Think Theatre Design!

A three day feast of Scenography, November 28th - 30th 2015 in Nicosia, Cyprus.

With international experts Joslin McKinney and Sodja Lotker. Organised by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation

An excellent opportunity for theatre designers in Cyprus and abroad to learn from the best:

● Saturday 28th of November
Joslin McKinney leads a 6-hour masterclass for professional scenographers on materiality (limited places)

● Sunday 29th, Talks
Morning: Joslin McKinney on the topic ‘Scenography and the Body of the Spectator’ Approximately 1 hour
Afternoon: open talk with both experts on “Emerging trends and shifting tides of Scenography, moving on and expanding”. Approximately 2 hours

● Monday 30th
Sodja Lotker’s 3-hour masterclass on Curatorship for a small group of professionals (not excluding newer colleagues) (limited places)

Language of Masterclasses: English

DESCRIPTIONS

● Saturday 28th of November, 10.00a.m. - 4.00p.m.

Rehearsal studio, third floor, THOC building, Nicosia
Dr. Joslin McKinney
Masterclass/workshop: ‘Objects, materials and things: the agency of scenographic matter’
This workshop will explore the relationship between materials, makers and the experience of scenography and consider the extent to which materials themselves can engage the imagination and generate meaning.

This hands-on session will involve working creatively with everyday materials in order to reflect on the idea of ‘following’ rather than imposing form on matter. As part of the day’s activities, we will also be looking at and discussing examples of recent European scenography where objects and materials are central to the way meaning is created.

● Sunday 29th of November, 11.00a.m.

New Stage, THOC Building, Nicosia
Dr Joslin McKinney,
Talk
“Scenography and the Body of the Spectator”
(approx. 1hr).

This presentation would look at recent approaches to scenography where the use of objects and materials are central. It would include examples of work by Kris Verdonck, Royal de Luxe and Verdensteatret and it would explore the idea of engaging the whole body of the spectator.

● Sunday 29th of November, 6.00p.m.

Joslin McKinney and Sodja Lotker
Talk
“Emerging trends and shifting tides of scenography, moving on and expanding”
(approximately 2hrs)
Coordinated by Marina Maleni

In this dialogue Joslin McKinney and Sodja Lotker will explore how our perception of scenography has changed in the last decade, perception that is directly connected to how scenography is exhibited within the Prague Quadrennial but, more importantly, perception shifts directly influenced by the radical changes in the practice of scenography in the recent years by immersive theatre, site specific, community theatre, scenography installation and other recent practices.

● Monday November 30th, 10.00a.m. - 1.00p.m.

New Stage, THOC building, Nicosia
Sodja Lotker
Masterclass on Curatorship

Presentation of four performing exhibitions that Sodja Lotker has worked on for the Prague Quadrennial since 2003 to show how ‘easily’ the ´traditional´ ways of exhibiting (not only scenography) can be challenged. And more importantly to talk about the new form that has arisen in the last decades, the performing, live exhibition.
The expert shall try to unfold her own system of curation via talking about a series of terms such as curations, situation, hierarchy, change, local/locus, love/trust, dramaturgy, alienation, scenography, tradition, fun, impossibility etc. and propose that the term ´performing´ in performing exhibition does not only stand for live but also for non-illustrating exhibitions that perform (that do, narrate and play) and enable ambiguous in-between situations for multiplicity of relations, experiences and meanings to appear, true third spaces where real and imagined meet.

SHORT BIOS

● Joslin McKnney is Associate Professor in Scenography and Deputy Head of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK.

Building on her experience as a set and costume designer and using practice-led methods of research into scenography, she has been actively contributing to the development of scenography as an area of academic study internationally. She is the lead author of the Cambridge Introduction to Scenography and she has published widely on spectacle, phenomenology, the materiality of scenography and scenographic research methods. In June 2015 she was appointed to chair the international jury for the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

● Sodja Zupanc Lotker is Artistic Director of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. She has worked for this performance design event since 1999, where she made numerous live scenography exhibitions and events. She also works as a dramaturg for independent theatre, dance, media and site specific projects, working often in unusual spaces s in Czech Republic, USA, Brazil etc., for instance with CIA Dani Lima, Lotte van den Berg, Farm in the Cave, Cristina Maldonado as well as Lhotakova/Soukup dance company. She has been teaching and giving lectures at Visual Arts Academy in Brno, Prague Performing Arts Academy, Columbia University, Yale and Central School of Speech and Drama and a number of festivals and symposia.

Professionals interested in participating in the Masterclasses, should send a short CV at [email protected] by November 19th 2015.
For open talks, the public is advised to book a seat by calling THOC’s box office 77772717.