The Splendour of the Ages Theatre - Women - Courage

NORDISK TEATERLABORATORIUM and TRANSIT NEXT FORUM

Transit 10 Festival

THE SPLENDOUR OF THE AGES

Theatre - Women - Courage

3-12 June 2022

at Odin Teatret, Holstebro, Denmark

 

Dedicated to Else Marie Laukvik, one of the founders of Odin Teatret

 

 

3-6 June: Odin Teatret and NTL Women

6-12 June: Transit 10 Festival (Performances, workshops, masterclasses, work-in-progress, and talks)

 

Invited artists:

Amaranta Osorio (Colombia/Mexico/France), “La nieta” reading

Ana Woolf (Argentina), SEEDS OF MEMORY, WHITE IS THE NIGHT, “Behind the Curtain”, workshop

Antagon TheaterAKTion, Bárbara Luci Carvalho (Brazil/Germany), CORPUS MUNDI, talk, workshop

Carolina Pizarro (Chile/Denmark), LAND OF FIRE, workshop

Dorthe Kærgaard (Denmark), painting exhibition

Eluda Dance Company (Denmark), Emilie Lund, talk and demonstration

Eugenia Cano, Alma Martinez (Mexico), talks

Fabrica Athens (Greece), Giovanna Michaliadi Sarti, Fanis Katechos, Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou, XANTHI

Filomena Campus (Italy), “Liberate Rame” a performance/presentation about Franca Rame, workshop

Francesca Romana Rietti (Italy), talk

Gabriella Sacco (Italy/The Netherlands), talk

Gilla Cremer (Germany), talk

Gilly Adams (UK), talk

Helen Varley Jamieson (New Zealand/Germany), “Cyberformance” masterclass, "Mobilise/Demobilise" installation

Ikarus Stage Arts (Denmark), Gabriela Arancibia, DESTELLOS EN UN RÍO NEGRO, workshop

Itínera Teatro (Mexico), Julia Filippo (Italy), KNOTS, workshop

Jana Korb (Czech Republic/Germany), #ABLEBODIESANDSTONES, workshop

Janaina Matter (Brazil), “Football Country” work in progress

Jill Greenhalgh (UK), Meg Brookes, Silvia Moreno, THE DAUGHTERS OF THE WIND, “Performing Presence” masterclass, talks

Katrine Faber (Denmark), GALLOP - IN DIALOGUE WITH LEONORA CARRINGTON, workshop

Laboratorio Internacional Residui Teatro (Spain), Viviana Bovino, Gregorio Amicuzi, PENELOPE, workshop

Maskhunt Motions, Deborah Hunt (New Zealand/Puerto Rico), “Road” work in progress

Maria Porter (USA), book presentation “Re-Purposing Suzuki: A Hybrid Approach to Actor Training”

Mi Compañía Teatro, Mérida Urquía (Cuba/Colombia), FLOR DE MÁRMOL, talk

Parvathy Baul (India), “Serenades” work in progress concert, workshop

Odin Teatret (Denmark), Roberta Carreri, Else Marie Laukvik, Uta Motz, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Rina Skeel, Ulrik Skeel, Julia Varley, MY STAGE CHILDREN, FLOWERS FOR TORGEIR, ESTER’S BOOK, THE CASTLE OF HOLSTEBRO, HALFDANSK RAPSODI, AVE MARIA, THE DEAF MAN’S HOUSE, A CHARACTER THAT CANNOT DIE, workshops, talks

Organic Theatre (UK), Bianca Mastrominico, John Dean, FLANKER ORIGAMI online performance

Riotous Company, Mia Theil Have (Denmark), talk

Teater Interakt (Sweden), Sara Larsdotter, "Mobilise/Demobilise" installation

Teatret OM (Denmark), Antonella Diana, Tippe Molsted, Sandra Pasini, Annemarie Waagepetersen, WALK THE CLOTHESLINE - A CABARET, “Serenades” work in progress concert

Teatro La Candelaria, Patricia Ariza, Carlos Satizábal, Francesco Corbelletta, NO ESTOY SOLA, talk

Teatro Nucleo (Italia), Natasha Czertok, Cora Herrendorf, Veronica Ragusa, KASHIMASHI, “Fuga in Me Minore” work in progress, workshop, talk

TERAZ POLIŻ, Dorota Glac, Marta Jalowska, Kamila Worobiej, Martyna Wawrzyniak, Gosia Wdowik, and Karolina Micuła (Poland), I’LL JUST SAY IT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS, talk

Váli Theatre Lab (Denmark/Italy), Alice Occhiali, Valerio Peroni, talk and “Aliter Ubi” work in progress

Voix Polyphoniques (France), Brigitte Cirla, Mireille Mammini, Brigitte Maurin, Anne Lise Lionnet, Graziella Végis, SONG/JEUX, workshop

 

Dedicated to Else Marie Laukvik, one of the founders of Odin Teatret

 

Our sense of history

In November 2021 a debate arose in Holstebro, Denmark, about some paintings by Jens Nielsen, a very productive local painter, whose name was also given to an art museum in town. Many of his paintings had been sold at a very good price, others exhibited in museums, others put away in a cellar for years because nobody wanted them. Someone suggested it was time to burn the unwanted paintings. Although I was instantly reminded of the burning books in May 1933 in Germany, this case was different. It was not a battle of ideals or censorship, just a question of space. I then thought of all the libraries which family members no longer want to inherit and of the archives filling with more and more documents that no one has time to classify. I also thought of the messages and photographs shared on some social media applications that are destroyed the moment they are seen. What is happening to our sense of history today? Generations perceive their relationship to past, present and future differently. One of my ongoing obsessions has been to contribute to build our own history as women theatre practitioners, finding a new language, documenting our achievements, and sharing questions. How do we create space and time for this? For example, do we still need to make issues of The Open Page journal?

Milestone and change

The Magdalena Project has built an environment where women of different generations exchange and work together. While being in contact instead of maintaining a separation, the ages according to date of birth or professional experience mix in a productive and creative way. We need each other to have ideas and develop. The tenth Transit Festival represents a milestone and marks a need for change. We will celebrate what we have done and enjoy imagining what we want and need to do next. We will ask the oldest amongst us to show work-in-progress and the youngest to present finished refined performances. Activism will confront lullabies; online shows will challenge presence training sessions, mothers will speak of daughters while daughters will speak of mothers, university scholars will question the missing contexts and primary school teachers will remind us of the need for education. And afterwards, the newly established association Transit Next Forum – Theatre and Women will enlarge the fields of activity around Transit Festival with more continuative initiatives.

Renewed courage

Today many theatre groups which were born in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s are facing a generation shift in leadership. It is not an easy process. The new generations taking over are sometimes children who grew up within the group, other times pupils who started by imitation and are now finding their own way, and still others who hide their lack of vision with new covers over old policies. Culture ministries have always questioned how to keep established institutions going at the same time as welcoming recently formed artists. Our task as women who respect experience and want to give a chance to new proposals, is to listen to both what great-grandmothers and children have to say in our modern societies.

At times the older women are those with most energy and commitment. The older generation grew up with constrictions which made them resistant and strong. Young people look upon these examples with tears in their eyes. Why are they moved? They have not followed the performances of the older artists year after year; and they do not review their own life while seeing them again. A couple of young people told me they were moved because of sincerity. This sincerity demands courage: to stand beside one’s ideals, to fight against discrimination, to dedicate oneself to creating oasis of beauty and poetry with no illusion of ever achieving immediately visible results. Today, many of those who were present at the birth of the idea of The Magdalena Project in Trevignano in 1983 are grandmothers. Some are no longer with us. We don’t think we have changed. The world has changed around us.

The pandemic has made us all reflect upon the kind of world we have built. The consequent choices differ, although we all recognise that we should defend the human need for contact and exchange. During the pandemic I was filled by the anxiety of not being able to see friends and family who are growing old and could disappear. It is strange how passing on means teaching and passing corresponds to dying. Caught in between the obligation of giving responsibility to others and still creating possibilities for new life, I have many tasks. One of them is to gather women so that they can exchange their work and points of view, renew their friendships, and make new acquaintances. There is no time to rest on laurels, aware that our dignity and history as women is built through autonomy and celebrating the splendour of all ages with renewed courage.

Transit 10 Festival

The last Transit festival Hope in Action - Theatre, Women, Will came from a wish to regain confidence in body contact, song, music, love, spirit of adventure, movement, nature, and belief in the future. It is ironic that this theme was chosen just before the pandemic. For Transit 10 Festival, The Splendour of the Ages - Theatre, Women, Courage, women of all ages have been invited to contribute with their experience through performances, work demonstrations, workshops, masterclasses, work-in-progress, and talks. The programme wants to surprise older and younger practitioners and scholars, and keep everyone dancing in wonder on the tip of their toes.

Julia Varley