MICRO-FESTIVAL DE MARIONNETTES INACHEVÉES 2014
Les Sages Fous presents the ninth edition of its festival dedicated to experimentation and creation.
Ten projects from Brazil, the United States, Alberta, Israel, and Quebec will arrive in Trois-Rivières with their bataclan to present an unfinished form of puppetry and object theater.
Among the guests: Zaven Paré, renowned performer and robotics artist who has designed sets and costumes for choreographers Marie Chouinard and Edouard Lock, as well as for director Denis Marleau; Inbal Yomtovian, from Israel, a recent graduate of the prestigious School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem, who has twice received the Jerusalem Mayor’s Award for Excellence and Artistic Achievement for her work in puppetry; Kate Hamilton, a visual artist from New York, who will bring her oversized wardrobe. The hosts, Les Sages Fous, will also present their new work in progress, Tricycle.
TRICYCLE
Les Sages Fous (Trois-Rivières)
I was born in a cardboard box
I was raised by the women of the port
I climbed onto the Ferris wheel,
I took my turn on the merry-go-round.
I piece together my memories
bit by bit, piling them up
in little boxes
Now I roll among the shadows
Puppeteer: Jacob Brindamour
Direction and puppets: South Miller
Set design: Sylvain Longpré
Music: Christian Laflamme
LE PETIT CERCLE DE CRAIE
La Tortue Noire (Saguenay)
A minimalist, light adaptation of Brecht’s epic tale for puppeteers, singers, objects, marionettes, and other odds and ends. During a revolutionary attack, Governor Abachvilli is assassinated. His wife flees, abandoning their infant son, who is taken in by the palace kitchen maid, Groucha. But the child, heir to the throne, is hunted by the revolutionaries. Groucha flees with him on a two-year journey across the Caucasus. Once the revolution is over, Groucha refuses to return the child to his mother. An extravagant judge decides to determine who will keep the child by applying the chalk circle test.
With: Sara Moisan and Éric Chalifour
Direction and design: Sara Moisan and Christian Ouellet
Manipulation consultant: Dany Lefrançois
Set construction: Martin Gagnon
IT’S A BIG WORLD IN THERE
Kate Hamilton (USA)
This constantly evolving project is a celebration of the fragility and grandeur of life’s mysteries. Enter this public, interactive sea populated by dreams, an environment of gigantic floating translucent garments. Participants pull on the strings holding each piece of clothing to make them move in space, while video images and sounds appear and fade away.
Sculptures: Kate Hamilton – Videos: Tona Wilson
Sound design: Jonathan Elliott
Work begun during a residency at the
Women’s Studio Workshop at the
C H R C H Project Space (Cottekill, NY, USA).
EVOLUTION OF MORAL PROGRESS
Wendy Passmore-Godfrey (Canada)
This animated installation explores the evolution of a primitive creature before, during, and, more importantly and interestingly, after the existence of humans on our planet.
Performer: Wendy Passmore-Godfrey
Creation: Karin Millson and Wendy Passmore-Godfrey
RAPACES OU VICTIMES ?
Tenon Mortaise (Montréal)
Two inseparable old friends go to the park every day to feed the birds. But one day, without anyone knowing what happened to them, they disappeared… Charlie, the park’s sweeper and caretaker, found only a bag filled with bread crumbs and an umbrella at the scene of their disappearance. Rapaces ou victimes? (Predators or Victims?) is a short, multi-station walking show combining puppetry, shadow play, physical theater, and clowning.
Original idea: Diane Loiselle, Denys Lefebvre, and Véronique Poirier
Text and direction: Denys Lefebvre
Puppets and costumes: Diane Loiselle and Denys Lefebvre
Technical support: Jérémy Loiselle Lefebvre
LEARNING TO FLY
Thom Stanley (USA)
In an office building, two coworkers are about to give in to temptation and embark on an extramarital affair. But an unexpected event causes them to question their intentions and forces them to make the most difficult decision of their lives.
Concept, production, and writing: Thom Stanley
Writing and direction: Amber Bradshaw
Puppeteers:
Emily – Kiera Robbins (voice) – Aretta Baumgartner
Wes – Thom Stanley (voice) – Seth Langer
Actors: Amber Bradshaw and Tim Batten
Puppets, props, and sets: Thomas Trinh and Toniet Gallego
Visual effects: Jeremy Frank
Sound design: Nathan Brown
THE PUZZLE BOX
Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble (USA)
A silent young girl compulsively tries to open an ornate wooden puzzle box, while a parade of eccentric characters attempts to cure her obsession. The Puzzle Box features five actors inhabiting a dreamlike world of shifting realities, unimaginable loss, and miraculous redemption.
Actors: Dana Wieluns Legawiec,
Stephen Legawiec, Kathleen Nation,
Michael Dix Thomas, and Marjolaine Whittlesey
Director: Stephen Legawiec
Movement: Dana Wieluns Legawiec
Costumes: Tessa Kingsley and Joan Mather
HEIDI
Inbal Yomtovian (Israel)
Heidi, the girl from the Alps, now lives with her senile grandfather in an apartment in the city, far away from the beautiful Swiss countryside where she grew up. In a strange and cosmic moment, she meets La Vache qui Rit (The Laughing Cow) – the one from the cheese packaging – who reminds her of her past in Switzerland and rekindles her nostalgia. The cow takes her to the idyllic, rural Switzerland of her childhood, where she reconnects with the environment and her five dearest cow friends: Pretzel, Spätzle, Raclette, Rösti, and Milka.
Unfortunately, the dream turns into a nightmare when her grandfather enters her fantasy world, hungry and craving beef, and blood begins to spurt everywhere like milk.
Cast: Inbal Yomtovian
Direction: Ana Wild, Ari Teperberg
Original music: Daniel Rote
Lighting: Omer Sheizaf – Set design: Gili Godiano Studio Matilda
Graphic design: Maayan Levin, Harel Schreiber
Co-production: Hazira performance art arena, Hanut 31
Photos: Yair Meyuhas
QUAD
Zaven Paré (France/Bresil)
Created for the staging of Presque l’intégrale jusqu’à épuisement (Maison Folie, Mons, Belgium, 2008), the machines that will be presented have survived the years and move between installation presentations and performances. It is a duo of rudimentary robots on precarious structures, controlled by Arduinos and Morse code devices. Their manipulation is based on the vulnerability of equipment operated by switches and an electronic interface. The manipulator creates a dialogue between the devices (half-accessories, half-instruments) through a series of adjustments between what is happening live and what is programmed.
With: Zaven Paré
Programmer: Julio Lucio
CRÉPUSCULES
Théâtre La Souvenance (Québec)
An encounter with a singular being, whose passage of time can be read in the crevices of his skin and the depth of his gaze. A young woman stands by his side… family, memory, or caregiver? None of these answers and all of them at once for someone who has lost his bearings in a world that is seeing the dissolution of most of the pillars that once supported him. The confrontation of a slow-moving disease with a fast-paced daily life. No longer quite one of us, this being now bears the label “Alzheimer’s.” Music, movement, and presence may be the keys to opening the doors to his fading world.
Director: Odré Simard – Puppeteers: Odré Simard and Annie Veillette
Performer: Marie-Hélène Bélanger – Choreographer: Karine Chiasson
Music: Mathieu Deschênes – Puppet design: Odré Simard
Dramaturgical advisor: Priscilla Simard, Le Papillon Blanc, dance
