Prometeu play was presented at the 10th International Shadow Theater Festival in Schwäbisch Gmünd. In the closing session of the festival program Marcelo Lafontana gave life to the story of Prometeus with a digital media shadow puppetry.

The combination of shadow theater with a cinematic language makes this play unique.

“This multimedia performance is on the one hand inspired by the traditional Indonesian theatre „Wayang Kulit“ with its jointed silhouettes but on the other hand it makes use of the very latest in contemporary media: Against a lighted background the scene is created by the use of sand to create design and texture and to fashion space and visual surroundings. The puppets are moved in front of this background. The resulting scenes are recorded by video, electronically processed and then projected on to a screen. This is the story of Prometheus, the philanthropist, harbinger of culture and helper of people. He gave them fire and for this was severely punished by Zeus. The performance is an impressive example of the synthesis between the traditional structure of the Javanese Wayang Kulit shadow theatre and its transformation into the trappings and and characteristics of the western world.”

Setup of the play – smooth and with good vibrations!

Large amount of sits (more then 300)

I was invited to be a part of the a round table during the Shadow Theater Festival at  Schwäbisch Gmünd and to discuss the latest developments in the shadow theater in particular the use of new media.

It was a great opportunity to discuss with a panel of personalities related to shadow theater. This round table was moderated by Von Hartmut Topf, with Fabrizio Montecchi from Teatro Gioco Vita, Marcelo Redondo from Lafontana Formas Animadas, Alberto Jona from Controluce Teatro de Sombras and Robert Drobniuch from teatr kubus.

Shadow Theater

I had the opportunity to attend to multiple plays  during the festival, from Teatro Gioco Vita, to Teatr Kubus, from Controluce Teatro d´Ombre,  to Indigo Moon Theatre.

It was a very enriching experience taking me into a journey in the imagined visual world of shadows.

In my opinion the most wonderful play that I saw was the “Dolf Verroen & Wolf Erlbruch” from Teatro Gioco Vita. A magnificent children tale with the direction of Fabrizio Montecchi and incredible actors Deniz Azhar Azari and Andrea Coppone.

Workshops

During the festival and included in the program there were five workshops. Everyday we could observe the evolution and the results of every workshop witch I might say were fascinating.

• Workshop I: Painting with light
• Workshop II: The voice as an instrument
• Workshop III: Introduction to the shadow theater technique
• Workshop IV: Dramaturgy
• Workshop VI: Shadow Lab

In these workshops it was possible to explore light effects, new media, storytelling, spoken words, acting with shadows, puppetry techniques.

Exhibitions

I was absolutely amazed by the work of Simon Touaux, a French artist that explores three dimensional volumes to produce unbelievable shadow figures in a two dimensional plane. His master pieces are built in a window shape to be placed in the wall. And actually, I would like to have a window like this in my room. By turning on the halogen lamp the window reveals the shadow figures and by turning it off, you just see the wooden volumes.

A genius and simple idea. I recommend searching the work of  Simon Touaux witch also explores the animation mechanisms as the optical toys.

I had the opportunity to attend to the 10th International Shadow Theater Festival in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Stuttgart, Germany.

The festival took place in the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd that every three years turns into the most important meeting for the contemporary shadow theater. Shadow theater companies from all over the world were represented: Portugal, Brasil, England, USA, Argentina, France, Italy, Poland and many others.

From the early cave drawings that shadows have been a part of the human communication. The human being is fascinated by the shadow expression as something that as its own life and explored by the mythology. The shadow player is like a shaman that guides our fear from the shadow of the death. The shadow play is connected to spirits, gods and demons or mythical creatures. But the light source as suffer considerable upgrades in its technology. The light from the fire as been replaced by lamp bulbs and projectors generating sharp shadows, and now, with the introduction of halogen lamps it is possible to use it as a performing light, a point light in the stage operated by the performer to create spatial effects. It allows to change the perspective, and create motion and image blending as in film. The last upgrade to this artistic form can be consider somehow problematic and is creating some resistance to recognize it as a shadow technique, the use of cameras and computers.

This year program presents diverse approaches to the shadow theater – a bridge between the traditional form and the contemporary shadow theater.

Last week (8th Oct.) attended the marionette workshop at Museu da Marioneta in Lisbon.

This workshop was oriented by Marcelo Lafontana and Bernd Ogrodnik.

Bernd Ogrodnik his a great puppet master, and was the designer and lead puppeteer for the Marionette Movie “Strings”, currently he is the Artistic Director of the Icelandic Center of Puppetry Arts.

It was a great honor to listen to the Bernd Ogrodnik and to learn how to respect puppets, and to understand how important it is the concept of awareness in puppetry.