Vaba Lava starts with the training series “Theatre Expanded” again

Vaba Lava starts with the training series “Theatre Expanded” again and this year’s focus is on the combining of the IT-sector and the performing arts – using the new technology in the performing arts.

The first lecture takes place on February 22 at 17:30 in the main hall of Vaba Lava theatre centre, where German/US directors Chris Kondek and Christiane Kühl hold a lecture on digitalisation and identity.

Chris Kondek and Christiane Kühl have been making multi-media performances for over ten years. Their works centre on our ever-growing relationship to and our dependence on our digital environment. Their methods mix documentary and story elements with an extensive use of video, and real-time interactions. Their earlier pieces have included live internet stock-trading as well as real-time hacking of audience member’s cell phones. In May 2017, they will premiere their new creation “Distinguishing Marks” at Vaba Lava. This new piece, created in collaboration with Estonian artists, will examine the unseen and possibly darker side of our virtual environment and digital citizenship through the prism of E-Estonia, E-Residency, and X-Road.

In the lecture, they will present their previous works, looking specifically at different strategies for mixing the digital with documentary and theatre performance. Additionally, they will give a first glimpse at the research and ideas informing their new work “Distinguishing Marks”.

The lecture is a part of the international project “Theatre Expanded” led by Vaba Lava and takes place in the framework of the INTERREG Central Baltic 2014-2020 programme. The duration of the lecture is two hours.

To register for the lecture, please send an e-mail to info@vabalava.ee by February 21.

Chris Kondek and Christiane Kühl are also looking for volunteer video artists, IT-specialists, dancers, actors, and other performing artists to participate in the production “Distinguishing Marks” of Vaba Lava curator’s programme of 2016-2017. Students and specialists of all ages are welcome. We are looking for artists who are interested in the topic of E-Estonia and how this could be visualised on stage.

The performance focuses on life in the digital sphere and the changes this brings about – for our understanding of community, privacy, territory, and the body. While on the one hand these shifts are global as the whole world is happening more and more online, Estonia is a special case as it reinvented itself in the past decade as E-Estonia. So, we can see the country as a model for global developments and project our visions and fears for the future on it.

For the development of the performance we want to research the Estonian e-situation and explore different ways to visualise it – possibly with data visualization, video, augmented reality, and hand-made drawings. A fictional narrative that is structurally open to include facts and historical data will also be developed.

The rehearsals will take place in February, March, and May. The times will be agreed individually, but the participants should be available to work with the directors for 2-3 hours a day.

1st work phase: February 23rd – March 4th, 2017 

2nd work phase: May 10th – May 21st, 2017

The performances of “Distinguishing Marks” will take place on May 22nd – May 26th, 2017

Working language of the rehearsals is English.

For participation, please send your CV and a short motivation letter in English to tiiu@vabalava.ee.

More information +372 5246543 (Tiiu Tamm)