25 AUGUST 2009
Montblanc Young Directors Award 2009
This year, the YOUNG DIRECTORS PROJECT took place at the Salzburg Festival 2009 for the eighth time.
The jury, consisting of Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler (President of the Salzburg Festival), Thaddaeus Ropac (Ropac Gallery), Peter Simonischek (actor), Wolfgang Kralicek (culture critic) and Sunnyi Melles (actress), confer the MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS AWARD 2009 for the best direction upon
DRIES VERHOEVEN and his production YOU ARE HERE
The MONTBLANC YOUNG DIRECTORS AWARD is endowed with € 10.000,-- as well as the Montblanc Max Reinhardt Pen, which was exclusively designed for this occasion.
The jury explains its decision as follows:
The YDP jury awards this year’s Montblanc Young Directors Award to a production that literally turns accustomed habits of seeing theater on their head, and addresses the audience in a shockingly immediate manner. This work is convincing through its original concept and its breathtaking stage design. Thus, it touches the viewer, who is also a co-author and participant, in an unusual way. On the one hand, the visitor is left to his own devices and abandoned to his own thoughts and associations; on the other hand, he perceives himself as part of a community. The simultaneous intimate and public feeling is both irritating and fascinating.
Dries Verhoeven was born in 1976 in Oosterhout, the Netherlands. He studied theatre design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht (1995-1999). Subsequently, he worked as a scenographer with various different directors. Since 2002 he has worked as an independent theatre maker. His projects cover the space between the visual arts and theatre and have appeared at theatre festivals in the Netherlands and Europe. His career as a scenographer started in 2000 by collaborating with director Ira Judkovskaja and as assistant designer under Jan Versweyveld. Dries Verhoeven has received a number of grants from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. In 2003 the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund awarded him the Charlotte Köhler Prize for theatre design.
Dr. Thomas Oberender, Head of Drama, and Martine Dennewald, Curator, invited four young directing teams and their companies from the Netherlands, Hungary/Austria, Germany and the USA to take part in the competition.
Viktor Bodó (*1978) from Budapest with ALICE, adapted from Lewis Carroll (a production of the Schauspielhaus Graz) – a virtuoso revue featuring musicians, dancers, acrobats and actors. All theatrical genres and dimensions serve Alice’s story; the audience observes the performance’s mechanics, which creates a world of wonders around the main protagonist which is as imaginary as it is credible.
Kenneth Collins (*1975) and the group Temporary Distortion from New York with WELCOME TO NOWHERE (BULLET HOLE ROAD) – a road movie fort he stage which interweaves video images and acting in a suggestive way. In fragments and flashbacks, a carefully composed tale of images and text is developed that reflects myths central to America, making the psychology of traveling, escape and unquenchable longings palpable.
Jette Steckel (*1982) from Hamburg with DIE WELT IST GROSS UND RETTUNG LAUERT ÜBERALL (The World is Wide and Salvation Lurks Everywhere – world premiere adapted from Ilija Trojanow; a co-production with the Thalia Theater Hamburg) – a complex narrative adaption of the world-spanning novel. With overwhelming images and theater-specific means, it tells the tale of young Alex, who had lost all his will to live and now finds himself again on a bicycle trip around the world with his godfather Bai Dan.
Dries Verhoeven (*1976) from Amsterdam with YOU ARE HERE (a production of the Huis en Festival aan de Werf together with the Over het IJ Festival) – a spectacular theater installation, in which each audience member is assigned his own hotel room. The performance explores the relationship between proximity and distance, the formation of groups and the isolation of the individual, focusing on the individual perception of each audience member.
The project was again sponsored entirely by the international culture brand Montblanc. As in previous years, the sale of the Salzburg special edition „Hommage à Max Reinhardt“ generated additional sponsorship funds and made a fourth production possible.
For more information, please contact:
Ulla Kalchmair
Press Office – Salzburg Festival
Tel.: 0662/8034-450
e-mail: presse@salzburgfestival.at
Brigitte Gauss
Press Office – Montblanc Austria
Tel.: 0664/150 34 14
e-mail: brigitte.gauss@aon.at