Masrah al-Madina has announced a collaboration with three German dramatists, which will see each of them lead webinars on their work and practice.
Sponsored by the Goethe Institute, “Berlin-Beirut: Live Conversations on Theatre and Performing Arts” will comprise three workshops, led by Helgard Haug, Susanne Kennedy and Thomas Ostermeier, to be streamed Dec. 7-9. Young theater professionals are invited to register to join the discussion, while the public can watch more passively on YouTube.
Masrah al-Madina to stage theater webinars https://t.co/ETBQ17jGum
— The Daily Star Lebanon (@DailyStarLeb) December 4, 2020
With Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel, writer-director Helgard Haug is a founding member of the theater collaboration Rimini Protokoll, whose work is marked by its playful mingling of fiction and banal reality. In her Dec. 7 workshop, Haug is expected to introduce and lead a discussion of Rimini Protokoll’s work, specifically their 2019 play “Chinchilla Arsehole, eyey,” premised on three protagonists living with Tourette’s Syndrome, and how abrupt, uncontrolled outbursts of movement and sound reverberates within the idea of theater.
Award-winning director Susanne Kennedy is a restless theater innovator known for her pioneering incorporation of mechanical apparatus and video into her stagecraft. For her Dec. 8 workshop, Kennedy will take up a pair of works – “Drei Schwestern,” her prize-winning 2019 adaptation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” and “Ultraworld,” her 2020 collaboration with Markus Selg, which has been described as model for the creation of a world.
Thomas Ostermeier is the artistic director of the Schaubuhne Berlin, which (before the pandemic ended theater) was among Germany’s most respected ensemble theaters, with a repertoire of over 30 in-house productions and a minimum of 10 premieres a year. His critically engaged approach to the form has proven popular among youth audiences.
From the control room in Masrah Al-Madina #theater #hamra #beirut #lebanon @nailaalhares pic.twitter.com/bPEvHp6x
— Doha Adi (@Dohaadi) December 1, 2012
Ostermeier’s Dec. 9 workshop is expected to focus on his renowned production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” which interrogates the possibility of truth and transparency in the consumerist society formed within late capitalism. Joining the conversation will be Rabih Mroue, the much-loved Lebanese playwright and actor who has been working in Germany for some years now.
All three workshops commence at 11.00 EET. Participation in “Berlin-Beirut” is free of charge. Applications can be got from, and submitted to, masmad@cyberia.net.lb. Application deadline is Dec. 6.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
