Theatre Line/ The stars of tomorrow
 Smile, you’re on camera! And so they do, the small town talents, who arrive to take part in a contest on the local TV-channel of Tinyville, USA. The camera seems to be somewhere out here among the audience. It makes the actors on stage behave as if they were in a TV-studio instead of a theatre – at least when they expect the thing to be on, that is. When it’s supposed to be off, they become more private and very human – for better and for worse, mind you.
It must be pretty strange to act in front of an invisible and soundless TV-audience! The hosts and guests must make a show without any real response and the actors in this play give a pretty realistic impression of the challenge. It does become embarrassing at times! And still they have a real audience in front of them after all.
The theatre students have been working with the difficult task of impersonating figures very far from their own personalities. Building the characters and developing their act, so that they remain present and interesting even when they are in the background and somebody else is taking focus. It’s always interesting to look at the actors, and see how they keep their figures alive, even when you could expect them to take a break.
Ensemble line/ Around (with) a piano
 It’s not unusual to arrange a group of artists around a piano. But it is rather unusual for the artists to take the piano for a walk around the stage – pushing and dragging it along while playing on the strings inside it, lying on it, using it as a cabinet with burning candles to light it up inside! The whole story seems to be written as it is told by a woman using what used to be the keys of the piano as a giant typewriter.
This performance is dreamlike, a chain of associations tied together only by the few props and the actors. Everything and everyone changes all the time, a cloth rolled up as a ball becomes a threat, a toy, a rope, a veil – even a diaper – and finally a tent. Stories are told and songs are delivered accompanied by the somewhat incidental tunes of the harp-heart of the piano.
The actors talk and sing in different tongues, dig the ground, fight, play, kill and – well, tap-dance!
The spectacle is obviously nearing the end, as the piano takes another round, going back to the starting point. Lights out!
Cirkus Line/ Do clowns have brains?
 Why are these clowns so frightened of a chair? Why do the tight group of seemingly morons need all these silly tryouts before they can start using it for their posing? When they finally get started, there’s no end to the combinations of bodies on, below and next to the simple piece of furniture, carrying, holding, sitting on and balancing off each other.
And it gets more spectacular! They also do the human knots in the trapeze – one or two together and you never know, who is going to be on top – or upside down.
It is make-believe, you know. It seems so easy doing it – and they even smile. And they seem so stupid. The acrobats. Clowns.
See more images from the Main Subject Projects of the spring semester 2010.
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