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so... after half a year of hiatus, theater°system is back to continue the aesthetic exploration of decriminalisation of 'love'. the first part of this interactive theatre process that took place in may 2014, had culminated in a very exciting 'cops in the head' finale, where we had ventured seeking and unravelling the voices in our heads that push us towards criminalising love. taking inspiration from this, we are about to move forward with the interactive theatre process, with the goal of developing a forum theatre play by the end of january 2015. in order to do so we have the following dates in mind:
| December 2014 | Thu 4 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM |
| Thu 11 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM | |
| Thu 18 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM | |
| January 2015 | Thu 8 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM |
| Sat 10 | 10:00 AM - | 4:00 PM | |
| Sun 11 | 5:00 PM - | 9:00 PM | |
| Thu 15 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM | |
| Sat 17 | 10:00 AM - | 4:00 PM | |
| Sun 18 | 5:00 PM - | 9:00 PM | |
| Thu 22 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM | |
| Thu 29 | 7:00 PM - | 10:00 PM |
at the usual venue: probebühne, schwartzsche villa.
at the end of january and possibly a few times in february and onwards we will take the play to different audiences and let the forum come in action.
if you are interested and can commit to the above mentioned dates, please write to theatersystemberlin@gmail.com. we look forward to seeing you!
following is an excerpt from the previously written description of the initiative, for those who are clueless about what decriminalising 'love': an aesthetic exploration is supposed to mean :)
love - how can that be a crime? so might one think off the top of their head. but sadly there are numerous examples in the world we live in, where love is indeed seen as a crime. who doesn´t know about the famous romeo-juliet tragedy? this is no done deal from Shakespearian times, sadly - happens a bit too often even to this day. and there are far too many sad stories to hear on seemingly 'unusual' and 'against the norm' forms of love - typically those that are inter-social-status, inter-caste, inter-ethnic, inter-racial, inter-gender - being handled harshly by our society. some go as far as honour-killings!
we are in a habit of blaming the systems and structures of society - patriarchal systems, older generations, religious institutions, etc. for their animosity towards 'unusual' forms of love. but what is it exactly that makes them do so. going beyond 'them', let's think about 'us' - we are in this together - we are part of what makes these systems. so what is really wrong with us? why do we judge love? what unnerves us? what disturbs us so much that we take such strong stance against what we deem 'unusual' kind of love? what are our patterns of behaviour that give rise to these structures, these systems? where do these cops in our heads come from that keep telling us what is right and wrong? what are our fears, our desires - that drive us in taking harsh means of punishing these 'crimes'?
in a theatrical process based on theatre for living, we will investigate these questions and many more. using the emotional language of theatre, we will try to get beyond the symptoms of the mere act or stance of colouring love as crime, and get to the root causes of our patterns of behaviour. we will delve into the different layers of complexity and try to understand their different facets. it is expected that this would trigger a deep level of conscientisation and thence open the door of opportunity towards transforming our behaviour accordingly, which in turn would transform the systems and structures that we inhabit.
a typical part of this theatrical process are open 'forum theatre' plays, where the issue would be portrayed with its various layers of complexity, and then the spectators or rather 'spect-actors' would be invited to intervene with their ideas of creating a safe space where love of any form is nurtured.
*** this initiative is part of amnesty international's campaign on rights of sexual minorities (LGBTI). ***
