MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS AWARD 2011
For the tenth time in succession, the MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS PROJECT took place as part of the Salzburg Festival 2011.
The theatre project was again sponsored entirely by the international culture brand Montblanc. As in previous years, the sale of Montblanc’sSalzburg special edition “Hommage à Max Reinhardt” generated additional sponsorship funds andallowed a fifth production to be staged in 2011.
For this year’s competition, Dr. Thomas Oberender, Director of Drama of the Salzburg Festival, and Martine Dennewald, Curator, selected five young directors and their ensembles from the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Sweden. The nominees were:
The Copenhagen collective SIGNA(Signa and Arthur Köstler and Thomas Bo Nilsson) with the premiere of The Former House– a harrowing theatre installation about human trafficking and prostitution in a house in Maxglan; in this piece the audience interacts directly with the performers. “The Former House” was one of the most widely debated productions of this year’s festival and it focused the festivalgoers’ attention on a sensitive and very important topic.
The London-based artists Lundahl & Seitl(Christer Lundahl and Martina Seitl) withSymphony of a Missing Room. Actors blindfold the audience and lead them through the Museum of Modern Art on the Mönchsberg; they go deeper and deeper into an imaginative world conjured up by an elaborate three-dimensional soundtrack.
The Belgian theatre ensemble Ontroerend Goedfrom Ghent with A Game of You, six rooms laid out so that each member of the audience can watch him or herself, another member of the audience and the actors, who at the end charmingly and revealingly perform each person’s character.
The Swedish performance group Poste Restante(Linn Hilda Lamberg, StefanÅkesson and Erik Berg) with The Dinner Club – Salzburg Classes, a theatrical training seminar about the art of fine manners with a subsequent test during an evening meal with live music. The show pinpoints and questions social roles and the interrelationship between the sexes.
Rachel Chavkinand the New York theatre group The TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment)withMission Drift,a journey to the heart of capitalism, which narrates four centuries of American history through the main characters’ thirst for adventure, and which uses the music and stage presence of Heather Christians and her band to create a contemporary type of musical.
The jury, consisting of Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler (President of the Salzburg Festival), Birgit Minichmayr (actress), Dr. Andrea Schurian (journalist), Klaus Maria Brandauer (actor)and Thaddaeus Ropac (Ropac Gallery), present the MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS AWARD 2011 for the best director to
Symphony of a Missing Roomby Lundahl & Seitl.
The jury’s statement:
Symphony of a Missing Roomby Lundahl & Seitldisplays a consistently high quality in its intellectual approach, concept, acting and performance. The poetic direction and seduction into imaginative worlds and one’s own interior world makes this production an all-embracing experience for each person.
The MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS AWARD is endowed with prize money amounting to €10,000 and the Montblanc Max Reinhardt Pen, which was exclusively designed for this project.
For the jury
Helga Rabl-Stadler Birgit Minichmayr Andrea Schurian
Thaddaeus Ropac Klaus Maria Brandauer
For more information, contact:
Ulla KalchmairBrigitte Gauss
Press Office – Salzburg FestivalPress Office – Montblanc Austria
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