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Brigitte and Nikola, who came to the cultural forum held in Kaunas in May 2022, talk about their theatrical performances and the life-changing communities that they build in the theater.
– Eutopia " During the project, I directed community theatrical performances, such as " Somali Memoirs " (" Somali Memories " ) and "Mørkhed" ("Tamsa"). In these performances, you have brought together very different people for the joint creation.How did you have the idea of creating community shows with people who do not? have never been on stage? How did they feel about theater?
Brigitte Christensen (BC): In the context of "Eutopios we only created these two representations, but I have been presenting community theatrical performances for many years. I do this not only because of the integration of various social groups, but also to encourage communities to become more open.
Then, people who have never done it on stage appear on the scene. This is a prerequisite, but we do not apply any screening criteria. Anyone interested can participate. It is the very essence of the communal theater.
To know the wonderful theatrical phenomenon, almost magical, there is little will and enthusiasm. Presence in a professional theater environment helps unleash the potential of all these people.
Nikola Diklic (ND): We are not trying to create a theatrical laboratory and creative workshops, we do not want to create a theater laboratory and workshops. It is a very personal and psychologically complicated process.
We can not act as professionals with community performances because they are not. However, we must be demanding of them because their appearances must be professional. This is not easy because all together we have to survive various situations in life. But it is they who change the mindset of these people or even their lives.
And furthermore, we must be very enthusiastic and fully involved in the process, because if we do not, we will respect it
a challenge for us as professionals. It's beautiful, but we must be honest. Otherwise, we will not succeed.
– You have already mentioned that you do not have screening criteria for community members. But how do you choose the communities you work with?
BC: Usually, we are invited to work in a location by local cultural sector representatives who have seen our performances or have heard of what we are doing and would like to do something similar with their local community
With them, we encourage local people to join the project by various means, to test their strengths in the theater and to hold open meetings to which all who wish can attend. Of course, there are exceptional cases. For example, in the performance of "Mørkhed", everyone did not want to participate. We invite only women
N.D .: Women of very different age groups and of very different social origins met. It was incredibly interesting
B.C .: People who did not meet under normal circumstances worked together.
– What's happening with these unusual collaborations?
N.D .: It is interesting that people who play at the beginning of the play do not know each other. However, in the long and complex process of joint creation, these people become a family.
BC: We also spend a lot of time trying to get to know the places we work with and to get in touch with us, we also spend a lot of time trying to understand where we work and make contacts . with local people. This is very important because community shows must be based on local experiences.
– Do you invite people from the community to participate in the shows, you also propose a theme in advance? Was she born in a relationship with people who play it?
– BC.: First, we try to find out more about the town or village where we will be working, the difficulties faced by local people and their history or the shortcomings of this story. With that in mind, we are offering some pieces of our next performance, but we never create a specific script. They are born only in cooperation with local and productive actors.
N.D .: Our working model resembles Shakespearian theater. As before, after each rehearsal, we take notes that eventually lead to a story. This is the most beautiful way to create a theater.
BC: In his last presentation, "Somali Memoirs," we were based on the stories of people who were playing in a real performance, but on the stage they were not themselves, but embodied physical and psychological characters. . It's a real performance.
We worked with people who attend various therapeutic activities for which they did not help. However, they have become much better in the theater processes we are developing.
N.D .: This process changes the mentality of those involved and has lasting positive consequences in their lives. We worked with people who visited various therapeutic activities for which they did not help. However, having taken part in the processes we develop at the theater, they began to feel much better. We believe that promoting the openness of people is very important
B.C .: This is also a very big challenge for us. Despite the fact that we have been doing this for many years and have developed methods, we must work every time as if it was our first time. We need to earn the trust of those people who, with us, will agree to do whatever they need.
– Together with "Eutopia" we initiated a festival of ghettos both professional and local. representatives of the community. Maybe you can tell more about the festival?
B.C .: The International Festival of Eutopia was conceived as a great event with its beginning, its development and its end.
ND: This is a five-day, solid event, during which you could see both the performances of famous artists and the interesting artistic projects put implemented by the local community. In this way we have managed to combine these two levels of artistic activity, which is one of the main principles of Eutopia
BC: The festival was taking place in a large multi-storey concrete building. 4 kilometers from downtown Aarhus.
Currently about 90 percent District residents are foreigners from Muslim countries. They feel no connection to the local community, and they often do not dare to show up in the area because it is famous for the crime. Encouraging non-ghettos to participate in the festival was a real challenge for us.
At a festival in the center of the ghetto, we established a small village called "Eutopolis". It was a place where people could spend the whole day nibbling and attending various performances.
We wanted to include not only the inhabitants of the ghetto, but also the people living outside.
For example, in a private apartment, we prepared a short interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet in just 20 minutes.
Hamlet was still a popular piece, but it is often considered too sophisticated, so we have it. moved the environment and gave people the opportunity to discuss the informal dinner in the same apartment after the performance. It was an incredibly wonderful experience.
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