Nova Scotia's DaPoPo Theatre in Berlin

Kim Parkhill (at right with blue balloon) invites the audience to pop balloons

while she declares her love for the German language

and performance art in 'Sprache und Ballons'

"Meine Freunde waren begeistert!"

– Vanessa Liman

Ann Doyle and Garry Williams perform a scene from 'Uncle Vanya'

for a table of rapt Chekhov enthusiasts

"Ihr habt tolle neue Richtungen eingenommen mit der Truppe, eine schöne Entwicklung zusammen gefunden und viele super Momente erzeugt. Es ist ein enormer Luxus. Wo bekomme ich sonst so Intimes serviert, so einen nahen Einblick in den Menschen gegenüber?"

– Chris O'Connor

DaPoPo Theatre veterans Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Keelin Jack

and Kristi Anderson perform the 'Homosexual Fugue' for patrons

after a three-course meal at the pop-up restaurant at the Freies Museum Berlin

Stick Figures

The DaPoPo Theatre collective, and cast of Café DaPoPo. (Photo by Zach Faye)

museum FLUXUS +

Café DaPoPo

Bereits zum dritten Mal ist am 25. November 2011 ab 19 Uhrdas DaPoPo-Theatre im museum FLUXUS+ zu Gast. Das kanadische Künstlerensemble hat erneut ein abwechslungsreiches Theater-Menu zusammengestellt und verwöhnt Augen und Ohren mit klassischen oder zeitgenössischen Gedichten, Liedern, kurzen Theaterstücken, Monologen und Dialogen.

Die einzelnen Stücke werden wie im Café oder Restaurant bestellt und von den Künstlern direkt am Tisch des Gastes serviert. Mal setzen sie sich mit an den Tisch ihres Publikums und philosophieren über die Liebe, ein anderes Mal steigen sie auf Stühle und Bänke und singen aus voller Seele. Der Gast bezahlt nur das, was er auch bestellt hat, aber beim Nachbartisch gucken ist natürlich erlaubt und vielleicht wird das ein oder andere „Gericht“ sogar eine raumfüllende Performance für jedermann.

“DaPoPo Theatre” ist eine unabhängige Theatergruppe. Sie erstellt und präsentiert herausfordernd ein alternatives Theatererlebnis fürs Publikum und für die Künstler. Gearbeitet wird in allen theatralen Disziplinen.

Im museum FLUXUS+ performen an diesem Abend Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Ann Doyle, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Amy Reitsma, Garry Williams und als Gast: Matthew Peach.

Garry Williams, geboren in Halifax, Hauptstadt der Provinz Nova Scotia in Kanada, aufgewachsen in Berlin, wurde 2004 der “Artistic Director of DaPoPo Theatre”, als sich das Ensemble gründete. Die Idee, auf Bestellung zu spielen, wurde aus der Not heraus geboren; der kanadischen Theatergruppe wurde einst als Aufführungsort ein Restaurant angeboten.

Aufgrund des begrenzten Platzangebots ist eine rechtzeitige Tischreservierung empfohlen!

info@fluxus-plus.de oder 0331 – 60 10 890

Die Spielsprache ist englisch.

Selbstverständlich hält das museumscafé auch für das leibliche Wohl eine kleine Speisekarte bereit.

Die Dauerausstellung des Museums schließt an diesem Freitag wie gewohnt um 18 Uhr.

Freies Museum Berlin

Café DaPoPo - Performance auf Bestellung

im Pop-Up Restaurant des Freien Museum Berlin

18. – 20. November

(Generalprobe) 17. November im Restaurant La Crapule

Täglich ab 19 Uhr

Auf der Karte im Freien Museum Berlin:

Vorspeisen ab 3,- Euro

Menü 14,50 Euro

Performances ab 2 Euro

Reservierung unter: Betreff: Cafe Dapopo

+49 (0) 30 34 72 18 14

+ 49 (0) 176 625 30 722 oder

office@freies-museum.com

Im Freien Museum Berlin eröffnet vom 18. bis 20. November ein temporäres von Künstlern geführtes Restaurant, das die Kulisse für das kanadische Performance- und Theaterensemble Café DaPoPo ist.

Serviert wird jeden Abend ab 19 Uhr ein von französischen Künstlern kreiertes Vier-Gänge-Menü zu dem man a la carte Shakespeare-Sonette, Monologe, Dialoge, Arien, improvisiertes Situationstheater und Puppentheaterklassiker von der Performance-Karte an den Tisch ordern kann. Aber stets gilt: Man bezahlt nur für das, was man auch bestellt hat.

Café DaPoPo, das sind Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Ann Doyle, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Amy Reitsma, Garry Williams ein Schauspielensemble aus Halifax und als Gast der in Berlin lebende Kanadier Matthew Peach. Sie performen seit vielen Jahren in ihrer Heimatstadt auf persönliche Wünsche zugeschnittene Dialoge, Monologe und singen mit vollem Stimmvolumen an unkonventionellen Spielorten. Auf ihrem Menü steht beispielsweise das Max Frisch Stück “Biographie: Ein Spiel” oder das “Drinking Game”, ein Stück, das aus mehreren Fragebögen besteht, die von zwei aus dem Publikum erwählten Spielern spontan beantwortet werden.

Gegründet wurde das verspielte Ensemble in Halifax, Nova Scotia im Jahr 2004, durch den Ex-Berliner Garry Williams und ist an vier Abenden in Berlin zu Gast. Am Donnerstag in Restaurant La Crapule in Kreuzberg mit einer Generalprobe und drei Abende im Pop-Up Restaurant im zweiten Stock des Freien Museum Berlin.

Restaurant und Café DaPoPo Adressen:

Restaurant La Crapule, Skalitzer Straße 68, 10999 Berlin – Kreuzberg

Freies Museum Berlin, Potsdamer Straße 91, 10785 Berlin - Tiergarten

Café DaPoPo at the Live-In

Keelin J. and Kim P. perform an excerpt from 'The Drinking Game', created by Garry Williams.

Notice the whiskey and the amaretto. Behind them, their audience looks on,

while they literally try to grasp the meaning of faith Faith. (Photo by Zach Faye.)

Innovative Canadian Theatre Reaches Out To European Audiences

This November, DaPoPo Theatre will take its popular, innovative performance event Café DaPoPo to Germany to expand its European market. See theatre that only happens if you order it. Performances happen directly at your table.

Performances:

Berlin: Friday, Nov. 18th; Sat., Nov. 19th; and Sun., Nov. 20th, 2011, Freies Museum

Postdam: Fri., Nov. 25th, 2011, museum FLUXUS+

The immersive cabaret-style evening started in 2006 in Halifax's North End at Mollyz Diner. Since then, DaPoPo Theatre has presented Café DaPoPo at nearly a dozen Halifax venues to rave reviews, as well as internationally.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Industry Growth Program of Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage.

DaPride Café

"I want to thank you for such a great night at DaPride yesterday. Such a solid cast and fantastic performances!"

Thursday July 21st, Halifax's lively DaPoPo Theatre breaks moulds and offers up their original theatre event Café DaPoPo, starting 7:30pm at Menz Bar. More than that: this one's for Halifax Pride 2011!

In our 5th annual DaPride Café – our first one was in July 2006 at the old Mollyz Diner –, queer specials abound! We celebrate the rich culture and creative contributions queer artists have made, living and working outside of traditional, often restrictive, social norms. We support sexual diversity and everyone's right to freedom, passion and pleasure.

At Café DaPoPo, you can order poems, songs, monologues, rants, scenes, improvisations, bed-time stories and more. We cater to your taste from the available menu selections. Ask for Canadian content, cross-dressing, comedic/or serious, contemporary/or classic or our very popular Sock Puppets.

Mouth-watering menu selections include uproarious from DaPoPo Theatre's original musical So… What About Love?; works by local songwriters and playwrights; cheeky bossa nova "Do You Take It…" (by special permission from the pleasure-positive comedy duo The Wet Spots); sensual monologues; dance; DaPoPo's improvised SexTangles; and our DaPride staples The Fruit Bowl, DaBawdy Politck and St. Sebastian's Secretz!

Guest performers Jessica Barry, John Han, Matthew Peach, Gina Thornhill and Holly Winter join DaPoPo regulars Kim Parkhill, Emily Shute and Garry Williams for a fun, sexy and unforgettable evening of at-your-table performances, tailored to your taste. Menu items range from $3.- to $17.-!

Hello, Sailor!

DaPoPo Theatre prepares for our queer, maritime-themed Café DaPoPo, offering a fabulous selection of scenes, songs, monologues, happenings, poems and more at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, scheduled for Friday, June 10th. Individually-priced performances can be ordered at your table. Cover will be $5.-. The performance accompanies the exhibition "Hello, Sailor!", the immediate focus: gay life at sea from the 1950s through the 1980s. We have started to research and create material, drawing from popular culture pre-1950s, as well as original scenes, performances and monologues.

Thanks to our brave and talented performers Kristi Anderson, Andrew Chandler, John Han, Keelin Jack, Matt Peach – his first Café DaPoPo! – and Ali Richardson, as well as our volunteer bar tenders Ryan Brown and Terry Joyce, and our dolly mistress-of-ceremonies Kim Parkhill. Thanks, also, to Sarah Schwarz and the Crêperie Mobile, as well as the Museum staff.

Follow this hyper-link to see some more of Timothy Richard's photos from the event.

Preparing for MayWorks

An hour rehearsing with Kim Parkhill, reprising Brutus' "Give me your hands, all o'er, one by one…" speech from Julius Caesar, and rehearsing the Brecht/Eisler Einheitsfrontlied, performed with dominoes. Positioning: under a table for Shakespeare, the other actors conspiratorially huddled as stand-in audience; on a table-top for the Song of the United Front. Lighting by flashlights. In the former, Brutus pleads in favour of political action against an oppressive leader; in the latter, workers are rallied to action to change an oppressive class system. (Photos by Zach Faye.)

For one patron's impressions, follow this link.

Some Shakespeare With Your Carrot Cake?

DaPoPo Theatre began a new 5-month series of its signature event Café DaPoPo on Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30pm at the Grad House. We played to a full house, and were excited to present Café DaPoPo in a new venue.

Originally conceived as a fundraiser in 2007, Café DaPoPo has become a performance event in its own right. Performing in diners, restaurants and bars, the cast take orders from the patrons, and practice their craft at individual tables. This month's cast included many of the core collective members: Kristi Anderson, Andrew Chandler, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Garry Williams and our fantastic accompanist Emily Shute. We also welcomed Griffin McInnis and Liz Johnstone as guest performers from the KTS. Scenes, songs, monologues, conversation pieces, rants, puppets, poetry – all of these staple ingredients are on the theatrical menu.

(Depicted here at right are Kristi Anderson, Zach Faye and the carrot cake.)

2011 - Transformations

On Sunday Jan 23, most of the 2011 DaPoPo Collective met at the new Casa DaPoPo on Kaye Street to discuss the immediate future of Café DaPoPo.

How can we write the inherently unpredictable performance elements of Café DaPoPo more profoundly into the event? Unlike a traditional performance, there is no illusion of a repeatable Café performance. Every time a certain scene or song is ordered, the set necessarily changes. Often the costumes change. Props reveal themselves in performance: a beer glass; a patron's hat; a butter knife. Often the parameters shift: add a sock puppet; make it 'saucy', make it 'queer'; sing your Hamlet. By donning a pair of sun-glasses last-minute, the performer experiences a total transformation.

How can we devise more original material for Café performances without the monthly task becoming an overwhelming one? Each performer becomes a writer, a director and a dramaturge, if they choose. How do you use a picture frame, a shower cap and a rubber duckie effectively, in what is essentially an open rehearsal, performing a two-person song? In fact, the audience, who is at times almost indistinguishable from the actors, influences the performance, unknowingly. They laugh. They turn their heads away. The lean forward in their chair. These immediate cues bring about another total transformation in the performer. The entire theatrical moment disrobes and becomes naked, intimate dialogue.

What do you do with a theatrical form like Café DaPoPo, which relies heavily on audience interaction, non-traditional locations and an ever-changing cast (and therefore available performances); a form that doesn't fit into the conventional theatre model in terms of finding audiences, choosing venues and generating revenue? Again, the performer can find Café transformative. The reason for performing in Café DaPoPo is not the pay check. In fact, there usually in no pay check. It is to experience the performance, the audience and the impulse for art with an immediacy that is too often lost in the big theatres.

Our plans to perform once monthly from March through July (including performances at the MayWorks Festival, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's Flagship Fridays series, as well as Halifax Pride) gave us an excuse to refocus our interests, and possibly effect a few transformations.