Katie Mitchell :: Screening of Fraulein Julie Q&A // Steiner Lecture in Creative Inquiry, 11/6/2022
Channel: The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Date: 2022-11-27

On Sunday November 6th at 12pm (EST) the STUDIO hosted a special screening of “Fraulein Julie” followed by a hybrid lecture with Katie Mitchell. This screening and lecture was curated by Special Visiting Professor of Directing Ivan Talijančić (John Wells Directing Program – CMU Drama) as part of his Contemporary Performance Practices series, with support from the 2022-2023 Sylvia & David Steiner Speaker Series, The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and Simon Fraser University.

Fraulein Julie  is a radical re-working of Strindberg’s original play, seeing the action through the eyes of the servant Kristin rather than the more famous pair of protagonists, Jean and Julie. The production uses five live cameras to view the action through the prism of this female character in order to ask questions about gender, class and power.  

Live cinema is a technique pioneered by Katie Mitchell where the audience experience a live performance of a play at the same time as a live constructed film.  The film is projected simultaneously on a large screen above the live stage action. The production also uses live Foley sound effects and voices overs. 

Strindberg’s original text is supplemented by the poetry of the Danish writer, Inger Christensen, to provide the interior thoughts of Kristin.  Fraulein Julie was directed for the Schaubühne Theatre (Berlin, Germany) in 2010 and has toured to over 100 different venues across the globe since it opened.