News

Sessions with Emily and Jean-Henri

For the international figuren.theater.festival "Zäsur" at Erlangen, Fürth and Nürnberg we are working on a series of short pieces for a very small audience with live-music and puppets. Inspiration for the visual side is the work of the entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) and his work on the lives of insects. Different techniques evoke a microcosm of insects which is bizarre, allegorical or simply a self-sufficiant parallel existence. The musical work (vocals, violin, electronic effects, sequencer) sets some poems by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) to music, which tell of intimacy and solitude but also of close affinity to nature.

Puppetry, performance: Michael Vogel, Live-Music: Charlotte Wilde
Artistic advice: Joachim Fleischer, Musical advice: Johannes Frisch

The premiere is planned at Westflügel Leipzig at the end of April or beginning of May, depending on possibilities.
Performances at Kulturforum Fürth are planned for 13. to 16. May (22. internationales figuren.theater.festival)

Pre-listen on soundcloud

Mikrokosmos - Die Kulturreportage, by Manuel Waltz.
Listen and read here (in German)

Figurentheater in Leipzig

about our new production and cancelled premiere of Der Reigen / The Merry-Go-Round, about Westfluegel Leipzig and the stream-premiere of "The Fatal Marksman" by our colleagues Lehmann + Wenzel. 

Der Reigen (The Merry-Go-Round) is cancelled, has been cancelled, and, as is to be feared, will be cancelled again.

Together with Christoph Bochdansky (Vienna), Stefan Wenzel (Leipzig) and Cie. Off Verticality with the choreographer Rose Breuss (Linz) we developed our new production "Der Reigen. An extremely beautiful song about death" in spite of Corona-chaos in 2020. Four possible premiere dates have been cancelled since November. More dates are now scheduled for 25.02.2021 or 15.04.2021 (at Westflügel Leipzig). For the dry spell until then (or beyond...) there is this documentary by Thilo Neubacher, who witnessed rehearsals and internal premiere in November. Thank you very much for this, Thilo!

Der Reigen (fällt aus) by Thilo Neubacher on Vimeo.

After 150 performances in 10 years, in Poland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, France and Japan, and 10 cancelled performances in 2020, at last there is a recording of the songs from Krabat by Charlotte Wilde on texts by Christina Rosetti. Enjoy listening on https://soundcloud.com/wildevogel.

24h chat room, live stream, open mic!

On www.westfluegel.de or https://youtu.be/POeBnVYZYE0 you can observe the cultural vacancy 24 hours daily and fill it acoustically via telephone call.
The phone number to the inside of Westflügel's ballroom with latency and echo:
+49 178 6111 429 oder +49 178 6111 087.
If both numbers are called, one can communicate through the live stream.

An installation by Michael Vogel and Martin Jehnichen (streamio.de)

This sentence was written by Helen Keller, a blind and deaf author (1880-1968). Written in a letter to the New York Symphony Orchestra, whose concert broadcast of Beethoven's 9th Symphony she felt on the radio with her hand on the membrane (read here).

What Helen Keller describes is a moment of being touched by art which is currently only possible to a very limited extent due to the closure of cultural venues. Why this touch is so important and what is missing when it can no longer be experienced with other people, is what the Art Experience campaign of the Alliance of International Production Centers for Puppet Theater is all about. Not out of nostalgia, but in order to get closer to the relevance of art and culture, new personal art experiences of artists, members of the theatre's teams and the audience will be published daily from December 1 onwards. Moments which almost made the heart stand still or made it race, which released, connected, moved or excited. Enlightenments and revelations!

https://kunsterlebnis.art/

After our first common rehearsals in May had to be cancelled due to the Covid-travel-restrictions, we were able to rehearse for our new production Der Reigen / The Merry-go-round with the whole team in September/ October: the choreographer Rose Breuss with her Cie. Off Verticality from Linz and the puppeteer Christoph Bochdansky from Vienna travelled to Leipzig to work together with Stefan Wenzel, Wilde & Vogel. Before meeting for the final rehearsals, theatres were now shut down again! The first 8 shows in Leipzig and Stuttgart are cancelled. We will keep you updated about new dates and maybe some kind of digital insights. Here you find infos about the production and the first pictures. 

From 25. June to 12. July Westfluegel Leipzig is opening its gates for The Temple - A walk-through installation. Amongst others with colleagues like Jan Jedenak, Li Kemme, Lehmann und Wenzel, Franziska Merkel and Tim Spooner.
Wilde & Vogel will show and perform live and as livestream:

21.06.Concert-Prologue: Protect Laika (Stefan Wenzel, Charlotte Wilde)
28.06.Concert: The Hobbit virtual (Charlotte Wilde)
04.07. Concert: Frankenstein - The Soundtrack (Johannes Frisch, Charlotte Wilde)

As part of the Temple-tour there will be an installation by Michael Vogel.

Info, Tickets and livestream-links on Westflügel Leipzig.

After three months of Covid-19 shutdown we are performing again with audience: Maria auf dem Seil (Maria on the Highwire). For everyone from 8 years, based on the novel by Lygia Bojunga Nunes, with Ines Müller-Braunschweig, directed by Christiane Zanger.

12., 13. and 14. June at Westflügel Leipzig.
According to hygiene measures the number of seats is restricted, please book in advance here. 

Although it was without live audience, there is a live recording of the performance Songs for Alice Special Edition from the end of April at Westfluegel Leipzig! Listen on https://soundcloud.com/wildevogel. 

About ticks, SARS-CoV-2 & an asymmetric war against culture

Livestream in English language: Saturday, 9. May, 20h / www.westfluegel.de / #westfluegelstream 

What does it mean to work and think independently and be a freelance theatre artist in these times?

This was the starting question for the one year project Biotopia of Grupa Coincentia from Białystok, and the two companies Wilde & Vogel and Lehmann und Wenzel from Leipzig in 2018. From this they developed the Documentary Kukułka in 2019, meandering between world war II, dusty pickle glasses, Jewish graveyards and obsessive sexual fantasies, great and greatly demanding for the audience.

Due to a virus the project nearly failed already in the beginning (tick!), due to a virus the planned performances in May are cancelled (SARS-CoV2). What seems to be an asymetrical war against practised creativity can also be seen on the background of another asymetrical conflict: the political conditions for freelance theatre - in Poland and Germany.

Connecting these themes in a talk, Westfluegel Leipzig will livestream a discussion with the team of Biotopia and Kukułka. Using chat the audience will have the possibility to send comments, questions and to interact.

Again and as before we ask you to please buy tickets for performances even if we cannot invite you to be there (www.westfluegel.de or E-Mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Donations to Westfluegel are also welcome and helpful: Betterplace donation to Westfluegel.

Unfortunately we can still not invite audience to our next shows of Songs for Alice - Special Edition in April at Westfluegel Leipzig. Through the technical possibilities of Streamio Leipzig and the financial support of Studio Gold Leipzig there will be yet another Live-Stream. You are warmly invited!

Songs for Alice Live-Stream 25. April at 21h on www.westfluegel.de / #westfluegelstream

Again and as before we ask you to please buy tickets for performances even if we cannot invite you to be there (www.westfluegel.de or E-Mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Donations to Westfluegel are also welcome and helpful: Betterplace donation to Westfluegel.

Hoping to keep contact to you, our audience, we are planning another Live-Stream and warmly invite you to watch and listen:

Concert session Protect Laika (Stefan Wenzel, Charlotte Wilde) Saturday 11th April 22h: www.westfluegel.de
#westfluegelstream / Thank you Marc Müller and Andreas Piasek for supporting the stream!

Again and as before we ask you to please buy tickets for performances even if we cannot invite you to be there (www.westfluegel.de or E-Mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Donations to Westfluegel are also welcome and helpful: Betterplace donation to Westfluegel.

This initiative points to the precarious situation of freelance artists:
#ticketgleichspende / #kultursolidarisieren

Also our performances and tours are cancelled due to Covid-19. What this will mean for our work is not predictable yet. We can only hope that live performances will possible again soon.

After the cancellation of shows in Potsdam and Aarau, we have the possibility to do a Live-stream of "Krabat" at Westfluegel Leipzig with the support of Streamio Leipzig. A ghost performance in two ways: not only the audience is missing but also our two colleagues of Grupa Coincidentia who are not able to leave Poland.

Krabat - according to circumstances! Live-stream Saturday 21.03. from 19:30:
https://vimeo.com/398839161
www.westfluegel.de

The loss of fees after cancelled shows can not be balanced by shifting dates. Please buy tickets for performances even if we cannot invite you to be there (www.westfluegel.de or E-Mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Donations to Westfluegel are also welcome and helpful: Betterplace donation to Westfluegel.

This initiative points to the precarious situation of freelance artists:
#ticketgleichspende / #kultursolidarisieren

POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19!

Workshop at Westflügel Leipzig from 30.03. to 01.04.2020. 
For participants with stage experience ::: Subscription: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The figure on the string will be researched in this workshop, starting with simple constructions, always with a view to the theatrical impression. Movement and construction are entwined, workshop and stage become one. The material can be light or heavy, small or big, shaped or unformed - the goal is always to find a coherent, authentic animation through strings.

One year after the German Premiere Dust is eventually also going to be shown in Israel, home of our partners and colleagues Inbal Yomtovian and Ari Teperberg (Golden Delicious).

There will be three performances:

There will be a workshop with Michael Vogel about Marionettes: Things on Strings from 22. to 24.10.2019 for students of the Department of Puppetry and Animation at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst.

During our tour to Israel there will be another workshop about animation on 20.11.2019 at the School for Puppetry and Drama in Tel Aviv.

A Horror-Musical by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

After the great success of the first Polish version of Little Shop of Horrors [Sklep z potwornsciami] at BTL Białystok, this production, directed by Michael Vogel, will finally perform in Germany:

Production: Białostocki Teatr Lalek [PL] ::: Puppets, Stage and Direction: Michael Vogel

Thu 26., Fri 27. und Sat 28.09.2019, 21h at Westflügel Leipzig I  More

After performing Songs for Alice two years ago, we are invited to come back:

Dust will be at the at.tension 2019!

06., 07. and 08.09. 2019 at.tension festival

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Songs for Alice Special Version (featuring Philipp Scholz/drums, Konrad Schreiter/trumpet, Thomas Weber/tableguitar) will be performed twice more this autumn at the Festival Klang der Dinge at Schaubude Berlin and at this year's edition of the Pole Poppenspäler Tage Husum.

05.09. 2019 Schaubude Berlin

29.09.2019 Husum 

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