The new medium nobody really worked with like that before 

I am Laura Federolf, a German director that also does theater pedagogy, writing and
acting on the side. I am about to finish my studies at the academy of performing arts in
Ulm in early spring 2025. Being part of the European Theatre and Film Institute network
partners allowed me to be part of the TIP hybrid residency in Dublin in November 2023.

The Hybrid residency was an exceptional experience that taught me not only tons of
new technical approaches to my work, but also a lot about communication, group
dynamics, artistic alignment and about myself as a human.
The two things I was skeptical about turned out to be the most important learning
opportunities. First, I was not really convinced of the hybrid residency prior to the live
one, but it laid the foundation to be able to approach this performance in new ways, to
put aside conventional working methods and discover this new medium with a unique
feeling of freedom.
Second, I have never worked in a project where there was no one calling the shots, no
hierarchy, no director to make artistic decisions for the actors. While I love ensemble
working and exploring a theme or text with a group and integrating everyone in the
process, I was overwhelmed by having to navigate this process as a group with “only” a
mentor only recommending offers. While our mentor did an amazing job, in the
beginning, it felt unnecessary to discuss every tiny decision with the group and
nobody had the last word. But after growing together as a group, what our mentor did
with such ease and so much fun – this working method was one of the most
enriching experiences I ever had.

On the first day in Dublin, we worked together and talked about the theme, power
dynamics and universal themes belonging to our overall theme, climate change. Then,
without any structure or goal, we did a totally free improvisation. We talked about power
dynamics before but then, it was totally free, no structure, and very long, like 30
minutes. We were strangers, didn’t know much about the others’ culture, didn’t speak
the same mother tongue and the levels of english were very different so not everyone
could communicate well over speech. But that didn’t matter, I had one of if not the most
amazing experience in improvisation. We played and played and without judgment only
with joy and enthusiasm. We went trough universal themes and discovered meta levels
in small interactions, mostly without talking. At no point, we didn’t know what to to, got
bored or just did something to not do nothing, every second was inspiring and exciting
and I could have gone on for hours. This nonverbal communication with a group of
strangers, the level of intimacy that everyone offered, I would never have thought this
was possible with strangers and I will forever hold that experience close to my heart.

In the first week I was thrown in at the deep end. I had never worked with such a
medium and I was not told or teached how to – this was something that frustrated me in
the beginning. I felt lost and wanted to do it “right”, contribute to the project, prove
myself worthy as we were the only students and working with artists that had years of
professional experience. Later, I was able to grasp that exactly this was what gave us
all freedom to explore this new medium and break out of our own set rules on how to
approach a theme or a creative process. We were guided to experiment freely and this
was one of very few times I could really allow myself to do so. Without pressure, with a
lot of positive feedback and constructive criticism on how to use aspects we found in
another way, leading to new ideas.
After the hybrid week, I was stoked for working together in real life, and again frustrated
that there was no leader, nobody instructing us, no real director, no set concept, “rule”
or way to “do it right”. Our mentor was only there pedagogically and gave impulses and
guided us to explore this freedom over and over again, when a lot of us just wanted
instructions. I think I was just overwhelmed by the freedom and held captive by my own
brain to “do it right/good”. I was able to overcome that judging voice and experience real
artistic freedom later. What frustrated me originally was the one thing that enriched me
the most artistically and I am beyond thankful for that.
The new medium nobody really worked with like that before was an amazing
playground for that approach. I have been using a screen to communicate my whole
life, but use it as a creative space for theatre? Never before. Exploring the different
modes of actions was so fun, and while I originally thought our mean were rather limited
– our body and voice in front of a screen, well, nothing I haven’t seen before – I could
more and more imagine the endless possibilities of composition and usage of space to
display emotions, power dynamics, meta levels. We used things we use everyday – our
arms and heads or water and leaves from a tree in a new frame and therefore
rediscovered them in this new context.

There are 2 things that stand out for me in retrospect.
First, working with this new medium:
I grew up with digital art, screens everywhere and bottomless supply of art on a screen.
Still, the different impact and opportunities a screen brings in the context of theatre were
new to me. While experimenting, some rules came to me – not that they can’t be
broken, but I just got a grip of certain consistencies and (dis)advantages of working with
this medium. I will implement this medium in my work and use its expressive power as
contrast or to compliment what is happening on stage. I am thrilled to experiment mixing
classical theatre with a live screen performance and will do so immediately in my next
projects by implementing this medium in my stage plays.
And second, the overall artistic approach:
The used approach how to work together and how to create a performance was
something completely new to me. While I usually go from a lot of text work, research,
rationally analysing themes and emotions and strategically breaking down the meta
level to a personal level, this approach was originating from our individual experience
and emotions regarding the theme.
I am used to starting with a theme and gathering every information, analyze, strategize
and construct the play and the different figures interacting with each other or the
audience so that my meta level is brought across like I want it, so I go from macro to
micro. In this work, our starting point was our own individual experience. We as
persons, as artists, were what the examination was revolving around. We concerned
ourselves only with our own sensations and experiences as a human being living in the
context we wanted to explore and with doing so, a meta ebene was naturally built. It
arose organically in the work. We did find meanings and reflect on what deeper meanings we
see in our performance, but these things were never strategically set, they
were just the natural outcome of all these artists’ work.
Climate change as a theme is something that is surrounding us constantly and has been
influencing us since we were born, whether we are aware of it or try no to. Our
openness to this experience plus the experience of the live and hybrid encounters,
mindful communication and our cultural and personal backgrounds paired with focus,
time worked, and dedication was sufficient to let this performance form naturally.
And the source this was coming from was far from exhausted, we could have continued and
with more time, even more enriching art would have occurred. This is something
universal about coming together and creating art that I was able to learn in this project
and I will take with me all my work going further.
It has inspired me to work more in europe countries to be able to grasp universal
themes from different cultural perspectives and therefore being able to process them in
a new way and turn them into art at a more universal level.

For the first time, I have experienced feeling “european”, as weird as that may sound.
Never have I felt like being a part of a community of these nations, only maybe a little bit
every 5 years when there is the European election. Europe for me as a concept, as a
nation, is mainly in my head because of its horrifying migrant policy and my immediate
neighboring countries for going on vacations. But now, for the first time ever, I feel as I
am part of it, as one inhabitant of it, I identify as a European and I would never have
thought that this would make such a difference on how I relate to my nation.
Its not only a sense of identity and belonging, but a backup, something to hold on to in
facing the ongoing crises and the ones that are on their way. I do not only know, but
now feel like we are all sitting in the same boat and have the strong urge to get to know
my fellow boat passengers. There is still so much I don’t know about people in my
community. I have always been saying, even in my application to various projects, that I
am interested in intercultural exchange and do art to bring a universal human
experience on stage that sparks the viewer’s sense of humanity as unity, but this taught
me that workshops like this are so powerful and important for this cause. For the first
time, I don’t rationally think about it, but feel like being a part of europe. I am thankful for
that, it has shaped my whole orientation as an artist.

If I continue to be a part of this project – what I hope I can do
– more than any advantage I would have from it, I would benefit from strengthening that
feeling. I have only met some people online and only one group of one country
personally and while the hybrid communication was way more effective than I thought, I
would like to meet as many in person as possible. The first part online was important as
a preparation for myself, but the live part was where the magic happened.
I expect to find as many new perspectives on technical approaches as well as
motivations and intentions in following projects as I found here. I expect to strengthen
my European identity that has just been born. I expect to engage in new meaningful,
deep artistic connections and exchanges and be enriched by them. I expect to grow as
a person, an artist and a european.

I would love to write and direct a play with European artists about identity. Attachment to
identities, narratives, rules, prejudices is what is dividing our nation, is what is ultimately
keeping us from acting in concert. While a sense of identity and a moral compass is
important, it should not keep us from engaging with people where these differ. We need
to act in concert to master the problems of our time, current and future ones. We need
to rediscover the sense of community and interdependence and as this is what I always
try to initiate with my work, a project leaning on to the principles of this collaboration
would support that even better.
In this project I would like to showcase different people clinging to very different
identities and what consequences that has. I want to show the benefits to surviving in
this world, or better, how the structure of this world pushes or even forces us to do so,
but also shows what we miss from conforming to it. Over the play, these identities would
get challenged and broken up, and after crises the figures would be even more rounded
individuals.
I would love to work with a loose structure as well, bringing people together and giving
room to show up as their whole authentic artistic self. By creating a safe, playful,
free space for everyone, I would guide them to do structured improvisations and create
personas with different basic themes in their lives, wounds every person can relate to
and show how they show up when faced with someone that challenges their identity
because of their own beliefs. I would try to find ways to tend to these wounds and let the
viewer be part of this process of the characters to initiate this process in the viewer as well.

07.01.2024
Federolf, Laura (ETFI)