What place do performing arts have to overcome the ephemeral? In this 36th edition, the Region of Madrid’s Autumn Festival has organised, alongside the British Council, a cycle of New UK Drama workshops and master classes, focused on approaching outlines of new European playwriting, encouraging a greater diversity on the stage and working on an inclusive artistic itinerary. The programme will enjoy the participation of four companies led by great creators from around Europe, particularly those that reside in the United Kingdom.
The New UK Drama cycle will include the experimentation of the prestigious company Forced Entertainment, up to the community theatre of Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas, passing by the investigation of the role of the actor alongside the multi-award winning director Nassim Soleimanpour, and the role that inclusion plays within the Stopgap Dance Company. The four proposals will offer an interesting panorama of the challenges that authors, directors, actors and audiences are facing within contemporary theatre.
The New UK Drama cycle is organised by the Autumn Festival and the British Council, in collaboration with La Casa Encendida, el Teatro de La Abadía and the Centro Danza Canal.
Teatro de La Abadía, Sala José Alonso
19, 20 and 21 November
Limited places
More information and registration: www.teatroabadia.com
Talking about politics in the theatre is, sometimes, like talking about the emperor's new clothes. It is an obvious topic, but one that often annoys audiences, particularly when it highlights our collective responsibility, by passivity, in recent armed conflicts, such as that of Syria. Based on this, Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas explore ideas and ways with regards to the frustration, hatred and reconciliation, using the stage as a space for political and artistic negotiation.
Teatro de La Abadía, Sala José Alonso
21 November at 7:00 pm
Free entry until capacity is reached
La Casa Encendida
21 November from 5:00 to 9:00 pm
Limited places
A high level of English is required
More information and registration: New UK Drama - Autumn Festival
With over three decades of experience behind them, Forced Entertainment has become a leading company in the practice of experimental theatre on a global level, with an acknowledged repertoire of iconoclastic work based on discussion and improvisation. The workshop from this British troupe, directed by Richard Lowdon, will invite participants to explore the possibilities that games offer as a regulatory structure for the creation of new work.
La Casa Encendida
28 November from 5:00 to 9:00 pm
Limited places
A high level of English is required
More information and registration: New UK Drama - Festival de Otoño
Nassim Soleimanpour will ask himself if the actor can assimilate a type of theatrical machine that is capable of giving life to words and phrases. The workshop is based on his multi-award winning pieces White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, Blank and NASSIM, three works that, each night, bring a new actor onto the stage, who does not know the text or the dynamic of the show.
Centro Danza Canal
30 November from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and from 3:30 to 6:00 pm
Limited places
More information and registration: New UK Drama - Festival de Otoño
Stopgap Dance Company will direct a master class on inclusive choreography through the exploration of different methodologies created by the company, from their work based on improvisation to the routines that they have used to create their latest show The Enourmous Room.
Teatro de La Abadía
20 and 21 November from 4:00 to 9:00 pm
Limited places
Precio: 30 €
More information and registration: www.teatroabadia.com
Coinciding with the premier of El Bramido de Düsseldorf, the Uruguayan author and director Sergio Blanco will give a playwriting workshop that will aim to study to concept of “self-fiction on stage”, in is various forms. From self-representation to autobiographies, with everything in between: self-featuring, self-narration, self-referencing, self-embodiment and self-depiction.
In its 36th edition, the Autumn Festival expands its training offerings with a cultural management workshop aimed at professionals and creators. Cristina Alonso, artistic manager since 2011 at the Centro de Danza Graner, at the Mercat de les Flors and current co-director of the Festival Sâlmon will talk about new artistic residences and creation centres. Fernando García will present the Proyecto Martadero de Cochabamba (Bolivia), a comprehensive cultural centre initiative focused on social transformation and conceived as an incubator of the arts. Finally, Eduardo Bonito, founder of the Casa Nuvem en Río de Janeiro (Brazil), among other projects, will address the internationalisation of culture in global times.
Teatros del Canal
Presentation
29 November from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
With Cristina Alonso, Eduardo Bonito and Fernando García
Strategies from the new cultural spaces: survival tactics in transmodernity
Casa de América, Sala Cervantes
30 November from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm
With Fernando García (cultural manager, Bolivia)
The internationalisation of culture in global times
Casa de América, Sala Cervantes
1 December from 2:30 to 6:00 pm
With Eduardo Bonito (cultural manager, Brazil)
Accompaniment spaces, artistic residencies and centres of interdisciplinary creation
Casa de América, Sala Iberia
1 December from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm
With Cristina Alonso (cultural mediator, Catalonia)
Final session: practical notes
Casa de América, Sala Iberia
1 December from 3:00 to 4:30 pm
With Cristina Alonso, Eduardo Bonito and Fernando García
Aimed at creators and cultural managers
Limited places
More information: www.casamerica.es
Registration: Cultural Management Workshop
Centro Danza Canal
From 12 to 18 November
Open display: Wednesday 18 November, 5:00 pm
Free entry until capacity is reached
What does it mean today to be aged between 16 and 22? What is it that these guys and girls do not want to say? How do they interact among each other? What are their fears and frustrations? Where are they leading to? How can this generation show us their beauty? Project GEN Z, led by directors Salvatore Calcagno and Antoine Neufmars, lands at the 36th Autumn Festival after very successfully premiering in Brussels last March and visiting, since then, some of the most relevant and curious cities of Europe. GEN Z: Searching for Beauty will be an artistic residency with young people from Madrid born after 1995, among whom, many will achieve being part of a wider project that in 2019 will be presented on new stages.
Centro Danza Canal
From 12 to 18 November
The director, playwright and actor Federico León (Buenos Aires, 1975) joins the 36th Autumn Festival to develop his new project Yo escribo, vos dibujás. During an artistic residency, León will research the differences scenes which make up his new show with a group of 23 local participants. Together they will address the theoretical framework of assembly as part of the process that will reach its peak with the staging of the piece in the next edition of the Autumn Festival. Before, in March 2019, Yo escribo, vos dibujás will premiere at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes in Buenos Aires and it will also travel to the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, the FITEI in Porto, the Teatro do Bairro Alto in Lisbon and the Wiener Festwochen Festival in Vienna.
Centro Danza Canal
From 26 to 2 December
The artistic sync between ATRESBANDES (Mònica Almirall, Miguel Segovia and Albert Pérez Hidalgo) and the tandem made up of Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas has come about after coinciding in different festivals and European contexts. In the last edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, they decided to set out on a project together that was born out of the intuition and enthusiasm to collaborate. The Autumn Festival will accompany them in this process of approaching and knowledge. Their statement of intentions is clear, “we are interested in the violence and tension that exists between the so-called political correctness, the creative censorship that one can impose upon themselves”.
(Moderated by Lucia Miranda)
Teatros del Canal, Sala de prensa
16 November at 6:00 pm
Free entry until capacity is reached
(Moderated by Joanna Gdowska)
Teatros del Canal, Sala de prensa
2 December, 5:00 pm
Free entry until capacity is reached
Teatros del Canal, Sala de Prensa
22 November, 6.00 pm
Teatro de La Abadía, Sala José Luis Alonso
18 November, after the performance
Teatro de La Abadía, Sala José Luis Alonso
24 November, after the performance
Teatro de La Abadía, Sala José Luis Alonso
25 November, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm
El Pavón Teatro Kamikaze
30 November, after the performance
Teatros del Canal
Calls for local viewers
Open until 28 October
“The piece Masacre en Nebraska involves opening up the stage and welcoming local people, in an exercise of changing focus.
We want to call to brave people that have spent a lot of time sat in the seats of many theatres, for them to take control and take to the stage with us. We will work with ten selected people based in Madrid in eight work sessions of three hours each between 12 and 19 November. On 20 and 21 they will make up part of the piece, Masacre en Nebraska, which will take place in the Sala Negra at the Teatros del Canal,within the framework of the 36th Autumn Festival. The work sessions will be in the afternoon (times still to be confirmed) at the Teatros del Canal.
We need ten, fearless people who love theatre and dance, that are able to take power on the stage, that are not professionals of this medium, but rather theatre goers with a passion for the stage. We’re waiting for you with open arms.
If you are one of these people, write to us at: invitadosanebraska@gmail.com and, in more detail, we will tell you the conditions and process, which above all will be full of talks and warmth. Thank you”.
Alberto Cortés
Institut Français
27 November, at 8:00 pm
Free entry until capacity is reached
Activity organised by the Institut Français d’Espagne in collaboration with the Festival d’Aix