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- Student
- 24/09/2020
Theater in times of corona as backdrop for TU/e internship
A ‘making of’ and a theater production in one. This is ‘Memento Mori’, a hybrid of theater, music, dance, poetry and art that takes as its theme the transience of things. This coming week this production by the Amsterdam-based collective Nineties Productions will be performed in Eindhoven - thanks in part to TU/e student Noor Boekenoogen; she is doing an internship with the company for her Bachelor's of Industrial Design.
As if you are caught up in the action of a film set, but at the same time already watching the finished film. This is approximately how it should feel for the limited number of visitors able to attend ‘Memento Mori’ in person each evening. They will see the theater makers in action at close quarters, there in the middle of a stage set created with 'green screens' and an impressive array of engineering. The viewers at home, watching on Zoom, will see mainly the final result - although there is also scope for interaction with the people in the theater.
This also makes for an interesting backdrop for a internship for a TU/e student, says Noor Boekenoogen, who is currently on tour with the theater collective Nineties. On the one hand, she has a variety of production tasks on her plate, “I make sure, for example, that every performance day is planned and scheduled, that food is available, that everyone knows what time they have to arrive. My work also includes looking after the Zoom connection, running the helpdesk for people asking questions, but I'll also sew a suit that needs mending or repair any damage to the stage set.”
Design assignment
But a design internship would not be a design internship if it did not include a design assignment. She points to the green screens and green suits worn by the actors, which together lie at the heart of ‘Memento Mori’. “The idea is to create a physical space with all those green screens and then around that to build a platform of sorts, so that from there a wide variety of creatives can broadcast things live - from bands and theater companies to designers who are looking to hold a fashion show or a hairdresser who does really crazy things. Anything is possible.”
For this, twenty-one year old Noor has teamed up with the creative director, whose main focus is the creative content. The ID student is immersing herself primarily in the practical aspects, like writing a business plan and building a useable platform. “It's my job to create the concept that they hope to implement after my internship.”
Finding an internship in times of corona was, the bachelor's student tells us, quite a challenge. “Many companies have no lack of enthusiasm, but ultimately stop short of offering a placement because they have too little certainty and supervision to give an intern.”
In addition to this, she had set her sights on an internship with plenty of production work, having had her enthusiasm sparked by events she had previously helped to organize on Eindhoven's student scene, in De Oude Rechtbank and TAC, and elsewhere. “It's a bit like a hobby, but it always gave me an energy boost. My thinking went like this: if I can do this for half a year full time, I can find out for sure whether this suits me for the longer term.”
Helping hand
Through conversations with the Amsterdam-based podiums Paradiso and the Melkweg, which were primarily interested in marketing internships and were unable to offer the TU/e student a full-time internship, she heard about Nineties. Not that they had a vacancy either, “but they were about to go on tour and knew they could use a helping hand while they were touring. A few days before the end of the summer vacation they called to say I could join them.”
As we speak to Noor, Nineties has just finished its first performance in Breda. First impressions of the experience, among both makers and the audience are, she believes, positive - although Noor sees that an “interesting challenge” lies ahead in raising audience numbers. “We are very conscious of the fact that at the moment people do not want to buy tickets very far in advance, perhaps anxious that a performance will not go ahead or that they themselves will fall ill in that window of time. It's something you have to deal with in these times.”
In addition, she is trying to reach particularly the students in the cities where they perform. Because, as Noor says, ‘Memento Mori’ is worth coming to see, or paying a visit to, for lots of reasons. “The production is about transience and it links nicely to our present time, in which a lot of things have fallen away, we are spending much more time sitting at home, and are suddenly having to communicate with each another in a whole new way, in the digital world. It is all described in a very metaphorical way, but a great deal of it was familiar to me. What's more, the electronic live music is really cool and it is impressive to be able to see the whole technical component live.”
Win free tickets
Curious? Cursor is giving away one set of two tickets to a student at TU/e for the performance in Eindhoven, live at the Parktheater, on Wednesday night September 30th. Mail us your name and telephone number, the winner will be informed at the latest on the afternoon of Tuesday September 29th. The production is in English.
THIS COMPETITION IS CLOSED. Congratulations and enjoy the show, Julie Moens!
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