STATUS YEAR 12 · ISSUE 133 · JULY 2022 · 11TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
OPINION BIO INTERVIEW TIPS & TRICKS OFFSTAGE GENETICS NEWS
PH FRANCESCO BONDI
· STAFF ·
STAFF
TRANSLATION
FEÑA ORTALLI
FEÑA ORTALLI
GENERAL DIRECTOR
SPANISH - ENGLISH
GLOBAL IMPRO
LUANA PROENÇA
PRODUCTION
PORTUGUESE
THANKS TO GAEL DOORNEWEERD-PERRY & MENG WANG FRENCH
MAŁGORZATA WERACHOWSKA
MIRKO MANETTI MAURO SIMOLO
POLISH
ITALIAN
WWW.STATUSREVISTA.COM
INFO@GLOBALIMPRO.COM
@STATUS.IMPRO
Kasia Chmara Antonio Vulpio César Cienfuegos Laura Doorneweerd-Perry Mariana Mazover Ignacio Buby Grinstein Luana Proença Miejskie Centrum Kultury w Bydgoszczy International Theatresports Institute
@STATUSREVISTADEIMPRO
· CONTENTS ·
4.
6. BIO
INTERVIEW
APRECIATION OF THE MOMENT - César Cienfuegos -
ZEAMI MOTOKIYO - Feña Ortalli-
ANTONIO VULPIO - Feña Ortalli-
OPINION
8.
16. 20. 22.
TIPS & TRICKS
OFFSTAGE
GENETICS
3 FAREWELL MONOLOGUES - Laura Doorneweerd-Perry -
HOW TO START WRITING A THEATRE PLAY
STRINGS - Ignacio Buby Grinstein -
27.
- Mariana Mazover -
CLICK ON THE PAGE NUMBER TO GO TO SECTION
NEWS
STATUS · 3
· OPINION ·
Apreciation of the moment My first improv workshop in Spain. In the city of Malaga, Spain, I had the opportunity to take a special workshop called “The Moment”, with Feña Ortalli. None of this would have been possible without the production of Escuela de Impro de Málaga and the constant work of Mario, improviser, and producer, that made this weekend happen. The feeling of finding yourself in a new group and play inspires all kinds of improvisers and, with a lot of excitement we got together: Spanish-speaking players, improvisers with a few months and with lots of years of experience, and even clowns who brought an intense emotion to the stage. Silence, movement, looking, a taste for complicity and pause were some of the elements practiced during the first session. There, we gave space to the voice and the word, from a trial-error perspective, to be able to avoid wasting each moment with verbosity or to use purely informative lines that would
take us too quickly to the following scene without experiencing the process of being present amongst characters. The phrases “dig deeper in the scene”, “discover how the dialogue between music and improvisers generate an undeniable effect”, and “it is a fact that something is happening here”, were highlighted for the second session. They made sense and inspired the game of composing a scene visually, listening and offering a subtext, discovering the focus, and finding shortcuts to go straight to what deserves to be said until a reaction (that might have been there since the beginning), is found at the end of the scene to close the moment and push the story forward. If we should mention something about this time of pandemic in 2022, that would be that we were actually infected by so much joy, play, and discoverings of new tools that will nurture our improv experience. Yes, let’s. César Cienfuegos cynemaq@gmail.com
STATUS · 4
· BIO ·
Zeami Motokiyo Zeami Motokiyo (世阿弥 元清) was a Japanese actor and playwright born in 1363. Between him and his father, the famous actor Kan’ami, wrote more than half of the plays in the current repertoire of Noh theatre. At the age of 8, Zeami Motokiyo became the shôgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’s protegee, and he took advantage of this situation to spend his youth working on the refining and transformation of the styles Sarugaku y Dengaku to the form currently known as Noh. After the death of his father in 1384, Zeami continued his work and introduced, amongst other innovations, the presence of the chorus. However, he began to lose support, since the new shôgun preferred the ancient for of Dengaku. Zeami believed the ideal art could only be fully reached when the actor was, at the same time, the author of the represented play.
STATUS · 6
· BIO ·
He wrote many treatises about Noh, discussing the philosophy of performance, all of them of great importance for the history of Japanese Theatre such as The Book of Transmission of the Flower (Fūshikaden) and a series of writings found in 1909 and published in 1960 called The Secret Traditions of Noh. These treatises are the oldest known works on the philosophy of drama in Japanese literature but did not see popular circulation until the 20th century. A total of 24 yokyoku (Noh plays) are attributed with certainty to him; while other 70 works are considered very likely his. Amongst the most important, we can mention Hagoromo, Takasago, and Shunkwan. Many of his plays established the plots for many novelists and playwrights from the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). Zeami Motokiyo died in Kyoto in 1443, at the age of 80.
Feña Ortalli globalimpro@gmail.com
SOURCES: https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/z/zeami.htm https://www.japonartesescenicas.org/teatro/generos/noh/personalidades/zeami.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo
· INTERVIEW ·
“Improv is reacting to the context in an honest and vulnerable manner” ANTONIO VULPIO
STATUS · 8
STATUS · 9
PH FRANCESCO BONDI
· INTERVIEW - ANTONIO VULPIO ·
O
ne of the best things about producing this magazine every month is that I get to talk to interesting people all the time. Most of them are improvisers I met at a certain point in my career, but some are recommended by
the people I interview. Antonio’s name came up several times before, but it was Nadine’s recommendation and her exposition on the “saboteur” concept that convinced me I should talk to him on Status.
¿What’s your personal definition of impro?
is happening to create the story. We don’t know what story we are telling until we’ve finished.
To create something whatever we have.
I love storytelling but I try to convince my students that the story WILL appear eventually IF they’re truly present. What are your tools or resources to stay present?
beautiful
from
I could add, just to expand a little, that it’s not about storytelling (which I believe is a dangerous trap), or acting; but it’s really about reacting to the context in an honest and vulnerable manner. Why do you say focusing only on storytelling or acting is a trap?
I think that focusing too much on storytelling puts our minds, our attention elsewhere, on the story itself, dragging the focus away from the actual context, and the partners. I’ve noticed that when we start to chase a story we become worse improvisers because in our mind we try to follow the “right” thing to do with respect to the story. We process in our mind distancing from observation, instead of reacting to the partner, to the event, to whatever
Yes, I think we agree on that, from what I understand is the same concept. About the tools, I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of the Orcas Island Project and to learn from Randy Dixon. We worked a lot on abstract improv. In that context, presence is everything, because if you are not true to yourself you bore yourself to death. So I guess being honest and true to yourself. Don’t be scared to admit your weaknesses, even saying out loud through your character: “I don’t know what to do”. I remember Randy quoting Del Close saying: “People come to the theater to tell their story, not to be told one”. In this sense, being honest
STATUS · 10
· INTERVIEW - ANTONIO VULPIO ·
is being in the service of the audience, helping them to tell their story. Another tool is silence. Students (and not only them) are often scared of silence, but again, silence is a great way to “make space” for the audience. What do you remember from the first time you encounter improvisation?
The feeling I could play without being judged or shamed for behaving “like a fool”. And the idea of being amongst peers. You know, like when the ugly duckling discovers the swans in the pond and they recognize him. Correct me if I’m wrong but, I imagine you started playing Impro Match, right? What did you like about the format back then? What do you still like about it?
You are right. In 1996, when I started, improv was only that. Back then (and for someone to the present day) people believed improv and Match rules were the same. What I liked about it is the energy, for sure. It’s something I like right now. Also, what I like is the structure. It’s a structure so solid that you can have improvisers with little experience and the show will still work. Back then I was totally enamored, I couldn’t tell Match and improv apart, really. Today I prefer other formats, less prone to alpha players.
Usually, our minds expand when we start traveling. What changed in your vision of improvisation when you started playing with other people from other places?
First of all, the revelation that improv wasn’t only a funny 2-minutes sketch. Poetry, drama, truth everything could be part of improv. Something that maybe we give for granted but wasn’t. Second, I had to struggle with the language and that helped me to expand both the acceptance of my limits and my understanding of the power of the emotions. My limits to express myself, and the understanding that, in a way, we can transcend verbal language. Also, being exposed to a more open context, meeting people from all around the world, and understanding that the improv world was not only hobby-oriented like it was back then in Italy but could be something more. Can you name some trips, moments, or people that helped you realize that?
At the Impro Festival Berlin 2005 (or 2004), the first thing I saw was Unexpected Productions doing a 5-minute shapeshifting tableau about the ocean, where one person takes the focus and the rest of the group becomes the environment until someone else takes that place. You see the group in constant movement. I was totally in awe.
STATUS · 11
· INTERVIEW - ANTONIO VULPIO ·
From that moment on it has been a discovery after the other. I could name you a lot of improvisers but that would be an injustice to those I forget.
The concept itself is found in Keith Johnstone’s “World Worst Improvisor” exercise: one person is trying to make the scene work while the other is trying to destroy it.
And, about the mind-opening experience, my friend Tom Johnson once told his students: “It’s beautiful when the audience tells you ‘nice to see you again on stage’. For that reason, you need to leave it!”
Years ago I have invited Patti Stiles to Bologna to teach my company Teatro a Molla. We worked on this a little and from that moment on I became obsessed with this mechanism.
In our latest interview, Nadine Antler talked about you and the Saboteur concept. How did you develop that idea?
I understood that nobody tries to ruin a scene voluntarily, nevertheless, we often get mad a people that we believe are doing that on purpose.
PH FRANCESCO BONDI
STATUS · 12
· INTERVIEW - ANTONIO VULPIO ·
PH MARCO MELOTTI
The problem is WE become the real saboteurs when we try to “correct”, stigmatize, “revert to normality”, or justify the action of the supposed bad improviser. Terrible things we do when we believe we are right.
focused on them; if you focus on storytelling they will probably let you down.
So this was the starting idea: there are no bad improvisers, only people that, for some reason, are trying to protect themselves. So, being their ally on stage, instead of being the person who judges, corrects, or justifies is the first step.
Keith Johnstone in Improv for Storytellers makes a long list of errors that are more behaviors. If we observe accurately they are the emanations of two poles: driver and passenger. So, the “saboteurs” will try to defend themselves either by taking decisions or by letting go of control. If you can recognize them, you can have a clear idea of what will happen and behave accordingly.
The next step is having a technique. And that’s what I’m working on. Since the “saboteur” will destroy your expectations, you need to be
And above all, give up and have fun! It’s so great to see people having fun without criticizing each other.
STATUS · 13
· INTERVIEW - ANTONIO VULPIO ·
I guess the ultimate application of this concept is playing a show with an audience member. And that’s what you do in “Chi è di scena?”, right?
Do you know who also? Monika Ozdarska from Warsaw. She is trying very hard to build a community in Poland between groups.
Exactly! The first actor who did this was Lee White, I believe. Or the first I’ve heard of, because I know also Neil Curran does this.
Feña Ortalli globalimpro@gmail.com
But the fact is, when I’ve heard about Lee’s show, I thought to myself, what is the point in doing that? I wasn’t mature enough to understand the value of a show like that. Then, sometime later, I arrived at the conclusion, as you anticipated, that playing with a nonimprovisor could be both a challenge for me and something interesting to play for a show. Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to mention?
At the moment, I’m focusing on organizing the next season. After the pandemic, we want to be back to work and maybe open up again to the international scene. Last question, Antonio. Who do you think we should interview?
Well, I think Tom Johnson from Portland is a great candidate if you haven’t interviewed him before, he is witty and full of stories to tell. Matthieu Loos, Per Gottfredsson, Hank Van Der Steen. Well, I would say all the cast from Orcas Island.
PH FRANCESCO BONDI
· TIPS & TRICKS ·
3 farewell monologues I believe that we can have more different types of people as improv teachers. To encourage you to start, or to improve your teaching, every month I will share with you a tip and an exercise.
THIS MONTH’S TIP:
Use the tech Grossly underestimated, underused, and underappreciated. I am talking about theatre tech: the lights, the sound, the fog machine, whatever plugs into the electricity and makes your show better. If you want to make actual theatre magic happen, you need the tech. In my opinion. And if you are lucky -like I was at the latest Impro Amsterdam festival-, you get to work with very good and inspired tech people. (Though we are not always so lucky…)
This month I want to encourage you to use the tech. Try to start from tech, when designing your show. This goes for any type of show, even that casual showcase in the corner of a bar. Ask your tech people (in advance) what the options are, however few. And give yourself the challenge to use its full potential, even if it means designing a new game or setup. Or adapt a game you already know to fit the tech. Players, audience, and tech people will love you for it. It creates magic!
STATUS · 16
· TIPS & TRICKS ·
THIS MONTH’S EXERCISE:
3 farewell monologues For the show I directed, I asked the festival tech what options he had with lights. He showed me 3 spots aimed downstage, near the audience. I then came up with a setup that would use that light setting in terms of staging and effect. Before the show, I practiced with the players finding the stickers on the floor for those 3 spots. (Don’t skip this step) For the scene itself, three individual players ask the audience: “What is something or someone you have said goodbye to lately?” Each player picks a suggestion that speaks to them, ranging from dying grandmothers to ‘the
illusion I will ever be able to parallel park’. This also allows players to choose according to their playing style. The 3 spotlights come on and they alternate in telling a farewell monologue to this person or thing. Each monologue is given time to breathe, but later the performers can play with the pace and rhythm of taking over. The tech person ends the scene. I use this setup for a more theatrical use of the light, for slowing down a high pace show, and for showcasing different types of players in 1 setup.
Laura Doorneweerd-Perry / laura@lauradoorneweerd.nl
STATUS · 17
· OFFSTAGE ·
How to start writing a theatre play Mariana Mazover hola@marianamazover.com
A common mistake when it comes to approaching playwrighting is the idea of the message. The idea that, in order to start writing something, “I have to know what I want to talk about”, or even more: what I want to say. I don’t know how this belief got so rooted, but it’s one of the things I hear very often in my playwrighting classes when I ask my students where they think we should start writing a play. Thinking that starting point of writing is this idea of “message” generates more obstacles than possibilities for developing our imagination. This idea will hardly impulse us to write. On the contrary, it’s pretty paralyzing.
A much more fertile path is to ask ourselves “what is talking inside me?”, “what worlds inhabit me?”, “what is my universe?”, “what are the things that are talking to me?”. Writer Juan José Saer calls this the Universo Pulsional: this very particular world that configures, when working with it, the future fictional imaginaries. Imagination doesn’t come from ideas or concepts, but from images: habitable coordinates of time and space that we build and explore through our own sensorial perception: A fisher on the dock, alone, in the middle of winter, on a beach in the Atlantic shore. Wind blowing. Grey sky. Who is he? What’s happening to him?
STATUS · 20
· OFFSTAGE ·
This would be an example of an image, a discrete and concrete unit of imagination from where we can start expanding to dig deeper and to discover which possible story can emerge from that image. To write theatre we work from the collection of images of the outside world and the inquiry of internal images: remainings of significant experiences that are registered in our memory as interior images; we work with the evocation, the dreams, and that kind of memory Proust called “involuntary”; we work also with what moves us, with the perplexities and the genuine interests, and trying to create a dialogue with our own tradition: with what we read and what we watch. If we start from this search -and not from the idea of a message-, a good question to start generating a theatrical universe is not “what
do I want to talk about?” but “which are my obsessions? Where do my eyes always look? Which images follow me, stick to me, inhabit me?” Only by doing that, by inquiring into our own universe, and working it with the playwriting tools to make that interior universe become, eventually, a fictional universe, then we will reencounter that that’s waiting inside us to be told. If you’re thinking about writing a play, start by asking yourself about your inner world, about the images that live inside you, about the things that obsess you, and begin to generate associative chains to expand and complex that image. Try to start from a very well-adjusted fidelity of your dreams. Because we all have something in common: an obsession. An image that haunts us.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN https://marianamazover.com/como-empezar-a-escribir-una-obra-de-teatro/ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mariana Mazover. Playwright, director, teacher and communicator (UBA) with over 10 years of experience and trajectory in the field of the performance arts.
STATUS · 21
· GENETICS ·
Strings Some of the common pedagogical practices in Latin America that have always inspired me in Theater are the so-called Scenic Disassembly or the studies of Theatrical Genetics. An opening of the creation processes where shows are “undone” piece by piece so that we can see how that work came together. Every month I’m going to make room for groups and artists to open up their creations so they can inspire us and share their ways. If you want to share
about your process, please contact me, Luana Proença. This month, Ignacio Buby Grinstein, an Argentine improviser based in Israel, shares his duo show with Liron Levin, where they explore clowning and non-verbal language in Impro. There are several techniques and investigations that are tied to structure and support “Strings”.
Section coordinated by Luana Proença - luanamproenca@gmail.com
· GENETICS ·
On September 28, 2018, Liron Levin and I, Ignacio, sat down for the first time and began to outline the first ideas of what would be “Strings”, an Improv-clown format that we already performed in 6 countries of the world numerous times. In this first meeting the idea of generating a show that would connect the two worlds that unite us, theatrical improvisation and clowning, arose, and also the first pillars on which the show would be structured: the almost null use of spoken language, physical theater as the engine and the idea of going on stage, not as two improvisers, but as two clowns willing to give birth to ridiculously poetic scenes and poetically absurd scenes. Together with these pillars, there was the hope of creating a format that could be performed anywhere in the world, since the show is really based on a non-verbal language, even almost universal, which is physical language. After doing a few shows in Tel Aviv, we had the honor of being accepted to participate in the Lyon Improv Fest. That was the international debut of the show, and we were much more grateful that Keng-Sam Chane Chick Té musically accompanied us. After a little talk, that’s what our show is, after all, we started working and the beauty of the show is that the ideas sprang from physical work, from crazy improvisations that mixed entire artistic universes and different technical languages. During the months that we were creating the show, we brought to each training a different technique or a specific artistic aesthetic that we
wanted to work on and explore. That’s how we played with different types of clowns, the White Face and the August, for example, and then with inspirations from geniuses like Keaton or Chaplin. The following week we checked with Anna Bogart’s Viewpoints or Lecoq’s poetics. We work with objects and songs sung on stage, with sound effects and white pantomime. Each training session transported me 25 years ago, like when I yelled at my mom after coming home from school; “Ma, I’m going to play with Julián” my neighbor from the neighborhood with whom I created entire universes playing with dolls. This was our job for several months, playing like children letting ourselves be inspired by anything we saw along the way. But we also had to move forward at some point, for that we had coaching sessions that focused us and helped us to understand what our language was and what we wanted to say with it: Noam Rubinstein, one of the best performers and clowns in Israel, helped us finish creating our clown characters with which we went on stage. Hila Di Castro added a bit of seriousness to the playfulness we already had and made us stupidly play the most serious scenes. Inbal Lori added the rigor of the improv without rules and the show in front of the public. And Amir Atsmon helped us find our hearts on stage and thus find ourselves too. And so “Strings” arose… a format inspired by the worlds of theatrical clown, improvisation, and physical theater but where all the inspiration comes from the audience, finding the game in each scene. With each audience, we have a different show and not only because it is improv, but because really with each audience it is different. The shows we did in Moscow were
STATUS · 23
· GENETICS ·
totally different from the ones we did in Brest or Lyon, and performing in front of the Israeli audience generated a totally different show than the Bucharest audience inspired us. And those differences are incredible. As two clowns, we find pure joy in completely breaking the fourth wall, being in direct contact with the audience, making it part of our joy and, therefore, of the show. Beyond the format that is the basis of the show, the interaction with the audience is what dictates what happens in the show and what we do in it. And that lack of limits can be very liberating but it can also be terrifying. But wearing the truth and the authenticity, we seek to create a poetic world on stage where
reality and imagination constantly invade each other. Infinite possibilities open up before our eyes when two clowns take the stage to improvise. But either way, there is a structure, rigid enough to hold us and free enough to let us go. From the audience and our communication with it, we take all our inspiration. Scenes that are born from a physical movement or a gesture taken from someone in the audience taking it through organic transformations to different concrete movements that inspire us to develop the scene. Asking for a number from a supposed list of 44 songs makes us buddies with the technician of the place who plays us by playing the song that they like the most, and this being an emotional inspiration for the scene, or simply asking
STATUS · 24
· GENETICS ·
the audience for an object that will become magically into something else and will be the focus of a short story. At the moment, these two clowns decide what to do, and so, the show is put together. However, there are two incredible things that have marked us since we started creating “Strings” in that September 2018 and to this day, which are the gasoline that keeps it going, changing, adding, growing, and loving. The first is that in all the shows that we do, there is always something new that we do: a technique, a game, an element, that we never practiced or used before, something totally new that we know, that we learned, but that we never worked together or never plan to use it
and those scenes, those glorious moments of ultimate investigation are the highlight of the show. And the second thing, and perhaps more important, is the mental, telepathic and empathic connection that Liron and I came to develop that is the latent center of this scenic and artistic language so lacking in words but so full of meaning and emotion that we created as “Strings”. Strings that connect us to each other and unite us all... with everyone.
STATUS · 25
Ignacio Buby Grinstein
· NEWS ·
FESTIVALS IN JULY We continue with the avalanche of festivals and, in July, you can take two roads. You can travel north and go to Mölndal (Sweden) to take part in IMPROFEST 2022 (July 21-24), not only to escape the heat but also to enjoy some of the 16 shows and 12 workshops available.
If you decide to aim your compass to the south, then you will reach the wonderful Lisbon to join the first edition of IRREVERENTE Festival (July 26-30). There you can choose from 17 international workshops, watch 17 different shows and assist round tables, talks, and debates. North or south? Why not both?
LET’S CREATE AN INSOLENT THEATRE Our friends Carol Hernández and Mariana Palau, actresses, directors, teachers, and improvisers from Peru, need our help to create “a theatre that is uncomfortable, rebel, funny and disobedient”. “Las Insolentes, Humor en Vivo” is a satirical play that questions, through humor and irony, different aspects of our time. However, the costs
of production, especially in the post-pandemic world, are sometimes impossible to face. If you want to collaborate with the project you can do it for 3€ through their crowdfunding campaign. Let’s help create insolent theatre! https://lasinsolentes.joinnus.com/
DO YOU LIKE OUR NEW LOOKS? To celebrate our 11th birthday, we wanted to get a little retouch. That’s why we hired Limón from Triple Tierra to help us update our design. And we are very happy with the result!
And lastly, we would like to let you know that soon you will be able to enjoy new sections, more interactive content and new ways of being part of our community.
Besides improving the design and the layout, we incorporate links to the articles to help you get more information. We also re-design our mobile version so you can read Status from your phone without losing your sight.
But now, let’s make a toast and celebrate! Happy birthday, Status!
STATUS WE LOVE IMPRO
WWW.STATUSREVISTA.COM
INFO@GLOBALIMPRO.COM
@STATUS.IMPRO
@STATUSREVISTADEIMPRO