WORKSHOPS

1 - 2 OCTOBER (10.00 - 17.30) Latvia Puppet Theatre organises 3 practical WORKSHOPS- MASTERCLASSES:

  • for playwrights, theatre scholars and critics
  • stage designers and artists
  • for directors and actors

Each workshop includes lectures, case studies, discussions, practical exercises, work with different materials, demonstrations, feedback and theoretical reinforcement. 

The workshops will be led by internationally renowned contemporary theatre experts.

EUR 249,99

(including VAT and internet sales commission)

Price includes materials, coffee breaks.

DRAMATURGY OF DEVISED AND OBJECT THEATRE

Sodja Zupanc-Lotker (Czech Republic)

To whom:

Playwrights and theatre researchers, critics

Time:

1 and 2 October, 10:00 - 17:30 (with coffee breaks)

Location:

Rainis and Aspazija House 
30 Baznīcas Street

Objectives:

To deepen understanding of the language and means of expression of contemporary theatre, to gain insight into the strategies of new playwriting, to try out practical approaches and tools.

Number of participants:

20

​BUY​

Devised dramaturgy is not based in a traditional theatre play but ‘devised’ from different kinds of material through rehearsing, usually through dialogue and collaborative processes. The forms that come out are extremely various: conceptual theatre, object theatre, participatory theatre, documentary theatre, site specific etc. etc. Devised processes usually include whole teams that work collectively, and the creative process is often finished only with audiences, often also taking on roles of collaborators.

The workshop focuses on creating possibilities of dialogue within creative process of making performance, dialogues between people but also between people and materials. Here the artist is not perceived as someone that comes up with ideas, but someone that creates in relation to others, things and the reality.

The participants will be introduced to basic strategies: listening to material, potential of material, collaborative thinking, thinking through doing etc. of devised dramaturgy. We will be trying out different ‘ingredients’ such as photos, stories, material, films, references, quotes, ready-mades, movements, spaces, ideas, dreams, half-baked thoughts, forgotten desires to devise theatrical situations and explore idea of multiple realties in the theatre.

The workshop is suitable for people with theatre training or without it.

Doc. Sodja Zupanc-Lotker, Ph.D, teaches dramaturgy and is head of the master studies at DAMU KALD in Prague. She works as a dramaturg for independent theatre, dance and exhibition projects with Friedrich Floen, Julian Hetzel, Jan Mocek, Wojtek Ziemilski, Temporary Collective etc. She was artistic director of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2008 – 2015.

She has given lectures and workshops at Yale School of Drama, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Iceland Academy of the Arts, Norwegian Theatre Academy etc. Her research includes: agency of costume, spatial dramaturgy, material agency, devising strategies, dramaturgy and research.

ECOSCENOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Tanja Beer (Australia)

To whom:

Set designers, designers and artists involved in the production of the performance.

Time:

1 and 2 October, 10:00 - 17:30 (with coffee breaks)

Location:

Art Academy of Latvia
O.Kalpaka Boulevard 13

Objectives:

To provide knowledge and inspiration for eco-consciousness in scenography and design, to initiate and develop new innovative scenography and design concepts and solutions

Number of participants:

20

​BUY​

The Ecoscenography Workshop explores the creative application of ecological thinking to performance design. During the workshop, participants will develop conceptual ideas in response to short plays and texts that explore ecological themes. Participants will be introduced to the concept of ecoscenography (ecological design for performance), where the cycles of co-creation (pre-production), celebration (production), and circulation (post-production) are integrated into the creative processes.  

Ecoscenography is a new approach to theatre production that seeks to dissolve the apparent boundaries between artists, materials, audiences, and the wider ecosystem, expanding creative responsibility and encouraging reflection on how we make work and communicate through it. The workshop invites participants to explore the ideas and practices of ecoscenography and to generate design concepts for a work-in-progress exhibition and public presentation. Conversations, ideas, and practical works will stimulate discussions on the future of scenography in a climate-changed world. Each participant can focus on any aspects of performance design that interests them, including (but not limited to) set design, costume, puppetry, sound, and lighting.

The result can be part exhibition and part performance, where participants are invited to communicate and activate their conceptual work. Results may include a combination of hand sketches, scale models, digital representations, costumes and puppets made from found materials, experimental prototypes, sound fragments, and scenographic performances. Depending on the space and resources available, a single event or various individual events can be created.

Dr. Tanja Beer (Australia) is an ecological designer and community artist who is passionate about co-creating social gathering spaces that accentuate the interconnectedness of the more-than-human world. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Queensland College of Art and Design and the Co-Director of the Performance + Ecology Research Lab (P+ERL) at Griffith University. 

Originally trained as a set and costume designer, Tanja increasingly works across many disciplines, collaborating with landscape architects, urban ecologists, and gardeners to help raise awareness of environmental issues. Her most notable project is The Living Stage, a global initiative that combines spatial design, horticulture, and community engagement to create recyclable, biodegradable, biodiverse, and edible event spaces. 

Tanja's extensive career as a designer, educator, and researcher is based on over 20 years of theatre practice in Australia, Europe, and the UK. Her innovative concept of Ecoscenography has been featured in numerous programs, exhibitions, articles, and platforms around the world. She is the author of Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).

NARRATIVE WORK WITH LIMITED MATERIAL SOURCE. I AM THE STORY

Ishmael Falke (Finland)
Anna Ivanova-Brashinskaya (Finland)

To whom:

Theatre directors and actors

Time:

1 and 2 October, 10:00 - 17:30 (with coffee breaks)

Location:

LKA Theatre Space "Horse Post"
46 Dzirnavu Street

Objectives:

To give an impulse and tools to use new approaches in the creation of a performance; to learn specific visual compositional tools in the creation of a performance story. Inspiration and guidance for each individual solo work.

Number of participants:

20

​BUY​

Contemporary puppet theatre reaches beyond boundaries and definitions. Objects, materials, different realities are tools that inspire, stimulate and make possible a conversation about controversial, ambiguous, taboo topics. Is it always necessary to have a broad material and technical base to create a great work of art?

This workshop will discuss algorithms and principles that help to create a unique, vivid story using a limited source of materials.How and why to confront existing narratives using limited material sources? How the development of a coherent and unique stage language can offer new perspectives on already much discussed issues?

In this workshop we will work with several specific tools of visual story composition. We will play and experiment with these tools and will answer the following questions:

In the second part of the workshop "I am the story: towards a solo performance" participants will work on their solo performance.

Ishmael Falke (Finland) is a visual and object theatre artist, playwright, director, actor. Artistic Director of the Turku International Puppet Festival (TIP-Fest), member of the Artistic Council of Tehdas Teatteri (Finland), Chairman of the Board of the Grus Grus Theatre Association (Finland).

He has been working in the field of puppet/visual/object theatre since 2005, with projects in Finland and dozens of other countries in Europe, the Middle-East and the Americas, and has received wide recognition and several international awards.

Ishmael is interested in provocative, controversial and taboo themes, objects and materials as a tool for storytelling and the reconstruction of myths. Falke has also published theatre plays and pedagogic theatre literature and works as a teacher for contemporary puppetry. Since 2006 he has been teaching courses on contemporary puppetry and visual theatre workshops in Finland and abroad, from the theatre academies in Cuba and in Finland to workshops for specific professional groups.

Dr. Anna Ivanova-Brashinskaya (Finland), Ph.D. in art history and art criticism, Honorary member of UNIMA Finland (since 2014), laureate of the Transmission Prize awarded by The Institut International de la Marionette (2021). Director, educator, producer, and researcher in the field of puppetry.

Anna has been working in professional puppet theatre and theatre education for over 30 years. In 1995-2001 she was a professor and the Head of the Puppetry Department at the St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy. In 2001 – 2015 she has taught at the Turku Arts Academy (Finland) and continues writing about puppetry, making public presentations, giving workshops on visual storytelling, and directing visual and puppet theatre shows (Finland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia, Poland, France, Great Britain, Norway, and Russia)