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Stuck In Orbit

A Space Drama | A Science FACTion Tale

Imagine: You were launched into space at the height of the Cold War – 30 years ago. Your space station is a secret collaboration with your archenemy. Then the Iron Curtain fell and your space agencies conveniently forgot about you and your co-commander from the opposite side. The two of you have struggled for mental and physical survival ever since.

Theater, visual art and sound design meet in this intense exploration of outer and inner space.

post theater has created a situation in which the politics and psychology of the 20th century’s former East and former West, pessimism and optimism, meet in the form of two juxtaposed characters. The fictitious international space station PACE becomes a battleground of philosophies and beliefs. .

For many years, post theater has been working on post-documentary performances, blending intense research with fiction. Stuck in Orbit follows a series of reflections of Soviet era utopianism. The space race, at the height of the Cold War, was a combination of soft power diplomacy and military threat. Not too long ago, this felt nearly anachronistic. Currently, with raising nationalism and the emerging superpower China, this has gained a strange sense of contemporariness. Space has again become a battleground for geopolitical conflicts.

Stuck in Orbit is post theater’s first collaboration with ETB | IPAC. It is performed in English with German subtitles.

Post-performance discussions will be offered on May 10 with Johannes Weppler, a space aviation expert of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt and on May 11 and May 16 with the artists of the production.

post theater is an interdisciplinary performing arts unit without an ensemble. Projects range from theater to dance, multimedia performances to installations. Reoccurring themes are identity, resources and technology. The creative, haptic and original usage of video projections is a key component to the company’s work. post theater was founded in 1999 in New York, moved its headquarters to Berlin in 2002, opened a Tokyo branch in 2005 and one in Stuttgart in 2010. post theater has presented more than 50 works at festivals and arts institutions in 50 cities in 20 countries (e.g. Bangkok, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Cologne, Ljubljana, Milan, Munich, New York, Salamanca, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Vienna, Yokohama, Zagreb, Zurich). Hiroko Tanahashi and Max Schumacher are the artistic co-directors. In addition to the artistic work, post theater also gives lectures and workshops at art institutions and universities worldwide. post theater has won many awards, for example the Bremer Autorenpreis (2004 & 2011) and the Stuttgart Theater Award (2015 & 2017).

#Instalove

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.

2017 EXP(L)O(RE)

A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY
This format opens the festival and is dedicated to newcomers, shorter performances and work-in-progress. Spend an entire afternoon taking in twelve performances on stage, in dressing rooms and all around the theater. In between the performances, you can enjoy fantastic food, luxurious libations and magnificent music by international, Berlin-based musicians. Performances start at 2pm and we open our doors at 1pm.

AHNENAMT/MINISTRY FOR ANCESTORS by Club Real (Austria)

This long-term project about a new aesthetic practice of elective kinship is a scenic installation – a parallel reality which needs to be entered by visitors to come to life. It examines a new cultural practice: the possibility to adopt an ancestor.

CARLOS WHISPER by Katie Lee Dunbar (UK)

A one-on-one performance in which individual audience members are whisked off into a sonic wonderland, all centered around a table of seemingly random objects. The connections are only made clear once you put the headphones on.

EPILOGUE by Noemi Berkowitz (USA/Poland)

What might life after death look like… and what implications would that have for life before death? In this two-woman play, a girl finds pieces of herself in stories from across the world and across time. A performance about the ways we develop in our journeys forward.

HYO (효) by Haenny Park (South Korea)

This piece was inspired by a famous Korean folktale, very often told to the artist by her father as a child. It tells the story of a son who digs up a grave to steal a human leg, which he will use to save his dying mother.

I DON’T WEAR SKIRTS BECAUSE I NEVER LEARNED TO CROSS MY LEGS by Angela Millano (Spain)

This performance is a protest against the normalization, legislation and control of our bodies and the need to fulfill standards perceived as natural. It is a rebellion by a vulnerable and violent body that feels beyond the social, professional and personal limitations imposed on it.

INTIMATE ARSENAL (A QUARTET) by Claudia Grigg Edo (UK/Catalonia)

Sit down at the table. On the other side of the table is HER. Stay with her as she navigates one of four situations. If you like, you can watch it loop round again in this interactive video projection.

LATENT DREAMS by Katrine Turner (Scotland)

This performance is about the Apocalypse. About the rising sea waters, and the invisible plagues. About when Cillian wakes up from his coma, and there’s no one about so he breaks into a vending machine for a can of Coke. About the futures we allow ourselves to envision.

MOUTH CONTROL by MILK (USA)

Sometimes it’s easier to be honest when no one is around. We are more open in text messages and status updates than we are in face-to-face interactions with others. In Mouth Control, we ask the audience to test the limitations of distance and vulnerability in real time. We invite you to play a game with us.

SKEWED by Shanti Suki Osman (UK)

A solo performance using song, storytelling and sound. Using live and prerecorded voice and field recordings, Shanti
Suki Osman presents 4 songs documenting her exploration of self-fetishization as a means for empowerment.

SWEETS FOR A STORY by Bees Knees Sweets (Canada)

An exploration of connecting with strangers and their stories using food as a catalyst. Food is universal. It’s something we all want and need as human beings, and therefore is something that unites us as people. Food can tell our stories, as well as inspire them.

THE FOURTH UNITY by Renen Itzhaki (Israel)

A room. A bookshelf. A small group of people. They walk in circles. They are all one. They read a book. Sometimes out loud. Sometimes they stop. Sometimes a memory.

THE WHEEL by Connecting Fingers (UK/Italy)

From the script by philosopher Sara Fortuna, inspired by Dogville from Lars von Trier, four dancers explore a circular conceptual space organized in several steps in this work-in-progess showing: sleep/pre-birth/origin, child-like openness to the adult world in its tensions, contradictions, competitions, failures and eventual coming back to the starting point.

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)

Torrents of Rapture

Something’s off with Reggie’s boyfriend. In a fit of protectiveness(?) he’s just locked him in the bathroom like Rapunzel. Miserable and betrayed, Reggie finds solace in his friends – the hairdryer, drill, radio and toilet paper – as well the life affirming classic Torrent of Rapture.

Wildly romantic, idealized and inaccurate it seems to mirror his life exactly until it becomes clear that having a movie for a therapist is not always a good idea. As his world crumbles around him, Reggie finds his inner superhero emerging victorious from the ruins of his shattered dreams.

Told through bad ballet and puppetry, this is Brief Encounter meets Saving Private Ryan via Monty Python style cinema, film music, animation and live song. Torrents of Rapture fuses these sumptuous elements together as it explores the social, civil and human rights themes celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who have fought for LGBT equality over the past 150 years. The show leaves you overwhelmed, singing and shaking with …Torrents of Rapture.

Torrents of Rapture  was created by Dugald Ferguson  in co-production with Norwich Pride and Norwich Arts Centre. Supported by Arts Council England

So Far Away

Through song, performance and installation, Sally Dige narrates the story of a girl who has had a terrible accident; putting her into an unconscious state.

While the world around her tries to get her to wake up, she finds in this dream state she begins to uncover repressed feelings, guilt, dreams and desires within the world of herself.

The L and R Problem

The L and R Problem is a complex journey through Japanese history, using sounds, clips from documentary films, quotes from various compositions, the playing of live instruments and electronic sounds to ask crucial questions about society, ecology, politics, responsibility and the role of the individual being challenged by all this. It is the second part of an ongoing series of Wake Up From the Brightness dealing with issues related to the Fukushima power plant disaster in 2011.

The title of the performance ironically refers to a typical problem of spoken language – Japanese native speakers very often are not able to clearly differentiate between the pronunciations of ” L” and “R” … That makes “light” (= electricity) and “right”, sound the same.

As a Japanese musician living in Berlin, Manami N. felt the strong need to react to these events in a personal manner but in connection with a number of topics of importance not only for Japanese but for human beings in general and deploying various artistic elements to bring together a multimedia performance with live elements.