The project proposed by Robert Bălan within Energy! is a theater performance based on a text which will be the result of artistic documentation/research.
Robert Bălan will conduct interviews with twenty of the beneficiaries of the Association of "self-representatives" Something to Say. Being a very active organization, their stories have already been presented/presented in public contexts, in artistic situations and at socio-political events (conferences, meetings with the potential to produce legislative changes, etc.) in Timișoara and in other places in Romania or from Europe. The project is not about past events, but a perspective on the future.
The questions that Robert Bălan will ask during the research are: how would you like other people to behave with you when you find out that you have a deficiency. Have you had any funny situations in this regard? How would you see an ideal situation for you in the future? Robert Bălan's approach is not a journalistic one because the interviews will not be published. These will be support for artistic creation, discussions will be private, and information will be shared publicly only with the consent of individuals.
"It's about that feeling that other, so-called normal people have when they meet a person with disabilities. I'd like them to teach me how to behave, and I'd like to play the part of the innocent. A role that I will keep in the final show as well.".
The second part of the project consists of theater workshops in which, through improvisation exercises, Robert Bălan will recreate actual scenes and, together with the participants, imagine ideal future situations. After a period of break, necessary for the revision/layout of the material, Robert Bălan will elaborate a show scenario, the final part of the project. For two weeks, the rehearsals will consist in the exact determination of the stories that will remain public, in stage speech exercises, in the editing of audio or video materials, results of the documentation that will be part of the show, in finding appropriate stage forms (monologue , reading, dramatization, pantomime skits, dance, etc.). It will not be a theater show in the classical sense (characters, conflict, story), but a puzzle show that will combine several techniques and in which the boundary between the person and the performer is not very clearly defined. A show that will primarily use humor, self-irony as main elements. At the same time, there will also be confessional scenes, in which everyone will have the chance to tell a story.