On the sideline of the IMPACT Festival at Théâtre de Liège, the European Theatre Convention hosted a digital theatre workshop for theatre technicians across Europe on 07 and 08 November 2018.
The European Theatre Convention has set “Theatre in the digital age” as one of its pillars for the years to come. By researching and experimenting with digital technologies, the goal is to expand the theatrical live experience as well as to offer meaningful reflection of its possibilities and boundaries.
After two years of applied research, the European Theatre Lab continues to share its learnings and knowledge with the creative and expert community. With this in mind, the 2-day workshop in Liège started with a round table gathering:
- Simen Scharning (Head of Sound Department, Det Norske Teatret Oslo/Norway),
- Anders Hasmo (Dramaturg, Det Norske Teatret Oslo/Norway),
- Didier Billon (Technical Director, CDN Nancy-Lorraine La Manufacture/France),
- Jonathan Thonon (IMPACT curator, Théâtre de Liège/Belgium),
- Ralph Dum (Scientific Officer, DG CONNECT, European Commission, Brussels/Belgium)
“Create, explore, innovate, cooperate, there are rare occasions to go beyond the borders of known territories. The Digital Theatre Workshop has been one of these, a unique opportunity for participants to explore and define new modes of creating in performing arts and discover ground-breaking demonstrations of new technologies in theatre”
– Jonathan Thonon, IMPACT curator, Théâtre de Liège (Belgium).
On the agenda were new technical applications for artistic creations which derived from the successful ETC project “European Theatre Lab: Drama goes digital”. Sound capturing devices for actors, an automatised surtitling technique, mixed reality acting and performing via an app… These innovations were all developed at ETC Member Theatres in Norway, Croatia, Germany, France, Belgium, Romania and Georgia and came alive onstage in spring 2018.
Thonon concludes: “This was also the occasion to exchange views with European colleagues and technicians with a fresh look at the projects developed within the European Theatre Lab. We wanted to go a step further in order to strengthen technologies for the future.”
The workshops concluded with a session on motion capturing technologies and its implications for new stage works, presented by Kay Voges, artistic director of Theater Dortmund and the Digital Theatre Academy, together with his team.
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