Community theater methods in the work of an art mediator
Before the workshop, each of the participants was tasked to find and bring his / her personal “social subject”. It could be anything – a silver spoon, which was a family heirloom, a gold chain, which was inherited by a relative, glasses with torn lenses, which recall a significant event, etc. The object must be small but visually visible so that it can be easily picked up.
The director presented his experience in working with different forms of community theater, with an emphasis on documentary theater and how to turn documentary fact (material and intangible) into a work of art. Art mediators were introduced to methods for crystallizing socially significant themes from a personal story about an object or work of art. By including practical work in pairs and individually, the mediators prepared a performance, the content of which was formed by the story of the subject. After each performance, the other participants shared their thoughts, feelings about what they had seen, analyzed the means of artistic expression and their application. The aim of the workshop is to get to know documentary stories that include social significance, to experience the uniqueness of teamwork, as well as to experience how few resources are needed to create a touching, meaningful work of art.
Edgars Niklasons
theatre directorEdgars Niklasons is a theatre director and playwright, who started his professional career in 2011 at the Latvian National Theatre and independent theatre Dirty Deal Teatro, but for the last five years has been active in project called Applied Theatre Latvia and also staging children’s and youth performances at Latvian Puppet Theatre, Rezekne Theatre “Joriks”, M. Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre, various independent professional theatre projects, as well as runs his own youth theatre studio “TE-13” at Riga Teika Secondary School. He acquired his knowledge of theatre art at Latvian Academy of Culture, Art Academy of Latvia and Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Czech Republic. In theatre Niklasons synthesizes aesthetics of objects and puppet theatre with elements of physical theatre, looking for symbolic, metaphorical aspect in his works, as well as practically experimenting with various uncontrollable substances such as flour, clay, etc., thus showing variable and unpredictable nature of theatre.
This event is a part of the project educational course. Learn more about the course here.