STUDY! GUIDE! FUTURISTI Italian Avant-Garde Theatre ( )

Transcription

1 STUDY! GUIDE! FUTURISTI Italian Avant-Garde Theatre ( ) This study guide has: Info on The current Production of The Return of FUTURISTI by BellaLuna An Introduction to the Art Movement of Italian Futurism A list of work by Futurist artists to further aid the study of Futurism Activities Two Theatre Sintesi Today we establish futurism, because we want to free this land from its smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists, and antiquarians. F.T. Marinetti, from The Manifesto of Futurism as published in Le Figaro (1909).

2 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION FUTURISTI: What is FUTURISTI? - A celebration of Italian Avant-Garde Futurist Theatre from the early 20 th century. - A Two-Act Theatrical event with over 20 Theatre Sintesi [short, explosive playlets] performed in English and Italian, written by the major proponents of the Futurists movement including the founder F.T. Marinetti, Sculptor Umberto Boccioni and Painter Giacomo Balla as well as original pieces of theatre (inspired by the Futurists both in style and content), spoken word, live machine sound, experimental dance and film. - A collaboration of artistic talents utilizing five professional Vancouver actors, four UBC theatre alumni, one spoken word artist and one filmmaker. When is FUTURISTI playing and Where? May 31 to June 7th, 2008 at 8:00pm Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC Tickets are available though the UBC Box Office at Who is involved in this production? DIRECTORS: Susan Bertoia - Gerald Vanderwoude PERFORMERS: Beverly Bardal - Susan Bertoia - Louis Chirillo - Stefano Giulianetti - Flick Harrison - Marco Soriano - Joe Procyk - Kris Tung - Astrid Varnes + More CO-PRODUCING COMPANIES: BellaLuna Productions and Theatre at UBC. WEBSITES: & When was the first production of FUTURISTI? The Canadian Premiere of FUTURISTI was first produced by BellaLuna October 11-13, 2007 at the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute as part of Italian Language Week Accolades For Futuristi Very refreshing [ ] Kudos and keep this kind of theatre alive. [ ] So happy for you and it was great for our students to see it! - Catherine Burnett (Professor, Department of Theatre, UBC) It was marvelous! I very much enjoyed the selection of playlets, the humourous Italian script, and the excellent acting. Congratulations I hope you were as pleased with Futuristi as was your audience, which, by the way, was very energetic and engaged. - Nancy Gallini (Dean of Arts, UBC) One of the most exciting evenings of theatre I've seen in a long time. [ ] It was unlike anything I've seen. - Dave Mackay (Professional Actor and Theatre Professor)

3 ABOUT BELLALUNA WHO IS BELLALUNA BellaLuna, Italian for beautiful moon, is an interactive theatre company that creates physical, comic theatre in a variety of unique venues. Drawing inspiration from current affairs and basing our style in the traditional masked Italian theatre of Commedia Dell' Arte, we strive to produce entertaining work that transcends language barriers and challenges the audience to engage in the performance. THE NAME BellaLuna had its beginnings in the late 90 s when Susan Bertoia was approached by Vancouver s Italian community to produce more Italian language Theatre. The name was inspired from an American/Italian film Moonstruck in which the grandfather takes his dogs out for a walk on a crazy night, and as he looks up at the full moon (his hand raised in the gesture to signify $#%&), he says Ma che bella luna! (My, what a beautiful moon). It stuck. THE WORK While inspired by the lively form of traditional Italian mask theatre Commedia Dell' Arte, BellaLuna also endeavors to push the boundaries of physical theatre in a modern setting, drawing on current events, comedy and the impulse of the audience. THE PEOPLE Through BellaLuna s various incarnations, there have been many performers who have carried the BellaLuna flag (literally). Currently, the core ensemble of performers consists of Susan Bertoia (Artistic Director & Performer), Stefano Giulianetti (Managing Director & Performer), Marco Soriano (Associate Director & Performer), and Louis Chirillo (Musical Director & Performer). WORKSHOPS Performance may be our public expression, but we love to share our talents in the form of workshops, lectures and translations. For more, visit CONTACT BellaLuna Productions Susan Bertoia, Artistic Director Stefano Giulianetti, Managing Director [email protected] [email protected] WEBSITE:

4 FUTURISM I. ITALIAN FUTURISM AND THIS PRODUCTION OF FUTURISTI In the spirit of the turn of the century Italian Futurists, an ensemble of like-minded artists of various mediums with a hunger for excitement and change, Directors Gerald Vanderwoude (UBC) and Susan Bertoia (BellaLuna Productions) have assembled a prodigious ensemble of performers, designers and artists to re-create, pay tribute to and experiment with an art form that had an incredible impact on the shape of art and life as we know it. It should be noted that the Futurist theatre was the public expression of a movement that involved every aspect of life. It was not a Theatre movement, or a style; IT WAS THE MEGAPHONE OF A CHANGING SOCIETY. The world was experiencing great technological advances at an astounding rate; futurism was the industrial revolution personified in the art world. While the paintings and sculptures of the Futurists are better remembered due to their lasting tangible nature, very little is known about the theatre, because many of the theatre scripts were created without the possibility of production. For example, FRANCESCO CANGIULLO s Detonation that sees a bullet fired on a cold deserted night after an uncomfortable silence is a scene easily imagined today on film, a form that was just beginning at the time when it was written. The influence of this new way of presenting reality and absurdity is seen in playwrights like Beckett and continues to inspire artists with its rebellious, even revolutionary style. In 1909, the theatre was a very traditional and studied craft that was not to be altered We can thank the Italian Futurists for breaking the mould. II. FUTURISM THE MOVEMENT Italian Futurism ( ) was one of the 20th century's first and most influential avant-garde art movements. Founded on February 20th 1909 with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti s publication in the Paris Newspaper Le Figaro of THE MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM. Among other incendiary statements, it exclaimed: Today we establish Futurism, because we want to free this land from its smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists and antiquarians. 20th Century Italian Futurism was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy. Futurists sought to bring movement and chaos to the theatre world, to create a theatre of mechanization and movement, a theatre, which captured the true spirit of the future. The Futurists created new elements of astonishments, heightened the theatrical experience all the while exposing the truth and farce of humanity. The beginning of the Second World War would mark the end of futurism. The Futurists laid the foundation for the modernist movement, influencing every aspect of art: VISUAL ART, ARCHITECTURE, FILM, MUSIC, FASHION, DANCE, THEATRE; They even wrote Futurist Cookbooks.

5 III. ITALIAN FUTURIST THEATRE The Futurists termed their theatre Synthetic Theatre. It consisted of very brief playlets that compress into a few minutes, into a few words and gestures, innumerable situations, sensibilities, ideas, sensations, facts, and symbols. In theatre, the use of the SINTESI enlightened the audience by stimulating the spirit and imagination without the intervention of reason. No other art could better demonstrate the movement's concept of 'art as action', or propagate its anti-traditionalist stance and then demonstrate its modernist aims and aesthetics as well as theatre. Ironically, the writers of the pieces are NOT writers but sculptors, painters and poets. The entertainment would 'symphonize' the feelings of the public, exploring and revealing them in every possible way. The dramatic 'synthesis', which took the place of the traditional play, was to be 'autonomous, unreal, and illogical'. The synthesis would resemble nothing but itself. With color, forms, sounds and noises, it, like the works of Futurist painters and musicians, assaulted the nerves... The spectators are made to 'forget the monotony of everyday life' through a 'labyrinth of sensations'. IV. FUTURIST FIRSTS & FUN FACTS VISUAL ART: Futurism influenced many other twentieth century art movements, including Art Deco, Cubism, Surrealism & Dada. When in 1910, a group of Painters wrote the Manifesto of Futurist Painting, none had yet completed a futurist work. Futurism is the first art movement to manifest itself in theory before appearing in practice. SCULPTURE: The back of the Italian 20 Cent EURO Coin displays one of the most well known futurist sculptures by Umberto Boccioni The Unique Forms of Continuity in Space ARCHITECTURE: None of the architecture designed by the Italian Futurists was ever actually built (though today s buildings bear a striking resemblance). FASHION: Futurist fashion design saw the birth of the v-neck sweater in 1913: a revolt against rounded designs. V. ITALIAN FUTURIST ARTISTS (A SELECTION) The following artists have written the sintesi you will see in the show FUTURISTI. Giacomo Balla (b d. 1958) Painter Painting: Abstract Speed + Sound, , Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912 Umberto Boccioni (b d. 1916) Sculptor and Painter Sculpture: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses, Painting: Elasticity, 1912 Francesco Cangiullo (b d. 1977) Painter, Illustrator and Sound Poet Mario Carli (b d. 1935) Poet, Novelist, Essayist, Journalist Carlo Carra (b.1881 d. 1966) Painter Painting: Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, 1911 Bruno Corra (b d. 1976) Writer and Screenwriter Manifesto: The Futurist Cinema, 1916 (with Marinetti, Corra, Settimelli, Ginna, Balla, Chiti F.T. Marinetti (b d. 1944) Writer, poet and founder of Futurism Manifesto: Manifesto of Futurism, 1909 Poem: Let s Murder the Moonlight Luigi Russolo (b ) Painter and Composer Treatise: The Art of Noise, 1913 Emilio Settimelli (b d. 1954) Manifesto: The Futuristic Theatre, 1915 (with F.T. Marinetti and Bruno Corra)

6 ACTIVITIES 1. VISUAL ART Research the following paintings and match it to the correct artist. What do these paintings have in common? a) Carlo Carra b) Giacomo Balla Answer: 1b, 2a, 3c. c) Umberto Boccioni What other Art movements had similar aesthetic qualities? 2. SOUND POEMS & SOUND MACHINES It was Luigi Russolo's belief that noise was the sound of music for the new century. In his manifesto Art of Noises (1913), he wrote, "Ancient life was all silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, Noise was born. In the sound Poem Zang Tumb Tumb, F.T. Marinetti uses onomatopoeic words in repetition to re-create the true sound of a train arriving at a station: Treno treno treno treno TREN TRON TRON TRON (ponte di ferro TATATLUUUNTLIN) sssssssii ssiissii ssiisssssiiii treno treno febbre del s-press-press-press-press pressssssss Think of a mechanical sound (eg: washing machine, power saw, anything) and write a sound poem so that anyone reading it would re-create the exact noise of your machine. 3. SINTESI Creating a Synthesized Theatre Piece A) Create a simple story line, a moment in time (or borrow a well-known story or event) and reduce it down to the bare minimum for performance. A fun way to discover what the key elements of your story are is to use the Improv game half-life where you perform a scene in one minute, then subsequently cut the time in half performing it in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, etc. Once you have synthesized it, recreate it in the original time frame. Try to remain as true as possible to the original story elements. B) Choose one of the two SINTESI on the next page, discuss what you think it s about, cast, stage and perform it. 4. EXCLAIM! Create your own Manifesto Look up and read THE MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM by Marinetti or a Manifesto by another Futurist. They had much to say about their Art and their times. What moves you? Shout it out! 5. REACT! Write a Review on BellaLuna s The Return of Futuristi Once you have seen the performance of The return of Futuristi, write a review in the form of a manifesto, poem, picture, sculpture or other form of expression. What was your reaction to the show, what senses were alerted? What moved or surprised you? What did you want more/less of? Would you recommend the show to a friend? Think critic.

7 TWO SINTESI