Rehearsal began february 3rd and my first task was to get the hardware right. I had hoped to get that done in january already, but [the web] took much more time and energy than expected. I hate it when these technical things become tangled up with the artistic process in the rehearsals. Of course I do enjoy handling this stuff, but I often feel as if it stimulates the wrong side of my brain and distracts me from the content part. Also, (german) theater actors usually are very shy when they have to deal with video and other “modern” stuff, so its best to have them get used to it from the beginning and not change to much of the setup. Explanations can be tiring.
Fortunately the actors for Smilla are puppet actors. When I was working on “Alice Adventures Underground” I already observed that they are much easier to work with when it comes to video. They are used to treat inanimate objects such as a camera or a video screen like living things. Having to handle puppets with sometimes quite complicated mechanics they are less afraid of using the cameras I handed them. I favor using cheap chip cams for these tasks because they are the easiest to handle, the only problem being the lack of a finder.
“The team of directors uses the drama as lynchpin for its contemporary discourse about the inertia of the past and the forceful supersession of the coming. With its camera man Felix Obée it presents a prime example for live video on stage along the way.”
The performance created by Felix Ensslin and 
Live camera, VJ and production assistant for videos in the production of “Faust 2” at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar.