Français
Bente Synnøve Andersen founded The Samovar Theatre in Kirkenes (Norway) in 1990, after finishing her actress education at The Scandinavian Acting School in Copenhagen (Denmark). Bente was fascinated by Russia and Finland, and wanted to do more than just acting. Because of that it was natural for her to move to Kirkenes, the small city by the Russian and Finnish border, to start her own theatre. Bente has done a lot during the following years. She has for instance taken economical and organizational subjects at The University in Tromsø, and direction classes through HATS and Hålogaland Theatre. Bente has played a big amount of different roles, both in her own productions, in guest roles and in cooperation with other theatres. Bente has produced different performances as a director, scriptwriter and text developer, and she works on a local, regional, national and international level. She has develop her own way of working in the transcultural field, making performances that include professional dancers, actors and musicians, often with different languishes and different culture background. Those performances are often based on new written material. Bente has received awards for her theatre work in the region. She has made several interviews for books, magazines, TV and radio. In 2008 she was chosen among many nationally well known directors, producers and actresses to take part in a national program called The women of the art, a development master class held during 2008 and 2009, in the capitol of Norway. In 2014 – 2016, she got working scholarship from the Norwegian department of culture to develop her artistic work.
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Bente Andersen, the artistic director of the company based in Kirkenes, in the North of Norway, participates at the project as an artistic councelor during the creative residency at Nordland Visual Theatre.
The point of view of people living in the North has also been gathered from short story writings inspired by a questionnaire used during expeditions. Those short stories, written by one author from each of the 8 countries touching the Arctic Polar Circle, will serve as creative inspiration. Here are some excerpts.
Det som får meg til å gråte
(Norvegian)
- Bly, sa jeg. Vet du hva bly gjør med folk? Med hjernene deres?
- Så du gråt? På grunn av det?
- Og jeg nøler et øyeblikk
- Nei – Kanskje det var uærligheten. Det at de forsøkte å holde det skjult for folk. At de bare lot folk fortsette å drikke det vannet, lenge etter at de hadde forstått hva som var på gang, lenge etter at leger og andre hadde konfrontert dem med muligheten for at folk, barn, gamle var blitt blyforgiftet av sitt eget drikkevann – lenge etter at målinger ble gjort, målinger som klart viste at det var unormalt mye bly i vannet, selv da nektet de for det. At det var sånn var. At de hadde noen som helst skyld i det.
- De forsøkte bare å kjøpe seg litt tid. Mens de lette etter en utvei – det er jo sånn de er. Politikerne.
- De er jo folk. Først og fremst folk. Som oss. De er ikke en gang politikere. De er innleide byråkrater.
Listen to the author read an excerpt
That which makes me cry
Led, I said. Do you know what led does to people? To their brains.
- And the thought of that made you cry?
- No – I do not think so. It was the dishonesty. The fact that they were hiding it. That people kept on drinking the water, and that when they were confronted with the facts, with the increased levels of led in the water – they went on denouncing it.
The led. What they had done. The consequences of it. The fact that the river, the swapping of the water supply was the source of the problem.
- They were biding their time, looking for a way out I guess. My husband said. That’s politics.
- But they are people. They were not even politicians. They were hired men.
Tale Næss (NO) is a prolific Norwegian playwright, and has written plays like Tanken er en ting and Funn (NRK Radioteatret), Vicaroius dreams # 1-6 (New Frontiers Teater Akademi, WPIC Stockholm and Norwegian Culture week in Beirut), Her.Nå.Siden (DKS, Propellen Teater), Blott en dag (Tromsø domkirke, Festspillene i Nord-Norge and Olavsfestdagene) and Vilde (POS Theatre Company, Womens Playwrights International Conference 2012, Hålogaland Teater and Inter City Festival, Florence, 2013). Tale Næss was the "Symposium Navigator" at Theatre Café Festival Oslo and participated in the European Writers Lab as a mentor. She has worked as a dramaturg at Hålogaland Teater, and is currently doing her PHD at Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo.
Photo Credit Tale Naess :
Trond Peter Stamsø Munch
The project is taking its artistic inspiration in three nordic expeditions. The first one took place in June 2015 in Norway and the second one in July 2016 in Nunavik in the north of Quebec. A third and last expedition is planned in 2017 in Iceland.
Listen to the artistic director read an excerpt
Listen (Silie) sing a child song
October and November 2016: intensive In Situ creation
During a 6 weeks artistic residency at the Nordland Visual Theatre, we will invent a show on a Northern territory particularly inspiring. At Stamsund at the North of the polar circle, in the core part of the Lofoten Islands surrounded by fjords and vast mountains, we will unite our artistic team.
A team constituted of Northern creators of multiple horizons: a Norwegian artistic counsellor, a Finnish video artist, and five Quebec artists (performer, music compositor, visual artist, light designer, and stage director) will create the show. The Premiere will take place in Norway on November 11th, 2016.
It is indeed with materials inspired by the North, or “Norths” that the show will be build: a circular artwork with human in the center.
This section will be up-dated after the creation residency.
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Nordland Visual Theater (Norway), principal coproducer and residency reception.
The Norland Visual Theater (NVT), situated within the Lofoten Islands, at the north
of Polar Circle, is an international centre of creation, specialised in visual theatre
that uses puppets and animated forms. The NVT carries the creation of important
creators among the most prestigious contemporary visual theaters.
During 6 weeks of in situ creative work inside the territory of Lofoten Islands, the
artistic director Preben FayeSchjøll will follow the creation within an artistic
companionship relation.
The artistic team was hosted for a six-week creation residency in the Nordland Visual Theater in October and November 2016. In the north of the polar circle, at the heart of the Lofoten islands, surrounded by fjords and breathtaking mountains, a Norwegian artistic counsellor, a Finish video maker and five Quebecers artists have created the first version of the show in this spectacular place. More work was done in Quebec in January and Febuary 2017 and the Canadian Premiere took place in March 2017.
Inspired by the short stories written by our circumpolar authors, the short films apply the techniques used in onstage puppetry, object manipulation, lights and shadows to the creation of unique digital pieces.
Created in six days.
A coproduction between Theatre Incline and the Arctic Arts Summit (Norway) with the support of the Nordland Visual Theatre.
When a giant hole appears at the limit of the arctic, the walking fishes are left with a hard choice to make. Struggling with the unknown fate or diving away. The latest seems even more tempting since a new salesman offers deals for relocation in the south. Fish Hole is a geologic tale that brings about the questions of appropriation of the territory and the danger to let others decide where and how we should live.
Written and directed by : Simon Beaupré
Based on Kari Tullinius’s short story: The hollow earth
Initiator and artistic director: José Babin
Initiator, light designer and shadow master:Alain Lavallée
Puppeteers: Alain Lavallée, José Babin, Anatolii Gushchin
Composer and sound designer: Anatoly Gonye
Puppet designer: Anatolii Gushchin
Set builder: Jack Markussen
Editor and VFX supervisor: Simon Beaupré
Additional VFX team (Alchemy24): Jean-Francois Ferland, Patrick Lemay-Hardy, Marie-Claude Lafontaine
The first show of our Nordic cycle Nordicité, is a quest. A wandering artist gives us an intimate testimony of her encounter with the North, and of her feeling of vertigo as she faces an immensity she cannot seize. Visual poem where video projection, music, theater and dance move alongside one another, Nordicité is a journey within myths and realities, and a reflection on our capacity to understand the voices of the North.
I was looking for the North. I was dreaming of a vast circumpolar project. So I walked the steps of the polar circle, I explored the land, I captured samples of humanity hoping they would help me translate the spirits of the North onstage. I met people, artists, silence, and immensity. I wanted to show the North I had imagined, the one I had encountered. Magnificent. Out of reach. But projects are like relationships. Some leave you marks like frostbites on your heart. This one challenged everything I knew, beyond what I expected. How would I be able to tell about the scar left on my soul by the silence of the tundra? How could I be truthful to a territory and people that were so vast and diverse, so complex and fragile? I am sharing an intimate testimony of the journey at the heart of my creative process which yearned for bringing the North to the South. A huge thank you to all the creative team without whom nothing would have been possible.
José Babin
A visual theatre company, explores fragmented spaces in which bodies, matter, sound, and light each compose a detail of a picture in constant movement. Each project is rooted in a territory that inspires the creators, and for this one, it is the earth as seen from above.
Partner of creation
Principal co-producer and residency reception
The Norland Visual Theater (NVT), situated within the Lofoten Islands, at the north of Polar Circle, is an international centre of creation, specialised in visual theatre that uses puppets and animated forms. The NVT carries the creation of important creators among the most prestigious contemporary visual theaters.
Preben Faye-Schjøll : Artistic director
Geir-Ove Andersen : Production director
Jan Erik Skarby : Technical manager
Ing Randi Johansen : Administration
www.figurteatret.no
More information on the show: theatreincline.ca/spectacle-et-creations/nordicite-eng/
Script: José Babin in collaboration with Pascal Brullemans
Stage direction: José Babin
Artistic counsellor (Quebec): Francine Alepin
Cast: José Babin, Mélanie Chouinard and Bryan Morneau
Original Cast: José Babin, Marc-André Goulet and Nadine Walsh
Scientific counsellor (Denmark): Daria Schwalbe
Set and video designer: Kalle Nio
Music creator: Guido Del Fabbro
Lights and technical director: Alexandra Dugal
Seamstress: Charline Guay
Set building: Atelier 303 and Alain Lavallée
Artistic counsellor (Norway): Bente Andersen
Scientific counsellor: Daria Schwalbe (Denmark)
Production director: Cynthia Bouchard-Gosselin and Alain Lavallée
Stage managers: Patrice Daigneault, Vincent Santes and Alain Lavallée
Script freely inspired by expeditions, questionnaire, and short stories of circumpolar authors: Greenland : Pipaluk
Lykke Løgstrup - Sweden : Rasmus Lindberg - Iceland : Kári Tulinius - Norway : Tale Næss Lysestøl - Finland : Maria Peura -
Canada : Lucy Tulugarjuk - Russia : Alexander Seryakov - Alaska : Sean Asiqluq Topkok.
We wish to thank our partners the Cole Foundation and W.J. Jones.
This show has benefitted from creation residencies in the Nordland Visual Theatre and Maison des arts de Laval.
Special thanks to Preben Faye-Schjøll, Geir-Ove Andersen, Jan Erik Skarby.
Translator: Mathilde Perallat
Photos of the show: Geneviève Therrien
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