uncanny Valley with Julian Maynard Smith, Florian Feigl, and Christopher Hewitt (Sophiensæle), The Machine with Orion Maxted (Month of Performance Art – Berlin), and Now! Now! Neverland with Michael Burditt Norton.

Celebrity Bound

I am celebrity! I’ve always been famous. It’s just no one knew it yet. I will stop at nothing to make it to the top. I’ve trained good and hard, and now it’s time to put my training to the test!

In Celebrity Bound, one woman investigates her own relationship to fame and the personas that influence it, pushing celebrity to its limits. What are the forces behind celebrity? What drives the cultural phenomenon to simultaneously build and destroy celebrity? How does celebrity negotiate the tension between access and excess? Through extensive experimentation in movement, voice, and language, scripted and improvised material, as well as audience interaction, she moves fluidly between celebrity and fan, fantasy and reality, confronting her own desire for and repulsion towards becoming celebrity.

Originally devised in collaboration with Michael Burditt Norton.

Catherine Duquette is a performer, theater artist, and writer originally from the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. She specializes in audience-performer relationships, movement and improvisational scores. Her solo work has been supported by MOMENTUM gallery, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, a Fulbright Fellowship in Spain, the International Festival of the Delphic Games in Greece, and the Subterranean Art House in Berkeley, California. She studied theater at Arizona State University and the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. Before moving to Berlin, Catherine earned her master’s degree in Performance Studies from New York University.

The Color of Honey

The Color of Honey is an exploration of loneliness and love, led by the voice of a woman living far away from her homeland.

Unable to leave her apartment very often, she has invited the audience into her home for an evening. But what was intended to be a friendly visit slowly takes a desperate and haunting turn. Through the dramatic representation of romantic first impressions, memorable first encounters, present hardships, and hope for what seems like an impenetrable future, this work in progress ultimately comes into contact with a very difficult question: Why can’t love fill a day?

Ich bin ein Berliner

Drew Portnoy left the mountains of Colorado for the nightlife of Berlin in the late ’90s.

Then he became a father. Using his dry sense of humor and observation skills honed as a professional journalist, Portnoy discusses the odd ways in which he, his children and even Berlin have grown over the past decade. He performs regularly in Germany and Europe in both English and German.

MonoTalkhak (The Clown and I)

The exceptional narration of the clown in this story is built upon Iranian traditional theater. It is also based on the storytelling fundamentals of Scheherazade and the 1001 Nights. Its combination with the techniques and tunes of contemporary performance and dance adds to its bitter humor.

MonoTalkhak (The Clown and I) is a story about an eternal clown who is wandering around with the last king of the world, and tries to make a living and afford the king’s dialysis by performing shows. As the clown says, the last king of the world is now aged and vulnerable, and his skin cannot be exposed to the sun. He sits on a wheelchair and is covered by a sheet so that the audience would not see him. The clown narrates the story of his bizarre, weird, funny, sad life during the play.

You are invited to a special auction at the end of this show! Elixir of life!

Nima Dehghani is a multidisciplinary artist and theater director whose work explores the relation between society, politics and audience interactions in public spaces. Born in Tehran, Iran in 1986, he studied architecture and worked as an architect for seven years but his focus has shifted more to theater and social arts since 2009. Now he is a pursuing a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis on performance and new media at Carnegie Mellon University in United States. Nima works predominantly in the medium of theater and performance art. He strives to find the most effective way to influence his audience and society through new experiences in experimental media. Nima has published three books and writes for numerous Iranian papers. he has won several prizes in playwriting and was named the best young Iranian director of the year in 2011. Underlying most of his works he tries to reflect political and social realities of his surrounding environment. More recently, Nima’s “Netformances” represent a new direction for his art, as he combines performance art with the Internet and social networks such as Facebook.

Alireza Keymanesh is an Iranian actor and dancer. He is a member of the 84 theater group and theInteractive Theatre Group which has branches both in Iran and the Netherlands. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in the field of acting from the Art University of Tehran. He has performed numerous roles in theater and film. He is also an acting teacher who train actors and actresses in his own methodology which involves the whole body and mind. In 2011 he won the second prize of for best theater actor of the year in Iran for the play MonoTalkhak directed by Nima Dehghani, in the annual Iran’s theater ceremony. He then moved to Netherlands to carry out his practical research at ArtEZ University. His research was on the subject of “society’s influence on the human body”, and the similarity of this subject with the influence of Samuel Beckett’s scripts on the performer’s body. He has conducted this research by participating in the courses’ Dance, Choreography, and DAI (Dutch Art Institute) and he performed two plays of Samuel Beckett as a presentation of his research at ArtEZ.

The Poetic Groove

At these unique shows, some of Berlin’s best poets are joined on stage by a host of wonderful musicians to bring BERLIN a poetry show unlike anything it’s seen before.

For the Expat Expo, four of the Hauptstadt’s most exciting English-language poets, Robert Grant, Lady Gaby Bila-Günther, Ben Porter Lewis and Mc Jabber will perform with the musical support of Rob Longstaff.

Poets

Robert Grant (UK) (The Poetic Groove/BeatStreet) is a poet, writer and filmmaker from Berlin. As a poet he has performed on stages all across the world and has been published on 3 continents. His latest series of poetry films have appeared in festivals stretching from India to America and back to Europe.

Lady Gaby Bila-Günther (AUS/Berlin) is a Berlin institution and a pioneer of “punk poetry”. Never one to shy away from anything, her style and power has been making audiences gasp for years. This internationally known and respected performer has graced stages all across the world.

Ben Porter Lewis (USA) is a 25-time American Grand Slam champion. His unique performance style has won him fans all across the world and he was also featured in the landmark Beat generation documentary The Source.

Born in the UK, Mc Jabber currently lives in Berlin. The teacher, actor, singer and writer has won several awards for his poetry. He performed in Europe and overseas, both as a soloist and with his band Blue Foundation. In 1995 he won the first national slam of Britain.

Musical Guest

Rob Longstaff is a singer/songwriter who has found success on the streets of Berlin. Boogaloo is Rob’s third studio album and his debut with Blackbird Music. This fresh release is packed with soulful acoustic gems and was recorded over three days at Blackbird studios in Berlin.