IMPOSSIBLE ADAPTATIONS

Stage director and Head of Stage Directing at DASPA, Rune David Grue, examines the discipline of adaptation from a multitude of angles and with a specific focus on transforming seemingly “impossible” material into stage art. The project is rooted in his own artistic praxis and experience of adapting different kind of materials for the stage and his specific interest in material that does not easily lend itself to the stage – such as philosophical works, non-fiction, long and complex novels, or poetry. The aim of the project is to map out different ways of approaching adaptation, to gain a deeper understanding of the potentials of the interplay with the impossible material, and to develop new adaptation methods.

In this pilot project, Grue focuses on mapping out existing methods of adaptation - his own as well as those of other adapters - through research, interviews and common reflection. He also examines different starting points of the adaptation process through collaborations with other artists working with the same “impossible” material, but with different angles and approaches. The project will finalize through a workshop with collaborators and performers, practically testing the different approaches to the material, reflecting upon the gathered knowledge and developing the framework for a future full scale artistic research project.

WHITE WATER

As part of the artistic research project, Rune David Grue has investigated possibilities for adapting Herman Melville's monumental masterpiece MOBY DICK for the stage. In collaboration with Karen-Maria Bille, Ditlev Brinth and Charlotte Munksø, he has explored three different starting points for an adaptation - one textual, one conceptual and one bodily - in order to enter the work from different angles and at the same time investigate what the different approaches entail in an adaptation process.

Along the way, reflections, conversations with collaborators, workshops with actors and feedback from the audience at a screening have been documented via audio recordings. The recordings are here edited together into a sound montage - WHITE WATER - which in 45 minutes depicts the research process with all its doubts, questions, revelations, frustrations, joy of co-creation and bodily sensed experiences.

The sound montage features Karen-Maria Bille, Ditlev Brinth, Charlotte Munksø, Aske Hass Thorsen, Tryggvi Sæberg Björnsson, Adam Schmidt, Mathias Skov Rahbek, Anders Budde, Rune David Grue and students from the Danish National School of Performing Arts.

The montage is in Danish