Project

Pre-Production/Dress Rehearsals

Pre-Production/Dress Rehearsals at insitu and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

Production Team
Producer – insitu
(Marie Graftieaux, Nora Mayr,
and Lauren Reid)

Music Director/Co-Arranger/
Orchestral Scoring
Elisabeth Wood

Art Director – Leanne MacKay

Wardrobe Manager – Sol Calero

Director of Photography – Derek Howard

Set Department and Stage Hands –
Sílvia Torrus, Ana Alenso, Max Bach

Stage Manager – Carolina Jiménez

The O.K. Orchestra
Directed by Elisabeth Wood
Martin Fuller – Guitar
Jesi Khadivi – Flute
Clémence Manachère – Flute
Dominik Noé – Percussion
Theresa Patzschke – Flute
Thomas Romana – Trombone
Abigail Sanders – French Horn
Miriam Siebenstädt – Baritone Saxophone
Graham Thaxton – Violin and Score Transposition Advisor
Aaron Weldon – Piano

Sets, props, posters and buttons created within the kids’ workshops by:
Ashanti, Layla, Leo, Lubaba, Nefes, Sophia, Seymen, Sercan, Bozhidar (from Kita Vielfalter, directed by Giovanna Munari) and Anna Maria, Ayana, Ernesto, Ilona, Ingeborg, Gaia, Lena, Mercan, Paloma, Pamina, Sophie, Tallulah, and Ylva

Prop Assistance:
Emily Friedman, Hanne Lippard,
Lorenzo Sandoval, Arístides Santana

With severed heads by:
Sol Calero, Ethan Hayes-Chute, Derek Howard, Barbara Jenner, Leanne MacKay, Jan Pfeiffer, Suzanne Quesney, Lorenzo Sandoval, Sílvia Torrus, and Ron Tran.

Headless Horseman costume by:
Ethan Hayes-Chute

Photography by Trevor Good,
Benjamin Renter and Sol Calero

Cast
in order of appearance:

Mahicans:
Theodore Glickman, Lena Hulpowska, Arístides Santana, Joanna Szproch, Melanie Velarde

Henry Hudson: Christopher Kline
Crewmen: Patrick Burkhardt, Alexander Coggin, Pau Pahana

Ichabod Crane: Mario Campos Castellano
Katrina Van Tassel: Sara Løve Daðadóttir
Townspeople/Ghosts: Joe Clark, Matthias Hofmann, Martin Kohout, Betti Kuli
Headless Horseman: Ethan Hayes-Chute

Portrait of Andrew Jackson:
Anne-Cécile Desjardin

Megan the Tourguide: Leo Zylberberg
Tourists: Annabella Baptista da Cruz, Olivia Berning, Theodore Glickman, Lena Hulpowska, Léa Lanoë

The Ghost of Martin Van Buren:
Adam Joachim Goldmann

The Ghost of Martin Van Buren’s Niece:
Zoë Claire Miller

Kinderhook Creatures:
Patrick Burkhardt, Sara Løve Daðadóttir, Matthias Hofmann, Christopher Kline

Buildings:
Alexander Coggin, Theodore Glickman, Lena Hulpowska, Léa Lanoë, Arístides Santana

The People of Kinderhook Past and Present:
Annabella Baptista da Cruz, Olivia Berning, Patrick Burkhardt, Mario Campos Castellano, Joe Clark, Adam Joachim Goldmann, Ethan Hayes-Chute, Matthias Hofmann, Christopher Kline, Martin Kohout, Betti Kuli, Sara Løve Daðadóttir, Zoë Claire Miller, Pau Pahana, Katharina Schnäcker, Joanna Szproch, Melanie Velarde, Leo Zylberberg

Exhibition at insitu, Berlin
15 January 2015 – 21 February 2015

Performance at
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
26 February 2015

Curated by
Marie Graftieaux, Nora Mayr, and Lauren Reid

View all Collaborators

Download Playbill

Exhibition Performance Community

Taking place across two venues, this project consisted of an evolving exhibition and a large-scale musical performance with a cast of 30 actors and an 11 piece small orchestra.

For (Pre-Production) the two-room white cube gallery space of insitu was transformed into the front- and back-stage of a community theatre replete with stage, balcony, woodshop, dressing room, prop-storage, and make-up table. The space was developed and used over the course of the exhibition for the production of all aspects of the musical, and was activated daily with set- and costume-making, rehearsals, children’s workshops, and presentations on the history of Kinderhook.

On the last day of the exhibition the results were packed up and moved to KW Institute for Contemporary Art for the performance (Dress Rehearsals), a 30-minute romp through Kinderhook’s last 400 years. Scenes included “Henry Hudson Encounters the Mohicans”, a take on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a spooky encounter between the ghost of Martin Van Buren and his niece discussing the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a dramatic lament by a family of Bigfoots freezing to death, and a Grand Finale of Kinderhook’s people and architecture joining together in a happy-go-lucky song and dance attempt to transcend 400 years of troubled history.

70 people took part in creating this work of “community theatre as community theatre”. Art Direction was overseen by Leanne MacKay and Music Direction by Elisabeth Wood. Full credits are listed under Collaborators.