drawing theater

a professional traveling chamber theater established in 2008

Drawing theater is unique  by combining in a performance live drawing, music, dance and acting.

Drawing ir beautiful tool for an immersive performance.
It is a media that challenge the audience to participate. A drawing always looks unfinished – these are several lines on a paper which an observer make to be alive.

This is a professional project theater founded by a director, actor and musician Varis Klausītājs.

Awards

Mission

We want to create an immersive play, that could be adjusted, transformed and reinvented by different communities so that they could relate, and in this way it would lead to safety not only within in a person, but also within communities in a more global scale. Through this idea Drawing Theatre would develop, enrich and improve the way of working, while also finding new ways, developing new methods and making a network of organisations, artists, musicians, social workers in international level, that could and would spread the idea of Drawing Theatre, while strengthening their communities.

Vision

As we are living in ever- caning world we have understood that it is very important to find the safety within us, to train our imagination, our creativity and curiosity. We see that Drawing Theater can contribute to the search of safety within one, while playing through different scenarios, addressing different issues and transforming them into holistic healing experiences. 

Cellino travels

A joyful performance without text.
Duration 45 min.
Audience age: 5+

Participants:
Guna Šnē – Cellino,
Karina Karakhona – Color,
Aija Putniņa – Dance.

Stage designer – Hiroko Oshima (Japan),
Choreographer – Ilze Bloka,
Director and author of the idea – Varis Klausitajs

The performance was created in cooperation with  Concert Hall CĒSIS

photo: Anete Rudmieze

The festival “Cello Cesis” always creates a new and special program for young listeners.

The cellist plays well-known Bach pieces, pausing from time to time to listen and look around. Suddenly, two more beings appear in the room – Colour and  Dance. When the music plays, Colour and  Dance move; when the music stops, they stop too. It is a game that each of us has played as a child. The show goes on, changing the rules. On stage, Colour and  Dance, together with Cellino, play games whose rules are easy for the audience to follow.
In everyday life, every place has its own rules, just like in the play. Sometimes we feel like we are on the edge of a cliff, blindfolded. You have to accept the new rules of the game, which are important for life, and we are back in another game. It is a journey from one feeling and emotion to another, encountering generosity, jealousy, compassion and friendship.

Beginning is white. Feelings are the colors and movements that weave through drawings and games. Everything rises up by itself.

The performance was created in cooperation with  Concert Hall CĒSIS

photo: Anete Rudmieze

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Tanabata or the Tale of Two Stars

Premiere in September 15, 2019 at the Festival Cello Cesis, Cēsis, Latvia.
Duaration: 50 min.
Without text.
Audience age: 6+

Actors on stage:
Guna Šnē – cello,
Agnese Egliņa – piano
Elīna Endzele – percussion instruments,
Minako Suzuki – dancer (Japan).

Director: Varis Klausītājs,
Scenography: Hiroko Oshima (Japan)

photo: Anrijs Požarskis

The festival always creates a new and special program for young listeners.
This time, the director Varis Klausītājs’s musical performance “Tanabata or the Tale of Two Stars” told an ancient Japanese tale about the life of the kingdom of heaven, about princess Orihimi, her fiancé Hikoboshi and king Tentei, as a dream in reality, music, drawings and dance. The thousand-year-old story of love and the lights of heaven was revealed in a miraculous play that conjured fairy-tale characters in drawings, shadows, music and dance.

Before the event, children have the opportunity to implement the traditions of the Japanese festival TANABATA created in honor of the legend used in the show – to create a wish and hung it on a bamboo tree.

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Loveness (original: Mīlība)

Premiere in August 12, 2017 during alternative music festival “Sansusī” Aknīste, Latvia.
Duaration: 45 min.
Lines: Without text.
Audience age: 6+.

dancer: Agate Bankava 
two contrabasses: Kristaps Pētersons, Oskars Bokanovs (or Einārs Everss, Jurijs Gavriluks)
keybords: Uģis Krišjānis

Director: Varis Klausītājs,
Composer: Kristaps Pētersons
Scenographer: Hiroko Oshima (Japan)
Choreographer: Agate Bankava

Drawing Theatre chamber music performance for two contrabasses, keybord and contemporary dance.

As people grow up, it seems that the world around them is shrinking. However, there are things that look the same as in childhood. Maybe because they are very far and never reachable – like the sun and stars. Alternatively, because we always look at them with a child’s eyes – like cherries, lovely hands and smiles.

 On stage, the choreographer, dancer Agate Bankava and musicians with the largest string instruments of the symphonic orchestra – contrabass – meet in imaginative stage design and during the performance in front of the viewer’s eyes upcoming drawings.

“Precisely because of Kristaps Peterson’s mystical and temporally specific sound language, which so characteristic to him, is the greatest value of this performance” – delfi.lv, author Andris Dzenītis, 23.08.2017.

The performance is fascinating for children and inspiring for grownups.

Prject was supported by:
Valsts Kultūrkapitāla fonds, “Latvija 100” iniciative “Skolas soma”,
Rīgas Dome,
I-DEJAS MĀJA,
SIA Colour Line, STO.

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Musical workshop

Premiere in  August 26, 2017 in Vidzeme Concert Hall “Cēsis” at the music festival “Summer House”. 
Language: Latvian or English 
Duration: 50 min.
Audience age: 4+ 
 
painter – Ingrīda Ivane, 
musician – Aleksejs Bahirs, 
improviser – Varis Klausītājs. 
Performance-improvisation, in which three artists of different professions improvise together with the audience.
 
The content and drawing of each performance is unique. 
The show begins with improvised musical compositions that describe the characters that viewers would like to see in the show. 
The painter is getting  inspired, because the audience participates in the creation of characters and events, so it is not known in advance what will be drawn. Along with the rolling events and improvised songs, maybe even dances, a large drawing is created on the stage wall. 
At the end of the show, the audience has the opportunity to try their hand at drawing and complete the big picture. 
Director and author of the idea: Varis Klausītājs. 
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7 fairy tales about Nukucitis

Premiere in December 5, 2009.
Language: Latvian or language of the guest narrator.
Duration: 45 min.
Audience age: 3+

Painter- Anda Lāce,
Dancer – Agnese Bordjukova,
Musician – Laima Jansone,
Storyteller – Varis Klausitājs /or guest artist

The performance is based on fairy-tales by the poet Aivars Neibarts.

The performance is based on fairy-tales by the poet Aivars Neibarts.

Drawing is a process; it is not a picture only.
Drawing takes the leading role in this performance, it belongs to the painter Anda Lāce supplemented by fragments of contemporary dance, soloist Agnese Bordjukova, and the narrator Varis Klausītājs who relates the incidents with Ņukucītis.

This performance implies drawing on vertical sheets of paper put in seven layers. Each fairy-tale by means of one of these sheets winds into the next fairy-tale. The paper is being painted, torn and crumpled and gradually it fills the whole stage.

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awards

Theatrical award festival “Spēlmaņu nakts 2012” Riga, Latvia.
Performance Of The Year For Children And Youth: Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre

Baltic Theatre festival 2012, Tartu, Estonia.
Outstanding Music Composition: Rihards Zalupe, Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre 

aactWorldFest 2014, Festival in Paradise, Venice, Florida.
Outstanding Performance Art: Poetry Butterfly Drawing Theatre – Latvia.
Outstanding Accompanist: Rihards Zalupe Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre – Latvia.
Outstanding Choreography & Dance: Elina Gaitjukevica Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre – Latvia.
Outstanding Music Composition: Rihards Zalupe Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre – Latvia.
Outstanding Directoral Vision: Varis Klausitajs Poetry Butterfly – Drawing Theatre – Latvia.

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