studio.POC, in collaboration with fABULEUS and Jonge Harten Festival, searches for the border between a real and a virtual life, and for the interchangeability of identities.
Six young people – 3 from Flanders and 3 from the Netherlands – each created their own character and kept a fictitious video blog on YouTube for several months. From these diaries a performance was made about the beauty and emptiness of YouTube, the loneliness of the blogger and the comfort of the network. 6 young people with ideals, dreams and frustrations, looking for hits….

This production was a short term project and played at Jonge Harten Festival, Groningen (2010) and at OPEK, Leuven (2011).

The starting point was studio.POC’s fascination with the way young people deal with the concept of identity on the Internet. Timmerman and Vertenten saw the opportunity to integrate this into the working process of the performance. They started working with three Flemish and three Dutch youngsters who initially only came into contact with each other through new media. Via YouTube, Facebook, MSN and email they discussed and exchanged material.

The final performance featured five young characters who each kept a video blog. They used it in the most diverse ways: what offered one person emotional support, was for another a medium in which to lose themselves completely.

Concept and direction Kristof Timmerman Acting coach and direction Valérie Vertenten Play Max Goekint, Yanthe Louïs, Mona Vanschoenwinkel, Silbe Mijnlieff, Carine Hofstra, Rick Lammers Dramaturgy Ruth Mellaerts Technique Rutger Weijenberg Production fABULEUS, studio.POC and Jonge Harten Festival