On the 2th of March we will give a lecture on the puppet play “Prometeu” at the school Clara de Resende in Porto.
Picture by Pedro Martins
Almost all the production team will be present at the lecture:
Puppeteer: Marcelo Lafontana
dramaturgy: José Coutinhas
Photography: Pedro Martins
Multimedia: Luís Grifu
Scenography: Sílvia Fagundes
Marcelo Lafantona won the award for best male performance with Prometeu at the 16th International Puppetry Festival in Varna – Bulgaria.
The renewed Prometeu system was performed with great success by the hands of Marcelo. A great performance presented to the Bulgarian audience. The Juri although not knowing the spoken language as chosen Marcelo´s performance as the best male performance.
The new system is more stable and flexible helping Marcelo to be more focus in his performance. Marcelo is the one man show, controlling lights, sounds, video and animation and all the puppeteering. And although it was very complex to create all the stuff is changed by the puppeteer in real-time with just one button.
A very important recognition from one of the oldest Eastern Europe festivals with a great tradition in the art of puppetry.
Congratulations to Marcelo Lafontana.
Photos from TMPC – Varna, Stage Filial – Drama Theater Stoyan Bachvarov
Visting Varna in Bulgaria to the 16th International Puppetry Festival.
Lafontana Formas Animadas was invited to present the Prometeu shadow play at this festival. One of the oldest Eastern Europe puppetry festivals with 45 years old.
We built a new compact version of Prometeu which travels inside a flat case developed to go around the world. It was our first challenge and it passed with distinguish, Marcelo Lafontana won the award for the best performance. We were very happy to present our show at Varna.
From the 1th Octobre to 7th October I have had the privilege to watch 11 great performances from puppetry companies from all over the world.
From string to direct manipulation, from the most classical puppetry to the most contemporary approaches the Varna festival presented a wide range of puppetry aesthetics and puppetry methods for all audiences.
I would like to congratulate the organization for there professionalism handling with all cultural differences representing 10 different countries.
Here is a list of all the puppetry shows that I was able to see, all of them contributed in some way to opening my eyes to this wonderful theatrical art.
La Mar de Marionetas – Madrid, Spain
SPEAK, YOU´RE NOT ALONE
Sofia Puppet Theatre – Sofia
TALE OF THE WANDERING KING
Batumi Puppet and Youth State Theatre – Batumi, Georgia
COLORED FOG’S SEASHORE
State Puppet Theatre – Varna
LITTLE WIZARDS
Harpe en Perigord & La Mar de marionetas – French-Spanish co-production
SHAKESPEARE’S DAUGHTER TELLS HER MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Puppet Theatre Haet-Sal – Suwon, Korea
HEUNG-BU JEON
Baruti Teatro – Athens, Greece
MOMENTOS
Sofia Puppet Theatre – Sofia
THE TEMPEST
State Puppet Theatre – Plovdiv
THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE LITTLE CROCODILE
State Puppet Theatre – Varna
SILENT LEGENDS
The Key Theatre – Tel Aviv, Israel
WHEN ALL WAS GREEN
Prometeu is a multimedia theater play inspired by the Indonesian shadow puppetry, Wayang Kulit. This multidisciplinary project narrows the boundaries between theater and film, past and present, reality and illusion. Merging different art forms brings new experiences to the artists and to the public; in particular the amalgamation of puppetry with film and other disciplines contributes to a new concept, what we can call the performance cinema or ” Live Cinema”.
Using multimedia technologies and cinematic language this project motivates a different paradigm from the traditional reading of the narrative sequence. It promotes the discussion about the boundaries of theater and film, and the role of actors, puppeteers, animators and directors in this particular art form. Preserving the heritage of traditional shadow theater, Prometeu overcomes the typical physical constraints found in traditional puppet theatre through film and multimedia techniques. Real-time post-production, performance animation or interaction techniques provide a new mean of creation to artists. By using sensors the artists can expand the interaction. By using live cameras the performer becomes the director creating the sequence in real-time. Techniques such as “luma-key”, procedural animation or gesture tracking enhance the live experience making the performer into a sort of magician.
In Prometeu one puppeteer, performs with virtual and real objects and controls all the show remotely.
In this paper we present the methodology and the implementation of our technology as well as the aesthetics and conceptual aspects.
In 24th of July of 2014 I will be presenting the paper Prometeu – Ilusão em tempo real at the Avanca Festival in Portugal.
Leite, L., Redondo, M. (2014) Prometeu, Ilusão em tempo-real. Conferência Internacional de Cinema, Arte e Tecnologia. Avanca.
Prometeu is a multimedia theater play inspired by the Indonesian shadow puppetry, Wayang Kulit. This multidisciplinary project narrows the boundaries between theater and film, past and present, reality and illusion. Merging different art forms brings new experiences to the artists and to the public; in particular the amalgamation of puppetry with film and other disciplines contributes to a new concept, what we can call the performance cinema or ” Live Cinema”.
Using multimedia technologies and cinematic language this project motivates a different paradigm from the traditional reading of the narrative sequence. It promotes the discussion about the boundaries of theater and film, and the role of actors, puppeteers, animators and directors in this particular art form.
Preserving the heritage of traditional shadow theater, Prometeu overcomes the typical physical constraints found in traditional puppet theatre through film and multimedia techniques. Real-time post-production, performance animation or interaction techniques provide a new mean of creation to artists. By using sensors the artists can expand the interaction. By using live cameras the performer becomes the director creating the sequence in real-time. Techniques such as “luma-key”, procedural animation or gesture tracking enhance the live experience making the performer into a sort of magician.
In Prometeu one puppeteer, performs with virtual and real objects and controls all the show remotely.
In this paper we present the methodology and the implementation of our technology as well as the aesthetics and conceptual aspects.
Collaboration with Teatro de Formas Animadas (TFA) to create a Live Film concept production using shadow puppetry. This concept applies film language and aesthetics to a puppetry live performance. Mixing real-time editing, post-production and digital performance animation with traditional shadow puppetry with sand drawings and live music performance with digital post-production.
The puppeteer and the music performer controlled all the contents that were produced and presented in real-time in a screen located in the middle of them.
Click here to go to Prometeu keynote site (pictures and workflow) or here to read more about the project at grifu.com
Foto from Pedro Martins
Collaboration in the project “Prometeu – O que é um Gamelão” produced by Teatro de Formas Animadas and the Casa da Musica of Porto. Collaboration in the multimedia design system of a semi-digital shadow puppetry show Wayang type, with gamelan music. The Java silhouettes from Java had great popularity and are famous for their pictures. The wayang is a general term referring to a theatrical performance that combined with another word, defines the type of puppet, for example: Wayan ggolek, rod puppets made of wood, this theatrical performance is usually accompanied by a gamelan music.
The proposal was to build a multimedia system that allows the projection of a film edited in real time. The film made by capturing a light table where the silhouettes were manipulated on a sand background.
With this system it was possible to create a cinematic language, particularly by creating different levels of camera, camera movement, animation and special effects in real time.
The results were very good, not only by the technological platform, but also the artistic platform. This show was on the scene several times in Casa da Música, Teatro de Vila do Conde, and in February 2011 was presented in four performances at the Auditori in Barcelona.
more information at www.grifu.com
