Up at 7:30am to get my gear put together for the long day going to visit Schlöss Bröllin in Germany. Asia left her passport in Gdansk so wasn’t able to go and Koby was not felling well and opted also to stay. The rest of the group jumped into a van around 9am and headed west toward the border. The border guards were very thorough with their inspection, so we were all glad that Asia had not tried to come on the trip with her Xeroxed passport. There was a marked difference in the conditions of the road on either side of the border. The German roads had all bee resurfaced since the reunification and were in excellent shape. We finally made it to Castle Brollin around 10am and were greeted by Joacim, one of the directors of the facility. Brollin is more of a large farm than a castle, but the name has stuck over the years. The space is geared toward short-term (two or three months) artist residency for individuals or groups preparing movement based work. Groups from all over the world have come to spend time at the facility with a great number of Butoh troupes coming from Japan. All of their programming is conducted in English.
Two of the barns are being renovating to provide more usable rehearsal and residency space. One of the barns was in decent structural shape, which meant that the historical conservancy regulations strongly dictated the extent to which the renovation could alter the space. The other barn was at about 30% of its structural potential and more ambitious renovations were underway in it. Our tour continued into a massive workshop where Joacim showed off some of his stage projects and talked about some of the Butoh pieces he had worked on. The scale of the projects he was working on blew me away. Disassembled on the floor was a 30-foot diameter sphere that weighed two tons when put together. He also had put together a huge plastic tent that was clear on one side. The most intriguing piece was for a performance that had three prone dancers enclosed in two pylons that had inflatable sleeves that could pin the dancers in place. The control of the sleeves was given over to motion detectors triggered by a number of rabbits that were turned loose in the performance space. Our tour of the workshop ended with a demo of some pressurized metal cubes. Wojciech was particularly nervous as the cube was pressurized. Joacim let the pressure out of one of them while holding one corner. The thing spun around fiercely before slowing to a stop.
The "castle" from a distance. Joacim in the former distillery, now a appropriately a bar.
Performance and rehearsal spaces.
Joacim inflating one of his metal cubes. A disassembled 30-foot metal sphere used as a prop for a Butoh performance.
We continued on to their kitchen, which is the only place where everyone gets together, and on to look at their ice cooler. The cooler was a low building with 40-foot thick walls. Ice brought in during the winter would last until the following September. Joacim set Wojciech up with a bunch of flyers and posters before we headed back to Szczecin.
The ice cooler and massive indoor dinning area.
Planted evidence of the coming Golden Age for Schlöss Bröllin.
A stork we saw on the way back to Szczecin.
We got back in time to check out the end of Stella Polaris’ kids workshop. Sort of Renaissance Faire for kids. Juggling, stilts, costumes, swords and shields. The kids seemed like they were having a blast. We headed over to a fancy fish restaurant for lunch at 2pm. We were just in time as a torrential downpour started just after we sat down. Some accommodations were made for my vegan diet. Most of my food was accompanied by the waiter telling me how bland my dishes were. I found them to be quite tasty. The rest of our group arrived at 3 and as it was still raining, we stayed on until they were through with their meal.
Stella Polaris' workshop for children.
The special fish restaurant that Teatr Kana had arranged for us to have lunch at. Some of the former menu items and Asia seen over a miniature cauldron of fish soup.
The Monar group was scheduled to perform at 4:30pm, but there was some problems with the sound system so they did not start until closer to 5:30pm. Their theater piece was well received. Some of the Monar graduates then rapped with a live band. They had quite an audience, which they were able to get moving pretty well.
The Monar group getting ready to perform. Some of the Monar graduates rapping with a live band.
We headed back to the hotel for a little break before the evening performances. Asia, Koby, Alicia and I headed over to the Galaxy shopping center to get some refreshments before heading over to Zamek. Our detour was taking too long so Koby left after a little bit. We finally got though the line with our vodka, orange juice and chips some fifteen minutes later. Needless to say we were a tad late to the Derevo Theater performance of Arkan. The Russian German troupe had definite Butoh influences and although I was skeptical of their performance at first, it grew on me very quickly. Several times, the focus of the event shifted in the courtyard, with the crowd surging back and forth. For the last move I was perfectly positioned at the edge of the circle formed by the audience, somehow winding up right next to Zigmund, the director of Teatr Kana. This turned out to be a mixed bag, as troupe started to bathe themselves with a great deal of splashing and flinging of water everywhere.
Derevo Theater's Arkan showed its Japanese Butoh influences.
Back at the parking lot next to Teatr Kana was Puppets’ Clinic Theatre’s “Aniekicje.” It was a very slow piece with an actor being taken in by a group of other actors with giant heads and hands. At one point all of the heads and hands came off for some more intricate movement and the spell was broken for me. When the lone actor started to don a less well put together outfit I decided I had had enough and joined the others for our late night sour soup in the basement kitchen. Next up was Stella Polaris’ “The Ship of Fools.” It was very text heavy and dependent on very small movement. Again, I did not last very long and took off with Asia to the beer garden to wait for the “Night Party music.” Margaret, Sheila and Laura joined us. Someone at a neighboring table enjoyed our boisterous English and bought us all a round. We tried to invite him over, but his companion, whom we all took for a drag queen, was having none of it. Jacek Hałas and guests played some great folky tunes. Jacek came out into the audience a number of times to initiate dances for the tunes. Most of them involved everyone in a long chain trying to reproduce some intricate steps as they were whipped along. Asia and I jumped in for a few of the songs. It was great fun, but I am not sure how well I did, being fairly inebriated at that point. The rest of the group started to leave, but we pulled them into a last dance and then we all headed back to the hotel together. We finally got in around 2am.
Two of the barns are being renovating to provide more usable rehearsal and residency space. One of the barns was in decent structural shape, which meant that the historical conservancy regulations strongly dictated the extent to which the renovation could alter the space. The other barn was at about 30% of its structural potential and more ambitious renovations were underway in it. Our tour continued into a massive workshop where Joacim showed off some of his stage projects and talked about some of the Butoh pieces he had worked on. The scale of the projects he was working on blew me away. Disassembled on the floor was a 30-foot diameter sphere that weighed two tons when put together. He also had put together a huge plastic tent that was clear on one side. The most intriguing piece was for a performance that had three prone dancers enclosed in two pylons that had inflatable sleeves that could pin the dancers in place. The control of the sleeves was given over to motion detectors triggered by a number of rabbits that were turned loose in the performance space. Our tour of the workshop ended with a demo of some pressurized metal cubes. Wojciech was particularly nervous as the cube was pressurized. Joacim let the pressure out of one of them while holding one corner. The thing spun around fiercely before slowing to a stop.
The "castle" from a distance. Joacim in the former distillery, now a appropriately a bar.
Performance and rehearsal spaces.
Joacim inflating one of his metal cubes. A disassembled 30-foot metal sphere used as a prop for a Butoh performance.
We continued on to their kitchen, which is the only place where everyone gets together, and on to look at their ice cooler. The cooler was a low building with 40-foot thick walls. Ice brought in during the winter would last until the following September. Joacim set Wojciech up with a bunch of flyers and posters before we headed back to Szczecin.
The ice cooler and massive indoor dinning area.
Planted evidence of the coming Golden Age for Schlöss Bröllin.
A stork we saw on the way back to Szczecin.
We got back in time to check out the end of Stella Polaris’ kids workshop. Sort of Renaissance Faire for kids. Juggling, stilts, costumes, swords and shields. The kids seemed like they were having a blast. We headed over to a fancy fish restaurant for lunch at 2pm. We were just in time as a torrential downpour started just after we sat down. Some accommodations were made for my vegan diet. Most of my food was accompanied by the waiter telling me how bland my dishes were. I found them to be quite tasty. The rest of our group arrived at 3 and as it was still raining, we stayed on until they were through with their meal.
Stella Polaris' workshop for children.
The special fish restaurant that Teatr Kana had arranged for us to have lunch at. Some of the former menu items and Asia seen over a miniature cauldron of fish soup.
The Monar group was scheduled to perform at 4:30pm, but there was some problems with the sound system so they did not start until closer to 5:30pm. Their theater piece was well received. Some of the Monar graduates then rapped with a live band. They had quite an audience, which they were able to get moving pretty well.
The Monar group getting ready to perform. Some of the Monar graduates rapping with a live band.
We headed back to the hotel for a little break before the evening performances. Asia, Koby, Alicia and I headed over to the Galaxy shopping center to get some refreshments before heading over to Zamek. Our detour was taking too long so Koby left after a little bit. We finally got though the line with our vodka, orange juice and chips some fifteen minutes later. Needless to say we were a tad late to the Derevo Theater performance of Arkan. The Russian German troupe had definite Butoh influences and although I was skeptical of their performance at first, it grew on me very quickly. Several times, the focus of the event shifted in the courtyard, with the crowd surging back and forth. For the last move I was perfectly positioned at the edge of the circle formed by the audience, somehow winding up right next to Zigmund, the director of Teatr Kana. This turned out to be a mixed bag, as troupe started to bathe themselves with a great deal of splashing and flinging of water everywhere.
Derevo Theater's Arkan showed its Japanese Butoh influences.
Back at the parking lot next to Teatr Kana was Puppets’ Clinic Theatre’s “Aniekicje.” It was a very slow piece with an actor being taken in by a group of other actors with giant heads and hands. At one point all of the heads and hands came off for some more intricate movement and the spell was broken for me. When the lone actor started to don a less well put together outfit I decided I had had enough and joined the others for our late night sour soup in the basement kitchen. Next up was Stella Polaris’ “The Ship of Fools.” It was very text heavy and dependent on very small movement. Again, I did not last very long and took off with Asia to the beer garden to wait for the “Night Party music.” Margaret, Sheila and Laura joined us. Someone at a neighboring table enjoyed our boisterous English and bought us all a round. We tried to invite him over, but his companion, whom we all took for a drag queen, was having none of it. Jacek Hałas and guests played some great folky tunes. Jacek came out into the audience a number of times to initiate dances for the tunes. Most of them involved everyone in a long chain trying to reproduce some intricate steps as they were whipped along. Asia and I jumped in for a few of the songs. It was great fun, but I am not sure how well I did, being fairly inebriated at that point. The rest of the group started to leave, but we pulled them into a last dance and then we all headed back to the hotel together. We finally got in around 2am.
Leave a comment