The Watermill Center Summer Program 2015 has started

This week, I arrived at The Watermill Center for the annual Summer Program and met all of this year's exquisite participating artists who have started preparing the grounds. Here are some first impressions.

I am excited to welcome you here for our Benefit Gala, "Circus of Stillness - The Power Over Wild Beasts," and our Open House, the "Discover Watermill Day" (see below). You can also join us for the Scaler Lecture Series, featuring  Jessye Norman, Philip Glass, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Fern Mallis, Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman and Tom Hennes. See you soon!

LETTER TO A MAN just opened at the Festival dei 2Mondi, Spoleto, Italy - Mikhail Baryshnikov and Robert Wilson

Once again Robert Wilson and legendary performer Mikhail Baryshnikov have joined artistic forces. Their third collaboration, Letter to a Man (after a “Saint Sebastian” Video Portrait in 2004 and The Old Woman in 2013), is based on autobiographical texts by Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), one of the most celebrated dancers and choreographers of his time who danced in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and created seminal choreographies himself. His diaries, written in less than six weeks in 1919, document the young man’s descent into madness.

In Henry Miller’s words: “It is a communication so naked, so desperate, that it breaks the mold. We are face to face with reality, and it is almost unbearable…had he not gone to the asylum we would have had in Nijinsky a writer equal to the dancer.”

London today

After visiting the wonderful Antony Gormley's London studio today with a group of esteemed friends, I am now performing Krapp's Last Tape at the Barbican Theatre. More performances tomorrow and Sunday (see calendar).

Pushkin and CocoRosie

Tonight, our new production of Pushkin's Fairy Tales will open at Moscow's Theater of Nations. Working with CocoRosie again has been a lot of fun - Bianca and Sierra are simply the Best! Looking forward to seeing the Russian cast, led by Evgenyi Mironov, sing CocoRosie's music and move through the world of Pushkin's Fairy Tales... Thank you to everyone, and: Break a Leg!

Evgenyi Mironov as Pushkin (Photograph by Lucie Jansch)

Greetings from Amsterdam

Getting ready for Krapp's Last Tape at the Holland Festival. - Congratulations to Ruth Mackenzie on her first Holland Festival edition! See you at the Stadsschwouburg tonight or on Sunday, June 7. Love, Bob

Na het overweldigende succes van The Life and Death of Marina Abramović is Robert Wilson terug in het Holland Festival, nu als regisseur én acteur, in Becketts beroemde eenakter over eenzaamheid en desillusie. 6 - juni, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam

A Space Never Entered: Arvo Pärt and Robert Wilson's ADAM'S PASSION

I think it was in the early eighties that I first heard the music of Arvo Pärt. I was immediately drawn to it. I realized that it was something very special that created a certain mental space which I had never known before. A space I had never entered that allowed for tremendous freedom.

Arvo Pärt and Robert Wilson  (Photograph © Julian Mommert)

Our first collaboration, Adam's Passion, opens this Tuesday in a spectacular industrial space in the harbor of Tallinn, Estonia. Adam’s Passion is something we hear and see. I construct a kind of environment or space, that hopefully helps the public hear the music better. It is a work that we want to reflect on, and leaving the theatre it is something we continue to think about. It is important that what I do as a director or designer, stays open ended. I set up a space that can suggest ideas, but does not imply or insist that other people think what I think.

Toi Toi Toi for Faust tonight

Finally: Faust Part I and II opens tonight at the Berliner Ensemble.

Break a leg and, as they say here: "Toi Toi Toi!" to the whole team; the actors, the band and the technical crews. Let's make this a night to remember.

Love, Bob