Workshop
Documents-Fiction-Falseness by Kai Tuchmann
Starting Realities | An International Workshop Series on Documentary Theatre
Curated by Anuja Ghosalkar & Kai Tuchmann
The seed for Starting Realities was planted way back in 2013, when Anuja Ghosalkar attended a workshop by German dramaturge Kai Tuchmann, then bangaloREsident@Jaaga. Anuja's interest in documentary theatre continued to grow apace and is now manifest in Starting Realities.
Starting Realities is a workshop series designed to build audiences, pedagogy and new practitioners for documentary theatre in India. A three-city workshop in 2018 was facilitated by Anuja Ghosalkar. Extending from this series, Documents-Fiction-Falseness by Kai Tuchmann, supported by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore flags off the global series in January 2019.
The workshop Documents-Fiction-Falseness investigates the relationship of documentary truth, fiction and falseness.
As an entry point participants will look at a Youtube broadcast as a “document”. This is a video clip of Chinese scientist Prof. He Jiankui's claims to be the first to create genetically edited twins. The veracity of this claim remains unproven. However it has been widely covered by major press across the world.
Can social media and self-publishing challenge the working routines and methods of a free and independent press? Is the press a privileged source? What is the impact of these challenges on classical documentary theatre?
In addition, through the workshop process, the questions if and how one can uphold one's own agency while dealing with truth claims associated with documents will be addressed?
Participants will be required to bring documents in response to Prof. He’s case. These documents can be in the form of photos, art work, videos, sound, images, gestures, recipes, newspaper articles, case studies.
During the two-and-a-half-day workshop, strategies of retelling and re-presenting the varied documents by applying different literary genres - fairy tale, political manifesto and science fiction will be developed. These retellings will be juxtaposed with the alleged realness of the initial document (Prof. He’s video clip) - thus questioning the truth claims of this document and its related discourses, one's own worlds, and what one holds valuable.
On the final day there will be an informal sharing - performances/iterations/responses.
Workshop dates & timings:
January 25, 2019: 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.
January 26 & 27, 2019: 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Limited participation
Kai Tuchmann | Workshop Facilitator
Since 2013, Kai refined his interest in these practices through regular collaborations with independent Chinese theatre groups. His collaborations with Shanghai-based Grass Stage were invited to the most prestigious Chinese theatre festival in Wuzhen as well as shortlisted for Berliner Theatertreffens' Stückemarkt. Red, a collaboration with Beijing-based Living Dance Studio, toured Europe (Theaterspektakel Zurich, Festival d`Automne à Paris), Asia (I Dance Hong Kong) and USA (Asia Society New York).
Kai Tuchmann teaches at Beijing Central Academy of Drama, Frankfurt's University of Music and Performing Arts and at the Marvin Carlson Theatre Centre in Shanghai and New York.
Anuja Ghosalkar | Workshop Curator
Details
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore
716, CMH Road
Indiranagar 1st Stage
Bangalore
560038
India
Price: Registration Fee: Rs. 1500