Between the Thames River walk and the studio research phase of the Wasteland Project I managed to attend my first Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The sheer volume of events, artists, must see shows, empty venues, theater goers and tourists was overwhelming. Summerhall served as my base for chilling out and plotting my experience. While it was tempting to just stick close to my colleagues I made an effort to venture out into the night on solo adventures. Despite the exciting environment, I’m in no hurry bring a show to the Fringe. It is kind of brutal.

The slide show has photos from performances I saw: Clout Theatre’s How A Man Crumbled; Kristina Wong’s Going Green the Wong Way; Shu-wing Theatre Studio’s Detention; Teatr Pieśn Kozła’s Songs of Lear; Suzuki Company of Toga’s Waiting for Orestes: Electra; Teatr Zar’s Caesarean Section: Essays On Suicide; and Akhe’s Mr. Carmen.

thames

With T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland as a starting inspiration I joined some colleagues in London on an urban expedition in the form of a four day walk on the river Thames. It was sort of like ››Romania except the 2012 Olympic Games were going on.

Here’s an email excerpt from the initiator of the Wasteland Project Stephanie Bain 30 May 2012 describing the aim of the research:
“I want to challenge the concepts and the boundaries of what the expedition model – as conceived by Teatr Pieśń Kozła – can be. I’m asking is it possible to do an urban expedition? Is it possible to explore a familiar environment, but to see it with new eyes when looking at it as inspiration for performance making? On re-reading The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, I was drawn to the dialogues of London that weave together mythological images and songs that flow through the city by focusing on the river Thames as a rich symbol for birth, for death, for the passing of time. I was inspired to work on The Wasteland as performance material and this source text opens up the idea of an expedition to the communities around London docklands; Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs.
…
The expedition would be a walk along the East London to Essex portion of the Thames Path. I’m going to finalise this route within the next week but it’s likely that we’ll start around Canary Wharf and walk through Greenwich and Docklands and out into Essex. The idea is to talk to people on houseboats, to talk to people in pubs, to perhaps arrange a meeting with the veteran dockers union, to talk to people at some small agricultural fairs on route (lots of weird and very English stuff!). I need to do some more research this week, but there are some campsites along the route and in an effort to save money/adhere to expedition ethos we would probably be camping. Then we get back and get into the Tunnels space for the R&D weeks. There’s some specific actor research that I want to explore in this phase, but that’s for later. This email is long enough already.”

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning

O Lord Thou pluckest me out

O Lord Thou pluckest

burning ~t.s. eliot

2012-09-10

The Game

Concept:
Maja Godlewska, Daniel Han, and Marek Ranis

Performers
Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro, Sam Alty, Emma Bonnici, Seth Compton, Joshua Doerksen, Daniel Han, Alexandra Kazazou, Magdalena Koza, Diego Pileggi, and Anu Salonen

Movement Direction
Daniel Han

Narration
Joshua Doerksen

Set/Instillation
Marek Ranis and Maja Godlewska

Photography
Karol Jarek

Music
Sean Mulcahy and Mathew Tuly

Editing
Chris English Pittman

Film by
Mark Ranis

The Game was played during Survival 10 Art Review, 21-24 June 2012, Wrocław, Poland.

The Game from Marek Ranis on Vimeo.

2012-08-01

Schulz

We lived on the Rynek, in one of those dark houses with empty blind looks, so difficult to distinguish one from the other.

This gave endless possibilities for mistakes. For, once you had entered the wrong doorway and set foot on the wrong staircase, you were liable to find yourself in a real labyrinth of unfamiliar apartments and balconies, and unexpected doors opening on to strange empty courtyards, and you forgot the initial object of the expedition, only to recall it days later after numerous strange and complicated adventures, on regaining the family home in the grey light of dawn.
-Bruno Schulz, 1934

Drawing on Schulz
Cast: Sam Alty, Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro, Stephanie Bain, Georgina Biggs, Agnieszka Bresler, Seth Compton, Angela Delichatsios, Paolo Garghentino, Ilona Krawczyk, Piotr Antek Kurjata, Rea Mole, Mariae Smiarowska

Artistic Director: Anna Zubrzycki
Assistant Directors: Rafal Habel, Anu Salonen,
Creative Consultant: Gabriel Gawin
Music: Maciej Rychly, Sam Alty and traditional Romanian music and songs
Set and Costume design: Mira Zelechower-Aleksiun
Production Coordinator: Rafal Habel
Production Assistant: Diego Pileggi
Artwork: Klaudia Kost, Kamila Dydak
Expedition Coordinator: Niamh Dowling
Documentary Filmmaker: Tomo Brody
Expedition Translator: Gina Calinoiu

Teatr Pieśń Kozła, Wroclaw, Poland
12 and 13 April 2012, 7pm
22 and 23 April 2012, 7pm

Capitol Theatre, Manchester, UK
18 April 2012, 3pm and 6pm

Young Vic Theatre, London, UK
20 April 2012, 2.30pm and 4pm

2012-06-06

Romania Photos

I got my first digital camera. Here are some photos from the Romania expedition. Some of these were used by the scenic designer to create the world for actors to play in.