SomethingOutThere
The fields of work of music theatre have changed. While composers today are often theatre makers at the same time, the tasks of instrumentalists increasingly extend into theatrical performance, without their training having taken this into account.
In 2017 and 2018 the composer, visual artist, theatre and film maker François Sarhan staged his four-part music theatre work “The Suitcase” as a feXm production at the Stadttheater Moers. In the end, Sarhan and some of the musicians involved felt the need to continue to build on the experience gained in this project and to work single-mindedly towards further professionalisation in the field of performance.
In Maschinenhaus Essen, the feXm found a suitable partner to enable the group SomethingOutThere, which had been created in this way, to experiment openly over five work phases, accompanied by professional coaching in the field of body and acting work. As a conclusion of this initiation phase, the presentation “Something Out There?” was performed in May 2019. In a co-production with the French organization La Muse en Circuit, which is dedicated to the creation and dissemination of multidisciplinary projects, SomethingOutThere has since collaborated with the Austrian ensemble Phace in the two evening immersive music theater project “Wunderwandelwelt” at the Bregenz Festival in August 2019. For the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2021, the Bregenz work is to be further developed into an evening entitled “Èphémère Echainé”. The Maschinenhaus Essen has invited the group to work on a further production for 2020.
Cast for SomethingOutThere: Frederick Sakham (bass & performance), Jennifer Torrence (percussion & performance), Adam Rosenblatt (percussion & performance), Primoz Sukic (guitar & performance), Gwen Rouger (keyboards, electronics & performance), François Sarhan (voice, music, text, stage), Roland Quitt (dramaturg).
