Feb. 2017 FOOT Festival of Original Theatre

Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies

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Archiving Silence - A political experience of collection

A project proposal by the Digital Dramaturgy Lab

Dec.22, 2016

Performed February 2017

 

A contribution to the 2017, 25th edition of FOOT - Festival of Original Theatre Annual Graduate Conference at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto (((Sounding the Inner Ear in Performance)))

 

Concept by Antje Budde with Nazli Akhtari, Berna Celikkaya, Ziying Gao, Monty Martin, Sanja Vodovnik, Richard Windeyer, Amina Holloway, Riaz Mahmood, and friends

 

 

(She

• wants to say something but stops. Eventually she cannot hold back and speaks in an indifferent voice.) p.356

• stops, staring blankly at the detached arm and leg) p.368

• laughs hysterically, then stops at once) p.418

• stops and covers her head with her hands) p.404

Woman in Gao, Xingjian "Between Life and Death" 生死界

 

This project continues our dramaturgical explorations for our larger project "Between Life and Death (生死界)  - Explorations of Zen and Quantum Physics in/with/through Gao, Xingjian’s (高行健) play. Experimental cross-cultural, multi-lingual, mixed-media Zen theatre”.

 

What we will make:

1. collect silences (digital recordings) and moments of stillness during FOOT keynotes  and events; create a podcast of silent memory made available on the internet

2. collect stories (digital recordings) about silence and silencing by arbitrarily (chance encounters) reaching out to FOOT presenters and audiences (use the seminar room for archive making)

3. participatory, multi-lingual game of "Chinese whisper" (also known as "Broken telephone") in the Robert Gill lobby, using text from Gao Xingjian's play in divers languages

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See full proposal here

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