S A N J A M I T R O V I C

A Short History of Crying

2011-03-04T03:03:00.000-08:00

"A Short History of Crying"
a stand-up tragedy by Sanja Mitrović

In her new work, A Short History of Crying, Sanja Mitrović questions the social and cultural mechanisms related to public display of emotions. Contrasting personal statements with iconic scenes of crying in contemporary culture, as well as presenting the material from a research trip through the Balkans and the Netherlands, this ‘stand-up tragedy’ examines how emotions are manifested in different situations, and why we express them publicly.

Credits:
Concept/text/direction/performance: Sanja Mitrović Dramaturgy: Felix Ritter, Marija Karaklajić Stage design concept: Laurent Liefooghe www.liefooghe.be Set design realization: Douwe Hibma Research/artistic advice: Vladimir Tupanjac Sound design:Evelien van den Broek, Vladimir Rakić Light design: Katinka Marac Video design: Janneke KupferCamera: Marko Stojmenov, Nadja Leuba Assistant director: Guilio D’Anna, Maya van den Heuvel-Arad English translation: Siniša Mitrović Dutch translation: Sarah van Lamsweerde Technicians: Paul Schimmel, Konstantin Leonenko Production: Anke Wirken

Co-production: Stand Up Tall Productions/Amsterdam,
hetveem theater /Amsterdam,
Center for Cultural Decontamination/Belgrade
A Short History Of Crying is financially supported by European Cultural Foundation, Fonds Podiumkunsten Nederland, Amsterdams Fond voor de Kunst, SNS REAAL Fonds, VSB Fonds
Avant-premiere:
19, 20 November 2010
Bits&Pieces Festival, Beursschouwburg, Brussels
Premiere:
24 November 2010 hetveem Theatre, Amsterdam

youtube trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwGgcylT2Dw

Further dates
13th of March 2011, festival Perforacije, La Mama Theatre, New York
www.lamama.org
16th of March 2011, DancEunion Festival, Southbank Center, London
www.southbankcenter.co.uk

Tour Dates

2011-01-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

2011 - 13/14 January - Dutch Art Instituut workshop

2011 - March 13 at 20.00 - A Short History of Crying - Perforations Festival, New York, La Mama Theatre

2011 - March 16 at 19.45 - A Short History of Crying - DancEunion Festival, Southbank Center, London

2011 - May 9 at 22.00- Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guiramaes, Portugal www.ccvf.pt

2011 - May 11 at 21.30 - A Short History of Crying, Teatro Circo de Braga, Braga, Portugal www.theatrocirco.com

2011 - May 13 at 21.30 - Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, TNSJ Teatro Carlos Alberto,Porto, Portugal www.tnsj.pt

2011 - May 14 at 16.00- Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, TNSJ Teatro Carlos Alberto, Porto, Portugal www.tnsj.pt

2011 - May 14 at 21.30- A Short History of Crying, TNSJ Teatro Carlos Alberto,Porto, Portugal, www.tnsj.pt

2011 - May 19 at 19.00 - premiere Daydream House (together with Laurent Liefooghe), Huis aan de Werf Festival, Utrecht, Nederland www.huisaandewerf.nl

2011 May 20/24 at 19.00 - Daydream House, Huis aan de Werf Festival, Utrecht, Nederland www.huisaandewerf.nl

2011 - May 26 at 20.30 - Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, Huis aan de Werf Festival, Utrecht, Nederland www.huisaandewerf.nl

2011 - May 27/28 at 19.00 - Daydream Huis, Huis aan de Werf Festival, Utrecht, Nederland www.huisaandewerf.nl

Sanja Mitrovic wins the BNG Theatre Prize for The Best Director 2010

2010-09-14T02:30:00.000-07:00

Sanja Mitrović wins BNG Theatre Prize 2010!

Stand Up Tall Productions is proud and happy to announce that theatre maker Sanja Mitrović has won the BNG Theatre Prize 2010!

BNG Nieuwe Theatre Director's Price 2010 is a prestigious prize worth 45.000 euros, for upcoming theatre directors and performers. Mirović got the prize for her play ‘Will You Ever Be Happy Again?' (www.willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com). She directed it and played in it as well. This performance is co-prodcutions between Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade, hetveem theatre, Amsterdam and Stichting Stand Up Tall Productions, Amsterdam. With the prize-money Sanja Mitrović will make a new performance next season. The jury chose Mitrović out of seven new makers that were part of Blind Date- new theatremakers on tour.

Blind Date is organized bij Theater Instituut Nederland and is made possible by Cultuurfonds van de Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten. The BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prize has been awarded on Wednesday 8 september in the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam.

http://www.theaterinstituut.nl/Theater-Instituut-Nederland/Theatersector/Nationaal/Talent-en-prijzen/BNG-Nieuwe-Theatermakers-Prijs/Sanja-Mitrovic-wint-BNG-Theaterprijs-2010
http://www.eurocult.org/news/153
www.tolhuistuin.nl

Nomination for BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prijs 2010

2010-03-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

photo: Irfan Redzovic, Mess, 2009

Sanja Mitrovic is nominated for the BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prijs 2010 (the best new theatre maker) for the production "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" www.theaterblinddate.nl

The docu-tale "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" is selected for Blind Date Tour, serie voor Nieuwe Theatermakers, organized by Theater Instituut Nederland and The performance will be shown in 13 theatres in The Netherlands in April. More information you can find on: www.willyoueverbehappyagain.com. The critics and the review you can find under Categories section.

The performance is made in 2008, in Bitef Festival in Belgrade.The show was received with great enthusiasm and was triggering many discussions in almost every context where it has been shown - in the theatres and festivals in The Netherlands, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.

Stichting Stand Up Tall Productions

Research trip to Monte Negro and Bosnia

2010-03-10T07:02:00.000-08:00

Inntensive trip to the South of Serbia, Monte Negro and Bosnia is finished. Many places, many people in such a short time. I am still under the impression of the area and the stories we heard, songs we learned and sang. We have a lot of hours of the material recorded, I am looking forward to start working on the editing.

The first studio rehearsals already started two days ago. A Short History Of Crying begins...

In the meantime, we play WYEBHA in the theatre Kikker, in Utrecht.

And 1: Songs in Mechelen.

January activities

2010-01-10T02:08:00.000-08:00

The New Year started in a working spirit. Upcoming months will be very busy. I intensively started the research for the new performance and spent some inspiring time in Serbia. The studio rehearsals start in the beginning of February, in Amsterdam.

On 12th of January I will be, for the second time, the guest at "Why Theatre?" meeting organized by prof. Maaike Bleeker, Theatre Studies, University of Utrecht
(http://www.uu.nl/NL/faculteiten/geesteswetenschappen/Actueel/Agenda/Pages/20100104-WhyTheatre.aspx).

"1:Songs" by NB will be shown on 15th of January in Chasse theatre, Breda (www.chasse.nl)
and then on 19,20,21 in Frasacati, Amsterdam (www.theaterfrascati.nl).

After that, we travel to Brussels to KVS theatre for the special occassion: Borka Pavicevic, the director of our co-production house in Belgrade, Center for Cultural Decontamination, won the prize Routes Princess Margriet Award by European Cultural Foundation!

"Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" continues touring. It will be shown on 22nd in Huis van Borugondie in Maastricht (www.huisvanbourgondie.nl) and after that we play on 29th and 30th in Theatre Alibi, in Bastia, Corsica (www.theatrealibi.com).

Hope to see you on some of the upcoming shows!

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Leipzig

2009-12-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, after its premiere in 2008, performing in different European cities and different festivals and contexts and touring a lot in the last year, finally had its German premiere at Euro-scene festival in Leipzig in November 2009. The fact that the performance opens up a space for the discussion was confirmed during the public talks following the show both evenings. They were organized by the festival, both times moderated by dr. Martina Bako, the professor of theatre science at the University of Leipzig. The most of the people took very active (and passionate!)involvement in discussions and even after the official end we continued to talk endlessly, till the early morning hours, in the festival café.

Just a couple of days before the 20-year anniversary of the Berlin wall fall we were sitting with our East German audience discussing issues of identity, recent history, it’s personal and official ’versions’, etc. What other ideal set up could I imagine when the production started? Only a week before this we were in Sarajevo, another ’ideal’ surroundings for the issues brought by Will You Ever Be Happy Again?

Most of the people we met in a certain way chose to live in Leipzig after 1989... Why? Most of them agree that it’s offering new opportunities, motives and the active, intriguing position concerning the questions of history, politics and identity in general (German, European, global...). Realizing that the moment of German reunion cannot be considered simply as a step towards a ’bright future’ was one of the triggers which opened countless very complicated but interesting questions and my personal realization that the issue of German identity is much more complicated regarding it’s recent history put me in a situation to rethink my own thoughts, not only about the performance, but about the relations in-between collective, private, official and intimate, private ‘histories’, ‘identities’, ‘stereotypes’, etc.

For example - a man from the audience said: “I am happy that my children could be proud of German identity. I am happy that it is, at some extent, untied from the burden of history and that my children do feel as Germans, which I was not allowed to do or at least I would feel shame in the moments I was trying to think about it.” Interesting enough, the question of German identity brought very different answers and opinions, in relation to different generations of people in the audience.
During the interview for the MDR TV show Artour I was asked what could be the 100% Serbian. I tried to reply with the opposite question - what could be the 100% German? Both interviewer and me left the room with unreturned questions instead of replies. Leipzig was perhaps the most obvious place in which was clear that the performance opens up only new questions more than offering answers. It was special to feel that it re-units people in trying to find the possible answers together and, my very personal opinion is that it only adds another dimension to the performance, or at least, that this layer of unanswered questions is a place for new thoughts, new dialogues, new exchanges of experience, personal or collective, intimate or, so called official. Even by making the small steps, theatre should be produced in relation to its historical and social, political and cultural context and it should try to reflect actuality and that is the theatre I am very much interested in.

Sanja Mitrović, Stichting Stand Up Tall Productions

More texts about WYEBHA? tour soon follows on: www.willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com.

shedule november december 2009

2009-11-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

WYEBHA - German premiere
4 nov 19.30 - Euro-scene Festival, Leipzig
5 nov 22.00 – Euro-scene Festival, Leipzig
place: Schaubühne Lindenfels
www.euro-scene.de

1:Songs
13, 14 nov 20.30 - Beursschouwburg, Brussel

WYEBHA
17 nov 19.15 – Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
18 nov 20.30 – Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
http://theatre.univ-montp3.fr/novembre.htm

1:Songs
19 nov 20.30 - Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam

WYEBHA
20 nov 21:30 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France
21 nov 17:00 and 21:00 – Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France
place: CCRNB

Holland Tsunami
24, 25 nov 20.30 – Kaai theatre, Brussels

1:Songs
2 dec - Corrosia!, Almere

upcoming events

2009-09-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? Tour:
www.willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com

2009
22 October - Mess Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia (SARTR)
www.mess.ba

4 November at 19.30 / German premiere - Euro-Scene Festival, Leipzig, Germany
5 November at 22.00 / German premiere - Euro-Scene Festival, Leipzig, Germany
Place: Schaubühne Lindenfels
www.euro-scene.de

17 November at 19.15 - Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
18 November at 20.30 - Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
http://theatre.univ-montp3.fr/novembre.htm

20 November at 21.30 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France (CCRNB)
21 November at 17:00 and 21:00 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France (CCRNB)

2010
25-26 January - Trente, Italy

10-12 February - Theater Kikker, Utrecht

April 2010 - Dutch tour (13 cities)

upcoming events

2009-08-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

August 22 / Will You Ever Be Happy Again? - Lowlands festival, Holland
www.lowlands.nl

August 23 / Will You Ever Be Happy Again? - Theaterspektakel Festival, Zurich
Nord/ www.theaterspektakel.ch

September 16-20 / Artists in Public, Belgrade

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Belgrade and Presevo

2009-07-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

After the reprise in Belgrade in CZKD, "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" played in Center for Culture in Presevo in June. We went there together with our hosts - CZKD and Youth Initiative for Human Rights from Belgrade. The audience was on stage, the subtitles were in Albanin. After the performance, we had the discusssion with the local audience. The video material will be soon posted on one of our blogs.

The interview (in Serbian) you can read at:
http://www.e-novine.com/intervju/intervju-kultura/27281-Umetnost-nije-dekoracija.html

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Strasbourg

2009-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

"Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" played to sold out houses in Strasbourg as part of Festival Premières, a festival showcasing work by young European directors. We performed four times at Studio Kable and I participated in a platform event with five other European directors. French television France 3 made a trailer of the performance. Both the audience and the critics reacted enthusiastically. All the reactions and critics will be soon translated and published on the "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" blog: http://willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com/ as well as the announcements for the future performances in Holland, Serbia, France, Switzerland, Bosnia and Germany.

The interview for the French cultural magazine Diversions you can find here:
http://www.diversions-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87

The French version of the interview together with the introduction written by Dominique Demangeot you can find here:

http://www.diversions-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=34

More about the festival you can find on the following links:
http://www.le-maillon.com/
http://premieres.tns.fr/FR/401
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=90530166285&ref=nf

trailer Will You Ever Be Happy Again?

2009-05-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

AGENDA

2009-04-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

April
27 April - 5 May - Berlin – preparation for the new project/residency Shady Lane

May
11-17 Pact Zollverein, Essen – residency with Nicole Beutler for the solo performance; premiere: October 2009

18-31 hetveem theatre - research project "A Short History Of Crying"

June
3-8 Premieres Festival in Strasbourg, France - playing "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?"

11-21 Oeral festival, performing with Petra Ardai “Holland Tsunami”

25 - Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in CZKD, Belgrade
27 - Will You Ever Be happy Again in Cultural Centre, Presevo

July
rehearsals for the Solo With The Missing Quire

August
22 - Will You Ever Be Happy Again? at the Lowlands Festival, Holland

Advising and reseraching

2009-03-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

I intensivly started my reasearch period for the new project that will be extended during my residency in Berlin, in April. Apart from that, I am advisor for the solo of Igor Drobac, a first-year project of Mime school as well as for the graduate performance directed by fourth year student of Mime department of the Theaterschool, Jan Barta, "Wacht Even!" which will be presented on the Playtime! and ITS! Festivals in Amsterdam.

Crisis in Fracati

2009-03-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

In the frame of the monthly programme Crisis in Frascati, I was invited by Sarah Vanhee to give a concept which I still haven't realize to be read and sold during the evening called THE GREAT PUBLIC SALE OF UNREALIZED BUT BRILLIANT IDEAS. I sent her the concept about the big train accident show. Unfortunatelly, I couldn't be on the auction myself since I was performing Holland Tsunami the same evening in Ostade theatre (Babel festival), but the concept is sold.

Dinner with young directors

2009-02-23T07:15:00.000-08:00

Meeting the young theatre directors from Holland and Belgium, talking about the theatre and the upcoming projects, exchanging the ideas in the very nice atmosphere, hosted by Nieuwe Helden in Lindengracht.

Yearbook of the Independent Performing Arts Scene in Serbia

2009-02-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

On the 12th of February - promotion of the publication of TKH forum for performing arts critique " Raster 2008 - Yearbook of the Independent Performing Arts Scene in Serbia". "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" listed in the project directory.

place: Magacin, Beograd

Workshop at the Utrecht University

2009-02-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

Mime workshop for the students of all years of the Theatre, Film and Television Science department at the Utrecht University.

Holland Tsunami, Drowning in Europe

2008-12-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

"Holland Tsunami" is a theatrical mockumentary. A ‘what if’- scenario about a tsunami threatening to flood Holland.

Concept: Petra Ardai ( NL , H)
Moderating, performing: Petra Ardai, Luc van Loo, Sanja Mitrovic
Text: Feico Sobel (NL), Eszter Babarczy
Sound: Luc van Loo
Video: Marloeke van der Vlugt (NL), Ernst Süss (H)
Dramaturg (H): Anna Veres
Dramaturg (NL): Nienke Rooijakkers

Korzotheater, Den Haag - 5-6 December 2008.
Oostade Theater, Amsterdam, 13-14 March 2009.
Kaai Theatre, Brussels, 24-25 November 2009.

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Tilburg

2008-11-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

The performance "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" on "70 jaar na Kristallnacht Festival".

Date: 6 November
Place: Theater NWE Vorst, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Bimhuis Monday Match

2008-11-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Impro evening on the topic of "To Be Or Not To Be A Hero" with a group of people who gathered together just for this special occasion.

Location: Bimhuis, Amsterdam, 2008
Date: 3rd of November 2008

Curators: Sanja Mitrovic and MaryLou Weijmans
Participants: Mijke Werkema (movement), Dannny O'Really, Slobodan Babic (feedback electronics), Vladimir Rakic (electronics), MaryLou Weijmans (vocals), Sanja Mitrovic (movement)

For every edition of Monday Match a dancer invites a partner musician or the other way around. This duo comes up with the line of approach for a unique improvisation lab. The first Monday of the month a number of dancers/musicians selected by this duo enters the stage. On the spot they create an inspiring match for performers and the audience.

Orbis Pictus conference

2008-10-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Food for Thought event of the Orbis Pictus conference (scholars having dinner with theatre makers)

"Swashbuckling dishes: Pirates, Politics and Promises" Jörg Wiesel meets Sanja Mitrovic

Jörg Wiesel is a guest professor at the Freie Universität Berlin (Institut für Theaterwissenschaft). Last year he finished his habilitation about pirates and his book will be published next year. He is working at the University Of Art in Basel (University of Applied Sciences in Nortwestern Switzerland, fhnw). His teaching fields there are fashion-design, theory and performance.

In the late evening afterthoughts will take place in Theatre Frascati. Afterthoughts and food for thought are 'living knowledge installations'.

Date: 25th of October
Place: Amsterdam

Actual Theatre

2008-10-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

Intensive workshop for the third year of the Mime department students at Amsterdamse Hoogeschool voor de Kunsten.

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? Dutch tour

2008-10-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

After the international premiere during the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, as a part of the special program of the 42nd BITEF festival "TRUTH IN THEATRE", "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" has it’s Dutch premiere at Hetveem Theatre, on Thursday 23rd of October. This performance was preceded by the Hetveem Research project culminating in the public presentation at Hetveem Theater in March 2008.

Dates: 23 October (Dutch premiere + afterpary DJ’s Sinisa Mitrovic and Vladimir Tupanjac with their eclectic electric & bastard disco & special guests)
24 October(with debate moderated by dr.Dragan Klaic)
25 October at 20.30
26 October at 16.00
Place: Hetveem Theater, Amsterdam
www.hetveemtheater.nl/makers
Language: Serbian and German spoken, Thu 23 and Fri 24 Oct Dutch subtitles, Sat 25 and Sun 26 Oct English subtitles.

further dates: 6 Nov 20.00 uur Kristallnachtremembrance De NWE Vorst, Tilburg (NL)

The interview "Voetbalvreugde en oorlogsherinneringen" by Laura Karreman you can read in Dutch at http://www.hetveemtheater.nl/content/interviewsanjamitrovic.html

Discussion after the performance "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?"

2008-10-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

After the Dutch premiere of “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?” the post-performance debate IN/BETWEEN mirrors of collective history. Thought experiments for Holland, Serbia and Germany moderated by Dr. Dragan Klaic was held in Hetveem theatre.

We are repeating history just as the history seems to repeat itself. Is there a hope to survive one’s own history? Can we learn from the history and find out more about where we are at the moment?

The idea of the discussion was to reflect upon the role of the history today.

Date and place: 24th of October 2008. Hetveem Theatre, Amsterdam
Moderator: dr. Dragan Klaic
Participants: Drs. Hanco Jurgens, Igor Dobricic, Sanja Mitrovic, Felix Ritter

Dr. Dragan Klaic is writer, theater scholar and cultural analyst. He led the Theater Instituut Nederland (1992-2001) and now serves as a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam. Fields of interest are: international cultural cooperation, interculturalism, cultural systems in Europe, cultural memory. Culture and globazation, sustainability and expanded typology of cultural organizations. He is initiator and Chair of the European Festivals Research Project (EFRP - www.efa-aef.org). Dragan Klaic’s Specialties: experienced leader of complex international research projects; analyst, commentator and avisor in cultural affairs; trainer, mentor, coach and conference key note speaker..
www.draganklaic.eu

Will You Ever Be Happy Again?

2008-09-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

“Are we ever going to be happy again?,” the German population asked themselves at the end of the Second World War. A significant part of the Serbian population is facing the same question in the wake of the new millennium. The Germans called that moment "hour zero", to symbolize their desire for a fresh start. But this appeared to be an illusion, because one can’t escape one’s own history; one can only hope to survive it.
"Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" is a piece for one Serbian and one German performer. Developed around authentic autobiographical accounts of its performers, "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" employs documentary strategies to explore how nationality influences one’s personal identity. This issue has been acutely pertinent to both Serbia and Germany, which, at different points in their national histories, have been perceived in negative terms within the international community. "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" is structured as a succession of performative situations, based, amongst others, on childhood games, primary school classes and sporting events. The performers' personal and collective memories outline the narratives of good vs. bad, of victim vs. criminal, and how these distinctions can easily be turned upside down. The German performer relates his family memories, the period after the Second World War and the Cold War era. The Serbian performer reflects on her childhood in the 1980s, the ethnic conflicts and disintegration of Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the recent experience of becoming a Dutch citizen. Counter–pointing and mirroring each other’s cultural and historical backgrounds, they attempt to approach the problem of self–representation, the way one looks at the other, and the urge to see oneself through the eyes of another.

"Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" is poised between documentary material and its theatrical interpretation. Shifting from a straightforward address to allusion to quotation, and relying on an oblique exploitation of historical images and poetic expressions, the work swings from research to a ritual game that creates imaginary parallels between the two countries, repeating History just like History always seems to repeat itself.

Concept and direction: Sanja Mitrovic
Performers: Jochen Stechmann, Sanja Mitrovic
Dramaturgy: Felix Ritter
Light design: Erik Gramberg
Sound design: Vladimir Rakic
Costume design: Dejan Dosljak
Artistic advisor: Vladimir Tupanjac
Stills photography: Sjoerd Kelderman

Co-produced by: CZKD, Beograd http://www.czkd.org/aktuelno.php?lang=en and Het Veem, Amsterdam http://www.hetveemtheater.nl/eng/frames.php?frame=dates

Supported by: BITEF Festival (http://www.bitef.rs/en/festival/predstava.php?pid=16) and Pact Zollverein, Essen
Many thanks to: Shady Lane Productions, Glasgow

Performance WILL YOU EVER BE HAPPY AGAIN? is a part of the COMMUNITY OF MEMORY project produced by Center for Cultural Decontamination and supported by Erste Foundation, Ministry of Culture Republic of Serbia, Belgrade City Council – Department for Culture and Swiss Embassy in Belgrade.

Dates: 26 (premiere at BITEF festival, with aftertalk)
27 September BITEF Festival at 18.00, CZKD (Center for Cultural Decontamination), Belgrade www.bitef.rs

27 September - round table discussion "Truth in Theatre". http://www.bitef.rs/en/festival/programi.php?pid=3

reprise: 29,30 September at 20.00 in CZKD, Belgrade - www.czkd.org

e-mail address: willyoueverbehappyagain@gmail.com

Residency in Pact Zollverein

2008-08-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

PACT Zollverein runs a residency programme, awarded twice yearly by a jury, for the development and realisation of projects and productions, which is open to professional artists from Germany and abroad, working in the fields of dance, performance or media art.

August 2008: artist in residence, three weeks in Pact. In the first week the whole team of "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" was there as well, working intensively on the preparations for Belgrade premiere.

Team: Jochen Stechmann, Felix Ritter, Vladimir Rakic, Erik Gramberg, Dejan Dosljak, Sanja Mitrovic

INSTED & ITS

2008-06-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

From the 23rd to the 28th of June 2008, INSTED organized another INSTED@ITs programme during the 19th edition of the ITs Festival in Amsterdam. All Dutch graduating theatre directors were presenting their performances in a special Directors Route in the ITs Festival. INSTED invited twenty Dutch and Flemish young directors and twenty young international directors to watch these performances and to participate in an active and intensive visitors programme.

The INSTED@ITs visitors programme was scheduled around the Directors Route of the ITs Festival and gave us the opportunity to meet, mingle, party and work with other young directors from different countries, but also with established Dutch directors and international programmers.

After great very inspiring time we had together and meeting many colleagues from all around Europe, in the summer 2008 INSTED asked 4 members to start a letter exchange about their preparation for their performances at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival and BITEF festival in Belgrade, Serbia; Philip Thorne were to exchange letters with Sanja Mitrovic and Øystein U. Brager with David Overend. You can read the letters here on Will You Ever Be Happy Again? blog, or find them on http://www.insted.eu/ and on http://oystein.ulsberg.no/blogg/insted-letters/.

The letters were also printed in little booklets Unique correspondence. Four young international directors exchange their experiences during the process of making a new theatre piece.

LENTE by OLIVIER PROVILY

2008-01-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

Exclusive for the Van Gogh Museum theater director Olivier Provily developed performance "Spring" as a part of the exhibition of John Everett Millais (February 15 and May 18, 2008). Provily plays in "Spring" with the multiple meaning of Millais' work. "Spring" is being shown every Friday during the exhibition. The Van Gogh Museum on Friday is open till 22 hours.

Spring consists of two parts. From 19 hours the first part (prologue) will take place on the upper floor of the exhibition. Children between the ages of 8 to 12 create their own world here, where tranquility and inner life are the most important elements. From 20 hours the main part of the performance beginnins. It is set in the courtyard of the exhibition wing. In this outdoor surrounding five young women search their way in time. Flarden poetry and music underline their unfulfilled longing. The public looks on through a window. Provily, among others known from the Toneelschuur and Toneelgroep Amsterdam, describes the performance itself as "A voorjaarsmeditatie on mortality and desire."

Peter de Kimpe (stage design), Hadewych ten Berge (costume design), Dennis Slot (sound designer), Minna Tiikkainen (light designer) and the actors Stan Haywood, Sylvia Hoeks, Sarah Ringoet, Hedwig Koers, Sanja Mitrovic en Marit Stocker.

Place: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Date: every Friday evening January - May 2008.

For more information visit: www3.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=139012&lang=nl

MA guest at the University of Utrecht

2007-12-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

I was guest in the MA Contemporary Theatre and Dance Studies programme 2007-2008, University of Utrecht, at prof. Maaike Bleeker's seminar “Who’s Afraid of Representation?”.

BOOKS ONCE READ MAKE A GOOD BULLET PROOFING by SANJA MITROVIC

2007-05-01T04:09:00.000-07:00

"Books once read make a good bullet proofing" explores our ideals and beliefs, with all their inherent contradictions and paradoxes. It is inspired by the butt-end of the protest movements of the mid ‘70s, in particular the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the radical political organization the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

The performance brings together pre–recorded video material and live action. By reproducing the original statements of the revolutionary group and its victim, the performance takes the shape of a peculiar “terrorist karaoke.”

While a group of thirteen year olds act out elements of the Patty Hearst story, adults recorded on video seem to be attempting to learn their “roles.” The combination of the children’s unaffected performances and the political statements they are re–enacting brings about an uneasy tension through which our own preconceptions are questioned.

concept, direction Sanja Mitrovic
dramaturgy Desiree Delauney
sound designer Vlada Rakic
performers Kiefer Brink, Carlotte Dessauvagie, Charlie de Graaf, Christel Havers, Dolf van Langelaar, Petra van Leeuwen, Annick van Oosten, Emily Yakobi, Sanja Mitrovic

Gasthuis production, 2007.

For more information visit: http://www.theatergasthuis.nl/default.asp?path=y42o62eo&pc=0607_BOOKS

SENSATION IS REAL by NICOLE BEUTLER

2006-05-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

The Book: The Sensation is Real

Parallel to the making of the performance Enter Ghost Nicole Beutler published the book The Sensation is Real. As independent artwork it was developed in close collaboration with typographer Connie Nijman. Connecting disciplines such as literature, philosophy, photography, theology and alchemy, it proposes a poetic journey through a personal archive of ghostly potential. Countless historical references to séances, spiritism and fairies stand alongside with thoughts on Noh theatre, as well as the Shakespearean proposals of the supernatural. On invitation of De Appel, Amsterdam, Nicole Beutler developed a hypnotic tour as an informal and performative presentation of the ideas that surround the book. This performance was adapted to the old office building of the Festival KAMMERmachen in Chemnitz and performed again with special guest DJ Alec Smart.

Concept/Choreography Nicole Beutler
With Hester van Hasselt, Sanja Mitrovic, Esther Snelder
Music Gary Shepherd

de Apple, Amsterdam, 2006.

For more information visit: http://www.associationlisa.com/hester/works/enter-ghost-nicole-beutler/

SHAME by SANJA MITROVIC

2006-04-17T03:59:00.000-07:00

photo: Annette Kamerich www.eyes2.nl

photo: Annette Kamerich www.eyes2.nl

Since I was studying Japanese literature and language and Mime, I was always puzzled by the idea of how to combine these two disciplines. In the research project „Shame“ I initiated an encounter with young Japanese dancer Yurie Umamoto whom I invited by internet to participate in the project. Material for the performance appeared through the persistent repetition of our first encounter which happened on theatre stage. During this process it has been transformed into the theatrical act. How does intimacy, discomfort, fascination, shame in front of the „other“ (as a private emotions during this encounter) changes into theatrical language? The direct communication between two of us is played in Japanese. Third female performer is voice over for our dialogue, playing it in English. Ritual gesture of giving the present (book of Roland Barthes „The Empire of the Signs“) becomes the vehicle for the interaction where the verbal formulations become gestures, movements, physical actions. – Sanja Mitrovic

While repeating the first meeting which happened in the theatre space (first rehearsal) during the period of the research, the author questions the basic problem of repetition which brought as the end result the essence of the meeting -the reality in-between.
In the research project „Shame“ she investigates the phenomenon of the meeting. The author meets the Japanese dancer. She articulates her fascination about the Japanese culture into a position where she tries to be surrounded by Japanese signs and codes of behaviour. For that she chooses to talk in Japanese. This position slowly transforms through her abstract understanding of „the other” in the confrontation/ meeting with that „other“. The beginning statement becomes new structure of meaning which is different not only in a discursive sense (it means something else) but in the formal sense as well (it is not constituted only of verbal formulations, but it becomes performative trace of the interaction where the statements become gestures, movements, physical situations).

Concept/direction: Sanja Mitrovic
Performers: Yurie Umamoto, Sanja Mitrovic
Dramaturgy: Igor Dobricic
Photos by: Annette Kamerich

Gasthuis production, 2006.

For more information visit: www.theatergasthuis.nl/media/gasthuis_jaarverslag_06.pdf

ENTER GHOST by NICOLE BEUTLER

2006-04-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

The stage direction ‘Enter Ghost’ from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the point of departure for this project. The instruction is paradoxical: how can we make a ghost – an invisible and undeterminable force – appear on stage? And what is a ghost? Sight has become the privileged sense for our empirical interpretation of the world. According to the logic of our ‘scientific eye’, that which is not directly or indirectly ‘visible’ does not exist. What if we included ghosts in our perceived material reality? What if we no longer assigned ghosts a place in our fictional fantasy world, but rather saw them as a concrete, material and sociological force? How real is our imagination? In Enter Ghost Nicole Beutler aims to create space for the unnameable, the poetic and the inexplicable.

premiere: Frascati, 2006.

Concept/Choreography Nicole Beutler
with Hester van Hasselt, Esther Snelder, Sanja Mitrovic
Music Gary Shepherd
Dramaturgy Igor Dobricic
Light/Stage Minna Tiikkainen
Clothes Jessica Helbach
Book Nicole Beutler and Connie Nijman (Typography)
Contributions André Lepecki, Bob Bishop, Laurens van der Heijden, Mark Poysden, Igor Dobricic
Production Klaartje Wouters
PR-photography Anja Beutler
Management Inge Koks
Produced by LISA
Co-produced by wpZimmer, Antwerpen and PACTZollverein, Essen
Supported by Fonds voor Amateurkunst en Podiumkunsten, Den Haag and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst

For more information check: http://www.associationlisa.com/nicole/works/enterghost/

Dhanu

2005-07-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

The graduate performance "Dhanu" (2005) is solo inspired by women who blew herself up at an election rally in Sriperumbuduru, Shri Lanka in 1991, Dhanu. The attack killed 70 people and the Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The performance doesn’t represent her spectacular suicide attack. It focuses instead on the issues of training and preparation, the very process in which an artist/terrorist attempts to abandon all interests of her own, leaving behind her affairs, her feelings, attachments, belongings, even her own name. For that reason, I decide to depersonalize the movement and to create an imaginary “terrorist” training: I randomly choose dance sequences from works created and performed by female artist in different contexts whose energy of the performing could be an energy of the potentional “women-bomb”. What’s the most potent performer’s weapon? Is it the body or the brain, or – eventually “the heart”?

The performance is the combination of video and live action. The projected text "Woman bomb" interprets/narrativizes/deconstructs and manipulates dance samples. The audio recording of Helicopter String Quartet by Karlheinz Stockhauzen is being used as a soundscape.

Place/venue: Hetveem theatre, ITs Festival
Date:jun, 2005.