| December 16th, 1998 - Report from Deborah Baley |
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| 1998 - Danish Summer Experience |
| This is to report on my recent residency in Denmark through the Danish American National Cultural Exchange (D.A.N.C.E.) grant. I spent seven weeks in Denmark, from October 9, through December 1, 1998. Following is a summary of my activities while I was there. |
| October 12-18 |
| My first week was spent in Holstebro, Denmark, a small rural community in Jutland, in residence at the Odin Teater, Eugenio Barba´s internationally-known theatre collective. I attended Odin Week, an annual event where 50 artists from around the world are invited to observe and participate in their working method. The work of this company is extremely rigorous, physical and disciplined: their approach resembles the almost monastic lifestyle and work routines that are required for Kabuki or Noh actors. Every morning we were up at 6am. After several hours of physical and vocal workouts, I attended a full day of lectures/demonstrations led by company members and seminar/discussions with Eugenio Barba, followed by performances of their work. Each day would end at 10 PM. By the end of the week, I had seen 8 of their productions, countless work/demonstrations and had engaged in vigorous discussions with Barba, Odin actors and performing artists from all over the would about the most fundamental issues in theater and performance. I was the only American in attendance. Most of the participants were from South American and Europe, with a few from Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Asia. |
| The Odin Theatre was one of the highlights of my trip-an unforgettable and challenging experience. I would recommend Odin Week
strongly to anyone working in the theatre and to future New Dramatists playwrights doing a residency in Denmark. |
| October 18-21 |
| I traveled to Aalborg, on the northern end of the Jutland peninsula, to see the work of the Aalborg Teater. I went to see a production of a new Danish play by Morti Viski, but when I got there I was disappointed to find that the show has closed due to poor ticket sales. Instead, I saw a production, in Danish, of Oscar Wilde´s The Ideal Husband. |
| October 21- December 1 |
| I established a base in Copenhagen for a six-week period during which time I completely submerged myself in the Copenhagen theatre scene, attending 22 theatre productions, meeting with the Artistic Directors and dramaturges at 21 theatre companies, reading English translations of Danish plays, and meeting with numerous writers, directors and actors. I also attended two two-day seminars: one on Danish Theatre and Playwriting, held by the Danish Literature Information Center and another on Danish and British playwriting, which was held by Copenhagen International Theatre. |
| During this time I also traveled to Arhus to see the work of the Hotel Pro Forma, Denmark´s leading avant garde company, and to meet with Janicke Branthe of the Arhus. I traveled to Malmo Sweden to see another production by the Hotel Pro Forma that was on tour there. I also went to the Odsherred Teater Center in Nykobing SJ, an idyllic coastal community in the north of Denmark, to talk to a group of playwrights in the Danish children´s theatre about new play development in the United States. |
| One of my goals in going to Denmark was to study Greenlandic performance. After repeated attempts (with the assistance of the Danish consulate) to locate Greenlandic performers from the Tukak and Silamuit Theatres, I finally gave up. The Tukak Theatre, a Greenlndic performance group based in Denmark has retuned to Greenland and merged with the Silamuit. In addition, the archival materials on Greenlandic performance that were previously available in Denmark have been returned to Greenland as part of the on-going "loosening" of ties between two countries. |
| I found the theatre scene in Denmark to be vibrant and exciting and one of the best-kept secrets in the world. There are literally hundreds of theatre companies doing every kind of work imaginable. On ever night of the year there is a theatre opening somewhere in Denmark. Nearly half of the 400 productions that are mounted each year are new plays by Danish writers. Considering that there are only 5 million people in all of Denmark, this is an astounding amount of theatre activity. The theatre is very generously subsidized-theatre artists there seem to be able to make a living at it (or, more of a living than their American counterparts, at least). The theatre is also well-attended. There´s an audience for all this new work. And, as if that´s not impressive enough, the work is good-very visual, physical and well-produced. It was the exception, and not the rule, to find a lousy production. |
| There is a visual aesthetic in Danish theatre that is unlike anything we have in the United States their theatre is lacking in the "literalness" that abounds here, and is so much richer as a result. Visual artists, instead of "set designers" are creating potent visual landscapes for the plays, and the stage is full of visual ideas and metaphors-even for realistic dramas. The lights rarely go up on a living room couch- and if they do, it´s not just a couch, but a metaphor for something else. There is also a physicality in most of the productions, both in the presence of the actors (what Eugenio Barba calls the "dilated body") and in the directing style. I´m not sure why this is. It may have something to do with the importance of dance in Denmark and the prominence of ballet in the country´s culturally life. When a nation has repeated exposure to a particular art form, such as dance, the values, or qualities of the form "get into the bone" and reveal themselves in other areas. |
| The physical life of Danish productions might also have to do with actor and director training. Or, with a visual sensibility that simple extends to the body, so that the body is sculpted as part of an overall stage composition. Again, I´m not sure. I´m simply making the observation. Whatever the reason-historical, educational, visual-the Danes have a sense of the body and it gives their productions a certain vibrancy and life. |
| Ironically, the one aspect to Danish theatre that I had the hardest time accessing was the playwriting. This is because few plays are translated into English, and those that are, are not translated until after the play has been produced. Out of the 30 productions that I saw in Denmark, I was only able to read two of them beforehand. That said, because of the new extraordinary visual and physical life of the productions, I was able to stay fully engaged during most of the performances by following the visual ideas. |
| On an administrative level, my trip to Denmark would not have been possible, or fruitful, without the help of many people, and in
particular two men: Jen Christiansen of the Danish International Theatre Institute, and Seire Andersen of the Hvidovre Teater. I arrived
on Jen´s doorstep with little warning and he very graciously helped to coordinate my stay there. He not only helped me with housing, but got on the phone, arranged theatre tickets, wrote letters, and put me in touch with theatre companies and artists all over Denmark. Seire Andersen also took me under his wing. He made sure that I was introduced to everybody in the Danish theatre, and also guided me from the sidelines on issues of protocol and with ideas for how to better coordinate and arrange future exchanges. |
| You can follow Deborah's explorations on her own website here: www.deborahbrevoort.com |
