The Art of Rehearsal ─ Conversations With Contemporary Theatre Makers

What are the key elements that go into creating a work of art for the stage? Which are the most productive conditions and methods of rehearsal? In this collection of interviews, 19 international artists share their experience and offer practical advice on the creation of performance work. Their answers provide a goldmine of tried and tested approaches as they discuss the common problems and difficulties of creative work, their turning-point experiences, and ways in which they have challenged performers and themselves to go beyond conditioned reflexes to create work which is original and authentic.

Among the contemporary directors, choreographers, performers, and actors to share their insights are: Annabel Arden (Complicite, UK), Richard Lowdon (Forced Entertainment, UK), Richard Foreman (Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, USA), Sean Patten, Berit Stumpf (Gob Squad, UK), Maxine Doyle (Punchdrunk, UK), Soheil Parsa (Modern Times Stage Company, Canada), Eugenio Barba (Odin Teatret, Denmark), Jan Fabre (Belgium), Heiner Goebbels (Germany), Jerome Bel (France), Helgard Haug (Rimini Protokoll, Germany)

Barbara Simonsen (DK) is director, dramaturg and artistic director and founder of Seachange Lab (formerly Laboratoriet) in Aarhus, Denmark, an independent and international centre for practical artistic research and performing arts experiments. Born in 1967, she holds a Master of Comparative Literature and Dramaturgy from Aarhus University and has taught in the Aarhus University departments of Dramaturgy, Comparative Literature and Aesthetics and Culture. In 2004, Simonsen founded Det Andet Teater (The Other Theatre), known as Teater Seachange since 2016, where her experimental productions range from audioplays in cinemas to international music theatre and interactive installations. Simonsen has worked for many years as consultant and facilitator for directors, playwrights, choreographers and companies, specializing in the analysis and development of process, tools and methods.