Warm up, perform, break and go to the next show. There are also mishaps on the seemingly perfect stage of the vaudeville. In Leipzig, the audience is now to be kidnapped behind the scenes.
Leipzig (dpa/sn) – In the coming months, mistakes will not only be allowed on the stage of the Leipzig Krystallpalast Varietés, but even encouraged. “In the conception of the piece, we brought together everything that has happened to us on stage before,” said Michela Pesce, who, under the name Samaki, together with six other actors, will be appearing on the “Backstage Stories” show on Thursday stage of the variety show. The native Italian juggles. “There are always mistakes – which of course the audience notices right away,” she said. However, breakdowns and embarrassments were part of it: “On stage you simply have to be attentive, be able to react spontaneously and: just don’t think too much.”
With the new show, Pesce and her colleagues are primarily concerned with transporting the atmosphere backstage that prevails before, during and after the performances. “How each individual deals with nervousness, for example, is of course totally different,” says Pesce. Even as a child she loved to be seen on stage. Routine, concentration and a yoga session before the performances help her to fully immerse herself in her role. “Of course, my body also has to play along. Every time I go into the dressing room again, persuade him to want to work now. Sometimes it works well, but on other days he doesn’t feel like it.”
The actors usually only had a few days before the premiere of a show to practice the new processes and tricks. Shows are usually shown six to eight times a week, usually twice in a row on weekends.
“For me, every single performance is special. It’s like a kind of exchange of energy,” says the Rome-born artist, describing her work. Performing in front of children is something completely different than performing in front of older people. How she perceives the audience, but also how much she gets back from the audience, always determines how Pesce plays her role. “Sometimes I have to be more powerful, sometimes respond to the audience in a special way. But that’s also the spontaneity that’s required of us,” she said.
