theatercombinat : entwicklung einer antikenchorkaraokesoftware vom 6.03.-9.03. im medienkunstlabor graz im rahmen von tragödienproduzenten 1
a working process in series as research of historical epochs, their respective techniques of theatre, their model of theatre, urban concepts and textual architectures.
the chosen texts of aischylos, „persians”, shakespeare, “coriolanus”, and racine, “phaedra” are a cross section through history and the history of theatre. they draw their historical and mythological backgrounds from antiquity and treat historical constellations of radical change by means of military incidents. the texts are documents of different political systems, functions of theatre, esthetical forms and kinds of representation.
the series "tragödienproduzenten" is not about performance-practice of the single text, but a theatrical research as cross section of the texts. the centre of interest lies not only in the single play and its performance, but the dialogue, the correspondence between the three texts and their performances.
with these texts, the political impact of theatre is to be analysed in a historical and culture-oriented way, as well as the “architectures of situations” of theatre in a specific historical moment on respective places within their urban surroundings. antiquity, renaissance and baroque. these epochs mark different political and esthetical systems and lead from the democracy of the polis to constitutional monarchy and absolutism.
the respective texts are archives of specific historical experience. their language implies physical practices, images of body and methods of representation. by means of that same language, those are to be explored. the textual structure, phonetics, punctuation, metrics, the specific breath, the textual “tune”, their images, constructions of time, their poetics of images, metaphors, the relation of language and emotion and its description as an action, description or argument constitute the composure of representation.
that way, theatre becomes the “topos” of a practical research of the functions and the status of the body of an acteur in the respective space, relative to the construction of the respective text. in the same way, theatre becomes the scene of confrontation with the body of a spectator, whose status and techniques of representation in respective situations and architectures change from one epoch to the next.
consequently, theatre is to be regarded as social laboratory of its respective time: a regulated, contracted place, controlled by agreements of action, a room of physical (all participating producers are physically present and mutually visible or observable) and collective production of meaning.
„i still think of theatre from brecht’s idea of a pedagogium of social practice, as production of a situation with the potentials of performative practice, as examination-space of social reality, it’s attitudes, conventions and mechanics. unlike brecht it’s not about the representation of the latter, but the production of visibility of existing structures, therefore a “theatralisation” of everyday life, alienation of the colloqqial through juxtaposition of other spaces, stages, durations of time or spaces of concentration of observation.”
claudia bosse
