Moodflow from Zürich

I've been in Zürich since last Sunday with our latest bigNOTWENDIGKEIT production "Keep on searching for a heart of gold". We are about to have five shows here within next week, starting tomorrow.

Nothing much happened since my last entry, but since I have some time to kill, I can contaminate some innocent minds with some moodflow.

It's been pretty relaxed and easy to set everything up in Fabrik Theater. At this particular moment I'm laying on top of a pile of mattresses in the foyer and waiting for a rehearsal on a monologue to end and run-through to start. The staff in the theater are all nice and friendly and I anyway like to work with this particular ensemble.

I've made some new friends while been here. It was pretty hairy to get myself a place to stay for couple of nights in ZH, because it seems that there is a "baby-boom" among my Zürcher friends at this very moment. So, my usual accommodation options were not available. And being forced to be innovative, I ended up at Ingrid and Claudio's home. This turned out to be a very big strike of luck in the end. These people are very nice and openhearted and they serve the best coffee in Zürich, so I'm very happy that I got to know them!!!

The weather is hideous since I don't remember when. I've never experienced such warm days in the end of April and so freaking cold in all May until now. I admit without any second thoughts that I've been wearing my long-johns the whole month up until yesterday. I just hate to freeze my ass off and see no reason to do that if not forced. And all this added to the notion that Finland is the hottest region in whole Europe at the moment. Go figure, something is rotten in climate...

But anyway, having spent most of the time in a black box lately, I don't really mind. Children of the darkness, I'll say.

Two adaptations of Darlings

I had the opportunity to do a light design for a bigNOTWENDIKEIT profuction called "Kill your Darlings". I already mentioned this in one of the previous posts.

Well, this is how it turned out to be... We performed with it on three venues: Schlachthaus in Bern, Fabrik Theater in Rote Fabrik, Zürich and also in Kaserne, Basel. In this post you can see, how very different can two venues look like although the medium of the light is basically the same: In Schlachthaus we performed on a tiny stage in the ancient stone-walled basement of the building whereas Fabtik Theater was three times bigger traditional black box. Kaserne ended up being somewhere inbetween. The premiere took place in Fabrik Theater, so this was the main target venue for the design also.

I realized that the atmosphere in these two versions was completely different. The room in the basement was somehow very present all the times, compared to the "non-spaceness" and void of the black box in Zürich. Being thightly surrounded by very organic surface as the stone-walls, makes the atmosphere very soft and somehow homey. In black space the scenography is somehow floating in the emptiness. I found both effects to be real cool, but they definitely change the mood of the performance.

See for yourselves!:

The beginning of the play "I'm not here."
Above Schlachthaus, below Fabrik Theater.

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Song: "Here's to You"

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"Grail & Andy"

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"Story of Nicola and Bart"


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"Am Grab - at the grave"


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"Ich bedauere... ich betrauere
-I'm sorry about... I regret"

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Towards the end:
Only light on stage comes from the drawers.

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Only the neon-tubes in the drawers are on.

Kill your Darlings
is:
Direction / Regie: Anna K. Becker, Katharina Bischoff.
Dramaturgy / Dramaturgie: Rahel Leupin.
Scenography / Bühne: Olivia Suter.
Light / Licht: Minna Heikkilä.
Artistic collaboration / Künstlerische Mitarbeit, Assistent / Assistenz: Stine Hertl.
On stage / Mit: Esther Becker, Anna Katharina Müller.

Updates...

After long recess, I have finally managed to update my website. There you'll find some new photos of the recent productions and also some funny video-stuff in the miscellaneous section.

Future looks interesting at the moment.

I'm working currently with a group called bigNOTWENDIKEIT on a project called "Kill your Darlings" which is going to open in the beginning of December in Fabrik Theater, Rote Fabrik, Zürich. Shortly, it's a performance for two actresses on the theme of all kinds of beloved ideas, that never fit anywhere before, wasting things and necessities, etc. I'm very curious how it'll turn out to be and how my darlings will fit in, if at all.

Another cool thing that awaits in the future is "Past is Simulation"-gig for the norwegian HerStay-company in Hong Kong. I should go there in less than three weeks. I'm excited, since I've never been in HK before.

Just before Christmas I will also make a short trip to Finland. I'm going to check out the rehearsals for the new Raatikko-production (and also tend to my dental appointment aughh =# ...)

So, I'll write more about how the things evolve and turn out to be when the time is right. Stay tuned, my friends =)