Pygmalion Theater Vienna
| Pygmalion Theater Vienna | |
|
|
| location | |
| Address: | Alser Strasse 43, A-1080 Vienna |
| City: | Vienna |
| Coordinates: | 48 ° 12 '55 " N , 16 ° 20' 50" E |
| Architecture and history | |
| Spectator: | 40 seats |
| Named after: | Pygmalion , King of Cyprus |
| Internet presence: | |
| Website: | www.pygmaliontheater.at |
The Pygmalion Theater Vienna is an Austrian private and spoken theater that was founded in November 1995 by Geirun Tino .
Naming and philosophical credo
The story of Pygmalion , the King of Cyprus , who had a marble statue made and fell so much in love with it that even the gods were touched and transformed the cold stone figure into a living being, is the parable behind which the artistic creed of the House.
The way of the Galatea, from the raw marble block to the focal point of emotions, finally to actual life itself, the principal of the theater, Geirun Tino, wants to understand and make understandable as an artist on the stage. In his opinion, art is not an imitation of life, but life itself in its full unity and complexity: the only living space that is not experienced virtually, fragmentarily or stochastically - like everyday life - but the space in which the main coordinates of life
- the level of action
- the emotional level
- the spiritual level
constantly combine in a conscious and controllable form and create an energetic space that is perceived and referred to as a unified reality (art). Creating these moments is the goal of the Pygmalion Theater, and all of its resources are directed towards this.
Aesthetic credo
We are looking for a pure, puristic art form.
Every art has the right and the duty to own and develop its very own means of expression. At the Pygmalion Theater, the theater space is therefore not seen as a synergetic space of all art forms, and a conscious decision is made against importing other forms of art into the theater's instruments.
The core element of the theater is sought. In the house's understanding of art, theater does not mean text, movement, plastic appearance, effect and music; Theater should be entirely determined by the reaction of the actor as the most inherent means of this art form. It is only from this building block that the theatrical architecture is formed from images, metaphors and tension. All other arts serve here as aids that have no independent expressiveness.
This separates the theater path of the Pygmalion Theater from today's trend of multimedia or interactive theater and claims to generate the scenic tension only and exclusively with its own means. The entire research serves to research this set of instruments, which is unique to the actor. This specific means of his art has recently been grossly neglected in favor of interdisciplinary amalgamations. Here, on the other hand, the development of a metaphysical sign from everyday gestures is explored. Every gesture is enriched with emotions until it explodes as a metaphysical sign. This type of acting has its roots in the Commedia dell'arte , was further developed under Meyerhold and has been perfected in recent history by Living Theater and greats like Grotowski or Mnouchkine .
There is no prompting at the Pygmalion Theater.
Room / stage design :
The place of the theater is the space itself, empty, pure, without attributes. The few objects that are witnesses of everyday life are not to be used as symbols or metaphorical elements. They will be dressed with meaning and emotion from the actors' play and will thereby take on the characteristics of the situation played. Rather, they are the materialization of the disturbed relations that build up the tension between the events on the stage. In this context, modern fashions such as video projections on the stage are impossible, which, viewed in the narrower sense, represent a technically more complex variant of the painted stage background (as is usual with one of the many typical farmer's cocks). Therefore, at the Pygmalion Theater, the only self-sufficient element on the stage is the actors themselves.
The theater is a focus. What is said on 100 m² can also be said on 10 m². The word for this is minimalism. The stage design should not be designed in an illustrative, symbolic, metaphorical or other self-sufficient form. It should only gain meaning and meaning through the action of the actor.
Light :
The stage of the Pygmalion Theater is kept in black. In line with this aesthetic, the principle of indirect lighting is being explored as an important component of stage lighting. The objects shed light on the protagonists and thus contribute to the manifestation of the relations. The light makes a vital contribution to the overall statement, its design options are manifold, but it does not serve to create moods, atmosphere or effects.
Music :
In the sense of what has been said above, the use of music is also to be understood. The noise becomes a designed sound, and ultimately also music. The rattling of simple everyday objects (such as the soup eaters' spoons in the adaptation of Kafka's Das Schloss ) can give a scene a highly musical quality. Background music in the common sense is avoided. The music should be a sparse element: It does not have an independent effect, does not make an independent statement.
Costumes :
A specific epoch should not be determined by the costumes. The sole purpose of the costume is to create a conflictual situation for the actor. As a general illustration of this principle, one might use the famous, far too wide trousers of Charlie Chaplin's figure of the tramp .
Dramaturgy :
In the dramaturgy, as in the selection of the material, the Pygmalion Theater treads the path of breaking up literary structures. The dramatization of non-stage material is increasingly being used. Works such as Kafka's novels ( America , The Metamorphosis , The Castle , The Trial and A Report for an Academy ), the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm mixed with the writings of Sigmund Freud , The Chess Novel by Stefan Zweig or The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky . The selection of the dramaturgy does not have to lie in the literary, linguistic quality of a work (theater is not literature), nor in the narrative talent of the author (the performances are primarily analyzes), but should represent borderline experiences.
Programmatic credo
When selecting the pieces to be played, the Pygmalion Theater pursues a stringent thought: to track down the myth of the present. According to the interpretation of the house, the core of every myth is always a disturbed relationship, be it one in intercourse with the environment, with the divine authority or between man and himself. It is important to examine or examine a specific object in detail with the means of the actor, all of which have one thing in common. They deal with the causal artistic moment: the disturbed relationship. Different environments (the political, the social, the religious and the family) as breeding grounds for burgeoning myths are analyzed; To honor each of these aspects, at the same time those writers or creators who are closely connected with the myth, is the task that the Pygmalion Theater sets itself when creating the program list.
location and size
The Pygmalion Theater is very centrally located at Alser Straße 43 in the Josefstadt district , not far from the inner city and in the immediate vicinity of the university campus . It has 40 seats.
