Chorus project online festival Skopje/London // Programme //
DAY 1 // DAY 2 // DAY 3
/ DAY 1 – 12. March. 2021 /
20:00 // Opening Talk (free)
Short introduction to IT´S A JOURNEY and
Oresteia ¼ (The Libation Bearers)
// watch here //
20:30 // IT´S A JOURNEY
A film essay in four acts – road movie of the memory of theater // Team Agamemnon, PATHOS Munich
IT’S A JOURNEY looks back from the end to the beginning of the three-year international artistic cooperation THE CHORUS Project 2018-2021.
What is and can the choir be today? How does it fan out in a globalized society that is busy with great upheavals? How do the intellectual voices of the past transform into a contemporary interpretation of previously unheard voices?
There is no direct contact, the stage as a medium and socio-political venue for negotiations. The murmur of the audience before it gets dark and the endless discussions after the performance are memories of a seemingly long gone time. We are in the digital space. IT’SA JOURNEY 2018-2021 is a story about farewell and a new beginning, about the multidimensional beauty of the ephemeral. Klytämnestra, Elektra, Kassandra, Iphigenie and the Guardian are the queer – feminist heroes of history in the dawn of outdated structures and their artistic reorganization in digital space.
From collected research material from the trips, to rehearsals and presentations with the international project partners * from Munich to Skopje, London and Graz, from performative ventures and experiences, tested in Zoom meetings during the lockdowns and in the workshops with young people and senior citizens Image and sound document of the overwriting of the 2500 year old text material of the Oresty of Aeschylus.
Language : German / English
Duration : 40 min
Concept, editing, music, composition and image design: Astrid Behrens, Angelika Fink, Joe Masi, Essi Utrainen / With the participating artists from The Chorus Project and excerpts from the productions Electra 2.0 (2019) and Agamemnon – a queer feministic visual poem (2020) at Pathos Munich. As well as with the senior citizens of the Munich Senior Citizens Exchange and 9th grade students from the Wittelsbacher Gymnasium Munich. (Electra 2.0 Workshops 2019)
21:15 // Oresteia ¼ (The Libation Bearers)
Theater-film of the digital adaptation of Oresteia ¼ // Team MKC Skopje, North-Macedonia
Democracy cannot dwell in a system where there are no fundamental postulates of law enforcement, which enables limitless power to the ruling class. The people must fight to regain those postulates, or to join them. As long as we take no responsibility, we will establish no democracy.
Moreover, we cannot discuss democracy in 21st-century-Europe when whole territories that geographically belong to Europe are not part of the Union, adding the fact that the neoliberal logic of ruling in the Union itself persistently deepens the social discrepancy.
Finally, it really doesn’t matter whether Orestes slaughters Clytemnestra, because regardless the result, a new law will be devised to protect the interests of the ruling class as it will be later done in Oresteia.
The digital adaptation of Oresteia ¼ is based on the aesthetics that were already established in the play: minimalist décor, black box empty space, minimalist film acting and Facebook as a medium through which we represent The Chorus projected on a silver screen. In this new version we use a combination of film techniques and theatrical symbolism. More precisely, we can define this digital version of Oresteia ¼ as not theatrical, but theater-film.
// Tickets //
Language: Macedonian / English
Duration: 42 min
Director: Ivica Dimitrijevic / Ass director: Jasmina Vasileva / Dramaturg: Biljana Krajcevska / Scenography and stage design: Kristina Bozurska / Music: Jane Trajkovski / Editing: Martin Ivanov / Director of photography and camera: Atanas Velkovski / Ass. director of photography and camera: Marjan Petkovski / Gaffer: Zlatko Dimeski / Sound recording: Krunislav Cvetkovski / Technicians: Erik Omeragic , Kiril Donev / Producer: Filip Nikolovski / Cast: Orestes: Stefan Vujisic, Electra: Nina Elzeser, Clytemnestra: Dragana Kostadinovska, Leader of the chorus: Zarko Jovanovic, Aegistus: Dimitrija Doksevski //Youth Cultural Center Skopje -MKC Skopje
22:00 // Q&A (free)
// watch here //
/ DAY 2 – 13. March. 2021 /
16:00 // Talk
International funding panel:
1 hour max (free)
// watch here //
17:15 // Workshop Session
Small Direct Actions: How do independent artists help each other without big grants? How do we keep things sustainable? 1 hour max (Zoom?)
Pt2: how can we arrange projects and ideas beyond the big Creative Europe funds?
We need big grants for survival – but how do we collaborate with one another on smaller projects?
Sharing projects and ideas, amplifying each others voices by sharing work from time to time
What are the small manifestations we can make? Things that cost nothing but help one another to build our work more and more, inspire people?
20:00 // Open talk (free)
Short introduction to The Chorus – An Audio Experience and Proteus – a lost piece of memory
// listen here //
20:30 // The Chorus – An Audio Experience
Audio Exploration // Team Upstart Theatre London with Birmingham REP
Audio exploration of the themes of The Oresteia, Justice, retaliation, moral responsibility and revenge.
“You say to yourself with a bit of a smirk, ‘I would have been on the right side of history’”
The Chorus are eleven people, of ages spanning five decades and ethnic heritages crossing ten different countries but all citizens of Birmingham and all British. They reflect on the times they’ve felt oppressed, injustices they’ve witnessed and events that have shaken and divided their city and the nation. This engaging and evocative podcast touches on racial injustice, sexual harassment and what it means to be British today. Reflecting on images taken at race riots in the US and in Birmingham they ask what they can do to make change and whether they will be “on the right side of history”.
This production continues the work Upstart Theatre started with Birmingham residents when we made Beneath the City, a play about a woman’s quest for justice after her brother dies in prison. Beneath the City, also part of the Chorus Project, was presented at Birmingham REP in January 2020. As Covid-19 precautions have severely limited our ability to present live work, we decided to create an audio piece which would continue our exploration of the themes of The Oresteia; Justice, retaliation, moral responsibility and revenge.
Language: English
Duration: 21 min
Artistic Director: Tom Mansfield / Sound Designer & Composer: Duncan Grimley / Executive Producer: Emma Sampson / Producer: Hannah Tookey / Co-creator: Denise Norton, Linda Hisgett, Eddie Nelson, Melanie Distien, Eleanor Lawson, Niamh Elcock, Gordaon Elcock, Sharon Walcott, Toqueer Quyyam, Jane Winder, Kerry Farter // A production of Upstart Theatre, UK
21:00 // Proteus – a lost piece of memory
Theater am Lend, Graz (A)
The fourth part of the Oresty // The play as a film
Together with a choir of senior citizens, a piece is found that was lost somewhere, somewhere: a satyr play, the lost fourth part of the Oresty. A connection between personal and social past, the present and the future is created, humorous, sad and touching. Now the play has turned into a film.
// Tickets //
Language : German / English
Duration: 40 min
Direction, concept and video: Franz von Strolchen / direction and dramaturgy: Edith Draxl / text: Christian Winkler / stage / costumes: Markus Boxler / video production: Vincent Seidl (HENX) / assistant director / evening director: Julia Herrgesell / acting: Florian Tröbinger / Choir direction: Madeleine Lissy / Choir: Ingeborg Pass-Kosmath, Susanna Rupp, Annemarie Tisch, Christine Benischke, Martin Fuchs, Eveline Rieger, Margarete Kostka, Corinja Hein, Martin Gasparics, Bibi Reinhardt, Otto Neumeier // A production by Theater am Lend
22:00 // Q&A (free)
// watch here //
/ DAY 3 – 14. March. 2021 /
16:00 // IT´S A JOURNEY
A film essay in four acts – road movie of the memory of theater // Team Agamemnon, PATHOS Munich