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First Trimester: Krishna Istha

March 17 @ 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Event Series Event Series (See All)
Accessible toilet Relaxed Performance Wheelchair Accessible

IPAF presents: First Trimester by Krishna Istha

This groundbreaking performance offers a rare opportunity to contribute to and witness queer family-making.

Embark on a journey with London-based performance artist Krishna Istha as they search for the ‘perfect’ sperm donor. First Trimester explores human connection and parenthood, challenging expectations and redefining what it means to create a family as a transgender person.

In the Danish premiere of this one-of-a-kind durational experience, fresh from its world premiere in London & Auckland, First Trimester invites you to witness intimate live interviews between Krishna and 100s of participants, in a quest to find them and their partner a sperm donor, or at least discover the qualities that bring them closer to their perfect match.

Krishna asks questions that range from funny to serious, from matter-of-fact information to philosophical perspectives in order to make the ultimate connection.

“Did you grow up with pets?”
“Where do you store your memories?”
“What do you value more, kindness or intelligence?”
And, most importantly for Krishna, “Have you watched The Princess Diaries?”

Audience members are invited to watch as the interviews unfold, but are also welcome to sign-up as a participant as a prospective donor. We welcome participants aged 18 to 60+ from all backgrounds. Each interview is pivotal in helping Krishna get closer to finding the right donor. If you would like to sign up to participate, please visit our website: https://firsttrimester.co.uk/

This is a durational performance. Saturday’s performance runs for 7 hours, and you can either buy a ticket for the full 7 hours (plus a 1 hour break) or for 3 hour slots. Sunday’s performance runs for 3 hours and you can buy a ticket for the duration. All shows are sensory adapted and are relaxed — i.e you are welcome to come and go from the space as you please with the slot you have selected.

Commissioned by Roundhouse, Battersea Arts Centre and Marlborough Productions.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Presented by Warehouse9 as part of IPAF 2024 


Language: English

Tickets: Tickets are pay-what-you-can. On the 16th March you can either book a 3 hours time slot or a ticket for the whole day.

Access: Dansekapellet is wheelchair accessible. Accessible toilets are located on site. This is a relaxed performance.

Content warnings: The participants taking part in the live conversations have not rehearsed before coming on stage and do not know what the questions are before taking part. We therefore can not know exactly what will be said in advance. 

Audiences are welcome to come and go from the space as you please with the slot they have selected.


Other content notes: 

  • There will be moments of loud music and sounds.
  • All performances will be Relaxed. We invite you to make yourself comfortable and move around if you need to and if you need to leave the performance at any point you will be allowed to return to the space when you feel ready.
  • Participant & audience care has been central to the development of the show and there will be a wellbeing practitioner on site at every performance.
  • Please note, due to the format of the show, there may be a small wait of no more than 10 minutes to enter the space if you arrive after the start time.


Working group & credits
Lead Artist: Krishna Istha
Producer: Ruby Glaskin
Dramaturg: Paula Varjack
Coder & website designer: Suzanna Hurst
Set & Costume Designer: Christine Ting – Huan Urquhart
Lighting Designer: Martha Godfrey
Sound Designer: Olive Mondegreen
Production Manager: Helen Mugridge

 

About the artists:
Krishna Istha
is a London-based performance artist, comedian, theatre maker and screenwriter. They create socially conscious, form-pushing works about taboo or underrepresented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics. Most recently, they wrote on Netflix’s Sex Education (Season 4, Episode 3) and is a Netflix Documentary Talent Fund recipient. They were a Barbican Centre Open Lab artist (2021-22) and an Arts Admin Bursary Artist (2020-21). They were one of two shortlisted writers for the SKY Arts & Royal Society of Literature Writers Awards under screenwriting (2022), and came Runner-Up on Screenshot (2021) — a competition for comedy writer-performers hosted by Sister Pictures and South of the River Pictures.
https://www.krishnaistha.com/

 

First Trimester is part of IPAF: an international festival for contemporary performance presenting artists from different cultural contexts, whose work engages identity politics, sexual expressions, and body representations, facilitated by Warehouse9.

The festival is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, the City of Copenhagen and Bispebjerg Lokaludvalg.

 

 

Venue

Dansekapellet
Bispebjerg Torv 1
København, 2400 Denmark
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Jasmin Ingemansen

Communications manager

Jasmin has a master’s degree in English and cultural communications from the University of Copenhagen and has worked with several fields within the cultural sphere. She has worked with executing and communicating films, festivals, art fairs, and literature, and has now embarked upon queer performance art at Warehouse9. 

Emma Castro Møller

Co-Director

Emma (they/she) has been a core member since 2012 and a leading effort in driving organisational development. They have helped shape WH9’s artistic profile, initiated national and international collaborations and consolidated WH9 through fundraising strategies, and insisting on production methods centering care and accessiblility.

In addition, Emma works as an independent curator, e.g. through the curatorial duo osborn&møller, where they have acted as guest curator at the Wellcome Collection (UK) and curated part of City of Women’s 25 year anniversary festival in 2019 (SL). Emma has experience as a freelance producer in the UK, where they worked with artists such as Poppy Jackson, Manuel Vason and SPILL Festival. Emma holds a MA in Theater and Performance from Queen Mary, University of London and a BA (Hons) in Drama, Applied Theatre & Education from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Jørgen Callesen

Co-Director

Jørgen Callesen (They/He) is co-founder and co-director of  Warehouse9.

For the past 17 years, they have been an integral part of developing Warehouse9 to become a leading organisation for cross-aesthetic queer art, including international festivals and socially engaged projects. He holds a Ph.D. in information & media science from Aarhus University (2005) and has an artistic practice with the performance figure “miss fish”. They have presented solo work in Denmark and internationally since 2002 and work in collaboration with numerous queer artists as well as in lager scale productions.

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