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I have the feeling that all our works can actually be understood
in a way that they always connect strongly to a moment.

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The perspective of a group presented as one
is built of more complex different elements.

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I think that one voice contains more and represents more.

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The four of us who founded the collective, so to speak

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we were friends and partly lived together.

6
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And we wanted to do something together, a theatre project.

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That was a short term project at first.

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So ten days of rehearsals and then a performance.

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In that time, even though it didn't go so smoothly afterwards
or we didn't have any great rehearsals together

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nevertheless, what we had worked out in the end felt
very right somehow, or it felt like we wanted to pursue it.

11
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I think we have five different relations on the subject of directing.

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We work really often in a rotative way - as
outside eyes - to bring feedback.

13
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So there is a division of tasks, but it is perhaps
less fixed than in a classical city theatre constellations.

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The collaborative process comes as a mixture of
small group processess and then togetherness

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and then again separated.

16
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I think we are constantly compromising.

17
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No one is ever really happy or completely convinced about any idea

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because it always comes inside a compromise.

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I would say that is on part.

20
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And another part is the possibility of vetoing.
So when someone says this is a no-go

21
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the collective respects it.

22
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Then I have ideas because the others have already put certain ideas into space and so for me it's also a bit like jamming

23
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in a musical context.

24
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In those moments where such a flow arises in the work

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it’s exactly then that one can notice - one person says
this the other says that - and then it comes together.

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The perspective of a group presented as one
is built of a complex of different elements.

27
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I think that one voice contains more and represents more.

28
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Through the compromise possibly but it still also forms
a more complex representation of one answer.

29
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An important information how much of the working time

30
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actually goes into the maintenance of
the structures when working collectively

31
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and that is really, I think, the political act of working
collectively, that it really is not possible without

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constantly adjusting and trying to get all parts of
the collective somehow on the same wavelength.

33
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It always starts with writing concepts, which of course you have
to do at least a year before you can start rehearsing them.

34
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And then when we come together to
rehearse there is usually a little research

35
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into the content that each person has done for themselves
or perhaps together during the preparation weeks.

36
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And then I find it very interesting that we usually have to talk a lot
about the topic at the beginning and find our personal approach.

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And then there is always this point and this threshold that
we have to cross, namely to go on stage and try things out.

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The research phase that goes, so to speak,
from writing the first proposal and initial

39
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research to have enough material to make a proposal sound good.

40
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With “Oh My” for example the research phase was
also protruding into the rehearsal process.

41
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Then we were all together in Berlin and also met and
interviewed different people and looked at the Domina

42
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studio and things like that and that was also totally
important and beautiful for the rehearsal process.

43
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Then we all sort of bring our own interests into the research

44
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and then we share that with each other
and invite each other into our research.

45
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We simply started building the beginning and continued

46
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scene by scene, and often we have a conglomerate
of scenes and then see how we arrange them.

47
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I think that happens relatively often in the last projects, that we first
generate a lot of material and then there is this dramaturgical

48
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framework that we develop at some point and that is

49
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then often written in one go and that
then somehow puts everything together.

50
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When we try to find topics together we try to locate
where there is an intersection of a lot of unfinished business

51
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for each individual part of the collective.

52
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The process of Henrike Iglesias was that it was a lot of
text based research but now that also me and Eva are

53
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part of the team the research also can be on the content
but it’s also sound, video, light, whatever - technology based.

54
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So you can also already put this on the table and
from the get go it influences the rehearsal process.

55
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I would say that we often use ourselves as material or
as a portal to work in a certain direction because we are very

56
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determined to show a certain subjective view on things
and that can only ever be our own personal view.

57
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That's why we start work a lot from looking at ourselves.

58
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These rehearsal processes are always periods of time,
in which for us the topics evolve a lot.

59
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Or we have often already chosen topics that we want to
deal with so intensively and personally for so long,

60
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for example now with “Oh My” where we
have dealt with pornography and sexuality,

61
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that in this time during which we have
worked on it, we rehearsed, we were

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very much in contact with these themes and afterwards felt like
“Oh wow”, I have really made such a step forward now.

63
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I feel much more liberated than before.

64
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But then it was also sometimes quite funny to
show the piece one or two years later

65
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and realise that I am now actually at a completely
different point in terms of content.

66
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The works are always just snapshots and like boot camps,

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content boot camps, thematic boot camps, which then also finish again at some point and then you are on your own with it again.

68
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And there is also this moment of this performative lie during
the performances to conjure it all up again in a way

69
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and to pretend to the audience as if
we were actually still at this point.

70
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I sometimes think that we perhaps claim more liberation on
stage, perhaps a bit more utopian states than we have

71
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really achieved, that we assume that something transformatory happens in this claim, which it really does sometimes.

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And we sometimes get feedback from the audience that it does.

73
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But I think there is always a kind of
reflection level in all our work that

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showing these uncertainties is also totally important.

75
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Precisely for this reason, because the
lie itself is perhaps not sustainable.

76
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For the process of changing things I think it is super
important for our work to have the possibility

77
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to keep on changing it through time because
it is quite based on the personal somehow.

78
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The way just changes for everyone and it’s a constant transformation and sometimes the problem I find myself is

79
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there is no time to do this. So you go on a stage with
things you don’t feel comfortable with anymore

80
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but you have to perform as if you would feel
that they are real and they are now.

81
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And that I find sometimes complicated.

82
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With “Fressen” we had the opportunity to have a week to re-re-work For “Augenblick mal!”. And that was a present for the project

83
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because it would have been really hard to keep on maintaining
that project sustainable for all the guest performances

84
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that came across since then for the upcoming year.

85
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From my experience there is always a percentage
of the audience that found it great,

86
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a percentage who thought it was crap and
a percentage who didn't care at all.

87
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I think the medium of theatre is also special
because a live encounter like that can always,

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even if you didn't really think it was cool, still do something
to you, somehow move you on different levels.

89
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So not everyone thought it was great,
but is that really failure?

90
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The older I get the more I'm interested in
irritation and tension and repulsion.

91
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And actually I think sometimes it’s just good
when something creates some sort of friction.

92
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And also in interacting with the audience, that we create tension.

93
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I have the feeling that all our works are to be understood in
such a way that they are totally connected to the moment.

94
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And to tap in again and say: “Ah, that’s
how it was in January 2020.

95
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Our understanding of the discourse was exactly this.”

96
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They are totally ephemeral but they are always
somehow historical works in themselves.

97
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I would wish that in 30 years no one will know what diversity is
anymore because everything will be completely diversified.

98
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The ideal state has been reached, so to speak, and all people
have access to it, to the resources and they have visibility.

99
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And all ways of working become power critical
because that's also simply the status quo.

100
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Yes, we also deal with that a lot.

101
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Now in the course of this basic funding that we have, the question
is are there jobs that are weighted more or paid more than others?

102
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How is what paid?

103
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Ideally all work would be remunerated, also care-work, for example.

