Winter Guests

Winter Guests was established in 2006 as a producing and touring company for work created by choreographer and director Alan Lucien Øyen.

 What began as a works outsetting in dance with the use of some text, has fractioned into two parallel lines of work; choreographic work with dancers, and staging of plays with actors.

 The company now produces mainly theatre works written by Alan Lucien Øyen and or in collaboration with the performers, while Øyen continues to stage commissioned dance performances for dance companies around the world.

 Winter Guests received great critical acclaim for the 2009 production of "AMERICA – Visions of Love", a play about writing a screen-play for a movie about America which is in-turn destined for the European stage. The play is based on experiences had whilst traveling through the States  and includes original text, transcribed recordings, and improvisations.  This has become part of the working method for the company - contextualizing their own reality into the subject matter of the piece - resulting in rich, eccentric and entertaining performances.

 The company aims to create performances of the highest quality with a  rich and dramatic content, which means working only with highly skilled and experienced people both on-stage and off.  Described as "sincere and emotive" , the performances have engaged audiences and critics alike.

 The company is closely associated with BIT-teatergarasjen, in Bergen, with whom all productions have been co-produced.  Work has also been created in co-production with Carte Blanche and The House of Dance, Norway.

 The company receives funding from among others, The Norwegian Arts Council and The City of Bergen. In December 2009 Winter Guests received a three-year grant from the Norwegian Arts Council fully funding 4 projects. This marked an important milestone in the establishment of Winter Guests as a key production company on the Norwegian Arts Scene.

 The company has toured 15 countries on 4 continents.