dimanche 20 avril 2008

21:13 production photos

21:13 rehearsal video

Here is some footage of an early 21:13 rehearsal. The ideas in this film are preliminary attempts at finding physical transpositions of the struggle we have to connect with others when we don't share the same language.

The beginning of 21:13

Valentina Ceschi and Thomas Eccleshare, the co-writers and performers of 21:13 are Italian and English, living in Paris, and have spent the last two years at the Jacques Lecoq school, training with people from France, Spain, Japan, Finland and Taiwan (to name just a few). Bubbling in this cauldron of internationality was the question that forms the basis of 21:13:

How do you communicate without a common language?

The writing of the show itself is ultimately an exploration into ways of answering this question. Experimenting with mime, gesture, music, masks, gobbledygook, dance, puppetry and languages from Norwegian to Japanese, 21:13 in its final form will be a distillation of a sea of research into how people communicate with one another.

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Valentina Ceschi e Thomas Eccleshare, attori e autori di 21:13 sono rispettivamente di nazionalità Italiana e Inglese. Vivono a Parigi e hanno appena finito i due anni di studio alla scuola Internazionale di Teatro Jacques Lecoq. Lavorando con artisti provenienti da paesi diversi come Francia, Spagna, Portogallo, Israele, Giappone, Finlandia, Norvegia, Taiwan (per nominarne alcuni), l'impegno per farsi capire non parlando la stessa lingua è per gli studenti della scuola, una sfida quotidiana.
Da quest' esperienza unica risulta il lavoro che Valentina e Thomas hanno intrapreso scrivendo insieme lo spettacolo 21:13, chiedendosi appunto: “come fai a comunicare se non parli la stessa lingua?”

Il risultato e’ un'esplorazione dei vari modi di rispondere a questa domanda.

Sperimentando con il mimo, la gestualità, il linguaggio dei segni, le marionette, oggetti, parole in lingue diverse (dal Norvegese al Giapponese!), e trasposizioni nello spazio, 21:13 condensa in attimi concreti, il mare immenso e complesso della comunicazione umana.

samedi 19 avril 2008

La Commedia Dell’Arte e Dario Fo


Lezioni di sesso…

In un caffe’ cittadino, Meredith e Mme Spencer, sono due signore di una certa classe, tutte e due pazzamente innamorate del giovane e ingenuo cameriere Bernard. Cosa non farebbero per la sua attenzione ?

Queste due signore 'Pantalone' si confrontano in una cruenta battaglia per l’oggetto della loro ossessione sessuale; un tiro alla fune che finisce per spogliarle dei loro beni e della loro dignità.

"Ladies" è un corto sketch con maschere (fabbricate dagli attori stessi) che mette i personaggi - tratti direttamente dalla Commedia dell’Arte, in posizioni ridicole, comiche, oscene. Spinti dalle passioni umane, i personaggi si ritrovano vittime di tic violenti, lazzi, e scurrilità.

Questo piccolo spettacolo di maschere tratta i temi di possessione, amore e sesso, e si lega dunque con facilità al discorso sul sesso di Franca Rame e Dario Fo, "Un peu de Sexe? Merci, juste pour vous etre agreable", recitato da Félicie Fabre sotto la regia di Luciano Travaglino, al piccolo e adorabile Théâtre de la Girandole.

"Un peu de sexe..." è una tenera e divertente conferenza sull’amore che sembra quasi perdonare le due strampalate signore assetate di sesso, quali Meredith e Madame Spencer, rendendo loro l’umanità e la simpatia che meritano tutti i personaggi della Commedie Humaine.

L’espace tragique et Francis Bacon



En travaillant sur les chœurs tragiques en deuxième année, je me souviens du travail, sur la peinture, effectué l’an précédent. Ce travail apprivoisait déjà notre sensibilité au drame des couleurs, des tensions dans l’espace; l’effet dramatique de la ligne, du point, de la surface. Mon group en particulier se concentrait sur l’œuvre de Francis Bacon, et sans tout à fait s’en apercevoir, nous habitions déjà un espace tragique. Souvent dans sa peinture, Bacon nous présente des paysages intérieurs, des espaces clos, pour la plupart démarqués par des chapiteaux sinistres, ou par des hauts murs aux couleurs foncées, angoissants. Jamais équilibrés, ces espaces nous déstabilisent encore plus que les personnages déformes qui les habitent, et au fur et à mesure, ce déséquilibre, comme sur le plateau, nous pousse à la folie du cri vertical, tendu, tragique, tel le cri baconien.

samedi 12 avril 2008

Les Jeudis

In February 2008, we performed as part of the Pompidou Centre's 'Les Jeudis', in the Musee D'Art Moderne. The idea behind the project was to try to take something from the works, be it the colours, the dynamic, the themes, the space, and transpose them into a short passage of movement. We then performed them in the rooms of the museum, in front of the works themselves.

The first is 'Punctuation', based on the works of Christian Boltanksi. It is concerned with memory, loss and the effort to pin down a 'true' self.

The second is a rehearsal of our work 'Court Metrage', based on 60s French Pop-Art. The room is filled with images of espionage, bright colours and grand attitudes, all of which we took as inspiration.




The LEM

Here is a sample of some experiments we did while working on the LEM end of term show. This is Valentina Ceschi a Santa Croce and Thomas Eccleshare with a work-in-progress of Trimalchio, a character from Petron's Satiricon. The idea was to reflect the character's pride and vanity by reacting lines in space, as well as a touch of the 'personage' with the mask-like structures.

Since Brick Walls

Since 'Brick Walls' Dan Mansell and Thomas Eccleshare, the original Dancing Brick team, have been split by the channel, so work on a follow up has had to wait. Thomas has been training at L'École Internationale De Théatre Jacques Lecoq and Dan has been studying and performing in London.

Brick Walls Highlights

Brick Walls was met with a fantastic reception at the Fringe and by the end had turned a significant profit - a testament to the quality and hard work of all the Brick Walls team, Thomas Eccleshare, Dan Mansell and Tom Powell.

Brick Walls Reviews


At the Edinburgh Fringe 2006, 'Brick Walls' was met with unanimously fantastic reviews. Here are some selections:

Scotsman (Zoe Green) **** 'Pick of the Week'
Although this is the first show they've written and performed together, Dan Mansell and Thomas Eccleshare could be destined to become one of those legendary comic duos. Mansell and Eccleshare have faces designed for comedy: a flicker of Eccleshare's eyebrow and the audience is reduced to helpless laughter. A mixture of artful dialogue, impeccable choreography and exquisite comic timing make it a pleasure to spend an hour with these guys. The script is a thing of beauty, vacillating between fantastical dream images and surreal, Pinteresque dialogue...The silences are as powerful and eloquent as the dialogue - full of movement, mime and clowning. So impeccable is their choreography that they can do joint routines with buckets over their heads. For two actors who haven't been to drama school (yet), the show is incredibly professional. Tom and Dan have only just graduated from Cambridge: let's hope they forget the milk round and collaborate with each other instead.

Broadwaybaby.com (Pete Shaw) ****
Mansell and Eccleshare together give a perfectly synchronised performance, flowing between powerful drama and physical theatre with the fluidity of mercury...With clever writing and strong performances, this makes for a definitive Fringe show.

Writers Guild (Eiriona Jackson)
The exchanges between the characters are witty, carefully constructed and illuminate the writers’ ability to demark differences in character with enough subtlety to avoid presenting them as polarised archetypes...This piece is engaging, well structured and displays signs of genuine originality.

Edinburgh Evening News (Simon Neville)
Slightly bizarre, and the acting was fantastic and I left feeling content.

ThreeWeeks ****
Possibly one of the most wonderful descents into madness in a confined space ever.

Compelling bouts of silence and slapstick paranoia lead the two into their own stories, and before long the tiny space is jam packed with fictitious characters. Beautifully inspiring the audience’s imagination, the duo’s madness escalates until their delusions become as real to the watchers as they are to the trapped comrades. Both clever and engrossing, it makes incarceration look like a whole world of fun.

The Stage
Funny and poignant.

Festival Radio ****
Innovative and imaginative.

Brick Walls Trailers

In 2006, Dancing Brick took our first show, 'Brick Walls' up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Before the Fringe started we began our publicity campaign by putting teaser trailers and a full trailer on Myspace and Youtube. By the time we arrived in Edinburgh, there was already talk about the show on the Edfringe website.

Teaser:



Full Trailer:

mardi 8 avril 2008

Introduction

Welcome to the Dancing Brick blog. Check here for news of shows, rehearsals and videos from your old chum, the Dancing Brick.