BLIND / by and with Paul Budraitis
A walk into the dark to discover how we see and what we believe in.
A solo performance that invites its audience to reflect on the nature of contemporary existence, BLIND is the Berlin debut of director, writer, and performer Paul Budraitis.
At the outset, audience members will be blindfolded and led into the performance space, where they will be asked to consider the ways in which they see the world, and the ways in which personal modes of belief animate their daily lives. When the blindfolds are removed, a series of hypnotic images and actions will welcome the mystery of our existence, and will bring with it a search and a plea for connection between ourselves, as well as for an acceptance of all that we can see, and all that we can not begin to understand.
Text, Direction, and Performance Paul Budraitis
Stage Design Inga Aleknavičiūtė
Live Music and Sound Kėkė Martin
Paul Budraitis is a Lithuanian-American theater artist, based in Berlin. He is a director, actor, writer, and solo performer, as well as a teacher of acting, stage movement, solo performance, and interdisciplinary art. He was the recipient of a U.S. State Department Fulbright grant to study theater directing at the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he earned his master's degree under the mentorship of visionary theater director Jonas Vaitkus.
In Lithuania, Paul worked with the National Drama Theater of Lithuania, the State Youth Theater of Lithuania, the Kaunas State Drama Theater, and Oskaras Koršunovas/Vilnius City Theater (OKT). He acted in a contemporary re-imagining of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard directed by acclaimed Finnish director Kristian Smeds, which was performed in Lithuania, as well as in a refugee settlement territory on the outskirts of Vienna as part of the Wiener Festwochen.
In Seattle, Paul directed the world premiere of Elizabeth Heffron's Bo-Nita at Seattle Repertory Theater, the world premiere of Kristen Kosmas’ The People’s Republic of Valerie at On the Boards, and the Northwest premiere of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses with New Century Theater Company. In the last year before the pandemic, he directed the Northwest premiere of David Greig’s The Events at Intiman Theater, and the critically acclaimed Seattle premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird. Together with lead artist Timothy White Eagle and fellow collaborator HATLO, he is a founding member of The Violet Triangle, which had its first post-pandemic production The Indigo Room at La MaMa ETC (NYC) in November 2021, and will be performed at La Mama ETC again in January 2023 as part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival.
Inga Aleknaviciute is recipient of the young artist scholarship from the Norwegian Art Council in 2015, and grantee of an artistic residency at the Robert Wilson Art Residence at the Watermill Center in New York. Inga Aleknaviciute currently lives and works in Berlin.
Aleknaviciute’s artistic production encompasses set design, functional objects, prints, drawings, paintings, photos, and other media. She also directed two opera performances, “Song for Many Ears” and “Abundant Song”, based on Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music, and performed by mezzo-soprano Karolina Blixt. Both pieces were performed at the Folkoperan opera house in Stockholm during the “Opera Showroom” in 2012 and 2013. In 2016, she created the performances “Beasts” and “No Sympathy for Crying Man” at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. She worked as a guest scenography artist and assistant scenographer for two pieces with director Robert Wilson, “FAUST I & II” and “Adam’s Passion”. She has created numerous installations including “Silent Transformation of Working Society” at the Berger Museum in Norway, as well as the interactive sculptures “White Bears” at Watermill Center in New York, which dealt with the issues of climate change. She also created the time-limited light installation, “Reflecting Light”, which was a part of “Technology & Democracy”, a collaboration between the Norwegian Theatre Academy and the LAB at the Norwegian Technical Museum.
Her artistic work is based on the study of “Scenography as an actor and the actor as part of scenography”, where the artist delves into scenarios of tension between the human body and objects in space. With a subtle minimalistic approach, the artist seduces the viewer into a world of ongoing balance and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events. Moments are depicted to punctuate the human drama of our existence and to find clarity and poetic meaning in everyday life. With her interest in a sustainable future and new materials, she presented the exhibition “Matter to Matter” in Weisse Villa “BIORAMA-Projekt” in Joachimsthal, Germany.
Theatre houses: Maxim Gorky Theatre, Volksbühne, Konzerthaus, Berliner Ensemble, Neuköllner Oper, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Siauliai Drama Theatre, Panevezys Musical Theatre, Dixon Place in New York, Folkoperan in Stockholm.
Museums: James Simon Galerie and Neues Museum, Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, Berger Museum.
Kėkė Martin is a trans-disciplinary sound artist (composer, producer and performer), who’s research is inspired by a desire to find the crossroads between movement and sound, color and texture, contemplation and sensory meditation. The common thread that she draws between her dance, visual art, music and poetic explorations is improvisation - the key for unlocking present, authentic self-expression and methods for engaging in a self-actualizing creative process. Her sound compositions and live music vary across genres, from ambient soundscapes to techno, electronic indie, and minimalist acoustic.
Kėkė’s work can be found on Spotify and SoundCloud, under the name Kėkė Søl.