Biennale College Teatro 2019
Workshops
Venice, 22 July – 5 August 2019
Biennale College – Theatre will involve those persons whom the Artistic Director of the Biennale Theatre department, Antonio Latella believes, at his own discretion and in agreement with the Masters conducting the individual workshops, will respond to the goals and the requirements of each of the workshops described below.
The Biennale College – Theatre project, an integral part of the artistic project for the year 2019, consistent with the spirit of its recent editions, stands as a place of inquiry and dialogue, a space permanently open to discussion and to experimentation, in a process that involves scholars, spectators and theatre lovers. A true factory of ideas that explores the potential of theatre: languages, codes, techniques, technology and theatre sciences all provide the guidelines for a systematic reassessment, led by Masters and experts from around the world.
The current edition of the Biennale College – Theatre will include an introductory session with the Director Antonio Latella, attendance at the stage readings from the call for Authors under-40, and a significant number of sessions dedicated to working with the chosen Masters, with the purpose of offering each participant the possibility of taking part in an authentic creative process, on the one hand, and on the other, to enhance the educational value of each workshop, a place of both ideation and higher education.
The programme is organized as follows:
Throughout the Festival, the participants may attend the afternoon meetings with the directors invited to the Biennale Teatro 2019 and the evening performances on the roster.
Participation is mandatory for the entire duration of the programme (22 July > 5 August).
Each Master and each participant in the College will address the same theme in this edition, like the previous ones, detailed below by the Director, and will subsequently present the outcome of each workshop in a short theatre piece at the end. Each of these original creations will be presented with all the others in a sort of theatre marathon, to take place on the last day of the Festival.
Act three: DRAMATURGIES
Title: RECIPE
DRAMATURGIES is a title that forces us from the very beginning to speak of the grammar of theatre and to try and understand where the boundaries have shifted in the matter of playwriting or staging. Looking for a similarity, we might perhaps compare cooking dramaturgies to recipes, using the plural to underline the vastness and the different nature of the ways dramaturgical material is presented today.
To prepare a good dish we naturally need raw materials of the finest quality, base materials that in fact correspond to what we call grammar in theatre and that we need to make even the simplest of meals sophisticated and delectable; however, in addition to the quality of the products with which to start, great consideration must be given to the mind and the hand of the man who chooses them and mixes them in the right doses, with the right timing.
It's what you add that makes the difference, from a technical and even a spiritual point of view. In fact, some cooks assert that the spirit of man is capable of establishing contact with the products and influencing the success or failure of a dish, which is thereby oriented by the intention and the complexity of man's will; the art of cooking teaches us from the very start that reality is rich in nuances, it is never a question of black or white, nor does it rely on rigid distinctions and hence on solid certainties. The hand of the cook, in our game of metaphors, may therefore be compared to that of a dramaturgist, perhaps, who when writing a text doses his inspirations before serving them up to the public. In the same way that a cook can create a recipe practically from scratch, or elaborate one based on traditional flavours to satisfy the person who has chosen him or has chosen his dish or the restaurant he works for.
Rarely does a chef cook for himself alone and that is, or should be, the result of a dramaturgist's work; if a story does not somehow concern the viewer or listener, they will probably pay little attention to it, and easily forget a text that is merely self-referential.
We invite this year's Masters to develop a RECIPE, any one at all, working with the actors and their collaborators to metaphorically construct the dish to serve to the audience, the Biennale College starter dish.
Antonio Latella
RULES OF PARTICIPATION
Applicants may register for one workshop only.
Applications for more than one workshop will NOT be accepted and only the first application to be submitted will be taken into consideration.
The deadline for the submission of applications is April 9th 2019.
All applicants must fill out the online application form in all its parts and attach the required documentation in digital form (in Italian or in English depending on the Master's nationality).
The workshops will be held in the language specified by each Master.
For all the workshops that require the submission of a video or attached documentation, please follow the instructions provided by each Master.
The results of the selection process will be announced to the interested parties within the month of May 2019.
Participation in the project entails mandatory attendance.
Who can apply
The call is for applicants aged 18 and over.
Specific prerequisites are indicated in the presentation of each workshop.
Costs
Each selected applicant will be required to pay a registration fee (€ 80.00) only after his/her admission has been confirmed.
The participants will have the option, during the registration fee payment process, to purchase a discounted pass for a selection of the performances of the Biennale Teatro 2019.
All expenses for the participation in the workshop (travel, room and board, local transportation) must be paid by the participants.
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors-under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium "Publishing theatre" and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors under-30 (2019-2020) call.
· 27 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: Italian. Participants must in any case have some knowledge of English (at least at the intermediate level). Knowledge of French is also appreciated (but not binding).
For: actors, directors and dramaturgists
Participants: 21
WORKSHOP
IN(SALA)TA MISTICA
In my recipe, the most delicious ingredient-authors in my career (from Annie Baker to Caryl Churchill, from Edward Albee to Brian Friel), tasted one by one, then seasoned all together, will demonstrate how crucial translation is to the practice of theatre. The word "sala", playhouse, contained in the title, is essential because there is no theatre without an audience. The adjective, "mystic", apart from the play on words, refers to the definition of "mysticism" as written in the Treccani encyclopedia: "Experience that involves man's inner life in the face of a mysterious, absolute reality, different from self, towards which the subject tends beyond normal processes of understanding". For me this experience is Theatre.
Monica Capuani
Culturally, I was born on the benches of the Liceo Classico Virgilio in Rome, and earned my degree in Italian literature with a thesis on Boccaccio, supervised by Alberto Asor Rosa. As a freelance journalist, I was born on the pages of L'Espresso magazine directed by Claudio Rinaldi, then I toured the world for twenty years in search of stories to tell. At the same time, I have always continued to work as a literary translator from English and French, and have translated approximately seventy novels to date.
Theatre has been an irrepressible passion of mine since, as a child, I saw Tino Buazzelli-Falstaff in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Quirino in Rome. Starting at seventeen, I won the ETI theatre criticism competition three times, then Tommaso Chiaretti, the critic at the newspaper La Repubblica, took me under his wing and today, had he not passed away prematurely, I might still be following in his footsteps.
I love London and contemporary theatre. I am awed by the vitality of the participation of society as a whole in that civil rite of deep introspection. For the past two years I have organized "Contemporary", a cycle of encounters between Italian and English theatre people at the Italian Institute of Culture in London, and since 2018 I have been the artistic director of the Italian Theatre Festival in London. I have chosen to work in theatre fulltime, in a role I invented for myself: "talent scout, translator and promoter for the theatre". Because I choose my own texts, I translate them and try to turn them into productions, in Italy and abroad. My goal is to get to the Biennale Teatro 2019 having translated 100 plays.
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format
• a letter of motivation
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium "Publishing theatre" and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors-under-30 (2019-2020) call.
· 27 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: English
For: primarily actors, but directors and dancers may also apply
Participants: 19 > 21
WORKSHOP
M/M/M
My project will take three key ingredients and combine them, as follows:
• Take something that Matters
• Add some Messiness
• Blend and make it Meaningful
In practical terms, our workshop will explore how to create a piece of theatre by working with these three key concepts/ingredients.
Make It Matter: First, we will discuss and find a primary idea that matters to us - and will therefore hopefully matter to an audience. An image, a gesture—or whatever. Something that resonates. An idea from which we can build a work.
Make It Messy: Next, we will unpack this idea and explore it, explode it, open it out, mess around with it, see the possibilities in it, add other ingredients to it. We will do this ‘on the floor’, through a combination of intense physicality and vocal exploration, leading to a spatial dramaturgy and first-stage ‘picture-making’.
Make It Meaningful: Lastly, we ask ourselves: What does our idea actually mean? What are we saying? What will an audience get from it? How might they be changed by contact with the work? What lingering taste might it leave? How might we shift an audience’s perception of the world and their place in it? That is, we will ask the big picture questions and see what additional texture our answers can bring to the work.
Finally, using the RECIPE method and the key ingredients given to us, we will form and shape the work for final presentation.
Susie Dee
She has worked extensively in the theatre as a performer, devisor and director in Australia and overseas for the past thirty years. She has been the Artistic Director of three theatre companies: Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT), Union House Theatre (UHT) and Institute Of Complex Entertainment (ICE), whose projects went on to win various awards and received many accolades for their ground-breaking site-specific work. In 2011, Susie was the recipient of the Australia Council residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Susie has directed works for MTC, Malthouse Theatre, Hothouse Theatre and many independent theatre companies and has been nominated for and won numerous awards. She received two 2017 Green Room Award nominations for Best Director - Looking Glass by Louris Van de Geer and Big Heart by Patricia Cornelius - and a Helpmann Award Best Director nomination for Cornelius’s SHIT. Her 2016 production, Animal (co-devised with Nicci Wilks and Kate Sherman), won four Green Room Awards, including for Best Director. Last year Susie co-directed and performed in Caravan, a Melbourne Festival/Malthouse production co-written by Angus Cerini, Patricia Cornelius and Wayne Macauley and Melissa Reeves. She has just returned from Russia/Siberia, the first stage in the development of a new large-scale theatrical work.
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format
• candidates must answer three questions:
1. WHY THEATRE?
2. WHY NOW?
3. WHY YOU?
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium "Publishing theatre" and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors under-30 call (2019-2020).
· 27 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: Italian (translation into English for foreign participants)
For: people with a strong awareness of movement
Participants: 19
WORKSHOP
MARTINI DRY
To be effective with a small number of rigorously measured, tense elements. The scene is all in the attitude of the body, in the posture. When I say "tense" I mean the moment in which decontraction means the height of alertness: almost the opposite of concentration. You must surrender. That is why I think I will start with the body of the singer, on stage. Then we’ll see. There are so many of us, it will be a chorus.
Michele Di Stefano (Milan, 1963) works in choreography and performance art with the group mk. He is the artistic director of the Grandi Pianure programme for the Teatro di Roma (2018-20), including the BUFFALO section at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2019), of four editions of Tropici at the Angelo Mai in Rome and co-curator of the Giacimenta section for Matera Capitale della Cultura 2019. His most recent productions, 'Robinson', 'Parete Nord', 'Veduta' and 'Bermudas' (Danza&Danza 2018 award) are currently on tour. He has received commissions as a choreographer from the Korean National Contemporary Dance Company and from Aterballetto. In 2014, he won the Silver Lion at the 8th International Festival of Contemporary Dance of La Biennale di Venezia.
Photo: Francesca Verga
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format
• link to a short video singing a song in playback
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors-under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium "Publishing theatre" and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors under-30 (2019-2020) call.
· 27 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: English
For: performers (actors and dancers), directors, choreographers
Participants: 20
WORKSHOP
THE ART OF IMPACT
In The Art of Impact Julian Hetzel gives insight into his creative universe and his working method for creating visual theatre.
This workshop is all about the power of images. The Art of Impact is quick and dirty – it is about trusting raw ideas and about developing performative images that matter.
A recurring element in Hetzel’s works – the extra ingredient in his recipes, is the integration of the real into the arts. A radical shift of context, where reality is transformed into art.
Hetzel’s working method is based on “jamming” – a form of playful experimentation along certain principles. Here theatre is combined with performance, music and visual art into hybrid experiences where the audience is directly involved and addressed. Hetzel’s interest is to challenge the modes of spectatorship by creating situations and images that need the presence of the audience as much as the performer on stage.
Several of Julian Hetzel's artistic collaborators and performers will join the work-sessions.
Julian Hetzel works as a performance maker, musician and visual artist. He develops works along the intersection of theatre, music and media that have a political dimension and a documentary approach. His works are produced and presented internationally.
SPRING Utrecht (NL), Frascati Amsterdam (NL), Noorderzon Groningen (NL), Spielart-Festival Munich (DE), Festival Theaterformen Hannover (DE), Theater der Welt Mannheim (DE), Impulse Theater Festival (DE), Steirischer Herbst Graz (AT), Vooruit Gent (BE), Kaai Theater Brussels (BE), Biennale Bern (CH), National Theatre Riga (LV), Espacios Revelados Buenos Aires (ARG), MMCA Seoul (KR), Malta Festival Poznan (PL), Quadrennial Prague (CZ), Actoral Marseille (FR), Festival Impatience 104 Paris (FR), Saal Biennale Tallin (EST) ..
He is the artistic director of Ism & Heit, an Utrecht based foundation that realises and produces his artistic work. In 2017 Hetzel received the VSCD-Mimeprijs for The Automated Sniper. Since 2018 he is an associated artist at Kunstencentrum CAMPO Ghent (Belgium). SELF by Julian Hetzel has been selected for the Dutch national entry at the Quadrennial Prague 2019..
Julian Hetzel was born in the Black Forest (Germany), and is currently based in Utrecht (Netherlands). He studied at the Bauhaus University Weimar with a focus on visual communication. In 2013, he graduated from DasArts Amsterdam, an artistic research laboratory for new forms of theatre and performing arts. He is the drummer and founding member of the electro-pop band Pentatones.
Photo: BAM Photographers
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format
• a few lines in which the applicant talks about himself and his personal and artistic interests
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium "Publishing theatre" and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors under-30 call (2019-2020).
· 28 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: English.
For: directors and performers.
Participants: 19 - 21
WORKSHOP
UNFINISHED SCORE
Thom Luz will give an insight into how he creates his theatre productions. Starting at zero, the students will be part of the process of creating, scoring and rehearsing a short creation on the subject of theatre itself. Theatre as a series of events, organised by a score, like a recipe. A focus is given to the development of self-perception on stage, event partitions and a basic understanding of musical principles in Luz’ theatre work. A workshop on structure, nonsense, precision and problem-solving.
“Making a theatre piece is like making a sandwich: You need a knife, a heart, a letter, a melody and at least two people who have different ideas about the order in which they want to use these objects. That’s a recipe you can invent yourself. Musical principles can be used to tell a story. Musical principles are: standing still, talking, walking, sitting, being silent, making a sound with your feet. To me, the performer is a musical element in a symphony, and it’s my job as a director to give my performers a sense of their freedom and responsibility within that symphonic structure. In short: There’s a musical solution to every non-musical problem, and a car crash is more fun if you’re not in the car that’s crashing but somewhere else, doing something very different.”
Thom Luz
He is one of Europe’s most prolific theatre creators. Born in Zurich in 1982, he started developing his unique theatre productions in 2007 and has since worked in Switzerland, Germany and France, with his productions touring internationally. He is a director in residence at Theater Basel since 2015 and was invited to Berlin’s renowned Theatertreffen in 2015 and 2017. His creations are highly musical and dense explorations of often strange and unusual subject matters, unsung heroes and absurd specialists.
Photo: Sandra Then
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format (including information on musical background, education and experiences)
• a video (for performers, if available)
• a letter that describes the applicant's specific interest in the workshop (for directors and performers)
Dates: 22 July – 5 August 2019
· 22 > 25 July: meetings with the Director Antonio Latella and attendance at the stage readings of the texts selected as part of the Authors under-40 call (2018-2020).
· 26 July: symposium “Publishing theatre” and conclusion of the Biennale College Theatre – Directors-under-30 call (2019-2020).
· 27 July > 5 August: workshop with the Master.
There will be a short presentation to the public of the final outcome of the workshop.
Language: Italian – English.
For: set designers, stage designers, sound designers, musicians, performers.
Participants: 19
WORKSHOP
RECIPE → ALGORITHM
Algorithm is a word that many associate with computer science and mathematics. But much of our daily life can be compared to an algorithm. How to prepare the pot to make the coffee or even the sequence of actions to do the laundry, the instructions to assemble a piece of furniture, road maps, or even a recipe.
The word algorithm is a starting point from which to reflect upon our daily habits and our approach to things. Can we deconstruct them?
During the workshop we will draw inspiration from the various thoughts about the algorithm to experiment with new identities, with different relations and the possibility of perceiving, interpreting and experiencing a physical space or soundscape, time, stories and community.
Franco Visioli
A graduate of the Recording Workshop OH, USA in 1987, he has worked since 1988 on over 100 productions in major Italian and foreign theatres, collaborating with some of the most important directors in Italy and Europe such as Thierry Salmon, Peter Stein and Massimo Castri, with whom he has worked steadily since 1989 on all the director's productions. He has collaborated with Cristina Pezzoli, Agnese Cornelio, Marco Plini, Pietro Faiella, Marcello Cava, Stefania Felicioli, Tommaso Tuzzoli, Franco Palmieri, Monica Conti, Linda Dalisi, Katrin Hammerl, Irene Di Lelio, Giuseppe Stellato, and many others. In 2002, his meeting with Antonio Latella led to an artistic partnership and to the foundation in 2011 of stabilemobile. For Rai Radio 3, he directed Totò il Buono in 2006 and Francamente me ne infischio in 2014. In 2017, for Biennale Teatro in Venice directed by Antonio Latella, he led a workshop with Letizia Russo dedicated to German artist Unica Zürn.
Annelisa Zaccheria
She graduated in Scenography from the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera, and since 1994 has designed sets and costumes for the theatre in Italy and abroad.
Her works have appeared at LAC in Lugano, Schauspiel Köln, Schauspielhaus Wien, Wiener Festwochen, Emilia Romagna Teatro, Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria, Spoleto Festival, Teatro Stabile di Torino, Teatro di Roma, Napoli Teatro Festival Italia at the Teatro di San Carlo, Théâtre National Populaire Villeurbanne Lyon.
She has been working with Antonio Latella since 1997. Among her projects, the sets for A Streetcar Named Desire, sets and costumes for Il Servitore di due padroni (Nominated for the Ubu Award 2014 for set design) for Emilia Romagna Teatro; Die Verwandlung und andere Erzählungen and Die Trilogie der Sommerfrische (The Holiday Trilogy) for Schauspiel Köln; The Clouds and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant for the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria.
She also worked as the set and costume designer under the direction of Carmelo Rifici, director at the LAC of LuganoInScena for which she was responsible for the sets and costumes of Ariel Dorfman's Purgatorio.
At the same time, she dedicates her time to various projects ranging from art to design, fashion to video, communication to publishing. She has participated in the Quadriennale in Prague and collaborated, among others, with Moschino, Diesel, and MTV.
She met Franco Visioli in the course of a production, the first in a long series, directed by Antonio Latella (The Twelfth Night, or What You Will) produced by the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria.
Photo: B.Giolivo
Applicants are required to provide the requested personal data as well as:
• a passport-size photograph
• a full-figure photograph
• a curriculum vitae in PDF format
• a letter of motivation
• Set and stage designers: a link to a collection of images or videos and a description of at least two completed jobs
• Sound designers and musicians: files of at least two completed jobs
• Performers: link to video clips or photos of at least two completed jobs