Klaus Kruse
Senior Lecturer, Theatre
Klaus Kruse is a director, scenographer, performer, poet and songwriter based in the UK since 2002 and he specialises in designing and directing immersive theatre productions. He has a particular interest in the significance of the audience's physical position in the performance space. The environments he designs are contraptions that allow the performance landscape to be transformed throughout an event. His company Living Structures utilises 'changing spatial reality' as a tool for storytelling that engages audiences in unusual ways.
Living Structures' work experiments with the relationships that performance can create between audience, performers and performance environment. The company strategically designs spaces into which audiences can enter, manipulating the expanse, shape and atmosphere of space as it is perceived throughout the performance event. Using 'changing spatial reality' as a theatrical tool, Living Structures removes 'place' as stable factor and integrates the audience's presence in the space as an active element of the performance event. During performances the spectators' physical position is significant and frequently suggests or allocates a sort of role to them. This influences how the audience will observe their environment. Voice, sound, performance, video and installation relate to a physical journey that the audience undertakes. Living Structures emerged out of Klaus's continuous research into audience/performer spatial relationships and creates work in collaboration with international artists from a wide range of creative fields.
Klaus works as a senior lecturer at the theatre department at Falmouth University. He has previously taught as associate and visiting lecturer at London School of Economics, Academy of the Arts Reykjavic, University of Plymouth and University of the Arts Berlin. Klaus works as artistic director, scenographer and writer for the international performance collective Living Structures livingstructures.co.uk, which he co-founded in 2007. He also worked as director, scenographer and writer for The Solvents Live Art and Theatre Collective, which he cofounded in 2002. Klaus has studied Contemporary Dance and Theatre at the School for New Dance Development Amsterdam (SNDD), at the University of the Arts Berlin (UDK) and at Dartington College of Arts UK (DCA) where he completed both his BA(Hons) and MA in Devised Theatre.
Living Structures' work experiments with the relationships that performance can create between audience, performers and performance environment. The company strategically designs spaces into which audiences can enter, manipulating the expanse, shape and atmosphere of space as it is perceived throughout the performance event. Using 'changing spatial reality' as a theatrical tool, Living Structures removes 'place' as stable factor and integrates the audience's presence in the space as an active element of the performance event. During performances the spectators' physical position is significant and frequently suggests or allocates a sort of role to them. This influences how the audience will observe their environment. Voice, sound, performance, video and installation relate to a physical journey that the audience undertakes. Living Structures emerged out of Klaus's continuous research into audience/performer spatial relationships and creates work in collaboration with international artists from a wide range of creative fields.
Klaus works as a senior lecturer at the theatre department at Falmouth University. He has previously taught as associate and visiting lecturer at London School of Economics, Academy of the Arts Reykjavic, University of Plymouth and University of the Arts Berlin. Klaus works as artistic director, scenographer and writer for the international performance collective Living Structures livingstructures.co.uk, which he co-founded in 2007. He also worked as director, scenographer and writer for The Solvents Live Art and Theatre Collective, which he cofounded in 2002. Klaus has studied Contemporary Dance and Theatre at the School for New Dance Development Amsterdam (SNDD), at the University of the Arts Berlin (UDK) and at Dartington College of Arts UK (DCA) where he completed both his BA(Hons) and MA in Devised Theatre.
