festival reflections
My time in Wroclaw is coming to an end and I feel like I'm just now beginning! All the US directors are here - those discussions have been wonderful. Frequently my volunteer shifts have interfered, but I'll be there tomorrow before I leave. My flight's not until the evening.
Teatr Zar's Cesarian Section, Essays on Suicide is still, by far, the glowing, pulsing gem of my experience here. Theatre of the Goat, was good, but if I hadn't already known Macbeth, it would have been very difficult. Their diction that night wasn't great and frequently spoke off voice, or the speaker was the same volume as the speakers, and therefore lost.
The Balinese ensemble, Gambuh Desa Bautan Ensemble, has been wonderful. Topeng. The Story of Dalem Bungkunt, last night was an amazing display of mask and musical skill. The speeds at which 2 men played an instrument similar to a xylephone, but smaller, in perfect unison was phenominal. And the dancers... I know these are carved wooden masks. I've worked in similar ones at Dell'Arte. I thought the masks were blinking at me. Wow. Tonight they'll performing a spectacle out in Ryneck square. I can't wait!
I'll also be seeing, the Attis Theatre from Greece's performance of Ajax, the Madness. I don't know anything about it, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Yesterday, also hosted local Midsummer festivities - I got a lovely flower crown that I'll throw in the river today for good luck in love. I would have done it last night when everyone else did, to float along with candles on the river. But I was on a roof seeing a very uninspired, bland, sloppy, Cooperative Gimnastica from Mexico. Don't be fooled by the name. There is no acrobatic prowress in this company. Just the opposite. Very lazy bodies despite all the abstract movements. No one was grounded, I didn't believe anyone had a reason to be doing what they were doing. I don't need to know an actor's intention, but I need to believe you have one. I should have stayed on the island for Midsummer and then caught the bus to be taken out to see Lemko by Teatr Modrzejewskiej.
Despite not starting until 11:30pm, (last night was the Night of Theatre aptly) it was an amazing production. Sadly, being in Polish and not having time to read the English synopsis before the show, the second half was very difficult for me to stay engaged with. Ultimately, it dealt with displacement and ethnic pride. By the end - being firmly against any type being superior to another type - I was thinking to myself all the reasons I think ethnic superiority is stupid and rooted in personal insecurity. And working to stay awake. I'll have time today on my volunteer shift to finish reading the synopsis and see if what I felt the end of the piece was about, is indeed what it was about.
As a company, they did an amazing job of transforming an old warehouse? They're known in Poland for their transformations of historical/old/abandoned spaces. The levels... every actor filled the space, which was huge, with body and voice. A great testiment to them all.
I just wish I'd been a little more awake and alert.
Today, my host took me to the Jewish cemetary that's been turned into a museum. Wow. I can't really describe the feelings going through me as I stood in a cemetary turned museum that's turning into a forest. Ivy, vines, flowers, trees, are all growing rampant. Carressing crumbling tombs, bringing life into moseleums. It's a very large cemetary. For my Chicago friends, think the massive cemetary on Montrose a little smaller without the lakes. The last person laid to rest there was in the 1940's. Wroclaw now has a very small Jewish population, still being predominately Catholic. A lot of the grave markers are new, families from Israel and the States paying to remember their family that lies in current Poland, old Germany, and older Poland (circa 1100, from what I've been told this area was Germany for much longer than it was Poland). And then we grabbed coffee at the first organic fair trade coffee shop in Wroclaw! A friend of a friend works there. Great books, calm atmosphere and good coffee. I had an espresso from Chiapas that I was quite pleased with. :-)
The barista and I met yesterday and had a great conversation about theatre and local, sustainable economy. She may visit Portland. :-)
And I'm percolating the idea of applying for a Fulbright to examine if Polish pagan roots are an inspiration, conscious or subconsious, in Polish theatre... I have a lot of personal research to do first, obviously and the little thing of learning fluent Polish, but it's an idea...
Teatr Zar's Cesarian Section, Essays on Suicide is still, by far, the glowing, pulsing gem of my experience here. Theatre of the Goat, was good, but if I hadn't already known Macbeth, it would have been very difficult. Their diction that night wasn't great and frequently spoke off voice, or the speaker was the same volume as the speakers, and therefore lost.
The Balinese ensemble, Gambuh Desa Bautan Ensemble, has been wonderful. Topeng. The Story of Dalem Bungkunt, last night was an amazing display of mask and musical skill. The speeds at which 2 men played an instrument similar to a xylephone, but smaller, in perfect unison was phenominal. And the dancers... I know these are carved wooden masks. I've worked in similar ones at Dell'Arte. I thought the masks were blinking at me. Wow. Tonight they'll performing a spectacle out in Ryneck square. I can't wait!
I'll also be seeing, the Attis Theatre from Greece's performance of Ajax, the Madness. I don't know anything about it, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Yesterday, also hosted local Midsummer festivities - I got a lovely flower crown that I'll throw in the river today for good luck in love. I would have done it last night when everyone else did, to float along with candles on the river. But I was on a roof seeing a very uninspired, bland, sloppy, Cooperative Gimnastica from Mexico. Don't be fooled by the name. There is no acrobatic prowress in this company. Just the opposite. Very lazy bodies despite all the abstract movements. No one was grounded, I didn't believe anyone had a reason to be doing what they were doing. I don't need to know an actor's intention, but I need to believe you have one. I should have stayed on the island for Midsummer and then caught the bus to be taken out to see Lemko by Teatr Modrzejewskiej.
Despite not starting until 11:30pm, (last night was the Night of Theatre aptly) it was an amazing production. Sadly, being in Polish and not having time to read the English synopsis before the show, the second half was very difficult for me to stay engaged with. Ultimately, it dealt with displacement and ethnic pride. By the end - being firmly against any type being superior to another type - I was thinking to myself all the reasons I think ethnic superiority is stupid and rooted in personal insecurity. And working to stay awake. I'll have time today on my volunteer shift to finish reading the synopsis and see if what I felt the end of the piece was about, is indeed what it was about.
As a company, they did an amazing job of transforming an old warehouse? They're known in Poland for their transformations of historical/old/abandoned spaces. The levels... every actor filled the space, which was huge, with body and voice. A great testiment to them all.
I just wish I'd been a little more awake and alert.
Today, my host took me to the Jewish cemetary that's been turned into a museum. Wow. I can't really describe the feelings going through me as I stood in a cemetary turned museum that's turning into a forest. Ivy, vines, flowers, trees, are all growing rampant. Carressing crumbling tombs, bringing life into moseleums. It's a very large cemetary. For my Chicago friends, think the massive cemetary on Montrose a little smaller without the lakes. The last person laid to rest there was in the 1940's. Wroclaw now has a very small Jewish population, still being predominately Catholic. A lot of the grave markers are new, families from Israel and the States paying to remember their family that lies in current Poland, old Germany, and older Poland (circa 1100, from what I've been told this area was Germany for much longer than it was Poland). And then we grabbed coffee at the first organic fair trade coffee shop in Wroclaw! A friend of a friend works there. Great books, calm atmosphere and good coffee. I had an espresso from Chiapas that I was quite pleased with. :-)
The barista and I met yesterday and had a great conversation about theatre and local, sustainable economy. She may visit Portland. :-)
And I'm percolating the idea of applying for a Fulbright to examine if Polish pagan roots are an inspiration, conscious or subconsious, in Polish theatre... I have a lot of personal research to do first, obviously and the little thing of learning fluent Polish, but it's an idea...