Royal Night of Divas

How Diva are you? 

According to Simona Hofmann and Stella Luna Palino, Diva lives in all of us, sleeping innocently or longing to come out, or she IS out and about in our everyday life. Diva is not female, not male; the diva is in the nature of every human being. Often the Diva hides in pride and in the aesthetics of a person, sneaking in through the exaggerated mannerisms and gestures, through deliberately staged appearance, and therefore has a theatrical touch. 

Royal Baden

Friday night Theater Royale Baden wants to celebrate this theatrical attitude! THE NIGHT OF THE ROYAL DIVAS - Are there any divas around?

The programme consists of chanson duet of Stella Luna Palino and pianist Ueli Gygli. Simona Hofmann staged a lively Divas Gallery and Sandro Scarabelli from Cutting Edge coiffes live while a film about the world class divas runs on the background. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Dress code for the guests is - of course - the Divas Look. Let your wild side appear as Divas at the Royal!

So, How Diva are you?

Love,
AB

You got 36 hours

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. “– Steve Jobs

At the end of each year I often find myself in a retrospective mood. Don’t you? We so often hear (or say) “Life is short!”. What does this mean? Is it really possible to measure time that is left to us and use it in the most efficient and wonderful manner?..

Simona Hofmann is asking herself the same question tonight on the modest stage of Teatro Palino, Baden, Switzerland. Her second solo performance came out first days of December, and today is the closing play. She has got 36 hours. What happens afterwards? Is this the end? Or a beginning? An illusion?

Last year Simona came out with her first grotesque and provoking solo piece “Night explodes your dreams” where an oversized handbag played a role of a mobile stage and a centerpiece. This time it is a gigantic white stiletto – a home, a prison, a ship to sail, to run away from false expectations and imposed dreams… There is almost no text, and imagination of a viewer is floating together with the plastique of the heroine, surreal sound and a beautiful light set up.

Photo by Reto Lanzendörfer

I feel like I need white stilettos too these days…but it is winter and the reality presents unromantic hairy boots or clumsy plastic ski shoes (if you get lucky!)… But you know what I need more than the white stilettos right now? I need good books! It is one of the few elegant ways to get through winter.

With a shame and horror I realized the other day that I haven’t read a single book in several months. Sure I have excuses, but the fact is inexcusable in any case, so being stuck for a millionth time at another train station I stepped into the book shop and studied the shelves. My choice for now: “i Steve” – inspirational thoughts of Steve Jobs, and a novel by Jean-Michel Guenassia “Le Club des Incorrigibles Optimistes” (the Club of Hopeless Optimists).

I knew very little about Steve Jobs before his resent untimely departure. The guy was a genius and an optimist with the big “O”. A novel of Jean-Michel Guenassia (through which I struggle with great pleasure…why struggle?.. It’s in French!) is an intense intrigue and a tender story about real friendship.

What are you reading these days? And what are you listening? Today (again being stuck between the trains – figuratively speaking) I discovered a new musician: Gruff Rhys. I even bought - the scandal in these days of free media stuff! - one of his songs on iTunes: “Shark ridden waters”. Another song was called “If we were words”. Beautiful title, isn’t it? It got me thinking. (Yes, perhaps I do have too much time in my hands…) If you had one word to describe yourself what would it be?

I’d like to reserve one: “Happy”.

Happy coming Christmas everybody.

Love,

AB

Surreal Camping Rimini

Baden (Switzerland) is a city which - once discovered - never really lets you go. Cozy streets of the old part with its welcoming cafes and cultural venues: province at its best, familiar, yet never boring and capable to surprise again and again. 

Every summer Stella Mark Palino Brunner (A former clown, mime and rope dancer, an actor, director and theater manager, and a symbol of Baden since years) puts up a summer theatre, bringing together friends, professional artists, musicians, acrobats under the same roof. This summer is the roof (or rather say many little camping tents) of Camping Rimini. 

 Image www.baden.ch

This contemporary theatrical work is a reflection on the possible and impossible coexistence of people.  Camping site - the model of our colorful and complexed complex  world.  Grotesque, political, surrealistic, funny with a touch of fatalism - for two hours Camping Rimini keeps you keen and wondering “What comes next?”... Life-size giraffes, piano soaring above spectators, rope dancers, racing cars – what else is needed to keep you entertained? :-)  

  Nadine Tobler and Yannick Longet

 Maren Gamper in a retro futuristic suit is soaring above spectators while playing piano

If you happen to be around Baden these days do go and see Camping Rimini summer theatre. The show goes on till September 11^th 2011. For detailed information  go to http://www.sommertheater-baden.ch .

Just a few hundred meters from the camping site there was another wonderful event last night:  two years anniversary of Frau Meise, a little cafe and a design shop in the heart of the old Baden. Here antique furniture and fresh homemade cupcakes meet young designers from all over Europe. Regular concerts take place as well. For more info go to http://www.fraumeise.ch. 

Gotta run now. Have a nice Sunday, everybody!
Love,
A.B.

Cloud 8 (Wolke 8)

This weekend is all snowflakes and glowing fireplaces, and friends gathered in a warm bar with a romantique name Je t'aime. Hmmmm, feels good, almost like on a cloud number nine. It is Cloud 8, actually, a new humorous theater piece of Simona Hoffman and Tobias R. Pingler, two young artists from Aargau. She is a movement actress, and a graduate of Dimitri school. This year Simona (www.simonahofmann.ch) debuted with her first one woman show "Night explodes your dreams".  He is a passionate voice artist (RAP), author and actor (www.tobias-pingler.net).

Couple in real life, they make a wonderful creative tandem "Schweiss & Geist", showing  contrasting approaches and bringing different experiences on stage, which this time looks like one giant bed, piled with fluffy blankets and pillows. The plot? A love story, of course. All fairy tales end with "they got married and lived happily ever after". The question is "HOW do they live happily ever after?"

Image courtesy of www.simonahofmann.ch

The couple dressed in their pyjamas leads us through a labyrinth of their romance. Black and white setting is deluded with soft color fields of spotlights, as if allowing us to sneak into this couple's life, or is it a reflection of our own?.. The play is abstract and surrealistic, and easy to try on. I couldn’t hold myself laughing out loud throughout the show. If you happen to be in Switzerland, dont miss a chance to find yourself on Cloud 8.   Next performances are at Theater Marie in Suhr (Aargau), Dec 1, 3, 4 at 20h15. 

And speaking of artistic tandems I cannot bypass another creative couple: Maren et Yannick Coléoptère, whose performance "Chronik der Gefühle" (Chronicle of the Feeling) I saw last week in Tearto Palino, Baden. Maren Gamper is a talanted piano player; Yannick Longet is a genious mime actor. They tell their tragic story through movement and music. Currently they work and live in Dijon, France, but I will make sure to follow their productions in the future. 

Image courtesy of www.facebook.com

Alors, I hope you had a good weekend and I wish you a great start tomorrow. Monday is no day to have your head in the clouds, unless it’s a Cloud 8. ;-)

Love, 
AB      

ErreichPaar

Last week the little stage of Teatro Palino in Baden welcomed an interesting couple: Laura Ender and A Cello… A woman and her Passion, her longing for love.

Thirty minutes. Dark empty stage. Not one word. Naked heroine Olga. A Cello. Olga is in love. With her instrument. Or is it her memories?.. Nudity is shocking, not because of nakedness of the body, but because of exposure of the soul. Tension is so thick, one can almost cut it with a knife.

After a string of disturbing wonderings such as “I hope they disinfected the floor”, I start to submerge after the heroine into her dream world. But suddenly it is not Olga, it is Laura speaking, presenting herself and the sound technician, and making a dialog with the public. It is like being pulled up from a bottom of an ocean in three seconds. I want to scream: “No, no. Please bring back Olga…”

Olga is back. And so are her memories. We are in Buenos Aires now. I am sitting just two meters away from Olga, I can see tiny drops of sweat on her skin, and luster in her eyes as she dreams of melongas… Beautiful plastique, a perfect balance between wilderness and surrender. Laura manages to sketch the essence of a female soul with an astonishing precision. I am glad to be hidden by darkness as at some moments I feel like she is telling my story and I am almost certain that I am blushing…

“ErreichPaar” is a piece about longing, love and loneliness. Do go and see it if you have a chance. If you want to understand a woman. If you want to feel alive. And maybe a little lonely.

Have a wonderful week and a few lonely moments, it will do you good.

Love,

AB

Wednesday Blues, Thursday Jazz

Yesterday my otherwise vacant evening was interrupted by a phone call with a request to fill in at the bar. It was Thursday, which in UnvermeidBar language means JAZZ.

Since I can remember (and I can only remember from February 2009 on (that’s when I learned to know the Teatro Palino gang) every Thursday a tiny stage of UnvermeidBar is filled with talented, prominent (or not at all), but invariably very cool people.  Christoph Baumann, Hämi Hämmerli, Toni Renold – just to name a few.

To be frank, I have no idea when the “Ueli &Friends” project started. Every Thursday Ueli Gygli, teacher by day and pianist by night, walks through UnvermeidBar doors - with a guest. It is always a mystery. It is always a treat.

Ueli and his companion take their places on stage. The atmosphere is light; the guest of the night is humorous and easy going. But something is different. After a few minutes the audience falls silent (a pretty rare event too). Suddenly it feels like a chamber music concert. 

The guest is Gallus Burkard. He has been a member of the Zurich Tonhalle-Orchestra since 1990. He plays contrabass which he built himself (being nearly illiterate music-wise I admire anyone who can play anything, but building your own instrument which can actually produce a sound?..). Since 10 years Gallus plays with Trio Gilboa and is a member of Swiss Octet. A striking resume and a matching personality to go with it.

If you happen to be in Baden on Thursday evening, don’t miss the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people at the UnvermeidBar.

Have an extraordinary weekend everyone!   

Upside of Inevitable

One of upsides of being an artist is that you get to meet lots of kindred spirits. A year ago I was lucky to get acquainted with a troupe of Teatro Palino in Baden (http://www.palino.ch/). Since then, if I am not painting or being away, I am there – restoring, serving drinks (it's an art too!) and talking to fellow artists at UnvermeidBar, an inevitable part of Teatro Palino.

Teatro Palino has two hearts – Marc Palino Brunner and Simona Hofmann (www.simonahofmann.ch/). Being same age with Simona we quickly became close. Last night she played her solo spectacle “Nachts explodieren deine Träume” in Theater Tuchlaube, Aarau. To watch on one breath. Funny, sad, sharp, ironic. If you get a chance to see this one woman show – do not miss it.

On the way back home from Tuchlaube I took the same train with Marc Palino Brunner and Xavier Mestres. Tomorrow they play their new piece 'ZWDU Der Zweifel' in Baden (the premiere took place in Gerona festival in December 2009). Two guys, one beard, I am looking forward to it. To watch this duet is always a joy – both on stage and in real life (always improvisations and uncontrollable giggles). Their friendship goes 30 years back to their wild times in Paris. The piece will be played in Teatro Palino till 21st of March.