10th Birthday Programme Announced

The 10th birthday of UpStage will be celebrated on 9-10 January 2014 with three performances, a symposium on remote collaboration, a planning meeting and the launch of UpStage v3.

See the full programme here.

UpStage v3

The third version of the UpStage software will be launched at the birthday celebrations. Incorporating new features including full audio-visual streaming and many enhancements, v3 has been developed by Martin Eisenbarth (Germany) and the UpStage student team at Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand). Exciting!

3 New Cyberformances

Five veteran cyberformers and their collaborators are busy creating three new works to be presented at the birthday celebrations: Vita Cyberformativa by Miljana Perić, Balloon by Petyr Veenstra, Floris Sirag and Gabriella Sacco, and a new work by Etheatre Project and collaborators.

Miljana Perić first became involved in UpStage in 2006, and has presented work at all but one of the festivals. Her energetic and humorous shows blend theory with politics, and always have strong audio content, reflecting her background as a musician, ethnomusicologist and sound artist. The trio creating Balloon previously presented A Plunge in the Pool at the 121212 UpStage Festival and Flat Earth at 11:11:11. With backgrounds in theatre, visual arts and music, the group’s shows are like audiovisual poetry, gradually unfolding stories through rich imagery and haunting text. Etheatre director and theatre researcher Christina Papagiannouli explores and discusses political issues through cyberformance. Previous work has addressed the Egyptian revolution (The Cyberian Chalk Circle, 2011) and the Greek crisis (Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear, 2012). For this new work, she has gathered an international group to develop a performance that uses internal European migration as a starting point.

The Networked Symposium

An online symposium addressing the topic of remote collaboration in cyberformance and networked performance will accompany the performances. Hosted by Signalraum (Munich) with guest speaker Annie Abrahams, the symposium aims to provide a space for reflection, discussion, and analysis. Audiences will be able to participate online as well as at the venues in Munich and Wellington. Remote presentations will be given by Isabel Valverde (Portugal) and Christina Papagiannouli (London).

The Planning Meeting

A meeting in Wellington and online will discuss the current situation of UpStage and plan for its sustainable future in an increasingly difficult economic climate. If you are interested in participating, please email info@upstage.org.nz.