UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS BERLIN

Theater - Premiere
With Sladja Blazan, Amy Evans, Freweyni Habtemariam, Dinh Tung Nguyen, Alia Rayyan, Dodi Reifenberg
Conceived by Ping Chong
Directed by Ping Chong and Michael Rohd
FRI 6th of June, TUE 10th of June and WED 11th of June, 20.00 h
SAT 7th of June und SUN 8th of June, 21.00 h
Admission: 12 Euro, reduced 8 Euro
Special tickets for pupils and school classes
FRI 6th of June > Postshow Talk (free admission)
THU 12th of June,18.30 h > Talkshow with Ping Chong (free admission)

Supported by: Werkstatt der Kulturen

> The Idea
"The process is deceptively simple. I interview people within a community who come from different cultures - braoadly defined. I ask them about where they are from, the history of their cultures, their experiences living in the commmunity where we are making the piece. From these interviews I weave a performance text that the individuals perform as an ensemble."
Ping Chong

> The Production
"Undesirable Elements Berlin" is based on the life of the individual, lending a voice to the culture of diversity, creating new narratives. On the one hand, it is a challenge to a traditional understanding of culture, and at the same time it is poetic proof of how similar and yet how different people are. The subtle collage of texts - the performers express themselves partly in German and partly in their native languages - creates a simultaneous impression of authenticity and stylization.
The idea came into being in New York, and productions have been held in 15 cities so far, including Seattle, Chicago, Rotterdam and Tokyo. The pieces are based on workshops with participants selected in an on-location casting call.

> The Makers
Ping Chong was born in 1946 in New York's Chinatown and has become an internationally renowned director, theatre-writer, choreographer and video and installation artist. He started his career with Meredith Monk. With more than 25 productions of his own, he is seen as one of the central personalities of the Asian-American art scene. For eleven years Ping Chong has staged ever-new versions of "Undesirable Elements" in different cities - most recently with children victimized by war who now live in the USA.
Michael Rohd is a theatre maker and educator. His book "Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue" is international required reading for urban theatre work.

> The Opinions
Village Voice: "Magical and dreamlike, Ping Chong's stage work has never lacked hard facts with which his visions could collide... Intervies on the dual topics of cultural identity and moving to New York City make up the core of Chong's new piece, but rest assured, something transformative is likely to happen: For Ping Chong, simple facts are never bare."

Washington Post: "The stage is in black. The voices are in color. They speak, and you think you know who they are. Ninety minutes later, you realize that what you thought you knew was only a fraction of the truth, the for-colored-people-only-truth.The voices don't fit in a box."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "It is not a conventional play. It does not have a plot. It does not have fictional characters. But it does have eight actors who talk about themselves and their families. It does not have a story, but it is bursting with anecdotes. It does not have a message, but it provides 90 minutes of a strangely exciting sort of peace."

The Chicago Tribune: "In a medium that can depend so heavily on the artifice of costumes, sets and made-up stories, Chong proves here that simply presented reality can often make the most engaging theater of all."

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