We were asked to stage a short play by a relatively new author as part of a festival that celebrates new plays. Since we have very little interest in staging straight plays, we’ve decided to stage the short play as a video piece.

We set up a shooting stage in the rehearsal room. The 3 performers plus the author sat on chairs in a semi circle. A separate video camera was pointed at each one of them, in a close up mode. The author was asked to conduct a live reading of the play and to instruct and correct the performers in their delivery of the text. The performers, who never worked on the text before, were asked to act it out following the author instruction. We concentrated mainly on the text; very few physical actions were performed. The reading, from start to end, was video taped without a break; the director gave few instructions to the participants off camera.

Video editing: viewing the tapes we’ve decided to show it the way it is with hardly any manipulation or cuts. We made few loops and added one short piece of music; otherwise we left it the way it was filmed. In other words, the video piece is an accurate documentation of the first reading of the play conducted by its author.

Performers: Elisabeth Prohaska, Daniel Aschwanden, Berenice Pahl
Author: Georg Aichinger
Concept: Yosi Wanunu
Produced by Kornelia Kilga

Production dates: April 24, 2004, Galaxy Center, Vienna