herStay presents: TROUGH, based on Rosmersholm (2009)

herStay Portrait Monica Emilie Herstad, in 2008

"Award Winning Monica Emilie Herstad: The Norwegian choreographer Monica Emilie Herstad and herStay recieves a grant from the newly established Ibsen Awards. The award ceremony was helt in Skien, September 1st, when the Ibsen Award Winner Peter Brook also receives his prize"
-The International Ibsen Awards Grant, 2008

"The choreographer, dancer and performance artist Monica Emilie Herstad established the ensemble herStay in 1996. Her works has since been synonymous with border breaking and innovative art. Monica Emilie Herstad´s exploring of the space between contemporary dance, performance, classical ballet, Japanese butoh, and visual art has manifested itself, not in a fragmented hybrid perception of the art-forms as such, but in an ingenious and pure form of ‘visualization’ or simplification that transgresses borders also in post-conceptual visual art."
-Ole Slyngstadli, in his press release for International Ibsen Awards Grant recently

herStay’s production of TROUGH, based on Rosmersholm by Ibsen.
herStay is applying for funds for the performance, based on Ibsen’s play Rosmersholm (1886), herStay´s third Ibsen related performance. herStay’s 2006 performance Past is simulation – The ladies of the sea vs Nora, and other stories of the society, was part of the Ibsen Year 2006. In this performance Monica Emilie Herstad is referring to her sources of inspiration, A Dollshouse and The Lady From The Sea.
TROUGH is an interesting experiment based on Ibsen’s Rosmersholm as grounds for a reinterpretation of the drama’s themes. Monica Emilie Herstad, founder and director of herStay, has several interesting approaches to Ibsen’s work, some sources of inspiration are earlier manuscripts, interpretations and discussions of Ibsen, such as Elfriede Jelinek’s book What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband or; Pillars of Society (1978), and the manuscript of The lady From the Sea that Susan Sontag adapted for visual performance and Robert Wilson (1993 - 2004).
Rosmersholm is one of Ibsen’s more provoking dramas, with series possible interpretations. Monica Emilie Herstad´s project includes three performers, the characters of Johannes Rosmer, Rebecca West and “a retrospective of Beate”.
The Ibsen Awards Grant counts NOK 150 000

"herStay on Ibsen:
In her recent years work Monica Emilie Herstad was harvesting inspiration from Ibsen’s women, from Ibsen studies, from other artists interpretations, and discussions of the works, including Elfriede Jelinek’s What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband or; Pillars of Society (1978). She has extracted from Ibsen carachters such as Nora Helmer in A Dollshouse (1878), Ellida Wangel, in The Lady From The Sea (1888) and others.
Presently herStay is working with the performance TROUGH, based on Rosmersholm, (1886), that will be staged in 2009. Rosmersholm, one of several of Ibsen’s plays exploring the female protagonist´s limited freedom of choice, here in Rebekka West’s affair with Mr.Rosmer.

herStay´s 2006 performance Past is Simulation was integrated in the Ibsen Year 2006. In the subtitle of the work - The Ladies from the sea vs Nora and other stories of the society, Monica Emilie Herstad is referring to her sources of inspiration, A Dollshouse and The Lady From The Sea. In the preceding production Herstad spent research time at The Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo"
- Ole Slyngstadli, International Ibsen Awards Grant, 2008

http://www2.scenekunst.no/pressemelding_4947.nml

Photo this page: herStay
photographed by P Heimly

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