sound walk / balade sonore
Hidden Stories / Histoires Cachées is an invisible performance, a site-specific event that blends itself into the urban landscape. Supplied with headphones, the audience is temporarily endowed with the powers to hear the thoughts of certain passers-by and to follow them into the unknown. A single rule of thumb: follow an ordinary object (an orange, a newspaper, a box of matches, or a pen) as it makes its way through the streets of the city. Like stepping into a film that mixes fiction with reality, the audience embarks upon a rare and poignant adventure.
Credits:
Text Written by the ensemble. Excerpts from Maniére by Joel Bastard (editions Galinard)
Concept Development: Karin Holmstrom, Dion Doulis and Erika Latta.
Direction / Sound Design: Erika Latta.
co-Sound Design: Philippe Laliard + Dion Doulis. Sound Engineer: Fabrice Gallis.
Original Music: Peter Holmstrom
Performers: Dion Doulis, Hervé Cristianini, Karin Holmstrom, Philippe Laliard and Nolwenn Moreau.
DATES: Hosted by the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn May 2-4th, 2013 at 2pm and 7pm. Available in French or English
*reservation required : 646-926-0620
Begat Theater / FRANCE
Begat Theater seeks out innovative ways to frame the work of contemporary authors within the context of public space. Blending elements of performance art, environmental street theater, visual art, and sound installation. The company develops new forms of dramatic writing that place their audiences in an active role, intimately close to the actors. The boundaries between fiction and reality are blurred. At the origin of each project, a powerful and original story is adapted from a contemporary novel or several novels. Human diversity and the ambiguity of communications are recurrent themes, with the solitary characters who inhabit the margins of society. Begat theater invites a fictional world, allowing them to glimpse the strange beauty of a new, displaced perspective. The company reinvents theatrical codes with each new piece they create.
Produced by WaxFactory and funded in part by The French American Fund for Contemporary Theater / étant donnés: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program of FACE (2012) and Institut Française - Région Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur
begat.org
PRESS QUOTES
“A completely new experience which must absolutely be seen... like a film that mixes reality and fiction, "Hidden Stories" is a separate category of street art... A poignant and strange adventure that shouldn't be missed." -L'Impartial (FRANCE) – August 2010
“Reveries for solitary walkers.The city is filled with hidden stories, with scenarios waiting to be discovered under every stone. Begat Theater and the Théâtre de l’Arpenteur make them appear from the inner depths of headphones, for their audience of walkers. "Walk man.1" and "Hidden Stories" reveal the almost magic power of sound to summon a fictional world without "distorting reality", to use Karin Holmström’s expression. These walks embark the spectator, alone or sometimes in groups, on an urban exploration, and place the act of walking at the heart of their approach. They favor listening and "simply looking at the city" as opposed to "elaborate sets", remarks Dion Doulis, therefore joining a tradition which aims to reveal theatricality at the heart of everyday life. They question the relationship between actor and spectator and play with the multiple possibilities of pre-recorded and amplified voices. All these ingredients make for a stimulating renewal of the urban sound walk. -Magazine La Stradda (FRANCE) – January 2013
“With a solid reputation for quality, Begat Theater is a street theater company that always creates a singular link between the spectator, the performance site, and the public space. After its memorable installation-show The Half-wits (inspired by Jeanne Benameur's novel), Karin Holmström proposes a surprising sound-walk in the city. Equipped with headphones, one only needs to follow an orange, a newspaper, a box of match or a pen, as it passes from hand to hand in order to discover the hidden stories of their owners. An intimate, stirring treasure hunt. A tracking shot between the real and the imaginary.”“The festival "Roulez Carros" owes this surprising and interactive street show to a very original company: Begat Theater. Street theater that speaks to the senses, that destabilizes and pushes aside preconceived ideas.” -Nice Matin (FRANCE) – September 2012
“Begat Theater transforms the city into an open-air theater.” -Sud Ouest (FRANCE) – August 2012
“Begat Theater puts the spectator in a particular state where time stops, where one’s gaze can settle on the slightest details, where the mind can freely associate ideas... Begat Theater succeeds in a tour de force which consists of making public space an intimate space.” -Temporairement Contemporain (FRANCE) – August 2012
“In a remarkable change of pace and a bold indication of this festival’s artistic ambition, Hoopla presents French theater group, Begat with Hidden Stories (Histoires Cachées). Audiences will follow the cast around Darling Harbour for a performance which few passers-by will be aware of. Wearing headphones, the audience listen to inner thoughts of characters as they weave and merge through storylines.” -Darling Harbour News (AUSTRALIA) – April 2012
“Begat Theater proposes a sound walk in the streets of the town. The audience is not safely tucked into their seats, watching and listening to a theater piece, rather he's the principal actor.” - La Provence (FRANCE) – May 2010
"A show that grabs you... and brings you into an enchanting unknown." - La Provence (FRANCE) – September 2010
"Four delightful destinies that the spectator comes to know through chance encounters and crossed paths.” - Le Reveil (FRANCE) –Septembre 2010
TTT (highest rating) Four slices of live, four stories hidden within the meandering city streets, reveal themselves as we choose to follow the journey of an orange, or a newspaper, or a box of matches, or a pen. These ordinary objects move between the hands of four equally common individuals: complete strangers whose paths cross briefly, before going off in different directions. Equipped with headsets, the audience follows each one of these characters and listens in on their every thought. They slip into the secret world of these strangers whom, ordinarily, they wouldn't even have noticed. After it's remarkable and acclaimed piece "Les Demeurées", Begat Theater presents an insightful and deeply moving performance in the heart of the public space. An unprecedented experience, a story in which the spectator becomes an unwitting, and unexpected, actor. -Télérama (FRANCE) September 2011
From July 20th to the 24th this year, and for the 25th year in a row, artists have once again invaded every square inch of the city streets. A piece of pavement, a streetlight, a wall... Not much is needed for art to become integrated into the urban environment. At this game four companies in particular excelled. Beginning with Begat Theater and its show Hidden Stories, the spectator, listening to a text via a headset, is invited to follow an object through the streets as it passes through the hands of several characters, unraveling the threads of their lives as they move within their interior labyrinth. A three faceted optical illusion is revealed: reality becomes blurred, the theatrical asserts itself as real, and those on the outside look on in a disbelieving way at the spectator.” - L’Humanité (FRANCE) – July 2011