Stills from the Video of the First Sharing of The Ophelia Collective -Works in Progress-

"A Recall to Catherine the Great" by Regina Fichtner

10min Scratch

Last Week: Performance in Germany

"I will avenge Jimmy's Death with the Revolver"
by Sabine Bessmann & Regina Fichtner

5/12/09 at the pad -performance art depot- in Mainz/Germany


TRAILER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwySnnuZKbA

Premiere: June 2007 Kampnagel; Hamburg/Germany
Guest Performance: November 2007 Festival 150% Made in Hamburg; Hamburg/Germany
Guest Performance: December 2009 pad; Mainz/Germany

***Performance Dates coming soon***

The First Sharing of The Ophelia Collective on Sunday 6th December

Please click on the notes to enlarge.

The next Sharing of The Ophelia Collective will be on 13th February 2010 at Chisenhale Dance Space.

The new project: "Social Porn 2010" (Part II) by Regina Fichtner

"Social Porn 2010" (Part II)
The Docu-Soap - A Performance about Reality TV (live on stage).

Concept: Regina Fichtner
Performers: Regina Fichtner & Antje Hildebrandt

***Performance Dates: coming soon***


"Fast Food Forward" (Part I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26sM4K-1SGg

Concept: Regina Fichtner
Performers: Regina Fichtner & Ivona Sijakovic

Premiere: 1/06/08, Kampnagel / Hamburg

Guest Performance: 25/10/08, Studioateliers OZM / Hamburg

Guest performance: 21/02/09, 100°-Festival HAU – Theater Hebbel am Ufer / Berlin.

The Ophelia Projects hits You Tube!

The Ophelia Project has now got its own channel on You Tube which we hope to add to over the next few months. Please check it out for our selection of rehearsal clips during the early stages of the development of the piece.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURRHD1P-yM

The Ophelia Project - short clip

Oh Earth! - Short Clip from The Ophelia Project

"Oh Earth!
Where are the past? - and wherefore had they birth?"

Lord Byron

20 modified-release film-coated tablets

20 modified-release film-coated tablets is a improvisation solo which bounces on the edge of contemporary dance, physical theatre, instant poetry, voice and rhythm which that all creates.

Women swallows leaves that all falling down from trees in the autumn. It creates a dialogue of creatures existing and having actual party in her belly. They decide to send a letter to ground, specifying when exactly they gonna come back this year. Psychopaths with the tablets in their mouths. Together we are sending a message, to the other site of a room. Not arriving there though.

She is going to cook a soup. Stock from film-coat.

Works on improvisation solo, film editing and other mental issues are on my mind. And oh, I forgot to add I'm moving to London.

Joanna

UPDATE: The Ophelia Project by Rhiannon Brace

The Ophelia Project

The Ophelia Project continues to take form in the cosy studio at Clapham North. Having recorded the soundtrack, I continue to experiment in the studio with formations in which to place my performers and structuring the small sections of the piece we have so far. At the last rehearsal we started running the piece from the opening of the piece until a few mintues in. Next rehearsal the flow of continuous choreography will double as more sections slot into place.

Present cast: Nicola Higgins, Alison Lamothe, Regina Fichtner, Mabel Encinas, Natalie Karamichali

Sound Technician: Barnaby Hughes

News: "A Recall to Catherine the Great" - goes Baroque

"A Recall to Catherine the Great"

a piece between live-art, physical theatre &
pure action

...all performers working on just one character - the character of Catherine the Great - 1 character and 4 performers
...History meets (Auto-)Biography
...to recall the history (of the east and west) of yesterday, today and tomorrow - caged in a 'living picture' and framed in an irony of baroque femaleness.

Yours sincerely,

THE QUEEN

News on Stone Project

Hi All!

We came to the end with filming first part of a film. Now, on Tuesday, we'll start filming second part, what is really exciting (I hate this word, can you tell my WHY?). Oh, and here are photos, photos from few last sessions! http://picasaweb.google.com/asikdance/StoneProjectLastShoots#

On photos you can see Magda Miziak, Asia Barlińska, Agata Kwiek, Ola Piechnik (+ her shadow, haahaa), Ula Koss, Sylwia Kowalska and me.

I'm busy doing some serious film editing. While doing it, I found loads of funny stuff. I think seeing it together might be funny experience. So don't hesitate to look up for a short film of funny outtakes! (The second part of outtakes is coming soon :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQBJguTpMo&feature=player_embedded

Joanna

The Ophelia Project speaks......

Despite setbacks (including being locked out of our studio) The Ophelia Project is really starting to take shape. I have decided to use text to form part of the soundtrack which will be mixed with both music and sound effects. I have been looking at various texts having disregarded, for the moment, directly using Hamlet. This weekend I have been looking at Byron's poems many of which are perfect for The Ophelia Project and my only problem has been selecting the most suitable poems from his amazing wealth of work. I am also looking at Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Rhiannon

www.theromanticrevolution.co.uk

Scratch night at BAC - The Queen's Empire.

Frame making and technical rehearsals at Battersea Arts Centre in preparation of The Queen's Empire which opened the David Lynch themed Scratch night last night (17th September).

There was a great atmosphere at BAC and it was a great setting to perform The Queen's Empire.

Fred The Free One

Hello!

I'm proud to announce that Stone Project which we're working on has a title! Fred The Free One, has its origin... with a The Flinstones cartoon... yes, but that's the case! Work on the first part of the film, are coming to the end. We're doing the last shoots, before we do go to the second part. I would like to share with you some photos, that we did while filming our co- existence with stones. Here you can view all the photos http://picasaweb.google.com/asikdance/StoneProject#

I would love to thank everybody for their involvement in a project so far, for sacrifices such as lack of skin on elbows, fingers, not-nice-smelling stones/dustbins, causing non-intentional make-up, and following my incredible instructions such as "could you stay in the air for 5 seconds, cause I'm doing a photo". Oh, and forgive me that stones are not yummy. Next time we'll make a film about lolliepops.

Joanna

asik_dance@yahoo.com

http://4hands4legs.blog.com

The Ophelia Project continues....

The Ophelia Project continues to grow and develop. Currently, I am investigating the important element in Pre-Raphaelite paintings of the natural world and how I can add this to my piece. That has lead me to experimenting with the natural sounds of birds, water and trees moving in the wind. I have now set the sound of a babbling brook to accompany the section of choreography which is Ophelia by the Water's Edge (see a very short clip at my blog entry for 3rd September). I continue to look at the blending of these elements as the next rehearsal approaches on Saturday. Mother Nature is definitely an important contributor in The Ophelia Project.

Rhiannon

www.theromanticrevolution.co.uk

Regina Fichtner at BAC's The Scratch Festival

Regina Fichtner: “A Homeless Queen”

My name is Regina, I am a Russian-German and I live in the East End of London. My name, my cultural background and my life here in London is an important part of my piece “A Homeless Queen” – A Recall to Catherine the Great.

When Catherine the Great (born in Germany/Prussian) ascended the throne in the 18^th Century in Russia, she started to invite Germans to Russia to build up a new life in her new empire. From this time on a lot of Germans came to Russia to live there, like the past generation of my family did.

After World War II, and before and after the wall fell down in Germany, a lot of German-Russians came back to Germany and to, once again, build a new life.

My piece is about finding a home and (cultural) identity. “A Homeless Queen” is a Remix of the Russian tsar Catherine the Great; the Queen of England; and a reference to my name ‘Regina’, which means “Queen” in Latin.

A Queen’s Empire

The Homeless Queen meets David Lynch

17 September 2009 at 19:30 at Battersea Arts Centre

Artist/Director: Regina Fichtner

Performer: Rhiannon Brace, Sonja Bruehlmann, Regina Fichtner, Satoko Fujishiro,

Stage and Costume Design: Luca Paglia

The mysterious world of Lynch’s “Inland Empire”, his idea of a ‘film in a film’, becomes in this scratch an unknown historical and biographical ‘empire’ of Catherine the Great and the German-Russians, who are caged in a picture frame, a ‘living picture” on stage: “A Queen’s Empire”.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOANNA!!!

News on Stone Project

Hi all!

I'm Joanna and I'm quite new to Ophelia Collective... I think is high time to introduce my work!

Right now I'm working on a movement-based film, when we use stones a lot. Stones are playing methaphorical role of unsaid words, which are troubling us, situations which are heavy to forget, memories, which changed our life. Stones are heavy. Stones are hard to remove. Stones ARE existing in our life. In our film, we're dealing with them. We are living with them. And being with them.

And this is the first part of our film. About the second part, I'll talk later, when we'll start filming it.

On the last couple of days, we had quite a productive sessions. I hope you'll enyoj seeing the photos which are available on Picassa here http://picasaweb.google.com/asikdance/StoneProject#

Joanna

Congratulations to Regina to getting Scratch at Battersea Arts Centre!

Rhiannon

The Ophelia Project by Rhiannon Brace

I am a Welsh artist but currently living and making work in London. I studied Drama at Aberystwyth University where I specialised in directing and creating devised pieces of physical theatre. Since graduating I have been taking part in various projects and taking classes in contemporary dance. Recently in contemporary dance, there has been plenty of lively discussion about an apparent lack of female choreographers. In reaction to this discussion, I have formed The Ophelia Collective. The choreographers who form The Ophelia Collective are not comtemporary dancers, but artists with rounded experience and skills of different artistic disciplines.

The Ophelia Collective is also inspired by The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This is a Sisterhood. A sisterhood created to support each other's work and to give us a voice. A voice that will become louder as we grow.

To commemorate this new collective, I am holding a series of workshops with a diverse group of female performers in order to devise a new piece of physical theatre. This piece is called The Ophelia Project. It draws upon images of Pre-Raphaelite women, and more specifically Ophelia, to create movement.

For more information about my work please see my website: www.theromanticrevolution.co.uk