Project Coordinators: Sukhesh Arora, Niko Preuschoff, Manfred Schewe 

PROJECT 81 PLUS is an extension of the project entitled On the Softening of Our World: 81 Sayings that has been documented in a bilingual (German-English) book, edited by Manfred Schewe. The book can be ordered directly here via the publisher's website and is now also available as an ebook. 

Our broad aim remains to make more visible, in both our private and professional lives, elements that we perceive as hard-set and rigid in our volatile world, and also make more tangible how such inhuman hardening may be overcome. 

Our current initiatives include: 

• Public Readings/Discussions, based on a selection of texts from the book publication

The first Public Reading/Discussion – in support of teams of the Irish Red Cross working on the ground in Ukraine – took place at the Everyman Theatre, Cork, on May 17, 2022. The event was streamed and can now be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAlMUSgm_M

• Creating a Podcast (Project Coordination: Sukhesh Arora)
• Creative writing: in the book readers were encouraged to create their your own saying and commentary. In the months to come we will collect these texts and make them available to a wider readership (format tbc). If interested please send your sayings/commentaries to: project81plus@gmail.com 
• Teaching/Learning: Using (a selection of) texts from the book publication for pedagogical purposes
• Theatre-related Projects that respond in creative ways to Bertolt Brecht's poem Legend of the origin of the book Tao-te-Ching on Lao-Tsu's road into exile (1938), especially the following extract: how quite soft water, by attrition / over the years will grind strong rocks away / in other words, that hardness must lose the day.

Updates on these and other initiatives will be made available as soon as possible.

Contact: project81plus@gmail.com 

Biodata of Project Coordinators:

Sukhesh Arora is an actor, performancemaker and educator whose work explores a diverse mesh of interests spanning film, audio, games, the web and live theater. Sukhesh trained in theater pedagogy and physical theater with an emphasis on embodied learning practices. A Charles Wallace Scholar, he was artistic director of the Imago TIE Company, India, (2003-05), and in 2005, he founded Yellowcat Theater, to create exciting and relevant new work for young audiences. He worked closely with Delhi University to develop a performing arts curriculum for elementaryteacher educators. His work as a performer on stage, TV & film spans a wide range of genres. In 2012, he was nominated by the U.S. Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs for the International Visitors’ Leadership Program (IVLP) as an emerging leader in the area of Arts & Social Change. In 2022, he received a TESF research grant which aims at generating new knowledge and build capacities via interdisciplinary research that can contribute to equitable, socially just and environmentally sustainable futures.

Niko Preuschoff who spent four years at UCC, lecturing in the area of language, literature and philosophy, now lives in Berlin. He teaches at Pestalozzi Froebel Haus (where he is currently involved in the setting up an Erasmus exchange with higher education institutions in Cork) and is a lecturer for NYU Berlin and Middlebury College, Vermont. He published a study on Walter Benjamin and W.G. Sebald (Heidelberg 2015) and is co-editor of a volume on Adaptation as a Collaborative Art (London 2020). His current research focusses on concepts of modesty in literature and philosophy.“

Manfred Schewe is Professor Emeritus at University College Cork (UCC) where he served as Head of a Language Department (German) and also as Head of Theatre. He paved the way for Scenario Project at UCC which encompasses a journal, a book series and a forum for international conferences, symposia and colloquia. His teaching and interdisciplinary research activities focus on Applied Drama and Theatre, especially on performative approaches to Language, Literature and Culture. He continues to give lectures and lead workshops for institutions and professional associations in different parts of the world. For further details see: http://research.ucc.ie/profiles/A016/mschewe