November 22, 2024

Laboratory of Performance and Theatre of Empty: a Brazilian challenge

Frames from ConFAKErencia
Frames fo ConFAKErencia

The LPTV – Laboratório de Performance e Teatro do Vazio (Laboratory of Performance and Theatre of Empty – in english) was created in 2010 by alumni and teachers at  the University of Brasília, a public university in Brazil’s capital. The group work as an  extension project of the University and is coordinated by Dra Simone Reis (professor at the University, also a performer/artist) and also collaborates with media artist Iain Mott (https://reverberant.com/index.htm), coreographer Gisele Rodrigues and costume designer Cynthia Carla. I have been in the group since the very beginning. Our research is about performance and post-dramatic theatre. We’re investigating a new hybrid place which tests the borders and limits between the arts and other areas of knowledge, such as technology, psychology, anthropology, journalism, radio, and real life.

Simone Reis, in Little World, her solo play for doctoral thesis presented in Melbourne, Australia in 2007.

To research this kind of subject in Brazil is difficult. It is a huge a challenge because the research is so new. Brazil is a beautiful country, but like other countries, we dont have the resources we need to research from an artistic perspective. These include:

1. All of the most important and interesting books are in english, and are not available in bookstores (also not everyone can read them);

2. Expensive media equipment;

3. Studios for rehearsals are very expensive, and the University spaces are very dangerous at night , and also are not secure enough to leave  our costumes and objects there;

4. There are few festival/open calls/residency/support opportunites that allow for contemporary research in theatre and performance.

Although we, and our big intinerant baggage of costumes, objects, b&w xerox of books, are always getting in touch with texts, images and videos, and our latin american creativity is getting dimensions. Therefore, LPTV is finding and developing their language and a methodology through experiements, wich is very rich for Brazil and especially for the University. We have led some workshops, written dramaturgies, producing video-performances, and of course, paying the bills with others jobs.

– Plays:

In 2010 we created the theatre-experience ConFAKErencia, which is based on the performers personal experiences, about the relationship between performer-objetc/clothes and performer-music/video. This visual provocative experience has a nostalgic atmosphere, especially because we are sharing personal confessions, fantasies, discoveries and somehow we’re exhibiting, or even undressing, ourselves in different ways. A bit of clowning, a bit of real life and lot of self-fiction.

In 2011, we created our second experiment named Talk to her like the rain or The Red Curtain. Based on Tenesse Williams’s text “Talk to me like the rain and let me listen”(1953), alienated and confused actors try to misunderstand this classic text. The displacement of sense is a possibility of aesthetic.

We always get one eye in what is happening around the world. For us it is very important to realize that the performance and contemporary arts are getting a big space in the artistc scene, and moreover in the education system. We dream of an exchange with others groups/interesting people from other countries,  doing video-conferences, or having online colaborators. Is there anyone available to get in this tropical challenge?

 

– Some videos:

Red Shadow

LP on TV

Getting Ready to ConFAKErencia

The Wonder Woman

LPTV Workshop for non-actors

 

More in LPTV blog: www.lp-tv.blogspot.com

 

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