The Voice
Rita Mazza
Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Saal
Mi. 5.11. | 20:00 Uhr, Relaxed Performance Do. 6.11. | 20:00 Uhr, Relaxed Performance
Duration: approx. 40 minutes
Language: German sign language with German and English surtitles
Tickets: €17, concessions €8
Due to illness, the audio description has unfortunately been canceled.
Synopsis
The voice is a remarkable site: one that is directly connected to a person’s body and identity – it is unique, unmistakable and an instrument of self-assertion. However, a voice can also have an irritating effect and remind us of our own vulnerability. In their striking solo work The Voice, choreographer Rita Mazza, whose first language is Italian Sign Language, embarks in a radically intimate and vulnerable way on a search for their own voice from a deaf perspective. Mazza seizes their voice and expresses it out loud: in sound, movement, gestures, light and rhythm, blurring the boundaries between visibility and audibility, intimacy and openness in the process. The Voice raises questions about identity, sexuality, control and shame – as well as about how much the way we sound is conditioned and judged by society. The performance is aimed at the audience on a variety of levels and works with German Sign Language, surtitles and live audio description. A profound physical experience that challenges existing norms – and invites us to perceive our own inner voice in a new way.
Tip: Workshop with Rita Mazza on November 7.
On November 6, after the performance, the event continues in Studio 1 with "4.0 – Inclusive Club Night. An audiovisual installation for deaf and hearing people"
Content notes:
Speech therapy for Deaf people
Partial nudity
Sensory triggers:
The show works with different light patterns, intensities and rhythms, without abrupt changes.
The lighting choreography includes: darker and brighter scenes, intense colors, partial and total fadeouts, several soft projections onto fixed and moving objects, slowly pulsating lights and one reflective surface, pointing light directly at the audience.
The show is very quiet, no music or spoken language will be used throughout the performance. The audio landscape contains different elements, varying in intensity, pitch, quality and rhythm.
These include: repetitive bubbling and breathing sounds, high pitch kissing sounds and one very loud abrupt funny sound. There will also be potential crackling sounds and a continuous background noise from the ventilation system. In this show there’s also the use of a smoke machine.
Access for Deaf Audiences
The performance isn’t fully Deaf friendly because the performer is producing sounds that are transmitted through a microphone. There will be written sound descriptions as subtitles (English & German) as well as a signed version of those in German Sign Language. The piece is about sounds, a topic that might address hearing people more than Deaf people. Sounds are described in written and signed form, but the additional layer that is accessible for the hearing audience won’t be perceived by the Deaf audience. The performer themself is Deaf, too. They explore human body sounds which everyone is able to produce. So while the piece isn’t fully
Deaf friendly, the Deaf audience and the performer are on the same page.
Before and after the performance, the festival offers German Sign Language (DGS) interpretation to Go.
Credits
By & with: Rita Mazza
Light design: Raquel Rosildete
Set design & video: Camille Lacadee
Dramaturgy & artistic collaboration accessibility: Noa Winter, Sophie Guisset
Costume design & video animation: Evan Loxton
Advice on movement quality & choreography: Gabriel Galindez Cruz
Collaboration dance & choreography: Maria Giulia Serantoni
DGS performer: Aurelia Schäfer
Audio description & tactile tour: Ari Althaus, Johanna Krins, Gina Jeske
Photography: Mayra Wallraff Production
Management & care: Tiphaine Carrère, Jette Büchsenschütz
Production preliminary work: Agnes Kern DGS/English/German
Interpretation for internal team work: Stella Papantonatos, Alma Arnoul, Viviane Grünberger
Pre show access & accessibility collaboration: analu
Outside eye: Mathias Schaefer
Light assistant: Alexandra Úhlarová
A production by Rita Mazza in co-production with Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Kampnagel. Funded by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In cooperation with Sophiensæle.
Fotos: Mayra Wallraff