This document summarizes a Turkish theater production of a French fairytale called "The White Rat" led by artist Chandra Brooks. The production will take place in Berlin in October 2010. It is part of Brooks' long-term project "The Universal Fairytale" which creates illustrated versions of stories in different languages. The Turkish production will involve local families creating tapestries, filming neighborhood scenes, and performing. It aims to explore different cultures and language skills through storytelling and art.

1. Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
http://chandrabrooks.blogspot.com/ http://beyazrat.blogspot.com
Photograph © Miriam May 2010
Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit learning some book making
techniques at the Türkischer Elternverein in Kreuzberg from
Artist Chandra Brooks & Mehmet.
Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
This theatre project (mid-October 2010) is headed by American artist Chandra
Brooks and is an interpretation of a medieval French fairytale, La Rate
Blanche from the collection of Henri Pourrat. It forms part of her long-term
project The Universal Fairytale, which involves 42 various language versions
and handcrafted art in a range of different formats, all for the purpose of
creating intercultural dialogue through storytelling and media art.
Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen is an opportunity for families of
international and migrational backgrounds in the Oranienkiez & Mariannenkiez
to look at their neighborhood through the eyes of the camera, theatre and
book-arts and to give voice to that on stage and through the internet for an
audience of their peers, neighbors and local artists. The process involves the
use of paper-craft to create unique tapestries based on The Lady and the
Unicorn (La Dame à la Licorne) tapestries.
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2. Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
http://chandrabrooks.blogspot.com/ http://beyazrat.blogspot.com
The Beyaz Fare Turkish Theatre Production will take place this autumn
school break in Berlin from October 11-23, 2010.
This is a Turkish language production which will:
- be narrated alternately in Turkish and in German with the French book as a
moving on-screen projection
- use digitally created book as the "sets", drawn from Chandra Brook’s La
Rate Blanche "medieval illuminated manuscript"
- incorporate video material the participants create within the neighborhood to
supplement the action on stage.
- the play brings the neighborhood into a new perspective with the participants Photograph © Miriam May 2010
as the observers of themselves as storybook-beings in familiar places.
Workshops during the autumn school break will offer participants a chance to
explore and experiment with various art forms, which will all contribute to the
performance.
As part of promoting an awareness of other cultures and helping participants
develop their language skills, workshops will involve volunteers from a range
of different backgrounds. As well as German, Turkish and French (the
languages of the participants, which will also be represented in the
production), there will be a strong emphasis on English as a useful
international vernacular language, which the children and young people are all
studying in school.
The bulk of activities in the workshops will involve children and young people
in the 14-18 age range. Younger children will be integrated into the
performance itself, for example as part of the throng of faeries.
Folio from 'La Rate Blanche'
Illuminated Manuscript
Chandra Brooks 2005
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3. Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
http://chandrabrooks.blogspot.com/ http://beyazrat.blogspot.com
In the Costume and Textile Design Workshop, participants will create an
ornamental medieval style textile by working with complex paper-cut motifs. The
process involves the use of beeswax crayons, watercolor paint and ink. These
textiles will be used to construct the set and costumes. The paper-cut motifs have
been recreated as plexi-stencils for usability.
The Video & Editing group will work with professional cameramen/women to shoot
video footage that represents the key elements of the fairytale, with images from
the architecture, people and landscapes of the two participating neighborhoods:
Oranienkiez & Mariennenkiez. This group is also responsible for editing this local
material into a digital book, which will play as a projection during the performance.
We are delighted to be cooperating with the Filmarche (http://www.filmarche.de) forPhotograph © Miriam May 2010
this workshop.
The Drama & Performance group includes the actors and performers who will be
wearing the costumes and masks in the video and theatre play.
And of course this mythical kingdom also needs lots of faeries and masked
creatures, so a further group will be creating some faerie wings, masks and tails!
It is, in a sense, part of a new chapter in the evolution of The Universal Fairytale.
That chapter began this summer with a volunteer scheme in conjunction with the
Türkischer Eltern Verein Berlin-Brandenburg. A group of children from Kreuzberg
explored lettering and used wax crayons, together with specially devised stencils to
complement the Turkish version of Pourrat’s fairytale. The Turkish text was also
developed as a community project, in close conjunction with the team at the
Türkischer ElternVerein.
The book-making dimension will also continue in other schools in Berlin,
'The King' from 'The Aniconic Arabic Adaptation''
complemented by the theatre production, to be performed in Turkish as a world Sculptural Light Cutting
Chandra Brooks 2005
premiere in October 2010 in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Photographed by Miriam May 2008
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4. Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
http://chandrabrooks.blogspot.com/ http://beyazrat.blogspot.com
The Universal Fairytale
Chandra Brooks explains the background
Fonts and abstraction
For The Universal Fairytale, I have created a theme on alphabets which combines two great moments in European manuscript history: when
Charlemagne brought Alcuin of York to his court to create Carolingian Miniscule, which effectively ended the church and state's hold on the
dissemination of knowledge by creating an alphabet than any literate person can read. Our alphabets today owe a great deal to Carolingian
Miniscule. The other area which influenced my creating fonts from hand-drawn alphabets was the work of legendary calligraphers at the
moment in history when the printing press wiped out the making of hand-made manuscripts. I combine alphabets by Croatian calligrapher
Georg Bocskay from “Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta” with Carolingian Miniscule to create 3 fonts. I walk the children through this process by
introducing real geometry through game play with tangrams and origami. Photograph © Miriam May 2010
By thinking about the geometry of organic forms such as plants and animals, the path opens up to the idea of the geometry of a letter. This is
all a part of understanding the basics of how abstractions are created.
Cultural connections
The Universal Fairytale is one fairytale which speaks to the world in their own languages with images that reflect upon visual and historical
aspects from the culture of each language into which the book is translated – aspects that culture can be proud to share.
Every time that the fairytale is translated it stays the same although the language differs. The concept behind maintaining strict fidelity to the
original text in the translation while the images change is important. Migrants in particular often neglect their mother tongue when it is
undervalued in the countries they have moved to. In this project, Turkish speakers are encouraged to respect their native language skills (for
some) as well as developing a deeper appreciation for the ancestry and culture they come from (for Turks abroad); it encourages Turkish
speakers to develop their personal language usage, which also helps them develop their skills with second and third languages by giving
them a firmer base in Turkish; this also fosters a good level of self-respect because it means that project participants are included in
something that goes around the world and shows Turkish culture, history and linguistics in a positive light that will capture the world’s
attention and imagination.
NOTE: To encourage global recognition of the diversity of Turkish culture, possible national and international collaborations for the Turkish
books include the following languages: Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Greek, and Judezmo.
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5. Beyaz Fare: Ein Türkisches Märchen (The White Rat: A Turkish Fairytale)
http://chandrabrooks.blogspot.com/ http://beyazrat.blogspot.com
Making art accessible
The Universal Fairytale and Applied Bauhaus Technique for the 21st century
A few years ago I began developing storytelling kits on the premise of using
technology to foster the development of handicraft. My work with calligraphy,
bookmaking and handicraft is very complicated and skilled but to share the love
of books and visual arts this all has to be simplified so that anyone can
participate without the need of my skill level. I became a part of The FabLab, an
MIT based project pilot through Mediamatic (in the basement of the Stedelijk
Museum) where I used the laser-cutter and vinyl cutter (you may know it as a
sticker-making machine) to create modified versions of my work that could be Photograph © Miriam May 2010
cut-out to make toy theatre boxes (diorama), silhouettes, rubbings, etc for the
purpose of making books, theatre and to encourage storytelling. I think that it's
better to offer the most beautiful and complicated material when encouraging
lost art forms because anybody can make something with Photoshop and
templates but a medieval French illuminated manuscript like the one I spent 2
years making is a bit more exciting and encouraging!
The theatre project this autumn will be adopting a similar approach, offering
easy-to-use modules and input from volunteer workshop assistants with film and
theatre skills to help participants create work that is professional but very much
their own.
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