Open your wings and PERCH

Ricardo Puccetti of LUME Teatro – with wings

So, the workshop season is underway, with Raquel’s course already on day three, and LUME now gearing up for the start of the big workshop cum performance project Abre-Alas, which begins tomorrow (Friday 1 February) and runs until the first day of Carnival on 8 February. It’ll be led by Ricardo Puccetti, in collaboration with the other LUME actors.

Taking advantage of the quiet before the storm, I spent a very pleasant evening yesterday at the home of Ricardo and Naomi, and apart from eating salad faces (made by eldest daughter Noa) and stir-fry (made by Naomi) – all washed down with a bottle of vinho tinto – there was plenty of chat, some of it work-related!

I got to hear about an exciting new collaboration between LUME, Australian company Legs On The Wall, and Conflux, the Scottish organisation dedicated to producing and promoting contemporary circus and street arts. These three groups, and composer Stephen Deazley (Scotland), are coming together to develop ‘an ambitious new performance project to be presented on rooftops across the globe’. The work, called PERCH, will be created in a series of residencies in Brazil, Australia and Scotland. In fact, work has started, with the partners gathering at Conflux's annual festival SURGE in July 2012. In 2013, the other partners will come to work with LUME here in Brazil, and LUME will travel to Australia. The PERCH collaborators will finally come together in Glasgow (Scotland) in July 2014 for a grand finale of the project.

And so what then emerged is that Ricardo and the rest of the LUME company have been reflecting upon ways that the research and development process for PERCH can be intertwined in some way with the Abre-Alas project – those taking part in Abre-Alas will learn more soon!

Regardless, it would be great to involve as wide a group as possible in the exploration of ideas and inspirations for PERCH. So look out here and elsewhere for PERCH-related tasks, which will emerge over the coming week!

To kick-start the PERCH associations, here are a few definitions. It can be a noun or a verb. 

As a noun:

·      A rod or branch serving as a roost for a bird.

·      An elevated place for resting or sitting.

·      A position that is secure, advantageous, or prominent.

·      A pole, stick, or rod.

As a verb:

·      To alight or rest on a perch: roost: ‘A raven perched high in the pine.’

·      To stand, sit, or rest on an elevated place or position.

·       To place on or as if on a perch: ‘The child perched the glass on the edge of the counter.’

So, thinking caps on… And feel free to respond here, or on the Facebook page for Abre-Alas.

Tweet, tweet!

The Doors are Open

So here I am, back again at LUME central, in Barao Geraldo (Campinas). Once again, I am staying 'chez Simioni'. I arrived last night from Sao Paulo, and this morning took the old familiar route past the Hotel for Horses – I'm sure this parkland has a proper name, but that is what I shall always know it as – to LUME's beautiful headquarters in Vila Santa Isabel. Yes, the dogs barked, yes the gas van was playing Fur Elise, yes the geese chased me down the road... I'm sure that there have been changes here, but everything at the moment feels comfortably familiar.

So, what's happening here? Well, as I write, the seven LUME actors are meeting with their production team to discuss the February programme. Elsewhere, the doors are open and the summer holiday cobwebs are being brushed away, literally and metaphorically – floors swept, bookshelves rearranged, equipment moved. The office is in full swing, and administrators, documenters, archivists, and financial managers are all as busy as bees.

Things kick off pretty soon – tomorrow, in fact...  The workshop season starts 29 January with Raquel Scotti Hirson's Mimesis Corporea. Later in the week (1 February) sees the beginning of Abre-Alas  – a week-long carnival and street theatre workshop cum performance project that will see 40 participants, under the leadership of Ricardo Puccetti and the other LUME actors, creating a cortejo (procession) which will open the Carnaval celebrations late afternoon on Friday 8 February. And yes, I'm taking part – so you'll be hearing a lot more about this one!

There are also two lecture-demonstrations to look forward to early next week: on Monday 4 February, all seven LUME actors will appear together to present Em Busca do Invisivel (In Search of the Invisible), and on Tuesday 5 February, LUME's co-founder and longest-standing member, Carlos Simioni, will present Prisao para a Liberdade.

Later in the month will see workshops from the other LUME actors, and two guest teachers. I'm pleased to say that my dear friend Yael Karavan (UK/Israel) will be here with us, co-leading a workshop called A Vida Secreta dos Objetos (the Secret Life of Objects) with Naomi Silman. These two sisters will also be treating us to a work-in-progress showing of their new project Pupik on 22 February.

Oh and I'm the other guest teacher – I'm delighted to say that I'll be leading a workshop in Site-Responsive Theatre and Performance/Art (27 February to 3 March) – which I'm very much looking forward to.

But in the meantime, I can be found here – your trusty reporter on the Terra LUME season and workshop programme 2013. Here's to a great month!