Manufacture TOBS (Zwingli) Biel, Rochette 8, 2504 Biel / Bienne
A bilingual community opera where generations, amateurs and professionals come together to create a unique artistic experience.
Community Opera
A bilingual, intergenerational and interdisciplinary project
Young Theatre Biel
Creation
The project «Codeword: Spider» brings together people who rarely share the stage in everyday life: teenagers, children, older adults, as well as professional musicians and theatre practitioners. Together, amateurs and professionals create a community opera with many voices.
The venue for both performance and production is the TOBS! Manufacture, the former Zwingli Church in Boujean, which, over several months of rehearsals, is transformed into a lively, festive and welcoming place for encounters.
The plot is inspired by Gotthelf’s «The Black Spider» and serves as an echo: a village festival where the inhabitants gather and where a disturbing story is told, inviting collective memory and reflection. Our project responds to it with the voices, sounds and bodies of today.
Musically, improvisation and popular influences intersect with contemporary music. The amateurs contribute their lived experience and boldness, while the professionals ensure artistic precision and innovation. Together, they create a new «we».
The project gives concrete form to the musical research conducted at the Bern Academy of the Arts and demonstrates the importance that musical theatre can have in Switzerland in fostering a sense of community. Cultural education, artistic participation and social integration go hand in hand.
A bilingual, intergenerational and interdisciplinary project
Young Theatre Biel
Creation
The project «Codeword: Spider» brings together people who rarely share the stage in everyday life: teenagers, children, older adults, as well as professional musicians and theatre practitioners. Together, amateurs and professionals create a community opera with many voices.
The venue for both performance and production is the TOBS! Manufacture, the former Zwingli Church in Boujean, which, over several months of rehearsals, is transformed into a lively, festive and welcoming place for encounters.
The plot is inspired by Gotthelf’s «The Black Spider» and serves as an echo: a village festival where the inhabitants gather and where a disturbing story is told, inviting collective memory and reflection. Our project responds to it with the voices, sounds and bodies of today.
Musically, improvisation and popular influences intersect with contemporary music. The amateurs contribute their lived experience and boldness, while the professionals ensure artistic precision and innovation. Together, they create a new «we».
The project gives concrete form to the musical research conducted at the Bern Academy of the Arts and demonstrates the importance that musical theatre can have in Switzerland in fostering a sense of community. Cultural education, artistic participation and social integration go hand in hand.
Contact
Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn
Stadttheater Biel
Burggasse 19
2502 Biel