Into the New Year with Thom Luz and KAFi Q

Dear visitors to Gessnerallee, dear culture enthusiasts, dear artists

We are starting the new year with great anticipation for our January programme. From Thursday, director Thom Luz and his ensemble will whisk us away to an abandoned tourist magnet in the musical theatre creation ‘Tourist Trap’ - on Saturday and Sunday with audio description for the first time. Directly to the tickets

KAFi Q will also be our guest this week. Working together since 2022 KAFi Q is an inclusive team. KAFi Q creates unexpected spaces for encounters and explores how accessibility can be conceptualised aesthetically. They introduce themselves in this week's newsletter:

ANDY BÖNI: We are a team. We say: it's nice to be here. At Stall6. Something new. People come in and open their eyes and hearts. And say: What's that? When they leave, they say: We'll be back.  

CAITLIN FRIEDLY: KAFi Q is a café that invites you to try out new things with people. It's a place where you can just be and not have to do anything. Where you can just have a coffee and watch.

CÉCILE CREUZBURG: Latte art with gestures, then order a coffee, yes, exactly. Entertainment, that too. And then there's a DJ dragon. That's me. And everyone dances along.

NELE JAHNKE: KAFi Q is a group of people. A team with and without disabilities. We try to create a place where people meet who might not otherwise meet. You can talk, do handicrafts, drink coffee. There is also a place where you can retreat.

ANNA FIERZ: There have been more thoughts on accessibility in the cultural scene recently. In other words, how spaces can become more accessible. We also try to think about this question in sensory terms: what kind of atmosphere or mood does a space need?

CÉCILE CREUZBURG: January's theme is KAFi Q. So.

CAITLIN FRIEDLY: The theme is new beginnings. There will be a dialogue disco. We'll invite a few guests - three or four. One will ask a question about new beginnings and one will answer, then the other will ask a question and there will be dancing in between.

ANDY BÖNI: People come. We can make wishes. We look back at what happened during the year. And we take a look: What should we do?

SIMONE BURCKHARDT: Maybe someone is looking for an exchange and new ideas for the new year. Maybe someone else needs more time to relax or wants to make a lucky charm. Someone else may need exercise and wants to shake off the old year. The wish is that we can be together.

ANNA FIERZ: What has to go so that something new can come - and what has to stay so that things can move on?

Now for the weekly overview of programme items, newspaper articles, news and everything we want to share with you:

Programme recommendations for this and the coming week

9, 10, 11 and 12 January  

‘Tourist Trap’ by Thom Luz

Five forgotten employees wait for customers in the withered ruins of a once-buzzing tourist magnet, resurrecting the old splendour of the place from the rubble and leftover instruments. More information

11 January, 3 pm to 7 pm

‘KAFi Q - Winter Edition’ by and with KAFi Q

People with and without disabilities meet at KAFi Q to make art, perform magic and dance together. More information

15 and 16 January, both at 8 pm

‘COLD’ - the new spoken word show by Fatima Moumouni & Laurin Buser

The poetic and humorous hit show against indifference will be performed again at the Gessnerallee. More information

15 January, 5.15 pm

‘Art in Conflict: Conflict Engagement through Art’ by artasfoundation

Artistic creation in crisis regions is confronted with challenging questions. In this series of monthly talks, different actors come together to reflect on their experiences in the form of a round table discussion. This time's guest: Dana Caspersen (conflict analyst, dance maker, USA). More information

Newspaper

Time for Care

The second print edition of our newspaper is here - with stories about the body and sexuality, the interplay between a drag show and audio description, youth and theatre and the magic of lighting technology. To the editorial

‘Viewpoint or dead end?’

Photographer Hannah Gottschalk visited director Thom Luz and his team during rehearsals for the play ‘Tourist Trap’.

Furthermore

The Stall6 Bar will no longer be open regularly from the new year. As a foyer bar, it will open one hour before the start of each event and will also be open for drinks afterwards. The dates of the events can be found under the following link: https://gessnerallee.ch/programm

It is still possible to reserve or hire the bar for larger aperitifs, regulars' tables, parties or other events. We are happy to accept bookings directly at stall6@gessnerallee.ch. If you have any questions about hiring Stall6 for events of any kind, please contact us directly at vermietungen@gessnerallee.ch. You can also find more information on our website.

And: We are also offering a workshop at Gessnerallee in January. This time it's about ‘Aesthetics of Access in Music Theatre’. The event is being organised by [in]operabilities (Athena Lange, Sophia Neises and Benjamin van Bebber). [in]operabilities research how barriers in musical theatre can be broken down through the use of audio description and sign language. The workshop will take place on 18 and 19 January. The registration deadline is 10 January. More information

We wish you a good start to the new year.

The Gessnerallee team

PS: Do you enjoy good cultural stories? Or do you know someone who doesn't like going to the theatre that much, but enjoys reading? Then we recommend a subscription to our printed newspaper, which is published four times a season. It costs CHF 20 (excl. postage) and you can order it directly at zeitung@gessnerallee.ch.