Since the start of our collective activity Chto Delat was very interested in a developing a fictional, scripted staged narratives – our first most popular work – “The Builders” (2004) is actually could be interpreted in this direction and slide-film “Angry sandwitched people…” also is a good example of this tendency.

Later on parallel with a working on our concept of video songspiels we had started to engross more and more deeply into inspiring world of Brecht experimentation on the stage – this was also reflected on conceptual level in a series of our publication from Great Method (2010) up to most recent Theater of Accomplices (2011). At the same time time our video works was very often criticized as bad films by professional filmmakers or as spectacular documentation of bad theater by professional theater makers and both of them of course have their right. But our approach has little to do with both of this high respectful fields of professional activity. The only one things that we care about was a production of some visual artistic narration that could break with narrow convention of theater, film and art and become an useful experience for inspiration, political learning and entertainment.

So soon after starting of making music films we also start to experiment with staging of full scale learning plays using all possible manuals, protocols and recipes in this area – not for the fun of probing the excellent old tools but out of urgency to come up with a certain politics and share it with other participants.

So……………………..

Here we present some documentations of our most interesting for us experiments on the stage. We hope that this collection could provide to all who are interested in continuing the experiences of educational theater this pieces could give some examples how things should be realized or what better to escape to do.

We are very sorry for sometimes bad quality of documentation and not proper crediting all that amazing people who help us to realize heaps of technical tasks that we were not familiar with and learn on the way.

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The videofilm "The Russian Woods" based on the documentation of the staged play - realised in Petersburg in Russian with English subtitles

The Russian Woods, at Tramway, Glasgow from chto delat on Vimeo.

played on 25th of March in a framework of the festival "Speaking and understanding" // Episode 3 Copying without copying, concept and production by Arika (www.arika.org.uk)

Script & Idea: Tsaplya and Dmitry Vilensky
Music:Mikhail Krutik
Choreography: Nina Gasteva
Set & graphics: Nikolay Oleynikov

Our work on the musical performance "Russian Woods" was largely provoked by political developments in Russia last winter. By participating in these important events that all of sudden have emerge inside the Russian civil society, we were intrigued by the huge amount of use of mythic images and rethoric, both from government and from the protesters. We found that this phenomenon is not by chance and really reflects the level of a political culture in the country. And we wanted to try to analyze it in the form of a fairy tail story that would be able to not only reflect the totality of socio-political structure of our society, but also think about the possibilities of its transformation.

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this is a documentation of the learning play reliased at Institute of Contemporary Arts, London on 10th of September, 2010 in a frame work of the exhibition of the Chto Delat? "The urgent need to struggle"

Participants:

Jelena Vesic (Prelom collective - Belgrade), Vladan Jeremic (Biro Belgrade), Carrot Workers Research Group (London), Alexander Skidan and Dmitry Vilensky, Chto Delat collective (Russia), Factory of Found Clothes (St. Petersburg), Nina Gasteva (Iguana Dance (St. Petersburg), Steve Edwards (Historical Materialism - London), Turbulence (London), Unltra-Red (London); Ehsan Fardjadniya (Parachute-Artists (Nomad)), Amsterdam; Marina Vishmidt; Vladimir Jeric (Vlidi – Belgrade)

Based on 48 hours Communal Life Seminar

Presented by Factory of Found Clothes & Chto Delat?, choreography of Nina Gasteva, and the participants of the 48 Hour Communal Life Seminar:

The title-question the play What struggles do we have in common? addresses the urgency of reconsidering the cultural field as a battle ground – where different forces of politics, aesthetics and ideology are confronting each other. That’s why the play scrutinizes the rather typical conflictual situation when artist/intellectuals who have chosen the necessity of carrying on their work in a framework of institutional landscape are confronted with the protest of activists who consider this position as a betrayal of political agenda in a favor of branding a personal/collective carriers detached from any political relevance.

Through the staging this conflict and its different aspects we suggest the public to engage with this issues and try to find a way how to resolve the conflict otherwise.

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Where has communism gone?
The learning play realised with participants of 48 hours seminar at SMART project space, Amsterdam in February 2011

with the participation of: Dorian Batycka, Jimini Hignett, lado Darakhvelidze, Petra Vacková, Anton Kats, Ehsan Fardjadniya, Hanan Benammar; Catherine Grau, Maiko Tanaka, Selçuk Balamir, Ruchama, Yelena Myshko, Jessica Dill, Yelena Sorokina, Jesper Alvaer; Koert Jobse, Eugen Georg and others (very sorry for missing someone)

Chto Delat? participants: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya), Artyom Magun, Oxana Tymopheeva, Natalya Pershina (Gluklya), Dmitry Vilensky, Alexander Skidan

Video Lecture by David Riff

Film Scene from the film Homeland of Electricity by Larisa Shepitko

Music Isaak Dunaevsky from the film "Captain Grant's kids"

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On the occasion of SKOR's symposium, Social Housing - Housing the Social the members of Chto Delat and Ultra-red and participants of two-day seminar performed a collaborative learning play on the first evening of the symposium, November 2011

see more at http://www.skor.nl/nl/site/item/actors-agents-and-attendants-ii-open-call-for-participation