Director's note
The project aimed at developing through theatre means a fictional performance inspired by interviews realized in the city of Modena on the topic of work: working conditions today, value of work, job interviews, free time, human interactions in the public space, ”invisible” workers, competition, solidarity or lack of solidarity, dreams and abuses, evolution of the concept of “work” in the last decades, disappearing crafts, new jobs, mobility and its consequences, hopes and fears for the future. The process started with discussions and improvisations with the actors around the theme. A list of questions had been made together with all the participants and this was the base for the interviews. The questions tried to open a larger discussion: how we are defined by our work today and in what ways are we participating to the public sphere. Each participant had the task to make 7 interviews with people working in different fields, with different backgrounds, different age. The interviews had been recorded and afterwards written down and presented to the whole group of participants. The third step had been the discussions on the material, a selection of the most interesting situations and also improvisations on the selected material. The scenario had been inspired by these meetings with the stories of the people met during the interviews and also by the way the group reacted to this theme. While preparing the concept of the scenario, we searched for ways of creating and acting as a group, interrogating in the same time our own work field as artists today. The Romanian set designer and visual artist Mihai Pacurar joined the process and responded to the selected materials, improvisations and discussions, developing the concept of space for the performance. The scenario was written by me after all this process and it aimed at involving all the participants equally. Reflecting on the concept of working today in a European city is a way of reflecting on our own relation to work and to the audience we are addressing to. The title of the project, Work in progress, refers to the fact that we started with no script, just with a theme for reflection and research, but it also refers to the invitation to discuss and try to see different aspects of the way we perceive work in our society: is it a way of surviving, is it a burden, is it a way of fulfilling our desire of being and building something together, in what way does it define us as individuals and also as participants to a larger group?
Gianina Carbunariu

video
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