Since 1993 initiated by the deaf ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre produces and presents professional theatre productions with deaf and hearing artists for deaf and hearing audience. ARBOS offers also a professional theatre education for the deaf. Since 1993 16 productions and five workshop programmes were developed and presented. In 2002 ARBOS performed with the comedy „The Strangers“ at the arts festival of „Deaf Way II“ in Washington D.C. and is one of the most innovative deaf theatres in the world. Four projects got awards as the EUROPEAN ART PRIZE of The FINANCIAL TIMES (Cerec-Award), the MAECENAS-Award and the EUROPASIEGEL for INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE PROJECTS.

The Deaf Theatre P.S.I. in Brno exists since 1981. The best Czech deaf actors founded the theatre. The cast of the theatre consists of 21 actors. The theatre got awards in Italy, Monaco, USA, Spain and Germany. In Japan the P.S.I. Deaf Theatre got two times the Toyama Tiatf Award. 2002 the theatre presented at the arts festival of “Deaf Way II” in Washington the production “Dreams”, this production was presented at the 3rd European and International ARBOS Deaf Theatre Festival 2002 in Vienna. The P.S.I. Deaf Theatre is one of the best Deaf Theatres in the world.

Margrét Pétursdóttir uses for her play a spectacular environment: the circus. Two worlds are meeting in the circus, one is deaf, and the other one is hearing. In the communication between these two clowns are lot of absurd elements, because both are using different techniques to be a clown, because Sign Language is different from any spoken language. But this difference is the base for a lot of misunderstanding in the dialogue of the clowns. Such a dialogue can only happen in the world of a circus.

Draumasmidjan presents and produces since 2000 performances with deaf artists. The first production in 2000 “I see …” dealed with the situation of deaf children, the second production “The four seasons” tells the story of two elfs. And now the clowns are third production with deaf actors. Draumasmidjan offers also workshops for Deaf and hearing. Draumasmidjan is a professional theatre from Reykjavik in Iceland. The theatre was founded in 1994 the artistic directors are Margrét Pétursdóttir and Gunnar Gunnsteinsson. The ministry of culture of Iceland and the city of Reykjavik founds the productions of Draumasmidjan. Other important productions of Draumasmidjan are: “Salka Walka” by Halldor Laxness (the winner of the Nobel prize for literature from Iceland); “Men are from Mars – Women from Venus”; “The Collector” by John Fowles; “The Fruit Basket” the Icelandic Children Musical (this production was produced for TV and a CD was also produced).

The performance is supported by Ministry of Culture of Iceland.

A western film is in production. The film crew prepares the set. Lights and camera are on the set. Everything is prepared. The director, the cameraman and the A.D. are waiting for the star. Some times later the star is coming to the set. The director explains the star the situation in the scene. The star should act as a cowboy, who is a brutal murder of his rival. Everything is clear and there should be no problem to shoot the scene. The first take is shooted, but the star is not able to play how the director is expecting it. So they have to do a lot of takes for this scene. Sometimes the star is acting too soft, sometime he is acting too brutal, sometimes he is tearing, sometimes he is laughing. The director is in despair. But suddenly the star acts absolutely incredible perfect the scene. The director congratulates enthusiastically. But the scene was not shot. During the incredible numbers of repetition the cameraman falls asleep. The director and the star wake him up and start discussing why he felt asleep. Starting from just a harmless little scrap the play takes a tragic ending.

The BERLINER GEHÖRLOSEN BÜHNENCLUB is the oldest existing Deaf Theatre in Europe. Founded in 1881 Deaf people started to develop their own theatre in the community. But the start of World War I stopped the existence of the group. In 1918 the theatre was founded again. During the dictatorship of the Nazis the Bühnenclub did not exist by reasons of censorship. After World War II Deaf people in Berlin started again to establish a new Deaf Theatre. In 1961 Kurt Eisenblätter was nominated as the artistic director of the theatre. This decision brought the theatre to new dimensions. During the political change in the former German Democratic Republic the theatre was closed. In spring 1990 the BERLINER GEHÖRLOSEN BÜHNENCLUB was new founded following the long tradition of Deaf Theatre in Berlin.

Deaf can sing with their hands ! This fact is presented in the production “Concert”. Deaf actors connecting Sign Language with mime and dance. In the production we can see also two famous Russian songs in Sign Language “Working on an Object” and “The Song of Signs”. The actors got with this programme in Russia a big publicity. The performance was broadcasted for TV and some of the songs of the production were transformed to video clips. One very important element of music is the pulse-beat. He is the source of all music. And music first comes from movement, every sound needs for the creation movement. And movement is the missing link between music and Sign Language, because the Sign Language of the Deaf is a visual “Language in the Space”.

The NEW ART STUDIO Moscow was founded in 2001. The artistic director of the theatre is Michael Semakov. There was a very clear reason why the name of the theatre and the symbol of theatre were selected. „The Gull” is the symbol of the Moscow´s Artist´s Theatre. Under the artistic direction of Konstantin S. Stanislavski as a director and teacher the Artist´s Theatre becomes world famous. The symbol of the NEW ART STUDIO are three gulls, one representing the tradition of the Russian theatre like the Moscow´s Artist´s Theatre and two little gulls. These two are representing the development of new forms of theatre and for the work with deaf actors on the same level as hearing actor. There is no difference, because theatre is one world. The NEW ART STUDIO cooperates with the „National Specialized Institute for Arts“ and the „Russian Drama School“.

The performance is supported by the Ministry of Culture of The Russian Federation and the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow.

This theatre project connects the visions of the artistic avant-garde, the critics and victims of war. We have to differ very clear between the avant-garde (the forerunners of an army) of the art and the modern art, because modern art and avant-garde of the art is not the same. The avant-garde of art killed modern art. “Avant-garde and modern art are two different stiles of art” reflects the composer György Ligeti. The Italian Futurists themselves saw them as such a kind of avant-garde. They dreamed the “dream of the artistic war” and tried to transform their visions of war to art. They started working with such transformations before the beginning of World War I. They desired that Italy should as soon as possible part of this “Great War”. But the real reality is that an artistic war can be neither a vision nor a reality. Millions of people died. Romain Rolland (a great pacifist and winner of the Nobel prize) described in August 1918 “war as a disease which tortures Europe”. At around the same time persons like Romain Rolland or the German doctor of medicine physiologist Georg Friedrich Nicolai during World War I the vision of a “Common House of Europe” and now 85 years this visions could be a reality after a lot of horrible wars in the 20th century.
Before and during the time of World War I a lot of artists critized war but became also victims of war. In the theatre project “Disease War” there is the famous poem of Georg Trakl “Grodek”. Grodek was one of the great battlefields in World War I on the eastern front between Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and Russia. After the battle Trakl had to take care as a lonely person for around 90 seriously injured soldiers. Tortured by these impressions Trakl tried to commit suicide and was transported to the military hospital of Krakow. There he died on 3rd of November 1914 after the use of too much Cocaine. Another victim was the German poet August Stramm, who knew very well the ideas of the Italian Futurist Marinetti. Stramm died on the battlefield against Russia on 1st of September 1915. “Now I understand war; and now I know what a horrible demon tortured mankind in the past and modern time. And now I hate war – the war of the 20th century” wrote the doctor of medicine and physiologist Friedrich Georg Nicolai in August and he was the doctor of the wife of the German Emperor.

Sign Language of the Deaf is a “Language in Space”. Deaf actors can tell and act marvellous dramatic stories with their hands at the same time. This artistic form of minidrama is a speciality of Deaf Artists and Deaf Theatres. This performance is created during the festival and demonstrates how deaf actors from Switzerland, USA, Germany, Russia and Austria are telling stories on the stage.

Wings celebrates the human spirit. Act I centers on the human fascination with flight. Successfully conquering flight, Act II sees how our ability to fly can lead to tragic results. Focusing on the horrific events of September 11 and their aftermath, the show looks at our ability to deal with death and also find a way to live. Wings features an ensemble of six performers who employ mime, gesture, sign language, dance, pedestrian movement, and a cappella singing in the show’s presentation. Conceived by Tim McCarty, Quest’s president and the show’s director, Wings also features an integrated production staff of deaf and hearing artists.

Founded in 1997 and based in Lanham, Maryland, Quest is a group of artists, educators, and dedicated volunteers representing a diverse ethnic, cultural, and artistic panorama. All are committed to using the arts to: promote understanding among all peoples, promote excellence, and enable individuals who have been marginalized to realize their full potential. Quest’s 30 Affiliate Artists represent a variety of ethnicities, cultures, and art forms. Forty percent of the Affiliates are artists who are deaf or artists with disabilities. Seventy percent of the Affiliates are artists of colour. The company’s three divisions reflect Quest’s multipronged, multileveled approach to employing the arts to affect social, educational, and employment change.

ArtsBridge – a local, state, and national initiative on careers in the arts for people with disabilities; Quest Productions – creates, produces, and presents theatre from a visual base and features casts and production staffs of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people; Education & Training – arts education in schools and professional training in visual theatre.

Quest coordinated Gallaudet University's Deaf Way II International Arts Festival. Deaf Way II brought together 400 of the world’s top deaf, hard of hearing and hearing performing, visual and literary artists and presented them to enthusiastic audiences in the Washington, DC area. Deaf Way II presented over 125 Deaf Way II performances and 10 visual arts venues throughout the metropolitan area in partnership with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and others. Approximately 400,000 people attended Deaf Way II festival related events.

Hands are important instruments of the human body, since mankind decided to walk on two feet. Hands are used for example for eating, drinking, writing, moving, carrying … The Sign Language of the Deaf uses gestures, mimes and hands. So therefore the hands (and the eyes) are an important part of the communication. They are part of the language, which is the mother language of all languages.

These workshops are for deaf and hearing children. For the deaf children it is a contact with the own mother language, for hearing children it is maybe the first contact with this fascinating language.

Informations
arbos.vienna@eunet.at and
arbos.festival@pep.at