LENA bruun BONDESON
theaterdirector, performing artist & producer
danish / swedish - born 1988 - she/her
based in copenhagen & stockholm
I am a theatre director, performer, and producer specializing in contemporary physical theatre, immersive performances, and politically engaged collaborations.
I co-founded the performing arts collective BRAVO TOGA and have been fundraising and creating performances in the independent scene since 2015. With international touring experience, I was a performer in a Reumert award-winning production in 2019.
I have been part of several cross-sectorial projects combining practice and theory.
During my MFA in directing at the Danish National School of Performing Arts, I conducted a two-year-long Artistic Research. I also did an exchange at the renowned MA in Choreography & Performance under Bojana Kunst in Giessen. Additionally, I hold a BA in physical acting from Stockholm University of the Arts.
︎ COOPERATIVES
- KOMMA Performance Productions (DK)
- Kulturkooperativet Interim Kultur (SE) - boardmember since 2023
︎ BRAVO TOGA
My performing arts collective BRAVO TOGA consists of Anna Kuusamo from Finland, Lena Bondeson from Denmark & Sara Ribbenstedt from Sweden. We work with theater & dance & are situated as a cross-disciplinairy, humouristic & experimental collective in contemporary free field in the North since 2016 ︎︎︎ WWW.BRAVOTOGA.COM
︎ ARTISTIC REASEARCH 2019 - 2022
During my two-year Artistic Research in directing at The Danish National School of Performing Arts, I developed the method “squatting” and “sloppy immersion”. This was an approach to paraphrase a filmdocumentary onto stage. By filming ourselves role-playing a real documentary (about the heavy-metal band Metallica) we created our own fake documentary about our role play. The combined mockumentary showing and live larp-performance (live action role-playing) was called Something Else Matters.
Our methodology was described and theorized in participating performance-philosoher Dr. Phil. Jonas Schnor PhD dissertation - “Microdramaturgy - A Performance Philosophy“.
