TABLE OF CONTENTS Continued Credits.................2Note from OtB.......................3Director’s Note......................4Beginner’s Guide...................5Program Note........................6Bios........................................7Funder Credits.....................10
CUARTETO 1Violin Rose McIntoshViolin Teo BensonViola Lorraine PerrinCello Dylan Rieck
CUARTETO 2Violin Alina ToViolin Erica JohansenViola Andrea SchulerCello Mannfried Funk
Lighting design Xochitl GonzalezCostume design Ricardo CovalínProduction Carlos LópezTraining and vocal investigation María Huesca (Mexico-United Kingdom)
Movement investigation Diego PiñonCorporal and vocal investigation Daniel Prieto Bravo (Peru-France)
Direction assistant Ignacio PláGraphic designer Felipe Lara
*Claudio Valdes kuri is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores FONCA-CONACULTA
An artist friend posted something online recently that questioned how much “art” goes into performance making versus just the desire to entertain. This jived with something we have been thinking about this season: what are the implications of On the Boards functioning as an organization that produces and presents live shows on our ability to provide a space for considering new art and ideas. Does buying a ticket and sitting in a seat raise the expectation for being entertained? Or, in a venue like ours, does it raise the expectation for being challenged by an artistic idea? Do we potentially compromise the environment for experimentation or enhance it?
These questions are interesting to us, especially as we feature – finally! – a production by Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes and a show about rehearsing and performing a show. This isn’t the first time that they have focused on modes of cultural expression, having explored such subjects as the lives of castrati singers in Monsters and Prodigies and the recreation of a silent film from 1919 in The Grey Automobile. And given that the Habitantes shows often involve novel stage design and humor, it is easy to forget the meta narratives of their productions because they are so entertaining.
Perhaps it comes down to how a given artist approaches the audience. Some artists obviously choose to put their work in front of people but make no effort at translation or narrative. Other artists ride the connection with the audience like a wave. Habitantes director Claudio Valdes Kuri probably falls somewhere in between. Take the issue of language. In El Gallo Claudio worked with British composer Paul Barker to create a made up language that is used in the production, both enabling an multi-national cast to communicate with international audiences but also adding an aura of mystery or even frustration because no one knows what anyone is saying. Ultimately, though, Claudio and his group of talented collaborators show how a challenging piece of work can engage or even entertain.
Enjoy the show (art)!
Sarah Wilke and Lane Czaplinski
A NOTE FROM OTB
a note from the director Through music, movement and theatre, El Gallo refers to the multiple challenges a composer/director and a group of singers face when trying to mount a new work in just two weeks in preparation for a choral competition. The time factor, in addition to the diverse backgrounds and abilities of the participants, all combine to create a series of conflictive encounters which take place in an ambience of extreme tension, giving rise to unexpected situations where each and every one of the singers display the most superficial as well as the most exotic and profound personal ambitions.
El Gallo is a tale of the confrontation of desires and aspirations. It talks about how when faced with the challenge of concrete objectives, we become oblivious to the richness and diversity of our current surroundings.
Claudio Valdés Kuri Director
beginner’s guide to teatro de ciertos Habitantes
The Mexico City-based Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes has been seen across 5 continents at some of the most prestigious festivals and venues, including everything from Germany’s Hebbel am Ufer (also known as the home of OtB alums Rimini Protokoll) to the Lincoln Center in NYC.
El Gallo features a language that was created specifically for this performance. It is a mix of the languages spoken by all the performers, who hail from Japan, France, Iran and Mexico. Director Claudio Valdes Kuri commented in a Chicago preview that “it’s with meaning, not without meaning. Everything means something—it’s not gibberish. It has rules like any language.”
The company is led by director Claudio Valdes Kuri, a much lauded director who has been working in the arts since he was 11 years old. He’s been recognized as one of the top 300 most influential leaders in all of Mexico.
Claudio and the company help run an artist residency, ECOCENTRO DE CIERTOS HABITANTES, to help promote cultural exchange and the development of new works.
British composer Paul Barker joined the Habitantes team specifically for El Gallo. His score, which has our production team swooning, is an original creation that is embedded with a series of little surprises. Read more about his work and listen to some of his music at paulalanbarker.net.
BIOsClaudio Valdés Kuri, a prestigious Mexican director, is recognized as one of Latin America’s artists with the most international acclaim. Founder and director of the company Certain Inhabitants’ Theatre, his work includes The Grey Automobile, Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati, Becket or the Honour of God and Where Will I Be Tonight?, all presented in Mexico (his native country), and in Europe, Latin America, the United States and the Caribbean. Specialized critics named him the best director in experimental theatre as well as best group theatre director best visiting director of New York and the Golden Laurel Wreath for best direction.
Several important governmental offices have commissioned and co-produced his productions: National Theatre Company (Mexico), National Autonomous University of Mexico, International Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels) and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna).
Claudio Valdés Kuri was selected to develop the Translation and Contextualization project for Arts International (New York City) and took part in the Artist in Context program sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center of North Carolina’s Duke University and Arts Management program in the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.).
Claudio Valdés Kuri holds a degree in film direction from Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica,with an honorable mention for his work in the documentary field.
Claudio’s training as an actor began at the early age of 11 in 1976, under the tutorship of Susana Wein. He participated in countless productions with her company for the next seventeen years. From 1996 to 1999 he was part of Austria’s Carpa Theater. He has also received considerable recognition as a versatile set designer and lighting expert in Mexico and other countries.
He was co-founder and bass voice of the early music ensemble Ars Nova, dedicated mostly to the rediscovery of Renaissance and Latin American baroque music. Over the last fifteen years, this group has toured Mexico, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, South America, the United States, and the Caribbean.
The monthly publication Mexican Leaders has acknowledged him as one of the top 300 most influential leaders in the country.
Paul Barker is a composer of many operas and theatre works performed, recorded and televised internationally. He has a particular interest in the voice and has written a book, Composing for Voice (Routledge, 2003). He has also
received commissions from the London Mozart Players, London Festival Orchestra, Lontano and Gemini Ensembles, the Brodsky String Quartet and soloists such as Joan Lluna, Tasmin Little and Sarah Leonard for major UK and international festivals, and has been awarded such prizes as the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize. Two CDs of his music have been published: Turquoise Swans (Sargasso 2000) and Entre Palabras (Quindecim 2004). He was Artistic Director of Modern Music Theatre Troupe (UK) for 10 years and Artistic Director of Optemus (Mexico) for 5 years, and cofounder and first Chair of Oera and Music Theatre Forum. He is currently commissioned to write for Spiral (Spain) on a large-scale site-specific work for local and professional performers at Stourbridge-on-Severn (UK) in July this year, for Brass Band, Percussion Orchestra, several choirs and soloists. He is developing a new vocal work for Francis M. Lynch and the Electric Voice Theatre. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Music Theatre at the Central School for Speech and Drama, University of London.
Established in 1997, Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes has been internationally acclaimed due to its productions: Becket or the Honour of God, Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati, The Grey Automobile, Where Will I Be Tonight? and El Gallo. Both the company and director Claudio Valdés Kuri have received numerous awards from specialized critics and associations.
They have performed in important festivals from the five continets: International Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato), Mexico´s Centro Historico Festival, Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Kampnagel (Hamburgo), Holland Festiival (Amsterdam), Mess Festival (Sarajevo), Laznia Nowa (Cracovia), Grec Festival (Barcelona), Melbourne International Festival, Arts Festival (Singapore), Expo-Aichi (Nagoya), Ibero-American Festival (Bogota), International Theatre Festival (Caracas), International Festival Teatro a Mil (Santiago de Chile), International Theatre Festival (Belo Horizonte), Riocenacontemporanea Festival (Rio de Janeiro), among others. In United States, the company has performed in many of the main venues: Lincoln Center (NYC), The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Yerbabuena Performing Arts Center (San Francisco), Redcat (Los Angeles) among many others.
Their long running season in Mexico City has played to sold-out houses and the company has organized several national tours thoughout Mexico.
Complementary to each project, Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes offers a full range of activities in residence including panel discussions, lectures, classes, workshops, radio series, TV programs and interactive compact discs. Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes works under simple principles whose consequences are widespread. Each project is approached considering
specific risks and queries in an open debate. The project is concluded once these have been duly solved, so that the group can concentrate on the next. We consider that the element of change is the prime instrument for the development of the artistic spirit.
Research work for each project is focused on trying to avoid as much as possible, the repetition of former presentation models and previous discoveries. At the same time, each presentation is polished during a long gestation process, nourished by the accumulated experience gained in direction, production, from the creative team and the interpreters. For the scenic work we rely entirely upon the total capacity of the multidisciplinary artist actor-musician-dancer.
ontheboards.org
El Gallo photos by Lorena Alcaraz Minor
Seasonal support for OtB is provided by
This production is sponsored by
HorizonsFoundation Nesholm Family
Foundation
El Gallo was comissioned by the Brighton Festival Production for El Gallo comes from Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes AC, Coordinación Nacional de Teatro INBA, Conservatorio Nacional de Música INBA, Festival de México en el Centro Histórico, Festival Internacional Música y Escena UNAM El Gallo is sponsored by the Instituto Anglo-Mexicano de Cultura AC, Sistema Nacional de Creadores FONCA-CONACULTA, Pineda Covalín
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