Ant Hampton (b. 1975, UK) is a Brussels-based artist. A co-founder of the company Rotozaza, Hampton is best known for his nine Autoteatro works, which deliver instructions to audience members to enact the performances for each other. These works include Rotozaza’s Etiquette (2007), and The Quiet Volume, his Bessie award-winning collaboration with Tim Etchells for library reading rooms, which was presented by PS122 in New York in 2013; The Extra People is the largest-scale Autoteatro work to date. Hampton’s other solo projects include ongoing experimentation around live portraiture and structured encounters with people from non-theatrical milieu. He was also head dramaturg for Projected Scenarios at Manifesta 7 Biennial for Contemporary Art, and has contributed to projects by Jérôme Bel and Forced Entertainment.

Written and directed by Ant Hampton
Sound design and composition by Sam Britton
Artistic adviser Kate Macintosh
Editing, system design, tech director Hugh Roche Kelly
Commissioned by Ash Bulayev / Empac (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA)
Creative producer Katja Timmerberg
Coproducers Kaaitheater (Brussels) and Malta Festival (Poznan)
Supported by the Culture Program of the European Commission via the House on Fire network

15, 16 September, Kaņepe Culture Centre

British theatre maker Ant Hampton’s masterclass “Fantasy Interventions: writing for site-specific theatre”, a workshop on imagination and writing for site-specific theatre and live urban interventions will be held in Riga on September 15 and 16.
Rather than try to enable or kick-start any actual project, the workshop concerns itself with the initial stages of imagination and conception. A designer or architect will often create sketches or models which aim to embody the essence of a project while willfully exceeding many ‘real world’ limitations (financial, structural, political, aesthetic, etc.). Such sketches can often be considered valuable work in their own right, both for the artist and others.
What kind of ‘sketches’ can assist in conceiving performance work for locations outside theatre buildings?
What sort of imagination is requires for this kind of performance? How can we – achieve it? – hold onto it? – express it?
What does it mean to balance fantasy with feasibility? To what extent are they separable?
Where would the audience be? Who would they be, where would they come from? What would they see or think?
With a focus on observation, imagination and writing, and involving walks in the city, discussion, film and photography, the workshop is an exploratory three days culminating un a series of on-location presentations.

To date, Ant has led the workshops in Bahia Blanca (Argentina), Dublin, Cairo, Oslo, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Austin (Texas) and Vancouver.

Riga masterclass participants: Gerda Šadurska, Tatjana Melehova, Anna Zvaigzne, Kristīne Vītola, Oskars Dreģis, Roberts Mencis, Greta Štiormer, Linda Krūmiņa, Ivo Briedis, Saule Norkute, Antra Leite, Kadri Noormets