PAGINA/12
entertainment
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/10-27925-2013-02-26.html
THEATRE. LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR, a unique experience
The web as a theatrical space
Two Argentinians, actress Monina Bonelli and playwright and director Mariano Tenconi Blanco, are participating in a global initiative that takes place in a New York hotel. Nine-minute monologues are presented in real time via Skype.
By Maria Daniela Yaccar
Translated in English by John Freedman
In different parts of the world, such as Spain and the United States, the definition of theater is expanding in the heat of new technologies. Two Argentineans, actress Monina Bonelli and director and playwright Mariano Tenconi Blanco, are participating until Thursday in a unique experience that takes place in a New York hotel: fifty artists – among them playwrights, actors and directors from different countries – grouped in teams of three, present nine-minute monologues in real time via Skype. Once at the hotel, the members of the audience are led to a room where there are computers for them to call an actor who will perform a monologue for that spectator from somewhere in the world.
The experience, called Long Distance Affair, takes place in a suite at the Gershwin Hotel to which viewers enter in groups of six. Everyone has the opportunity to make three Skype calls to three different parts of the world. The project is not only innovative in regards to the way the performances are received. Each production is unique, too, because the trio of artists who create the monologue consists of people from different countries who do not know each other. Bonelli, acting in “Five Funny Tales from the Heart of Buenos Aires,” worked – also via Skype, of course – with the American writer John Freedman, who has lived in Moscow for 24 years. The play was directed by Benjamin Mosse, an American currently exploring Belgium. Meanwhile, Mariano Tenconi Blanco wrote “I Cannot Swim,” directed by the Romanian Ana Margineanu, who lives in New York, and performed by a young Singaporean, Victoria Chen.
"During the summer doldrums I got a call from my friend Tenconi Blanco,” says Bonelli. He asked, 'Do you want to act on Skype in English? I was asked to recommend an actress I like. There is no money, but I think it will be very interesting,’ he said. I did not understand much but I said yes,” says Bonelli. “I met the organizers and then my team over Skype. The meeting with John, the author, was love at first sight. He proposed talking about politics and we spent three hours going back into history, discussing things like the gauchos. The first director we were assigned to work with had to leave the project and then the organizers introduced us to Benjamin, who had planned vacations to South Africa in the middle of the rehearsal process. At crazy times (7 a.m. in Buenos Aires) we rehearsed this small piece whose real setting is a corner of my living room, and whose theatrical space is the web. It was amazing to realize that there are artistic codes that transcend continents. But more surprising was that we were able to joke and laugh without ever physically shaking hands,” she concludes
At a festival in Mexico Tenconi Blanco met Tamilla Woodward, who with Ana Margineanu created Pop Up Theatrics. Woodward invited him to join the initiative. "I liked the possibility of exchange, which is something very difficult for me in Buenos Aires. I was fascinated by the idea of seeing a Singaporean actress doing my monologue. Moreover, it seems very good to try out new tools and use new devices for the transmitting of art. I can use Skype to talk to my mom when I go away, and also to make a play with two other people that will be seen by still someone else in another city. Technology can be the engine of capitalism, but also of other things,” says the playwright.
There is a premise for those creating the texts: to reflect the city in which the performer lives, in one way or another. "The first step towards the creation was the meeting of actor and author so that the actor could talk about him/herself, show his home, etc., but John had a particular interest: He wanted to talk about politics. We had a three-hour conversation in which I tried to explain the history of the country [Argentina]. He is a person with a very open mind to the world. He went to Moscow to do a PhD in Russian literature before the fall of the wall and he has lived there ever since, therefore he is a witness to the transformation of the world,” says Bonelli. The text that resulted from Bonelli and Freedman´s union and the later incoming of Mosse, is the monologue of a daughter of a victim of the Dirty War, which is actually set by the window of Bonelli’s apartment.
The as-yet new relationship between theater and web-streaming, still unexplored in Argentina, raises some questions Bonelli pointed out. "There is always the question of whether or not this is theater. The concept of theater assumes audience and actors sharing the same space, a ' convivium', in the words of Jorge Dubatti.* I believe we can say this IS theatre, because we share the same space, even thought it is a virtual space. LDA proposes to take technological possibilities to their very limits. The visual arts have always been at the forefront of these issues. In the performing arts they are yet to be legitimized” she reflects. "It is difficult to draw a line between what is theater and what is not" says Tenconi Blanco. "The live performance and the fact that the viewer can interact make this a theatrical proposal. There are sets, costumes, director, a live performer and a viewer who can even yawn or get excited while the actor sees him/her. This IS theater, only mediated by technology,” says the director Tenconi Blanco.
* Jorge Dubatti is one of the most important Argentinean researchers, history teachers and editors in the performing arts.
entertainment
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/10-27925-2013-02-26.html
THEATRE. LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR, a unique experience
The web as a theatrical space
Two Argentinians, actress Monina Bonelli and playwright and director Mariano Tenconi Blanco, are participating in a global initiative that takes place in a New York hotel. Nine-minute monologues are presented in real time via Skype.
By Maria Daniela Yaccar
Translated in English by John Freedman
In different parts of the world, such as Spain and the United States, the definition of theater is expanding in the heat of new technologies. Two Argentineans, actress Monina Bonelli and director and playwright Mariano Tenconi Blanco, are participating until Thursday in a unique experience that takes place in a New York hotel: fifty artists – among them playwrights, actors and directors from different countries – grouped in teams of three, present nine-minute monologues in real time via Skype. Once at the hotel, the members of the audience are led to a room where there are computers for them to call an actor who will perform a monologue for that spectator from somewhere in the world.
The experience, called Long Distance Affair, takes place in a suite at the Gershwin Hotel to which viewers enter in groups of six. Everyone has the opportunity to make three Skype calls to three different parts of the world. The project is not only innovative in regards to the way the performances are received. Each production is unique, too, because the trio of artists who create the monologue consists of people from different countries who do not know each other. Bonelli, acting in “Five Funny Tales from the Heart of Buenos Aires,” worked – also via Skype, of course – with the American writer John Freedman, who has lived in Moscow for 24 years. The play was directed by Benjamin Mosse, an American currently exploring Belgium. Meanwhile, Mariano Tenconi Blanco wrote “I Cannot Swim,” directed by the Romanian Ana Margineanu, who lives in New York, and performed by a young Singaporean, Victoria Chen.
"During the summer doldrums I got a call from my friend Tenconi Blanco,” says Bonelli. He asked, 'Do you want to act on Skype in English? I was asked to recommend an actress I like. There is no money, but I think it will be very interesting,’ he said. I did not understand much but I said yes,” says Bonelli. “I met the organizers and then my team over Skype. The meeting with John, the author, was love at first sight. He proposed talking about politics and we spent three hours going back into history, discussing things like the gauchos. The first director we were assigned to work with had to leave the project and then the organizers introduced us to Benjamin, who had planned vacations to South Africa in the middle of the rehearsal process. At crazy times (7 a.m. in Buenos Aires) we rehearsed this small piece whose real setting is a corner of my living room, and whose theatrical space is the web. It was amazing to realize that there are artistic codes that transcend continents. But more surprising was that we were able to joke and laugh without ever physically shaking hands,” she concludes
At a festival in Mexico Tenconi Blanco met Tamilla Woodward, who with Ana Margineanu created Pop Up Theatrics. Woodward invited him to join the initiative. "I liked the possibility of exchange, which is something very difficult for me in Buenos Aires. I was fascinated by the idea of seeing a Singaporean actress doing my monologue. Moreover, it seems very good to try out new tools and use new devices for the transmitting of art. I can use Skype to talk to my mom when I go away, and also to make a play with two other people that will be seen by still someone else in another city. Technology can be the engine of capitalism, but also of other things,” says the playwright.
There is a premise for those creating the texts: to reflect the city in which the performer lives, in one way or another. "The first step towards the creation was the meeting of actor and author so that the actor could talk about him/herself, show his home, etc., but John had a particular interest: He wanted to talk about politics. We had a three-hour conversation in which I tried to explain the history of the country [Argentina]. He is a person with a very open mind to the world. He went to Moscow to do a PhD in Russian literature before the fall of the wall and he has lived there ever since, therefore he is a witness to the transformation of the world,” says Bonelli. The text that resulted from Bonelli and Freedman´s union and the later incoming of Mosse, is the monologue of a daughter of a victim of the Dirty War, which is actually set by the window of Bonelli’s apartment.
The as-yet new relationship between theater and web-streaming, still unexplored in Argentina, raises some questions Bonelli pointed out. "There is always the question of whether or not this is theater. The concept of theater assumes audience and actors sharing the same space, a ' convivium', in the words of Jorge Dubatti.* I believe we can say this IS theatre, because we share the same space, even thought it is a virtual space. LDA proposes to take technological possibilities to their very limits. The visual arts have always been at the forefront of these issues. In the performing arts they are yet to be legitimized” she reflects. "It is difficult to draw a line between what is theater and what is not" says Tenconi Blanco. "The live performance and the fact that the viewer can interact make this a theatrical proposal. There are sets, costumes, director, a live performer and a viewer who can even yawn or get excited while the actor sees him/her. This IS theater, only mediated by technology,” says the director Tenconi Blanco.
* Jorge Dubatti is one of the most important Argentinean researchers, history teachers and editors in the performing arts.
