February 22, 2005
CallCutter
Participants Unknowingly Become Actors
"Your mobile phone could be your ticket to a site-specific play that takes you through the labyrinth of north Kolkata. To take part, call 98318-80501 from February 26, the opening day for this two-month-long project, CallCutta.
Once you are chosen, all you have to do is listen to instructions on the phone and take a trip that begins from Star Theatre and is most likely to end on the terrace of a house. It touches several historical landmarks via many bylanes, back alleys and bustlings streets. If you are lucky, at the other end of the line, it could be Priyanka Nandi, a student of English (Hons), whose endearing voice will leave you wondering whether it’s the beauty of the city or the urge to simply listen to her that has goaded to you take a nearly hour-long walk. Max Mueller Bhavan has brought this novel concept to the city. Actor-filmmaker Anjan Dutt will capture the trips on camera." A Unique Theatre Comes Calling on Your Mobile Phone by Pratik Ghosh, HindustanTimes.com, Kolkata, February 21, 2005 [via textually.org]
"This unique concept has been developed by a three-member German/Swiss theatre group Rimini Protokol comprising Helgard Haug, Stephan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel.
Helgard, who seems to know that part of the city more than a diehard Kolkatan, says: “A participant unknowingly becomes an actor when he trusts a stranger on the phone and strikes up a conversation.”
The concept focuses on a one-on-one format, which is a deviation from the convention that hinges on a collective performance on stage.
“The idea is to operate on a personal level,” says Kaegi, who admits to being inspired by the call-centre style of operation. “If someone in Europe or the US relies on an Indian on the phone for buying goods and services, it shows man has an innate tendency to trust,” he says.
The eight persons who will be answering calls from an office in Salt Lake attended a workshop which gave them a detailed idea of the stretch through which the callers will walk. “I now know this area like the back of my palm,” says Nandi.
“But she and her colleagues have an even more challenging task at hand from April 2, when they will be guiding Germans on a trip through Berlin from the same workstation in Kolkata,” says Wetzel."
Posted by jo at February 22, 2005 02:40 PM
Comments
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1555616,00.html
Posted by: Jo at April 20, 2005 10:29 AM
