NL/ 2023
Direction and Writing: Andoni Zamora Chacartegui and Mariel Williams
Production: Celine Talens
Cast: Levi van Gelder
Asya Deinekina
Polina Fenko
Jimi Rocco
Music: Kiran Bhatt
Sound Production: Constanza Castagnet
Production Assistant: Clara Rojas
Costume: Ruperto Herrador Raya
Video Documentation: Lander Ibarretxe
Photo Documentation: Sonia Mangiapane
Special thanks to Leo de Boer, Béatrice Picard, Neža Zupanc, and the entire Schouwburg Amstelveen team who has openly welcomed and supported this production and time in residence, especially to those that shared a conversation with us about your experience and memories at the Schouwburg.
During the residency at Schouwburg Amstelveen, we developed a proposal that drew inspiration from the narratives and roles embedded within the SBA. We focused on each theater team member’s relationship to performance and work and explored their interactions within the different spaces of the building. The project´s framework merged terms like role, job, work, and performance and indirectly reflected the dynamics inside the building. Thereby metaphorically opening up the walls of the SBA to make each space into a stage.
We conducted 25 interviews with theater staff from every department, focusing on their perspectives on performativity and their remarks for an enhanced, rather utopian, workspace within the existing building. From these discussions, we crafted a script using the gathered testimonials, envisioning a fictional space that harmonized the collective aspirations.
Engaging professional actors and performers, we staged a performance piece¨Repeat, Represent, Assist¨ that traversed the theater's various sections, presenting the narrative in the different divisions of the venue, such as the lobby, backstage, offices, and performance halls. We challenged the rigid architecture, blurring the lines between audience and performers, questioning where the performance truly begins and ends. Moreover, we ignited a collective exploration of the future dreams that reside within the halls of Schouwburg Amstelveen.
