The pandemic has digitized us all. Suddenly, events are being streamed live everywhere. A full stage in front of an empty house. But is that all? Is it really that simple? What challenges do artists face when interacting at a distance? Which concepts work well and which don’t? What does “artistic quality” mean in the digital anyway? And what is the best way to implement a multi-hybrid model?
The Meta Theater is currently looking for answers. The small, fine stage in Moosach is – thanks to various subsidies – now technically well equipped, only a corresponding high-speed line is still a long way off. part of the whole project”Meta Theater #digital” is also a series of events in which new hybrid formats are to be researched and developed. No wonder, since Axel Tangerding’s house has always seen itself as a free laboratory that develops new ideas in order to then feed them into the theater scene. And it stops again If you look at it with Joseph Beuys: “The order comes from the future.” In other words: The digital offensive should not only be understood as a reaction to the pandemic, but above all as an investment in a new infrastructure that should have a lasting effect.
A digital stage should make it possible to explore new avenues of interaction
The basis for this pilot project is a platform currently under development called “UpStage”. This digital stage should make it possible to explore new avenues of interaction – between artists, but also with the audience. In this case, that means: The creative actors are partly in the Meta Theater, partly they are connected live from other rooms. And the same applies to the audience: some sit at home on the sofa, some in the theater. This creates multidimensional evenings in which various levels intersect, overlap and – ideally – vibrate with each other. Florian Reinhold, alias Gaston, has taken over the artistic direction. As an actor, improv artist, magician and coach, he is already a convinced border crosser.
The research team has already invited to five “hybrid improvisation evenings full of surprises” – and has not promised too much. Because work in progress is actually happening here, the project not only has a lot of surprises in store for the viewers, but also for the artistic and technical actors. To put it clearly: from perfection is the turn “Impro Open Up Stage” still far away. Nevertheless, it is worth being there, because the audience gains a deep insight into a highly exciting process. After the performance, the audience in the theater are even asked to describe their impressions, and a stimulating discourse develops between stage, technology and parquet.
On this last evening before the summer break, the motto is: poetry meets painting meets music meets magic. A kind of hybrid number revue is performed – in the role of the red thread: Gaston. As the fictional character Jacqueline, he leads through the program, but also contributes one or the other cabaret appetizer. Otherwise, the painter Max Ott, the spontaneous poet Daniel Graziadei and Lionel Dzaack, head of the digital department at the Pathos Theater in Munich, act and improvise. In Moosach, the former works first with an easel and later with a tablet, while the latter two deliver their contributions to the theater via the internet.
The back wall acts as a screen, there you can see letters, paintings, films, even an avatar from Tangerding
Because there the analogue stage is supplemented by a digitized rear wall. The wall acts as a screen on which the chat with the online viewers can be seen on the one hand, and part of the art on the other: letters, paintings, films, even an avatar from Tangerding strays across the large surface. Applause comes both from the can and from the ranks, the spectators at home send plenty of hearts and smileys.
First, Graziadei supplements Ott’s painting with verses and neologisms in real time, and the audience is also called upon to “poeticize with it”. Inspired by the brushstrokes on the analog canvas, the talk is of the heart of darkness, of different colors, of the sun-blessed valley. “The world shines out of the picture onto the web – and now?” writes the invisible Graziadei. Later, Dzaack delivers experimental, mostly spherical, breathing sounds, you can see his hands operating various devices, at some point Ott begins to paint into the video. Abstract structures emerge, cables take on a life of their own, reality and fiction blur. Finally, the third act is performed by the two artists on site: Jacqueline invents one of her sensational spontaneous stories about an angry bird and the origin of the sun, Ott tries to underline her words with digital art. Try, because the painting program usually doesn’t really want to play along.
The main task of the technicians: pray – that please, please everything stays stable
In general: the whole theater space is full of technology, computers, cameras, screens everywhere, four people are busy operating all the incoming and outgoing channels, creating a total work of art from the various sources. But her main task seems to be to pray – that please, please everything will remain stable. There were several problems that evening, but it is usually not clear at what point exactly. Then it turns out that the “break clown” model, which Gaston masters wonderfully, only works analogously. Meanwhile, the viewers at home who are left behind are probably clicking helplessly around each other. “Why can’t I see anything???”
Jacqueline can not only chat and moderate, but also do magic. This means that – at least for the analogue audience – any technical breakdown can be bridged in a charming way.
(Photo: Anja Blum/oh)
“When the digital with the analogue” – then it still jerks enormously. Not only do the streams fail again and again in various directions, the analogue version of the spectacle also has its pitfalls, especially in terms of size and viewing angles. The easel that Ott is working on would have to be bigger, for example, to be able to watch him paint without straining. On the other hand, Jacqueline obscures much of the poetry that appears on the back wall of the theater as if written by magic. So the evening is a challenge – for everyone involved.
So keeping calm is the order of the day – and being attentive to those moments when the complex new format works. Because they definitely exist. When the artists find inspiration across genres. When sound and image develop a common attraction. When the supposed failure gives birth to unexpectedly humorous scenes. When limitless imagination makes you forget all limited technology. When touches happen, across space and time. Then a magic appears that needs to be preserved and transformed so that it can work again on other evenings.
The developers of the platform look forward to suggestions from the practical test
“Impro Open Up-Stage” is a large-scale learning process. The actors want to understand how several theaters and auditoriums as well as analogue and digital sources can be connected – on an equal footing. They want to synchronize word, image, movement and sound that make the tiles dance with each other. And many will benefit from their experience: The team is in close contact with the Up-Stage developers around Helen Varley, who are happy to receive any suggestions from the practical test. Together you are treading the path to a multi-hybrid future of art, and there is still a lot to discover. So it should continue in the fall.