A China-Norway children’s opera about the superpowers of seeds

Concept: Tor Smaaland, Katharina Jakhelln Semb

Music: Marcus Paus
Libretto: Oda Fiskum
Director: Katharina Jakhelln Semb
Co-director: Wu Min
Stage and costume design: Yngvar julin
Multimedia: Feng Jiangzhou and Zhang Lin (Sifenlv New Media Studio Beijing)
Dramaturg: Inger Buresund
Artistic Consultant: Forrina Chen
Botanical advisor: Tor Smaaland
Translation Norwegian to Chinese: Shubo Li

Production: Ibsen International, General Manager Gry Wie
Artistic Producer: Inger Buresund
Executive Producers: Ibsen International, Fabrizio Massini, The A.S.K., Jane Zhou

Music commissioned by: The Arctic Philarmonic
Supported by: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

THE STORY

In a near future, The Big Sleep has frozen the world into a desert of ice. But not all is sleeping…

In a well-hidden sanctuary, The Governess and The Gardener keep little seed-children safe from the dark Helpful, who roam the earth for seeds to steal, exploit, and destroy.

In the Seed Box, the two sisters Rhynia and Wollemia hide themselves and their powers. One night they escape to go on a Mission to wake the planet from The Big Sleep. The Gardener has revealed to them that the key to all salvation is the union of two Gingko seeds.

They need the advice of Mother Forest and the Mycorrhiza network, that carries coded messages between every root and plant in the whole world.But someone is listening to the whispering. Dark shadows lurk close…

Will The Helpful stand in the sisters way of saving the planet?

The Hunt for The Ginkgo has began…

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

The world’s first opera for young audience, inspired by the World Seeds Vault

Reveal the power of nature and celebrate children’s courage in growing up

Promote ecological conscience in a fun, hands-on approach

Developed from Ibsen International’s global art project “The Seed”

PHOTOS FROM THE PREMIERE AT A.S.K. THEATRE

A China-Norway children’s opera about the superpowers of seeds

Concept: Tor Smaaland, Katharina Jakhelln Semb

Music: Marcus Paus
Libretto: Oda Fiskum
Director: Katharina Jakhelln Semb
Co-director: Wu Min
Stage and costume design: Yngvar julin
Multimedia: Feng Jiangzhou and Zhang Lin (Sifenlv New Media Studio Beijing)
Dramaturg: Inger Buresund
Artistic Consultant: Forrina Chen
Botanical advisor: Tor Smaaland
Translation Norwegian to Chinese: Shubo Li

Production: Ibsen International, General Manager Gry Wie
Artistic Producer: Inger Buresund
Executive Producers: Ibsen International, Fabrizio Massini, The A.S.K., Jane Zhou

Music commissioned by: The Arctic Philarmonic
Supported by: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

THE STORY

In a near future, The Big Sleep has frozen the world into a desert of ice. But not all is sleeping…

In a well-hidden sanctuary, The Governess and The Gardener keep little seed-children safe from the dark Helpful, who roam the earth for seeds to steal, exploit, and destroy.

In the Seed Box, the two sisters Rhynia and Wollemia hide themselves and their powers. One night they escape to go on a Mission to wake the planet from The Big Sleep. The Gardener has revealed to them that the key to all salvation is the union of two Gingko seeds.

They need the advice of Mother Forest and the Mycorrhiza network, that carries coded messages between every root and plant in the whole world.But someone is listening to the whispering. Dark shadows lurk close…

Will The Helpful stand in the sisters way of saving the planet?

The Hunt for The Ginkgo has began…

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

The world’s first opera for young audience, inspired by the World Seeds Vault

Reveal the power of nature and celebrate children’s courage in growing up

Promote ecological conscience in a fun, hands-on approach

Developed from Ibsen International’s global art project “The Seed”

A CHINA-NORWAY COPRODUCTION, PRESENTED AT “NOW” FESTIVAL

In a year ridded with anxiety and uncertainty, the Chinese coproducer of “Children of Ginko”, The A.S.K. (Art Space for Kids) decided to launch a brave initiative: The “NOW” Festival, the first international Theatre for Young Audience festival and fair in China. Claiming that “the pandemic has brought enormous changes to the daily lives of us all (…) live performances and festivals are suspended, while we are living in the history’s every moment and appreciating that ‘no man is an island'”.

Norway was the guest country of the 1st edition of NOW Festival. The Norway Focus, organized with the support of the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai and in collaboration with PAHN (Performing Arts Hub Norway), included a showcase of 7 production by Norwegian companies.

A short excerpt of “Children of Ginko” was presented for the occasion, to give a taste of the wonderful music and intriguing visuailty of the performance premiering within 1 week. The excerpt was introduced by video messages sent by the Norwegian team members and the Deputy Consul General, Hedda Himle Skandsen, introduced to the audience the very first inspiration for the play: the Global Seeds Vault based in Svalbard.

The 2nd round of the international workshop for new writing “New Text – New Stage” started in 2015 in Beijing. Four years in, we are incredibly proud to see the project continue its world-wide development, with the scripts it fostered taking a life of their own. Here are some of the latest updates.

Zhu Yi – A DEAL
Australian premiere

This dark comedy featuring a Chinese family’s home buying journey in New York reveals the conflicts between ideological blocks in contemporary society, by tracking a little stream of the global cash flow. After its premiere in the United States (2017 Urban Stages company) and China (Nanjing University Theatre Company), the script was selected by Ibsen International’s former project manager, Lu Shiya, for her debut as stage director. The show, premiering on 23^rd August at Sydney’s Chippen Street Theatre, has attracted much media attention and sold out at an incredible rate.

Produced by Lu’s fledgling Flying House Assembly theatre company, the performance will be attended by author Zhu Yi and producer-dramaturg Fabrizio Massini, and will be accompanied by two events co-organized with the University of Sydney: a public Forum on Contemporary Chinese Theatre and Migration (Aug 20, Wallace Lecture Theatre) and the workshop The Dramaturgy of Difference (Aug 21, Woolley Common Room) let by Massini and Zhu.

REVIEWS

I was repeatedly struck by the even handed and insightful commentary on modern day Chinese and American relations (…) A true black comedy, A Deal softens us up with the humour of sharply written insults and has the audience on board with lying for the sake of representation in arts, before pulling on the guilt strings as we realise underlying venom behind the words (…) A Deal examines Chinese, American and Chinese-American cultures with even handed criticism and understanding, allowing us to examine cultural context and compare two equally understandable sets of logic, though we may not entirely agree with either.

James Ong – The Theatre Travels (Full article)

A Deal is an eye-opening topical provocation, full of laughs and insights into the virtues or otherwise of life in the US and Communist China. By émigré Chinese writer, Zhu Yi, her play has been performed in her adopted New York and twice in China (…) director Shiya Lu inventively hits most of the beats and scene transitions across Victor Kalka’s wide stage design (…) A Deal is finally a fresh and thoughtful delight.

Martin Portus – Stage Whispers (Full article)

The play is a fascinating exploration of timely issues, from a cross-cultural perspective that introduces an unusual complexity to some otherwise hackneyed topics. Directed by Shiya Lu, the production is intellectually engaging

Suzy Wrong – Suzy goes see (Full article)

This rare opportunity of being among a diverse crowd was not marked in any great way. We all laughed collectively and gasped in unison. This supports all theories that the human condition is mostly the same the world over (…) A Deal ends August 31 and is more than an interesting experiment. I now long for stories about our own Australian migrant communities. There is certainly an appetite for more diversity in the plays on offer and, needless to say, for the theatre to be meaningful it must be all embracing.

Marc G Nagle – Theatre Now (Full article)

Dance Dramaturgy Series 2 – Intensive Training I

Curated by: Thomas Shaupp, Fabrizio Massini
Co-produced by: Ibsen International, Goethe-Institut China, YAP Young Artist Platform

Following the “Dance Dramaturgy  Series 1” workshop series of 2018 in Beijing, Ibsen International continue the collaboration with Goethe-Institut China and welcomed a
new Chinese partner (YAP – Young Artist Platform for Dance) for a new series of
intensive workshops on dance dramaturgy.

In Workshop 1 (23 -27 April 2019) we discussed historical and contemporary concepts of Dramaturgy, and their relevance within the dance field. Through practical exercises and
group discussion, we introduced different dramaturgical methods and how they can be adopted in different stages of the creative process. The workshop was held at our partner
venue Aosai Studio in Dali

Which methods can help a choreographer to concretize their artistic ideas, within a specific context? How to produce clear and effective project proposals or program texts? How to share our artistic intention with our own team and collaborators? Furthermore, we analysed the content and structure of dance works by the participants as case studies, and thus investigates the possibilities of dramaturgy as a choreographic tool. Throughout the whole process, we will pay special attention to comparing the European and Chinese scenes, identifying commonalities and differences.

BIO of the mentors

Thomas Schaupp, Berlin, studied theatre- and dance-theory at Freie Universität Berlin. As a dance-dramaturge he is collaborating with several choreographers, currently with Kat Válastur, Anne-Mareike Hess, Stian Danielsen as well as for the festival “Tanztage Berlin”. As a lecturer and critic he has been invited to festivals and conferences across Europe and Canada. In the season 2014/15 he was resident critic at ada-studio Berlin. Thomas is a guest-teacher at the Inter-University Centre for Dance in Berlin and facilitates workshops on dance-dramaturgy and the dramaturgical in choreographic centres across Europe. In 2017, he is co-curating the conference “Lab:Dance – (Dance)Dramaturgy as a collaborative practice”, in collaboration with the festival “CPH Stage” in Copenhagen.

Fabrizio Massini studied Chinese at the University of Florence and University of London (SOAS), furthering his studies on Chinese theatre at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Based in China since 2009, Fabrizio is active as performing arts producer, curator and dramaturg. Fabrizio collaborated with several European and Chinese organizations including Beijing Fringe Festival, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Guangzhou Dance Festival, Odin Teatret (Denmark), Fabbrica Europa (Italy). Since 2016 Fabrizio is Artistic Director at Ibsen International (Norway) where he curates and manages the Ibsen in China program. Fabrizio also regularly works as artistic consultant; he gave guest lectures at institutions including the Danish National School of Performing Arts, National Theatre Company of China, Shanghai Theatre Academy and others.

The scripts created within NEW TEXT – NEW STAGE “migrate” through different countries. They developed through stage readings and workshops, and are performed in the US, Tatarstan, South-Africa, China, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany.

Next December, Ibsen International and Nanjing University Department of Film and Dramatic Art join forces to organise the first MOVING WOR(L)DS – International Forum on Theatre and Migration.

“迁”  MOVING WOR(L)DS

What is “moving” is “in movement”, but also “has the ability to (emotionally) move others”. The 5 playwrights whose work is featured in this Forum are indeed moving all the time, between Shanghai and New York, between Africa and Europe, between grant applications and the rehearsal room. Their writing styles are moving too, through realism, political theatre, satirical comedy and lyricism. But it is what they write, their words, the way in which the personal melts with (becomes) the universal, that proves most moving.

This is certainly a great opportunity to gather the NTNS team (writers, producers, dramaturgs) and share the results of this incredible experiment. And Nanjing University is the ideal scenario for such a reunion: a historical landmark for artistic endeavor, an incubator of talented writers, a fertile ground for bright minds. We could not have hoped for a better partner.

But we want to go beyond the level of showcase, so, we turned the finale of the NTNS project into the premiere of the MOVING WOR(L)DS FORUM. An open platform for whoever feels part of the Human migration and wants to articulate it through theatre. A workshop for sharing good practices, rethink traditional paradigms, and formulate new approaches.

SHOWCASE

ALIEN
Kamal Theatre (Tatarstan/Russia)

Time: 7:30 pm, December 14/15.
Address: Jiang Nan Theatre, Nanjing.
Language: Tatar with Chinese subtitle.
Playwright: Sombel Gaffarova
Director: Farid Bikchantaev
Synopsis:
After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the USSR, the peoples of the former autonomous republics started to look into the blank pages of their history. One of these sad topics for Tatars, the second largest nation of Russia, was the fate of the captured Second World War soldiers and officers who refused to cross over to the side of nazi Germany and passed all the hardships of Hitler’s concentration camps, and after the collapse of the Third Reich became prisoners of the Stalin’s GULAG. Those of them who were lucky enough to return home in the fifties, only recently received the status of participants of the Second World War. However, there were some of them who, sensing a new arrest, did not return to their homeland and scattered all over the world…

WHEN SWALLOWS CRY
Market Theatre (South Africa)

Time: 7:30 pm, December 12/13.
Address: Zhang Xinyu Theatre of Nanjing University
Language: English with Chinese subtitle
Playwright: Mike van Graan
Director: Lesedi Job
Synopsis:
When Swallows Cry is a powerful trilogy on the international theme of migration and refugees, particularly as it relates to Africans. It explores the inequality and layered complexities of contemporary global mobility, particularly from African perspective. One forced to “migrate” as slaves, Africans are now among the world’ least attractive migrants in the wealthy economics of the world, many built-not insubstantially-on African labour and mineral resources. The play interweaves three scenarios, set in African or about African migrants and refugees.Directed by Lesedi Job, the talented cast comprises Warren Masemola， Christiaan Schombie，Mpho Osei-Tutu , all of whom are challenged to play three contrasting characters in the three interspliced stories.

WHY NOT BEFORE
Arctic Theatre (Norway)

Time: 7:30 pm, December 12/13
Address: Blackbox of Nanjing University
Language: Chinese
Playwright: Liv Heløe
Director: Liv Heløe, Amund Ulvestad

Free will – does it exist? Or is everything already determined – by genes, upbringing and circumstances? A boy gets out of the bed he has been lying in for the last six months. He orders an air ticket and leaves everything he knows behind.
Why today? What makes him change everything on this particular day? Where does he want to go and where will he end up?
Liv Heløe’s text pursues the question of free will. The boy’s story is performed in Yngvar Julin’s darkened space – in a surround-sound musical and tonal world created by sound artist Amund Ulvestad. The result is a new experience of sound, music and text by means of which the audience can hear the world through the protagonist’s ears and be present in his exploration of the world.

EVOLUTION
Ibsen International/Nanjing University Theatre Group

Time: 7:30 pm, December 7/8/9/10
Address: Blackbox of Nanjing University
Language: Chinese
Playwright: Gu Lei
Director: He Yufan
Synopsis:
The story happens in Beijing, a white-collar couple from the suburbs are in a cab heading to the airport at 3:00 am in the morning. The wife is assigned to work in America as resident reported. The driver, a migrant worker from Henan province, during the trip, shares about the challenges of raising a child in Beijing for the “floating population”. Shocked, the couple starts plotting a better future for their future family, including
an American-born baby…with the flight leaving in a few hours’ time, what can they
possibly manage? The story of 3 new urban immigrants’ journey towards evolution.

A DEAL
Nanjing University Theatre Group

Time: 7:30 pm, December 16/17.
Address: Zhang Xinyu Theatre of Nanjing University
Language: Chinese
Playwright: Zhu Yi
Director: Lv Xiaoping

Like many new upper-middle-class Chinese families, Mr. and Mrs. Li are proud to give their daughter the life they never had – an Ivy League education, an apartment in Manhattan, the chance to become an actor. So why is she telling everyone a bulldozer killed her mother?

On a home buying journey in NYC, Mr. and Mrs. Li face fluctuations in the Chinese yuan against the dollar, East/West ideological conflicts and the realization their only daughter is turning into a dangerous stranger.

FORUM

LECTURE: Dramaturgy, documentary, independent theatre in China

Along with the movement of people and ideas, theatre changes and takes up new forms, evolving to match local needs, aspirations, and actual circumstances. Drawing from her three-fold identity as director, theatre scholar, and professor at the Central Academy of Drama, Li Yinan takes us into a nuanced exploration of recent trends of independent Chinese theatre. What new insights can the locally-developed category of “juchang” offer? And which dynamics is the rise of dramaturgy (as both theory and practice) triggering in China?

Li Yinan, Professor of Dramaturgy and Theatre Studies at the Central Academy of Drama. She studied German Language and Literature, Dramaturgy and Sinology in Beijing, New York, Hamburg and Munich. She received her doctoral degree in 2007. In 2015 she established the first B.A. Program for Dramaturgy at the Central Academy of Drama. Major theatre works: “YouMou – Have/Have Not” (2015), “HOME” (2016), “In the Dream Land” (2017), “Shuihu” (2017), “Black Temple” (2017).

Venue: Auditorium in Literature School of Nanjing University
Time: 8 December, 16:00
Free Entrance

PANEL

In 2015, Ibsen International started the project “New Text – New Stage” (NTNS) as a platform to promote the creation of new writing internationally. Its 3 key features: the topic of “Migration” as center of reflection; a close collaboration of writers and dramaturges; the creation of international networks to produce and circulate new writing. In the following 3 years, the scripts created within NTNS have been produced, staged, won awards, and stimulated a lively debate in the 8 countries they landed on. In December 2018 writers, dramaturges and producers gather again to share the results of the NTNS experiment.

NTNS II BJ SESSION

Panel 1 : New Text – New Stage, new approaches to playwrighting

Venue: Auditorium / Literature Department of Nanjing University
Time: 9 December, 16:00 PM
Participants: Gu Lei, Liv Heløe, Inger Buresund
Moderator: Fabrizio Massini

NTNS II SH SESSION

PANEL 2: REAPING AND SOWING: New writing, curation and audience(s)

Venue: Auditorium in Literature Department of Nanjing University
Time: 13 December, 16:00-18:00
Participants: Huang Jiadai, Inger Buresund, Mike van Graan
Moderator: Fabrizio Massini

NTNS II GZ SESSION

PANEL 3: Between post-dramatic and lingering realism

Venue: Auditorium in Literature Department of Nanjing University
Time: 13 December, 10：00-12：00
Participants: Lv Xiapoing, Amund Ulvestad, Lesedi Job, Ilfir Yakupov
Moderator: Fabrizio Massini

DIRECTOR WORKSHOPS

Farid Bikchantaev was born in Kazan in 1962. In 1991 he graduated from GITIS (Russian Institute of Theatre Arts) with a degree in Theatre Directing; a course run by Maria Knebel and Boris Golubosky . In 2002 he became the Artistic Director of Galiaskar Kamal Tatar National Academic Theatre. In 2011 Farid took on the role of head of the Republic of Tatarstan Theatre Union.

Lesedi Job is an actress and director. Lesedi made her directorial debut in 2017 with Mike van Graan’s WHEN SWALLOWS CRY at the Market Theatre and went on to win the Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award. The production, which has transferred to Cape Town, is currently running at the Baxter Theatre. An accomplished performer in her own right, Lesedi received a Naledi Theatre Award nomination for her role in Lara Foot’s Fishers of Hope. In 2018 she won the Naledi theatre Award for Best Director for her direction of When Swallows Cry.

Voices from the North – Norwegian Contemporary Playwriting Series

Who will be there when everything falls apart?

Producer: Ibsen International

Co-Producer: Free Theatre Alliance

Supported by： Beijing International Fringe Festival

Language: Chinese

Beijing Qinglan Theatre, 25th -26th September 19:30

Small Theatre of Zhejiang Province Cultural Center, 28th September 19:30

Beijing Penghao Theatre, The 9th Nanluoguxiang Performing Arts Festival 26th-27th July, 19:30 

SYNOPSIS

An intimate and unrefined work about loneliness and sense of belonging. It is a warm summer night, and a group of boys drink beer and go for a swim. Two people come walking by. Everything goes wrong. Everybody involved needs someone with whom to share the incident. Someone to blame. They search for security, while life is destroyed. Who have you been, and who will you be when everything is turned upside down?

In the performance La deg være (Let you be) this and other stories are told through the characters Person, Friend, Acquaintance, Stranger and Enemy. Every story and every encounter is connected, and the result is a tale about loneliness, severance, a sense of belonging and who we are to each other. But this is also a story about hope, mercy and love – and about who is by our side when the Earth shatters.

Words from Director

La deg være (Let you be) is norwegian Arne Lygres latest play. Let you be consists of a flow of multiple stories, the human condition on its must vulnerable is in focus. With strong existential drive Lygre‘s universe shows life’s many dualities. The balance and interaction is always between good intentions and fatal outcome. Let you be is a thouching and brutal look into life as it occurs both as fiction and in real.

Bios 

Director: Jon Tombre

Jon Tombre was educated in Paris and Oslo with more than 60 performing arts productions. His main focus is contemporary theatre, he has staged a wide range of international and Norwegian contemporary writers as Jon Foss, Sam Sheppard, David Harrower, the Presnyakov brothers and Günter Grass . His performances are dedicated to experimentation and exploration of the fine boarders between theater, dance, visual arts and music. Jon Tombre has carved a niche for himself in the world of explorative theatre. He has several times been nominated to the Norwegian Hedda Prize and in 2014 and 2016 he was acclaimed with the Critics prize of Norway.

Playwright: Arne Lygre

Playwright and novelist Arne Lygre, born in Bergen in 1968, began to write drama at the age of 25. Af of now, he has written 8 stage scripts, 2 novels, and has become one of the most renown and performed Norwegian authors internationally. His work was staged in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Estonia, Portugal, France, Italy, United Kingdrom and translated in many other languages. In 2013, he won the prestigious Ibsen Prize for his play “I Disappear”. From 2014 to 2016, he was in-house playwright at Oslo’s National Theatre.

Credits:

Performers：Xiaojing Chang, Jialong Li, Hailin Wang, Xin Xu, Kan Zhou,

Translator: Wenyan Zou

Stage design： Jon Tombre

Technical Director: Qixu Wang

Costumes: Lin Song

Design: Yuanqing Wang, Jianshi Zhang

Photographer: Da Sheng, Chi Shuai

Executive Producer (Ibsen Intenational)： Xiaobin Li, Jennifer Zhang

Producer (Free Theatre Alliance): Yangyang Sun, Wei Diao

Producer (Ibsen Intenational): Fabrizio Massini

Dance Dramaturgy Workshop Intensive Training I & II

Curated by: Thomas Shaupp, Fabrizio Massini
Co-produced by: Ibsen International, Goethe-Institut China 

Following the “Contextualizing Dance Dramaturgy “ workshop series of December 2017 across Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou, Ibsen International together with Goethe-Institut China moved steps further by continuing another two rounds of Dance Dramaturgy Workshops in Beijing on August 27th – September 2nd (session 1)  and October 30th-November 1st (session). The series was closed with a public event at Goethe-Institut Beijing. This journey saw a group of talented Chinese choreographers that, with the
assistance of Thomas Schaupp and Fabrizio Massini , explored different approaches to dramaturgical work.

BIO of the mentors

Thomas Schaupp, Berlin, studied theatre- and dance-theory at Freie Universität Berlin. As a dance-dramaturge he is collaborating with several choreographers, currently with Kat Válastur, Anne-Mareike Hess, Stian Danielsen as well as for the festival “Tanztage Berlin”. As a lecturer and critic he has been invited to festivals and conferences across Europe and Canada. In the season 2014/15 he was resident critic at ada-studio Berlin. Thomas is a guest-teacher at the Inter-University Centre for Dance in Berlin and facilitates workshops on dance-dramaturgy and the dramaturgical in choreographic centres across Europe. In 2017, he is co-curating the conference “Lab:Dance – (Dance)Dramaturgy as a collaborative practice”, in collaboration with the festival “CPH Stage” in Copenhagen.

Fabrizio Massini studied Chinese at the University of Florence and University of London (SOAS), furthering his studies on Chinese theatre at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Based in China since 2009, Fabrizio is active as performing arts producer, curator and dramaturg. Fabrizio collaborated with several European and Chinese organizations including Beijing Fringe Festival, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Guangzhou Dance Festival, Odin Teatret (Denmark), Centrale Fies (Italy). Since 2016 Fabrizio is Artistic Director at Ibsen International (Norway) where he curates and manages the Ibsen in China program. Fabrizio also regularly works as artistic consultant; he gave guest lectures at institutions including the Danish National School of Performing Arts, National Theatre Company of China, Shanghai Theatre Academy and others.

WHAT IS THE LOOKOUT FESTIVAL?

The LOOKOUT Festival is a kaleidoscopic ten-day program of performance, visual art, film, talks and creative writing, the first of its kind in China, responding to one of the great themes of our time: gender.

WHY GENDER? 

Because gender is a very crucial topic for contemporary society, especially Chinese society,
where the festival takes place. Like the universe, gender is a mutable environment determining most aspects of our lives. It determines which universities are available to us. Which jobs. What salary we can expect. Who can we choose as partner, lover, spouse. Which life-choices we are encouraged to make and which ones are denied to us. Like the universe, gender is ever-expanding: we can go beyond and discover new territories, completely different from what we are used to. To explore this universe we started the LOOKOUT Project and we now launch the LOOKOUT Festival.

WHY “LOOKOUT”? AND WHAT IS THE LOOKOUT PROJECT? 

As a name, LOOK OUT stands for “an elevated place affording a wide view for observation”. As a verb, it means “be vigilant and take notice”. Our platform is meant to be both. A space to acquire new information that gives a clearer view on gender. A permanent observatory to keep a watchful eye on what surrounds us. An open space, for everyone.

The LOOKOUT Project is the framework grouping together the 3 programs that we
started in 2018 to focus on gender and performing arts, +1 section for invited performances. The 3 programs are:

SPEAK OUT – Cross-disciplinary lecture series. What does it mean to “perform gender” in daily life? How does the body “talk” on- and off-stage? How are gender norms changing world-wide? And how will this process play out in the future? In this lecture series, experts from the academic world, the performing arts and the cultural sector SpeakOUT on matters of gender. See Session 1, Session 2, Session 3

China Coming OUT – creative writing workshop for LGBTQ+ youths. Under the guidance of dramaturgs, LGBTQ+ youth learn the basic principles of dramaturgy and script-writing, to tell their Coming OUT stories in the form of short monologues. The workshop takes place in different cities across China in collaboration with local organizations; each session is followed by a script reading event. Session 1 and 2

TRYOUT – Platform for young talents. TRYOUT is a platform to support performances centered on gender by young talents. We give young artists a venue, a small production grant, and support them develop their work from ideation to execution. The 2018 edition of TRYOUT is realized in collaboration with the Faculty for Dramaturgy and Applied Theatre Studies of the Central Academy of Drama.

PRETTY COOL! BUT I NEVER HEARD ABOUT THIS! YOU GUYS SUCK AT PROMOTION…

Possibly. But you need to understand that we are walking on thin ice by organizing this kind of festival in China…so we released info very late, to avoid unwanted attention…
If you want to know more about it have a look at the PRESS we’ve had so far (btw: we love you!)

THEATRE TIMES (English)

THE BEIJINGER (English)

VICE (Chinese)

Artistic Director: Fabrizio Massini
Co-Curators:  Hege Randi Tørrensen (China ComingOUT section), Li Yinan, Kai Tuchmann (TryOUT section), Martin Yang (ReachOUT section)

Executive Producer： Lai Huihui
Production Manager：Zhang Cui
Technical Director: Wang Qixu

Graphic Design: Li Jia
Exhibition Design: Wang Jiang
Tickets: Cui Zixiao
Onsite Coordinator: Qi Chang, Jeremy McFarland
Promotion: Chen Ran, Lu Shiya, Lv Yuzhou

Organizer: Ibsen International
Co-organizer: China AIDS Walk
In Collaboration with: Faculty for Dramaturgy and Applied Theatre Studies of the Central Academy of Drama
Supported by: Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, Goethe-Institut China, Frontier Center

SPEAK OUT – Gender takes center stage

What’s different scares us, but also makes us curious. Like ignorance generates fear, so does understanding lead to acceptance. And creates the possibility for beauty.

In the SpeakOUT series, performing artists and academics from China and abroad turn the spotlight on gender. What does it mean to “perform gender” in our daily life? How does the body “talk” on stage? How are gender norms changing around the world? And what role can performing arts play in this change?

GENDER & PERFORMANCE

Like actors in a play, it is not our physical body that creates our “character” within society. Through costumes, make-up, the tone of voice and quality of the movements, each of us perform a role (man, woman) that changes in different scenes (single, married, wife, son, etc). If we follow the script we get to play the Goody (a Real Man, a Respectable Woman etc). If we don’t, we are left with the Villain or the Misfit (the Pervert, the Spinster etc).

But what if we wanted a different plot? What if we threw away stock characters and create a multifaceted role for ourselves? Like Nora says in “Doll’s House”, before all else, before all roles and labels, we are human beings. We have the power to change the script, and make our life an unforgettable show.

LECTURE 3: Gender, Documentary Film-making and Activism

The performance/performativity of gender may sound like an obscure, abstract concept, but its impact is very concrete. How do art and activism can be combined to tackle societal issues in practice? Leading documentary film maker Fan Popo shares excerpts from his films, his perspective on gender performance, and his experience as LGBTQ+ “artivist”. Follows Q&A session with the participants.

Curator: Fabrizio Massini
Produced by: Ibsen International

TIME & LOCATION:

19th May, 14:00
Location：Bookworm, Beijing
Screening + Talk with Fan Popo

About the Lecturer: FAN POPO

Popo Fan is a leading filmmaker and activist based in Beijing who is outspoken for LGBT rights in the field of media production and distribution. Popo graduated from Beijing Film Academy and is the author of the book “Happy Together: Complete Record of a Hundred Queer Films”, the first book on the topic published in mainland China. His films have been shown widely in international film festivals and circulated domestically via the Internet as well as community screenings. His films featured topics such as same-sex marriage (“New Beijing, New Marriage”), transgender (“Be A Woman”), feminism (“The VaChina Monologues”). His trilogy on LGBT families in China (“Chinese Closet”, “Mama Rainbow”, “Papa Rainbow”) had made strong impact in Chinese society.