Participatory Theater Graduate Projects
The performances on display are the result of process-oriented research that brings together participatory theatre, sociology, speculative dramaturgy, technology and new media. The theatrical performances range from the confrontation with wishes and dreams to the unpredictable social games of life and feminist sci-fi world-building – every aspect can be experienced. Risks are to be taken, dreams are to be had, wishes are to be realized, fortunes to be won, new worlds to be built!
Theater is a social art form in which co-poietic feedback loops between various physicalities can be tested as indisputable concepts. Exploring technology as a tool for translation into new experiences and social relationships is at the heart of the Spiel & Objekt MA programme. Spiel & Objekt believes that the combination of technology, critique and theatrical methods enables genuine participation and connections between people and species that critically reflect different aspects of society and our environment.
Audiences will explore unknown worlds, immerse themselves in dreams, uncover their desires and compete for prizes. With every show, participants get a chance to playfully “turn the tide” and change the course of events. There are contexts, technologies and tools to try out as “carriers of hope”.
Our campus space will constantly change, with various time-based and interactive performances available at selected times. The space will change from futuristic feminist worlds to strange planets to dreamscapes and games of chance. Despite their diversity, all the settings and performances will constantly complement each other when viewed individually.
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Fortune’s Crumbs
Jonas Olbrich (DE)
The neoliberal ideology tells the fairytale of a world in which everyone can make it. In reality, however, injustice is increasing every day. This is because no efforts are made to actually reward hard work, nor would meritocratic principles even be feasible in a society based on the division of labor.
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Slaap Lekker
Jeffrey van der Geest (NL/AU)
Grieving is hard. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, sometimes we cannot escape, and sometimes we just feel. It can even happen that the people we have lost visit us in our dreams.
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There always will have been worlds
Friedel Hänsel (DE), Leonie Kopineck (DE), Vero Roza Risnovska (SK)
Everything that breathes cares and is cared for. You enter a world and merge with it — a society shaped through care, through action but also inaction. The simple acts of collective and individual efforts can change the world.
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WishWhoosh
Mari Hakopyan (UA)
In the fabric of existence, woven with threads of intention, lies the profound influence of wishes. Yet, the journey of a wish is not merely unidirectional. Just as wishes shape matter, so does matter reciprocally mold wishes.
Spiel & Objekt Master Studio, Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts Berlin (DE)
Situated at the Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts Berlin, the MA program Spiel und Objekt builds on the need to explore new ways of merging theatrical narratives, new technologies and participatory discourse in aesthetic practice. The Master’s program explores participatory forms with the Contemporary Puppetry, Dramaturgy, and Choreography departments, allowing participants to experience various agencies in current eco-social discourses.
Credits
Mari Hakyopan
Friedel Hänsel
Veronika Rišňovská
Leonie Kopineck
Jonas Olbrich
Jeffrey van der Geest
Cecilia Xuetong
Helena Zaïda
Szerafina Schiesser
Frederik Britzlmair
Alissa Schaaf
Taale Frese
Paul Voell
Jonas Roscher
Ella Shields
Angelica Black
Rohan Mirkovic
