Workshop Structure

1st Workshop: Helsinki, November 9th-22nd 2010:
A two-week workshop including a series of performances at the Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival.

2nd Workshop: Tokyo, February 2011:
A two-week workshop including a series of performances, possibly at Tokyo Performing Arts Market 2011

Workshop I — Helsinki 2010

November 8th: Arrival in Helsinki. Accommodation and other practicalities. Introduction to the main spaces and places that will be used during the workshop.

Day 1 (Nov 9): Personal experience
We will meet with the whole group, acquaint ourselves with each other and discuss the theme of the workshop. After this, we will start exploring out personal experience of the sacred in the urban environment.

Days 2-3 (Nov 10-11): Shared experience
We will develop ways of sharing our experience with others. This will involve coming up with personal rituals and practices that can be shared with another person or with a bigger group of people. Each of us will be able to use the methods that we feel most comfortable with.

Days 4-5 (Nov 12-13): Group experience
We will develop our concepts and practices further, fi nding ways of applying them to a group situation. We will observe the similarities, differences and underlying connections between our individual approaches and fi nd ways of locating them in a shared space, mentally as well as physically. The aim is to stay connected to the original experience of the sacred while co-existing and working with others.

Day 6 (Nov 14): Day off

Days 7-9 (Nov 15-17): Preparation
We will design a performance structure based on the practices and performances that we’ve come up with during the previous days, as well as set up a space for it.

Days 10-12 (Nov 18-20): Performance
We will share our practices with the public in a series of performances, which will be connected to the Baltic Circle Theater Festival. The events can range from one-to-one interactions to group scores, and they can be situated both in the urban environment as well as the indoor spaces available to us.

Days 13-14 (Nov 21-22): Evaluation
During the last days of the workshop, we will review the events that have taken place and share our respective views and experiences. We will also discuss the future of the project.

Space
During the workshop, we will work both out in the city and in a studio space rented for the occasion. We hope to fi nd a space located in the center of the city, so that it will be easy to move in and out between the studio and the urban environment. The idea is to explore the impact that the surrounding has on our experience of the sacred, and for each of us to find a setting that best supports our personal interpretation of it. The studio will serve as an anchor point for the workshop and the performances resulting from it.

Workshop II - Tokyo 2011

In the second workshop, the work will be adapted to Tokyo/Yokohama, which will connect the two urban environments with each other and establish a common experiential ground between them. We are currently discussing the possibility of participating in TPAM 2011 with the festival organizers. If this will be realized, the second workshop will take place in Yokohama, February 7th-21st 2011.