Rimini Protokoll on Campus and in the Classroom
Rimini Protokoll artists Daniel Wetzel and Helgard Haug arrived in Chapel Hill two weeks before opening night. They did so in order to meet the show’s participants, direct rehearsals, explore the Triangle, and imbed themselves across campus as part of their CPA Southern Futures residency. They visited two classes, one in Communications and one in American Studies, meeting students and sharing about their practice.
Performance and Social Change
Daniel zoomed into Joey Richards’s COMM 260: Intro to Performance and Social Change. Richards’s Fall 2023 class explored the theory and practice of performance as “a tool to raise consciousness, have difficult conversations, advocate for social change, imagine the world otherwise, and/or disrupt social norms.” Daniel’s visit was an active one wherein the students and the artist participated in theatre exercises together. After activating their bodies and minds, the group spent time talking about Rimini Protokoll and Daniel helped the class understand the approach that he takes to the collective and their work.
Below are notes from a class discussion that took place in COMM 260 after everyone went to the performance of 100% The Triangle. Some students could not attend the performance, and thus watched a recording of 100% Lisbon.
This Place Called America
Daniel and Helgard spent a morning with the students of Professor Michelle Robinson’s AMST 101: This Place Called America. Professor Robinson described the class as a multidisciplinary examination of American Culture, focused on (in the words of fellow American Studies professor Dan Cobb) “the many and often times conflicting ways in which “America” manifests as a lived experience.” Given that 100% The Triangle aimed to depict what life is truly like in the region, this class and the performance were a well-made match. In addition to teaching the students about their 100% City project, Daniel and Helgard also shared about their larger practice, walking the class through previous and current works, discussing themes, and taking questions. This class visit occurred during the week leading up to performances of 100% The Triangle, and the show was still a few participants shy of the 100 needed to fully represent the region. A handful of students from AMST 101 expressed interest in participating in the show, and two of them ended up joining the cast by the end of the week.
Many of the students from AMST 101 attended 100% The Triangle, and several took their engagement a step further. Jesse, Tristan, and Monica each used Rimini Protokoll’s demographic methodologies to inform their own investigation into the demographics of their social circles. Below you can explore each of their studies and learn more about a specific subset of the Triangle’s population: Carolina students.