A series of events organised by Doris Kolesch and Kai Padberg, Research Area 2: "Travelling Matters".

The third event of our series is an online talk with:

Rodolfo García Vázquez (director and playwright, Brazil) was born in Sao Paulo and founded Os Satyros in 1989. Throughout his career, he worked as a director in theatre and film and performed in 20 countries. Among his main works are the Libertine Trilogy, based on Marquis de Sade (Philosophy in the Boudoir, 120 Days of Sodom and Justine), the People Trilogy (Perfect People, Sublime People and Mean People) and Roberto Zucco (by the French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès). He worked as artistic director at Interkunst (Berlin) for 7 years. In this period, he collaborated with artists from over 25 countries in different shows, such as Instant Acts gegen Gewalt und Rassismus. Rodolfo has further developed research on technology and theatre with a master thesis on cyborg theatre and telepresence.

Aldri Anunciação (Dramatist and Actor, Brazil) is a playwright, scriptwriter, actor and TV host. His work Namibia, no! was awarded first place at the Jabuti Literature Award in the category 'Youth'. As a screenwriter he participated in the screenwriting team of the feature film Medida Provisória and the TV programmes Conexão Bahia and Conversa Preta (both from TV Bahia affiliated to Rede Globo). He holds a bachelor's degree in Theatre Theories from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro and a PhD from the post-graduate programme in Scenic Arts from the Federal University of Bahia. He made his debut as a professional actor in Jean Genet's Os Negros (directed by Carmem Paternostro) and August Strindberg's O Sonho (directed by Gabriel Vilela). More recently he performed in the feature films Café com Canela (2016) and Ilha (2018) that earned him the Candango for Best Actor at the Brasília Film Festival. He also received the Comenda de Mérito Cultural in 2014, for his contributions to the arts and to the festivals Dramaturgias da Melanina Accentuada and Plataforma Melanina Digital that catalogue and study black dramaturgies.

Giordano Castro is a Brazilian actor, director and playwright. Born in Recife, Pernambuco, he graduated in Performative Arts at the Federal University of Pernambuco and participated in an international exchange programme in Artistic Studies, developed by the University of Coimbra. He is a founding member of Grupo Magiluth. As an actor, he worked in almost all of Magiluth's plays and is responsible for the dramaturgy of seven of them: Um Torto, Aquilo que meu olhar guardou para você, Luiz Lua Gonzaga, O ano em que sonhamos perigosamente (alongside with Pedro Wagner), Dinamarca, Tudo que coube numa VHS and Todas as histórias possíveis. Castro acted in the movies Tatuagem by Hilton Lacerda and Tungstênio by Heitor Dahlia, as well as in the series Treze Dias Longe do Sol and Onde Nascem os Fortes.

Juliana Piesco is an actor, performer and visual artist from São Paulo who currently lives in Recife, Pernambuco. She received a bachelor’s degree in Law and Performing Arts and is currently studying Visual Arts at the University of São Paulo (USP). Piesco Worked alongside the award-winning director and playwright Janaina Leite, as an actor in Feminino Abjeto (2017), and as a creative collaborator in Stabat Mater (2019). More recently, she has focused her research on the use of multimedia art in theatre. In 2020, Piesco was the assistant director in the digital theatre works by Grupo Magiluth Tudo que coube numa VHS and Todas as histórias possíveis.

Grupo Magiluth was founded in 2004, at the Federal University of Pernambuco, and has been praised by the press and critics as one of the most relevant theatre companies in Brazil. Its work is based on continuous aesthetic research and independent artistic experimentation, with a repertoire composed of eleven plays - created between 2007 and 2019 - and two sensorial experiments, developed specifically for the period of social suspension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has performed in 24 of the 26 Brazilian state capitals, and participated in projects in Lisbon and London, as well as in several international theatre festivals all over Brazil. With new headquarters in the heart of Recife, Pernambuco, it currently consists of six members who carry out several activities in the areas of research, creation and artistic exchange in constant dialogue with the area in which they operate and with the people around them.

About the experiments: In a context of social distancing, in which ways is it possible to reinstate the presence shared between the actors and the public? Which new forms of interaction can be built collectively, in mutual communication, in times of isolation? The experiment was inspired by and based in the specificities of the current circumstances: Grupo Magiluth's sensorial experiments propose artistic strategies that respond to the singularity of the moment we now live in, as well as to the imperative restrictions that define it. In the show, dramaturgy travels through multiple digital platforms and composes a distinct aesthetic experience for each participant in which the public is also engaged as an agent.

Moderator:

Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch (Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin)

It was the middle of March 2020 when Germany went into lockdown. Back then, there had already been a curfew in Wuhan, China, for several weeks. In many other countries in Europe and worldwide, public life was abruptly shut down. The consequences for the cultural sector have been dire everywhere. All over the world, theatres have had to shut down unexpectedly and most remain closed. Schedules have been cancelled. Professional existences are endangered. At the same time, public and cultural life has shifted to the digital sphere. Many theatres and artists are using this way to stay in touch with their audiences and are exploring digital spaces more than ever before. But what forms of community-building are even remotely possible for theatre and the performing arts? What is the character of the relation between local institutions and these transnational spaces, which might open up and expand while national borders remain closed? What does it mean for artistic practice if humans assemble as a virtual audience while being physically alone in their respective homes? In what ways will the pandemic change theatre? What will digital assemblies mean for theatres after the pandemic?

In the series of events entitled "Temporal Communities and Digitality – Theatre During the Pandemic", theatre directors, theatre artists and scholars from around the world will report on the practical effects on theatre operations and their work. They will examine the various strategies with which stage and theatre creators have reacted to this situation, online and offline. Together with researchers from the Cluster of Excellence "Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective", they will discuss how the global crisis of the theatre has created new temporal communities and to what extent these are created under the conditions of digitality.

This event is part of our series "Temporal Communities and Digitality - Theatre During the Pandemic".

Teilnahme: Bitte per E-Mail an j.koenig2@fu-berlin.de. Die Veranstaltung wird zusätzlich als Livestream übertragen. Eintritt frei.