Film, video and new media in set design and stage directing

Chris Kondek will present examples of his work and involve participants, encouraging them to build their own “play”, working with a given frame of video elements, such as live camera, archival footage, voice-over footage. In groups of two they research and compile the material and relate it to selected texts they have brought to the workshop and decided to work with. With basic props, like a table and some chaors, a table cloth or the like, the participants can experiment with various ways of projecting the media material on various surfaces, like objects and persons.
The workshop lasts for four days and has periods of instruction, individual research, practical work and a final presentation of the state of work of the different groups.

If possible and available participants are asked to bring a Macbook with the iMovie program if possible and a text of interest.

Chris Kondek
Born in Boston in 1962, Kondek began experimenting with video in New York’s theatre scene in the mid 1980s. In the 1990s he worked for Robert Wilson and Michael Nyman. Laurie Anderson, a progressive thinker with experience in the use of video technology, engaged him in 1995 for her multimedia concert “The Nerve Bible” and in 1998 for the opera “Songs and Stories from Moby Dick”.  Kondek moved to Berlin in 1999, where he was involved in three productions at the Volksbühne theatre’s side venue in 2000/2001. Since 2003 Kondek has worked continuously with Stefan Pucher, for whom video is an important element of his productions. “Othello” was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen festival in 2005, and “The Tempest” three years later.
At the same time, Kondek – in his work as a director – explores in a series of his own projects how virtual stock exchange transactions and financial market laws can be depicted on stage.
In 2005, his performance of “Dead Cat Bounce”, in which ticket revenues are gambled on the stock exchange while the show is ongoing, received two prizes at the 6th Festival of Politics in Free Theatre (the ZDF-Theaterkanal award and the Goethe-Institut award) and was invited to numerous guest performances in Germany and abroad.