Being inspired in Denmark

At the end of March I began what turned out to be a most wonderful journey with Assitej South Africa in cooperation with Assitej Denmark... A programme to inspire four South African theatre makers by exposing them to Danish theatre for babies, children, teenagers, youth and therefore... theatre for anybody lucky enough to be in the audience of, almost, any one of the some 43 shows we saw.

The journey began in Cape Town at the Family season held at the Arts Admin Collective run by the formidable Caroline Coburn (who are also partners in this Denmark | South Africa creative exchange).  We saw some really wonderful shows...  and we flew to Copenhagen.

Briony Di Horwitz, Thando Baliso and Jayne Batzofin about to take off... Copenhagen via Dubai

A brief overview of our three weeks in Denmark...

Week one was experiencing theatre companies, Patrasket, Zebu and Batida.
Week two was spent at the April Festival in Holstebro about four hours from Copenhagen.
Week three was back in Copenhagen for a workshop with director Marc van der Velden from Zebu.

Theatre troupe Batida in full swing rehearsals... preparing for the April Festival

So firstly, I'd like to start off by smashing any preconceived ideas of what 'childrens' theatre actually is...

I guess I expected, for the most part, for it to how I think children's theatre often is - BIG.  I expected big shows with big costumes and mostly two-dimentional characters... and I am delighted to say that this is not what we saw.  At all.  I was blown away by the creative level of the work in just about every show I saw.  Not once were the shows talking down to their audience.  The level of theatricality was the highest order, from the production design and the live music to the costume design and performances.

So a show whose target audience was for ages 6 - 8 left me with my hand on my heart and tears in my eyes because I too am still 6 years old... sitting with my grandmother looking at photographs of her life, listening to stories of youth and adventure... brought so vividly to life in 'All the Time in the World' by Maridiano.  The sheer visual feast of the show, its emotional heart... left me breathless.  This show is for anyone who has ever had or ever wanted a grandmother... whether you are 6 or 35.  Or the relentless joy that is brought to the stage by a band of some 9 actor/musicians in a crescendo that has you leaping to your feet at the utter delight of how live theatre can make you feel completely alive... done with such virtuosity in 'Grande Finale' by theatre troupe Batida.

A snap from Grande Finale... 

Or the staging genius of 'Peer Gynt' that had its audience as sports spectators on either side of the stage as live musicians and actors moved on and between two stages placed on either end.  With great ease and style they took us through the different worlds and emotional landscapes of this epic story.  Honestly.  This theatre is wonderful.  I could go on and on...  I should also mention that it was all also in Danish... and it didn't matter.

The care for the theatrical space, right from the audience entering to the final applause, was held and nurtured with such love.  Frankly.  Where it is the actors who open the doors and welcome you in and ask you turn off your cellphones.  At end it is the actors too who let you out and thank you for coming.

I often have the feeling that young audiences are not treated as a valid audience - and in Denmark this is absolutely not the case.  It really comes down to the level of respect these theatre makers have for their audience... which visibly overflowed to their respect for each other on stage... and furthermore to each other as theatre makers.  To me it was an environment set to cultivate the highest level of art and not a culture of mostly cutthroat competition.

A few examples:

Fully funded companies do not sell their shows to schools or set their ticket prices at festivals or theatres so low that it makes it impossible for individuals who are not funded to break into the industry and get an audience.  Anyone can take their show to their April Festival... however you have to first perform it to a panel who decide if your show is professional or not - not to be confused with whether they like it or not - and once it has been stamped as professional you can take this show to their festival.  This way the level of the work remains high.  Artists are forced to up their game - they don't end up wasting all their money taking a show to a festival that is not professional or ready yet.  It also means that the audience is cared for as they may see work they don't like but they are unlikely to see work that has not been worked.  Once your show is stamped as processional and you manage sell it to a school - the government pays the school back half of the cost of the show.  Hey?  How amazing.  Amazing.

Holstebro... the city where the April Festival was held...
It changes each year thus taking theatre all over the country

So besides seeing what I can really say is some of the best theatre I have ever seen in my life we met amazing people got to see a bit of Denmark...

The splendid apartment we stayed in right in the heart of Copenhagen during our first week.

Soren and Jayne outside Soren beautiful home where we were invited for a most delicious traditional Danish meal!

Sightseeing with Vika... to name but a few...

The Love Castle (i think!) in middle of beautiful Kings Gardens

The Queens guards outside her palace.

The Little Mermaid... of course!

The Royal yacht... it was the Queens birthday on this particular day that we went on the boat tour :) 

Dinner with Maria (from Batida) and her lovely Family.

Our dinner with Maria began with a sunset walk through the forest...
(where they shot some of The Killing)

...And ended with music!  As many evenings do in Denmark.

On a day off during the festival we were treated to some sight seeing... an old Lighthouse...

...facing the very dramatic North Sea.

The SA group... Jori, Briony, Jayne, Thando, Yvette and Caroline.

The programe runs until next year where we aim to put on new productions - inspired by what we experienced in Denmark at the Family Season at The Theatre Arts Admin in early 2015.

It was a completely inspiring experience.  I believe I am already beginning to integrate some of what we experienced.  So thank you to the amazing Danish theatre makers for making it so very wonderful. To Dirck and everyone at Patrasket... Joren and Marc and everyone at Zebu... Soren and Louis and everyone at Batida.  To the brilliant South Africans who made it possible, Yvette, Jori and Caroline - thank you.  And finally to Briony, Jayne and Thando my colleagues on the trip who I shared this time with.  You guys rock.

Our last dinner together in Copenhagen.

Love. Of film.

This... made me swoon.  Cinema.  Transposed.  What a beautiful thing.  These people are very clever.  I would also like to be a Dancing Ghosts.

Dancing ghosts from dunun on Vimeo.

Beautiful things.

I spent a wonderful evening at the press launch event in Johannesburg of Kirsten Goss and Missibaba... Such stunning hand-made jewelry and hand-crafted leather bags and belts... a stunning combination of some of the most exquisite South African products around.  My sister, Renee Schonborn... who does the PR for Kirsten Goss asked me to take a few pics... which I did... and below are some of them.  For my efforts Kirsten gave me sweetest gold star necklace.  How lovely.  I wear it every day.

Chloe Townsend creative genius of Missibaba

The dynamic Kirsten Goss and Chloe... both wearing gorgeous Kirsten Goss necklaces

Kirsten and her infectious smile

my sister Renee Schonborn and Chloe... posing x

The stars of the show... Missibaba goodies

Jewels jewels and more Kirsten Goss jewels 

Champagne and fizzers.  Of course.

Yum.

Ciao Newspaper Man

Last night our movement studio was turned into a little puppet theatre.  Visiting Australian puppeteer Jenny Ellis took us through her wonderful work and then we made our own newspaper puppets...  Trying as best we could to apply a few puppetry principals - giving the figure weight, breath and articulation.  It was such fun...  It was a short workshop so the work we did for each other was totally improvised and totally funny.  These crazy little figures coming suddenly to life.  This is Vika, me and Barbara and our little dude... Ciao Newspaper Man.

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A loud gesture

Two weeks.  Bang.  Gone.  Already... And we are one performance down.  Aaaah.  Amazing.  Third year Helikos in full swing.  We have began this year with Pantomime as our first theatrical territory... when I first heard that I had images of men wearing stax of stage make up dressing up as girls and so on... I am pleased to say that the whole thing is kind of over the top but it is not quite what I expected.  It never is.  Luckily.

A very quick background blurb >>>  Pantomime started back in the day when performers were forbidden to publicly criticize or poke fun at the authorities... it started with not allowing actors to speak on stage...  And boink enter the beginnings of pantomime with an off-stage translator... that was quickly abolished... now you may not speak at all!  And ta-daaa enter full-on pantomime.  Never underestimate the artists need to say something.  Pantomime...  Speaking through gesture >>>

So we returned to the silence...  How to turn sound into gesture so that it is in fact not silent at all.  If the margin for misunderstandings when you can speak is big - it is way bigger when you can't.  It's like everything we have learnt till now coming together to as simply and clearly as possible tell a story, with all the theatre ingredients you need... like a crescendo and a dynamic use of theatrical space - to name but two...

Theatrical space.  Yes.  I never spoke about our 'Trateau' project at the end of first year as I ran out of time and when I came back to it, somehow too much time had passed.  So - a trateau is a trestle sized stage that is raised on which five actors performed.  The physical space is squeezed so that theatrical space becomes infinite...  "When you have no space you have all the space in the world."  Ahh.  And that is what theatre should do shouldn't it... create imagined space.  Duh.  Obvious.  But not really.  We did a piece about a girl stolen from her village by a three headed dragon... Suddenly everything is possible.  Creating images.  Chorus work.  Changing perspectives.  Zooming in.  Miniaturisation.   Soundscapes... How theatre takes on cinema.

...So yes.  In these past two weeks we had to choose a popular film and transpose it for theatre using everything we have learnt.  Although we were not a trateau the principals are the same.  We did Pirates of the Caribbean and the others did Ghost Busters.  Hey?  Remember Ghost Busters!?

In our first performance our silence was too silent.  As we have learnt through the journey full masks and so on... the silence can be (and should be) very very loud.  So yes.  Only after being in the silence of gesture did we begin to add voice... which is actually tricky rather than instantly helpful as one might think.  The voice too needs to be transposed.  Of course.  Hectic.  So whilst it was a ton of fun it was confusing for the audience in parts - better play of space and cleaning up the use of voice will take it to the next level.  Hopefully.  We'll see.  Next time.  For now we're moving on.

In celebration of the journey of theatrical territories... and because i'm missing home...  Here are a few recent pics of Nick and I 'in the state' of different movie genres.  Photography by a friend of mine Bronwyn Stewart...  oh how we laugh.  Ha ha.

Melodrama 

Romantic comedy

Comedy

Horror... eeeeeee.

On the front porch

Nick has been complaining recently that we never take pics anymore... So as a gift I booked a Spring shoot with the wonderful Browyn Stewart from Heart and Soul Photography... This was amoung the sneak peak pics she sent in the middle of the night.  Ah.

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Twins

Yesterday we brought two new friends for our lounge.  Yay.  and Yay.  The night before last we were wondering past a shop in Parktown North for Sushi and seemingly as though through the shop window came... psst.  hey psst.  you.  yes you.  We stopped.  We looked.  We listened.  And the next morning here they were. xx
 
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Popcorn's falling from the sky

Today snow fell in Joburg covering the streets and the playgrounds in a thin white blanket...  I gave a workshop to the Kingsmead junior drama club... Which ended in 'musical snow flakes' as the real thing drifted gently down through the window! 

I took Ella home after the class and Rupert (2 years old) announced... 'Nini- popcorn is falling from the sky.' A surprisingly delightful winters day. 

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A workshop full of horses

Around this time last year I was in Cape Town for a run of Dirt at the Baxter theatre... In that time we visited Janni Younge at Handspring Puppet Company... And banging away in the workshop were stax of super talented people creating the stars of the show War Horse... all headed for Toronto... If I remember rightly. And we were just in time... They were about to be packed in large crates labelled fragile and shipped off.  What a luck. 

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A story on the mantlepiece

'Wooden Cows' ... A new story waiting in the wings. We saw these figurines in Weylandts and had to buy them for a play I wrote some years ago... that has not yet stepped out. So now they sit and look at us from the mantelpiece patiently waiting.  

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...then we'll take Berlin.

Jamelia... 'What?'

In the early hours of a winter morning... Snug in a warm bed under a plump feather duvet...  The distant sounds of world waking up - chirping birds - a barking dog - a passing car - and - an unusual scraping noise coming from the other side of the bed.  I know what it is.  The scraping noise.  I hope i'm wrong.  But no.  Jamelia, the cat, has peed on Nicks jeans.  His replay jeans.  Yes.  Not his old old dirty socks... or outside in the garden.  No.  And now he is trying to cover it up with the floor boards.  I don't know what he thinks.  That the boards will give way and no-one will know that he couldn't be bothered to go out... Stuff this... It's cold outside...  And I don't see them squeezing through this tiny flap at the bottom of the door in the middle of the night at minus 3 temperatures.  Who do they think I am...

Usually when he can't be bothered to go outside, usually he chooses the bath and then scrapes the sides, in the hope that the walls will collapse and neatly cover his business - a little enamel parcel of cat pee.  Nice.

Bang!  A pair of soiled Replays fly across the room narrowly missing a totally confused and indignant cat... What?  I was trying to cover it up...  The floor boards wouldn't move... it's not my fault!  Nick and the cat are still not talking.

Cats.  What are they like.... First we'll take Manhattan and then we'll take Berlin... if he did listen to pop music it would no doubt be Leonard Cohen with Lulu our over zealous labrador singing backing...

A garden in serious conversation

In a week filled with rain... on one very unlikely day I was walking home from a studio we don't normally use, on a route I don't often take...  the sun unexpectedly peered out from behind the clouds, just as I walked past the entrance to the Boboli Gardens... which to my surprise - for this week only - had no entrance fee.  So in I went.  Just like that.  An unexpected visit.  To a very pretty place.  Where statues hide in every alcove and line every pathway in silent but serious conversation.

Lessons in Articulation

We have started the deep dive into Commedia dell'arte for real now... and it demands pieces of everything we have learned from the very beginning of this unbelievable journey!  A cauldron of theatrical potential.  It is terrifying.  And exciting.  At the same time.  We are doing Shakespeare plays in the style of Commedia dell'arte... Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth.  What a thing.  We have just started exploring the masks and the character types... and the level of style and articulation and vocal resonance they require is staggering.  Eee.

We can learn a lot from children and animals! For Christmas I got a new lens for my camera from Nick... aah... and these are among the first photo's I took... Rupert and Coroline.  Children and animals...  Articulation naturals.  Action reaction geniuses.  Levels of tension perfectionists.  And masters of 'play'.  You can watch them for hours.  And hours.  Sigh.  Missing home.    

My nephew Rupert at bath time!  Hey?!  How cute!

Coroline... our mad black cat x

We break for out next holiday in two weeks and I am going home... to all my family... our pets... the sunshine.  Can't wait!  16 sleeps.  x

Make a wish... and send it up

We welcomed 2012 in with a wish and a sky lantern... and watched them rise and float over the bay in Plett... It rocked.  Happy 2012.  May all the wishes come true.

Ella making her wish

Ella watching her wish rise up

Hugo preparing to make his wish

The moment when Annies balloon began to pull up...

Melie looking like an angel makes her wish

Jack watches his wish [in capital letters!] take off