BARBACANA | titiritran.es

Show aimed at boys and girls from 6 to 10 years old and family audiences

SYNOPSIS

"Once upon a time there was a fierce pirate who loved nothing and no one, he lived alone on his island. With his ship he captured everything that sailed freely. Everything? No, the Moon kept sliding free in the sky.

The fierce Barbican swore to himself that he would also capture the Moon."

Our story begins in this traditional way, aimed at children aged 6 to 10 years.

In "Barbican" we combine the possibilities of expression offered by a new form of "sound art", electroacoustic music, with the scenic suggestions of object theatre.

The projection of shadows coexists in this work with the generation of images by computer.

In this dialogue between classic and modern techniques we find a way of processing the present, a current way of telling the usual, that human desire to try, at all costs, to encompass the unfathomable.

THE AUTHOR

Dennis Haseley is the critically acclaimed author of more than twenty books for young readers. His picture books have been illustrated by David Wiesner, Jim LaMarche, Stephen Gammell, and Ed Young, among others. Her six novels, including four for teens, have drawn comparisons to the work of Natalie Babbitt and Robert Cormier.

His novel Shadows was described by Liz Rosenberg in The New York Times Book Review as "one of those rarities: a beautifully written novel for readers in the middle grades"; and his novel Dr. Gravity drew comparisons to Publishers Weekly's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and was selected for film.

His books have been recognized by the Child Study Association, the Parents' Choice Awards, the Library of Congress, and the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio (Platinum Award), and have been included on American Books' Pick of the Lists and Booksense.

His book, The Pirate Who Tried to Capture the Moon , was adapted by Titiritrán Teatro de Granada as Barbican , award-winning production of Theater of Puppets and Objects.

Most recently, his book A Story for Bear was named one of three picture book titles to be promoted by the American Booksellers Association for its 2016 Winter Kids' Indie Next List.

Author's impressions on the adaptation:

Titiritran Teatro has done a brilliant and moving job of transforming my picture book into a singular piece of theatrical magic. By changing the setting and character of the piece, from an actual pirate on a lonely island, to a little boy in his bathroom and bedroom, they have made the story instantly accessible to children and their parents. A sword becomes a scrubbing brush, the various boats become bath toys, and familiar household objects (such as flowers), which fall under the boy's power and are locked away. And, as in the book, it is his image of the moon that he cannot catch that does not let him rest. Until he manages to draw her closer.

In Barbacana, Maruja Gutiérrez and Pedro López have sympathetically portrayed a boy with grandiose and greedy dreams, who is comforted and consoled by the love of his parents and the power of forgiveness. His use of music brings to life the mirages of shadows, computer-generated imagery, and unusual use of objects that illuminate the story.

Grenada Today, 9 January 2012

Monica French

Barbican, is a piece that reveals the formal inquiry, the evolution towards mixed narrative techniques - electroacoustic music and generation of images by computer, together with the traditional ones of puppet theatre, objects and shadows - at the service of the art of narration of this company. and not mere technical or experimental boasting.

This pirate story establishes a clear continuity as a hallmark of the company, by anchoring the piece in a visual, narrative, decidedly poetic tone and an ethic of a unique humanistic nature, structuring the story again.

Barbican refines the scenic elements to the maximum, sufficing with a curtain, a ladder and a box to – with the support of music, projected images, the leading puppet and a handful of simple objects – tell the endearing story of the pirate, who one fine day decided capture the moon

The syncretism and visual simplicity with which the story is served, contrasts with the Faustian powers of poetry and all the visual fantasy that triggers the transmutation of those simple elements on stage, the logic, wisely, is the same and typical of the childhood fantasy. Thus, a curtain changes to a boat sail, a newspaper, to a little boat, a pirate hat or a spyglass; a cardboard box, a pirate ship or a bathtub. It is beautiful that the work of formal inquiry derives in the logic of syncretic fantasy, without technology imposing its logic of virtual reality as it usually does.

Amazement in the piece, striking, it turns out to see how well the abstraction of electroacoustic music works and is coupled, underlining the rhythmic, landscape or emotional changes through which this story walks, a story more fanciful, adventurous and poetic than humorous or fun in explicit, net sense.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

premiere at the 51 Festival of Music and Dance of Granada.
Best Puppet Theater show at FETEN 03. (European Theater Fair for children)
Prize for the best plastic proposal, 14th Fira de Titelles Lleida 03.
Third prize at the 6th Mediterranean Festival of Children's Theater in Tunis 05.