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Symposium: Art and Insanity / The View from Within

Art and Insanity - Theatre with ”Crazy People“ Moderation: Sabine Müller, Journalist

The directors of the ensembles - Bohnice Theatre Company (CZ), Compagnie de l`Oiseau-Mouche (F), Opera Buffa (PL), Sering VZW (B), Workman Theatre Project (CDN), and Theater Sycorax (D) - held a conversation over elementary questions like: · What is different, what is normal? · What is so special about doing theatre work with psychic

borderline experienced people? · Are working approaches related or divergent, and what framework is the basis of artistic work?

Excerpts

A. Vigano: The play shows our view of the world. Theatre should be understood by the plurality of approaches. We want a theatre of differentness, we want to conduct a dialogue with the actors. It means however that normality is unfortunately often definition power for differentness. Our approach is the search for the invisible. We want to make the invisible visible for the ”normal“ and for the ”different“. Theatre gives a voice to those who otherwise have none; that is probably common in all concepts. One must ask oneself; to what extent the theatre changes the view of the audience, which changes by experiencing the plays. The only criterion is the quality, thus good and bad theatre, not illness-background. What now is good theatre? A theatre of the necessity, condition is communication. Bad theatre however is, if the handicapped remained seized in their role and their labels kept.

P. Artkamp: All humans are very different in their genius. Each person has his restrictions, which applies both to the directors and to the actors. We in the theatre play with the non--visible, the audience believes in this alleged world of the theatre and carries it within themselves. I am not a therapist, but a director. Perhaps there are therapeutical effects of theatre-playing. The festival should not define differences, but show similarities.

K.Winska: We work with actors from the institute of Psychology and Neurology, especially with people suffering from schizophrenia. Our idea is to bring the inner world of the actors on stage, not the outer world, also in order to reduce the public fear for the sick. They should not laugh at them, but with them.

M. Grijp: We mix everything - age, cultural and social background, occupation etc. The point is to work on problems, not to persist on them. There are professionals and amateurs. Amateurs have a love for the theatre, which professionals have often lost. We do not make distinctions. The inner world of the individual has to be accepted. The theatre gives its own voice, it gave me a voice too. Under the surface there is more than roles and plays. There is the group feeling that the audience senses, more profoundly than with professional performances. Integration would mean that we as well are content with society, but we are not.

L. Brown: It's about the integration of mentally ill people and professionals. The first task was to integrate the mentally ill people. Today, this point of view has changed by reflection, the boundaries have blurred, and the differences between psychic ill people and professionals became fuzzy. Each one plays their part in the artistic process. Mentally ill bring in thereby their own world, carry them to the „normal“ ones, which have not experienced that world yet. Art is just art!

M. Ucik: A schoolmate, who is now working as a psychologist, brought me to the idea. I was an actor before, and thought of working with mentally ill people as an experiment. I experienced psychiatry in Bohnice as a prison. Many people had given up, but some I could get to come into the theatre. After ten years, we decided to show a play, ”Vera, Marie tanci“. It is about procedures within a group, a story mainly about two women, but it's also a play about the world - it is a mixture of reality, desires and doubts, just like in real life.

The View from Within - A life on and with the stage despite psychic illness Moderation: Elin Walther, Certified Pedagogue, Supervisor

The round table talk with actors from Billedspor (DK), Bohnice Company (CZ), Compagnie de l´Oiseau-Mouche (F), Sering VZW (B),Theater Thikwa (D), Workman Theatre Project (CDN), Isole Comprese Teatro (I) and Theater Sycorax (D) circled around chances and challenges of the world of theatre. The actors gave an insight in their personal views on the meaning of theatre work, rehearsal procedures in their respective ensembles and exchanged their experiences.

Participants: Andrea Pagnes (I), Daniela Platz (D), Michel Janckers (B), Martine Bonne (CZ), Martin Ucik (CZ), Frédéric Foulon (F), Jake Chalmers (CDN), Jakob Hansen (DK), Peter Pankow (D)

Introductory

A. Pagnes (m): I have been with the theatre for one year, actually I am a visual artist. I am an addiction patient and have played in ”Hamlet“.

B. Platz (f): I am with the theatre since 2004.

M. Janckers (m): I joined a year ago. That made many things possible for me.

M. Bonne (f): I have been playing for 9 years, I studied dramaturgy 5 years ago.

F. Foulon (m): I play theatre since 1992.

J. Chalmers (m): Me since 1991.

J. Hansen (m): I have been a musician for 11 years and play theatre.

P. Pankow (m): I am a musician and performer. We are ambassadors of a new art for Germany and for the world. We represent a new form.

What kind of experiences have you had on stage? Let's interchange over the view from within!

J. Hansen: We are former patients and work collectively. We can talk with our directors any time, when we have problems. We are not a therapeutical or social project. The work process is very demanding, that is the only way to find our own pictures and realize our visions. It is hard labour and it is equal to regular work.

M.Jankers: Well, I get a lot of positive response, and that is an enjoyable experience. My whole picture of the world has improved.

J. Chalmers: We are an integrative project, in which professional and healthy people work as well. It gives us a secure place where we can experiment. The whole project is directed against stigmatization. We represent different forms of art. We and other projects of this kind develop new ideas that are supposed to change the way people think.

D. Platz: For me, it is an exceptional experience that despite mental illness I can stand on stage and accomplish something … It gave me an impulse to rethink about how much power and potential is still there. I had often hidden myself from these things. I would not have dared to play theatre four years back, mainly because of fear of the big stigmatization and because the outside world often has no confidence in us. And again, that was well worth it, to prove myself and to see it is possible.

P. Pankow: We are not handicapped, we just want to inspire by what we show on stage. Society should not think negatively over it. We want to thrill people even without speaking. Sick and healthy people share something while playing theatre, limitations disappear. We are artists.

A. Pagnes: On stage, we always search for truth and authenticity. Theatre gives us a possibility for this search. Art can develop, something timeless.

M. Bonne: Theatre is profession and therapy for me. It helps me to get out of the problems. Through theatre, I became what I am now. I was able to start searching for myself and to accept my body again. Also, staying in psychiatry has made it possible to play theatre and study. My life has flourished radically. There was an experiment at the University of Prague five year ago, a study for mentally ill people. Unfortunately, it was cancelled.

F. Foulon: I became aware of the theatre during school, at that time I was an amateur actor. Now I can play professionally, that opened many doors for me.

How do you feel when playing theatre? How do you and your colleagues deal with the illness?

M. Bonne: I'm very concentrated when I play. I am totally present in that moment. Playing theatre is an intense experience. My colleagues know about my illness, but it is not a special subject since our only concern is playing theatre.

Somebody from the audience: The differences between ill and not-ill smear when on stage. Then it becomes a creative process. The goal of the work is that the word "handicap“ is no longer in foreground, prejudice should be suspended. Everyone's abilities should be used in the theatre and advantages should be abolished. Disabled people are declared to be disabled, but this kind of deficit thinking blocks the handicapped. It is not an educationalist performance, we play professional theatre in public. Everyone has a function, which he fulfils as well as possible. The desire to transform is in every human being. This should give us a chance for self-realization and the integration into a collaborative work.

J. Hansen: The communities are breathing down the necks of the ”sick in the head“ and tell us to get ”real“ jobs. Of course, there should be jobs for us, but cultural programs should be continued.

D. Platz: Psychic ill people should do more themselves for their integration. Integration is a mandate, even for us. We cannot always wait for handouts and platforms. Everyone has his strength and there should not be different standards.

P. Artkamp: At the beginning of my theater work with Sycorax, I was very insecure and have asked psychiatrists. I was often told that it is a difficult undertaking, theater work would seem perhaps illness promoting and not healing since in this work many imagination rooms would be opened.

How do you see this?

P. Pankow: We try to smash the borders to the limitations. We do form, dance, spiritual bodyness.

J. Chalmers: We are not medical staff, this is about concepts. Illnesses carry advantages, an extinction of illnesses can be viewed as dangerous.

M. Janckers: Nobody became ill on stage in our group, but it happened during rehearsal. But we will survive!

J. Hansen: There were two incidents during the last couple of years in our group. The two involved had to be sent to the hospital. I believe that probably more hospitalizations would have occurred if the two had not played theatre.

D. Platz: In principle, relapses can occur everywhere. Illness nevertheless may bar nobody. It annoys me very much that doctors as a rule are so overcautious.

M. Bonne: Theatre has a boomerang effect, the strength you put in will come back with a lot of drive. Not the lump-sum of illnesses but the individual should be in the foreground.

A. Pagnes: One who always thinks in categories loses strength. The essence of everyone's beauty should be made visible.

J. Hansen: For example, you find in a textbook that one must not touch schizophrenics.

What was standing on stage like for you during this festival?

J. Hansen: It was super!

D. Platz: It made me very happy to experience so many artist groups and to interchange with them.

M. Janckers: I have very much enjoyed the festival. I hope that I, as a person, can grow along with it and enjoy my life once again.

M. Bonne: It was just great. The workshops and this meeting today enrich my life immensely.

P. Pankow: I'm very proud and happy to be here and to meet so many other artists. The necessity to create art in dignity and not to be defined by your limitations is the focus here.

J. Chalmers: Our profit oriented society limits us. We need a healthy community to bring about something positive. This festival puts an important accent and gives impulses against segregation.

Final moderation E. Walther: I think it has become clear that the stage - and that was the subject here - the stage is the place of entireness, of the community, and that the theatre needs everything - the whole human being with all his experiences, his whole being, whichever way. To bring the whole being on stage.



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