New England Entertainment Digest - Online
Brought to you by JAC Publishing & Promotions - Serving New England Since 1979!

Visual Dance/Theatre Company from Italy Takes Interactivity to a New Level

BECKET, MA: Exploring light, movement, and sound in a playful interactive environment, the widely recognized Italian visual dance-theatre company, T.P.O. (Teatro di Piazza o d’Occasione) performs at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. The company will perform two different programs, The Painted Garden and The Japanese Garden, in the Doris Duke Studio Theatre July 17 – 20. Both of these imaginative and unusual works are performed in-the-round on an elaborately sensored ‘carpet’, allowing audiences to explore the relationship among movement, animated images, perception of space, and the dynamics of childhood play. The programs reveal imaginary journeys in sensory gardens where the artists’ movements literally signal images and sounds and they then explore new ways of telling stories. Youth tickets are $10 for children 16 and younger accompanied by an adult, and are available for all performances during the one-week engagement.

Directors of T.P.O., Davide Venturini and Francesco Gandi, continually experiment with the expressive potential of digital imagery associated with dance and theatre. As a result, T.P.O. performances develop sensitive theatrical environments based on the use of interactive technologies. These virtual landscapes combine movement, image, and sound and are forms of both communication and education. In The Painted Garden and The Japanese Garden, the company will perform using a sensored ‘carpet’ which interacts with the dancers as they move across it in an organic and playful dance style.

“T.P.O. is completely charming and sophisticated at the same time,” comments Ella Baff, Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow. “Employing the latest interactive technology, the actors create a beautiful world on stage that invites the audience in right away. Then literally, the audience is invited on stage at one point, and they become “choreographers” along with the performers. It’s an intimate, participatory experience. I haven’t seen anything quite like T.P.O., where live movement, technology, and pure imagination are such naturally successful collaborators.”

The Painted Garden is a “garden” created by Kurdish painter Rebwar Saeed, who was inspired by the landscapes of his heritage. In the work, the colors of the Kurdish natural landscape merge with the geometric harmonies of the Islamic garden and play with each other. The 50-minute work is set to original music and sound by Spartaco Cortesi, who has produced five albums under KK Records, the seminal Belgian electronic music label. Through Venturini’s choreography, the audience is shown a path leading to four different areas: a yellow garden representing earth, a blue garden representing water, a green garden representing leaves and growth, and a red garden representing love. Colors, matter, shapes, and space are combined to create Saeed’s gardens. Onstage, the dancers move within each different landscape as the garden develops. The relationship between the dancers and the landscape mirrors the relationship between humans and nature, self and others, and self and the arts.

The Japanese Garden is inspired by the architecture of Japanese gardens. Elements of the gardens such as bonsai, water, and stones each tell stories within themselves through symbols and metaphors. The 50-minute work is also set to original music and sound by Spartaco Cortesi. As the dancers perform, they open the five gardens of the story: the water lilies garden, the meadow, the garden of the singing bridge, the flower garden, and the sea garden.

At Jacob’s Pillow, the public will be invited to participate and explore the sensored carpet toward the end of the performance, if they choose. Younger audience members may also explore the space looking for images, sounds, and surprises within the gardens. In moving through the space, the audience themselves comprise part of the performance, making each show a one-of-a-kind unique experience.

T.P.O. was founded in 1981 as a visual theatre company. From its early years, the company produced children’s theatre conceived as paintings in movement, making use of artistic objects, mechanical devices, and plays of light. Since then, the group has continued to focus its attention on the figurative arts with performances for younger audiences that bring together theatre and contemporary art. Since 1999, under the direction of Davide Venturini and Francesco Gandi, T.P.O. has explored the use of digital graphics, combining traditional theatre with other artistic forms such as dance and video art. Recently, the company created a concept of interactive theatre known as the “Children’s Cheering Carpet” or CCC, a system that provides a mode of interaction with younger audiences by means of a touch-sensored mat.

T.P.O. is based in Teatro Fabbrichino, Prato (Tuscany, Italy) and is the resident company of Teatro Metastasio Stabile per la Toscana. Since 2002, the company has taken part in numerous international festivals in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia. CCC was awarded the Ade Art Digital Era prize in 2004 which has allowed for original pieces and installations to be shown throughout the world.

A free PillowTalk, Multimedia Dance, will be held Wednesday, July 16 at 5pm in Blake’s Barn on the Jacob’s Pillow grounds. T.P.O. directors Davide Venturini and Francesco Gandi will be on hand to explore and discuss how dance is utilizing the latest technologies. Joining them will be New York choreographer Chris Elam, who won ideablob.com’s recent competition for new ideas, and Hélène Lesterlin, who commissions dance films and performances for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in Troy, N.Y.

For more information on T.P.O. and Jacob’s Pillow, visit www.tpo.it and www.jacobspillow.org. 

Free Pre-Show Talks with Jacob’s Pillow Scholars-In-Residence are offered outside of the Doris Duke Studio Theatre 30 minutes before every performance.

Post-Show Talks are interactive question-and-answer sessions between the audience and artistic personnel immediately following the performance. The Post-Show Talk is free, open to the public, and takes place Friday, July 18 after the 8:15 performance.

Tickets are $29 each, with discounts available for subscribers, seniors, children, and students. Youth tickets are $10 for children 16 years and younger when accompanied by an adult for all T.P.O. performances.
Box Office hours: Monday through Saturday, 10am – 6pm, and Sunday 11am – 6pm.  To purchase tickets by phone, call the Box Office at 413.243.0745. By fax: send orders to 413.243.0749. To order online: www.jacobspillow.org.  Pillow Members receive exclusive benefits. To become a Member call 413.243.9919 x24. 

Jacob’s Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob’s Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped-accessible.