VAMPIR: AKTAR RAKKONTI PROVOKATORJI MINN MARIO AZZOPARDI

Ghall-edizzjoni ta’ din is-sena tal-Fiera tal-Ktieb id-dar tal-pubblikazzjoni Horizons qed toffri gabra ohra ta’ novelli ghall-qarrejja adoloxxenti maturi miktuba minn Mario Azzopardi. B’din il-kollezzjoni Azzopardi ghaqqad trilogija ta’ kitba eccitanti ghall-adulti zghazagh. Intitolat Vampir u Stejjer Ohra, il-ktieb ilaqqaghna ma’ grupp imzewwaq ta’ karattri adoloxxent misthajla li m’humiex fil-mainstream. Huma adoloxxenti li josservaw iktar mill-bqija jew li ghaddew minn esperjenzi formattivi li tawhom perspettiva ohra tal-hajja.

Aqra aktar........

For the Olive Festival Malta will feature with two short pieces. One is a prescribed Shakespearean piece – the famous bed scene from Romeo and Juliet, and the other is an adaptation of a section of Azzopardi’s short story ‘L-istorja ta’ Jahwe’, published recently in his anthology Skizzi tal-Karnival.

In both cases, but especially in the case of ‘Jahwe’, the visual element in Marshall’s interpretation predominates. “Couldn’t be otherwise, since we’re performing ‘Jahwe’ in Maltese to an international audience: we need to communicate the theatrical act beyond the spoken word,” explains Mr Marshall.

His treatment of the Jahwe story emphasizes the relationship between Jahwe and Mary Magdalen, a fascinating human encounter shrouded in mystery and intrigue. The two actors he’s working with, Leann Gauci and Daniel Azzopardi are engaged in some striking theatrical images. Explains Mr Marshall: “They have allowed me to mould their bodies and their voices into a wide array of poetic metaphors; these two actors are fully dedicated to theatre work and creative experimentation. They’ll do us proud in Milan, I’m absolutely positive.”

Romeo & Juliet’s bed scene is a cliché piece and immediately offers a challenge to deconstruct and reinvent from scratch, keeping, however, the immortal rhythms of the Shakespearean text intact. This is the first night two young lovers spend together in bed. There are blood stains on the bed sheets. And there is more blood to be spilled in the reading of this scene. Psychological, violent and political tensions have been injected in the development of this usually innocuous scene oozing with romantic juices. Marshall has chosen to plant a sense of “guerilla conflict” in the piece: “This Romeo is a suicide bomber and Juliet is an accomplice in her lover’s political intent. This scenario opens up a wide range of dramatic dynamics, a reinvention offering us with plenty of thrills.”

The Olive Theatre Festival was originated thirteen years ago by Serbian theatre academic and director Vladimir Jevtovic, who was guest of the Malta Drama Centre earlier this year to conduct a series of workshops based on the Stanislavskian method and featuring excerpts from Chekhov.

The Malta Drama Centre will be participating at the Olive 2010 Festival for European Theatre Academies to be held in Milan between September 6-12. Thirteen countries will be represented at the Paolo Grassi Theatre College, a training centre with excellent international connections.

The Drama Centre will participate for the first time at the encounter after its coordinator, Mario Azzopardi made all the arrangements last year when he attended as an observer of the 2009 edition of the Festival held in Bucharest. Lined up for this year’s edition are two graduate actors led by Albert Marshall.

Grupp ta’ atturi u zeffiena mic-Centru tad-Drama fi tmiem il-gimgha li ghaddiet taw spettaklu ta’ rectar u zfin kontemporanju quddiem il-bini tal-Qorti, fi Triq ir-Repubblika, il-Belt.

l-okkazzjoni kienet it-tnedija tal-programm Taghlim ghal matul il-Hajja taht l-awspicju tal-Ministeru tal-Edukazzjoni ghas-sena 2010 – 2011. Is-sena li ghaddiet kien hemm 10,000 persuna li gawdew minn dawn il-korsijiet, fosthom ‘il-fuq minn 400 persuna li jattendu c-Centru tad-Drama fi Blata l-Bajda.

Fi Triq ir-Repubblika, il-gradwati tac-Centru tad-Drama interpretaw monologi minn awturi bhal Federico Garcia Lorca u Carlo Goldoni, filwaqt li l-grupp ta’ zeffiena interpretaw zifniet fuq stil liberu.

Waqt it-tnedija thabbar li ghas-sena d-diehla se jinfethu bosta korsijiet godda fosthom ir-Russu, ic-Ciniz u anke l-Yoga. Il-Ministru Cristina habbret ukoll li se jsir restawr estensiv tal-iskola tal-Muzika Johann Strauss.

Considering organizations as actors on a global stage, applying theatrical methods and approaches to corporate actions.

Theorist and practitioners of  heatre have always seen their art as a way of investigating social life. Some were descriptive (like the Realists); some had an idea of bringing change to  society (like Brecht). This unit opens a venue for using theories and  techniques of theatre to investigate organizational life. This is done both, in respect to theatre as a metaphor for global and local organizational life and in respect to theatre as a practice in change management initiatives.

Aim:

The aim is to offer connections between the language, the material tools and the aesthetics of theatre and the organizational world. It will achieve this by offering a range of approaches, reaching from theatre as metaphor to theatre as intervention. This will help developing a notion of how theatre theory and practice are used, or can be used in teaching organizational subjects.

Objectives:

This method will help participants to:

  * Be able to change attitudes and behaviours
  * Gain further knowledge
  * Help them retain information
  * Encourage them to participate in the training
  * Have a presentation of workplace issues realistically
  * To reflect on one's own work experience
  * Apply what they have learnt at the place of work
  * Offer them different approaches to organizational life

Contents:

This would be in the form of short courses (duration of 25 – 30 hrs) covering subjects and issues found in the organizational spectrum. Examples of such subjects and issues are the following:

  * Sexual Harassment
  * Gender Issues
  * Discrimination
  * The Organisation
  * Power
  * Leadership
  * Teamwork
  * Communication
  * Health & Safety
  * Responsibility

© 2008 - The Drama Centre Malta , All rights reserved.

Italian theatre director, Paolo Giorgio is currently engaged at the Malta Drama Centre with a series of workshops on Commedia dell’Arte.

The Scuola d’Arte Drammatica has a population of one hundred students following professional courses in acting, directing, writing, dance-drama and film-making. The list of stellar directors working at the Milanese School has included Strehler, Kantor, Mueller, Castri and Gonzales.

ITALIAN DIRECTOR AT THE MALTA DRAMA CENTRE

Signor PAOLO GIORGIO, a resident director at the Istituto d'Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi in Milan was invited to give a series of workshops on COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE at the Malta Drama Centre. He was invited to Malta by the coordinator of the Centre, Mr Mario Azzopardi, when the two directors met in Bucharest in the fall of 2009.

The Paolo Grassi Institute is a leading institution for the dramatic arts and has established many international contacts.

Signor Giorgio specialised in COMMEDIA and for his soujourn at the Malta Drama Centre he prepared students for a sample performance which was offered to the public.

The COMMEDIA was a popular, farcical genre originating in Italy and then transported to France and other European countries. Among the most famous, Moliere employed the improvised farce of the COMMEDIA to great effect, increasing its intensity as he matured in style and wit.

ACTORS AT THE DRAMA CENTRE WITH SIGNOR GIORGIO

CULTURE AS A TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT

Cultural Challenges of Analysis and Action (2010) is an extensive publication issue in the framework of ARCADE Project in Lille, France. The publication presents reflections and case studies related to the cultural component in the development process.

ARCADE invited Mr Mario Azzopardi, the Drama Centre's coordinator, to present a paper on the workings of theatre within the Maltese Community.

The following is a brief report on Mr Azzopardi's presentation in France (November, 2008) which was followed by a  workshop dealing with Culture and Civil Society:

Mario Azzopardi's Malta-based case study, "Theatre action as a mediating force in urban cultural development," highlighted the setbacks and opportunities facing a developmentalism sensitive to culture's integrality. Poised between the south of Europe and the north of Africa, with one of the world's highest population density counts, Maltese society is reacting to a continuous influx of mostly-African asylum-seekers with xenophobia and public racism. In counteraction, the Malta Drama Centre stages productions written, choreographed and performed by refugees for Maltese society. This is viewed as part of an integrated approach to overcoming the "fundamentalist allergies to African people, from where immense social exclusion and economic depravation derive. Despite violent hostility towards these efforts, the theatre projects have had a positive impact both within and without the diasporic community. According to one participant they have helped those involved "boost not only their indigenous talent but affirm their right not to estrange themselves from their own culture." Moreover, due to an avenue provided by Maltese law that allows small collectives to form legally recognised companies, the attempt was made to institutionalise one company of dancers into a profitable private enterprise. Unfortunately such attempts failed, due to the fact that those concerned were using Malta primarily as a transition point from which to move on the mainland Europe.

NOTE : ARCADE is an awareness raising project to culture and development and is funded by the European Commission (Europe Aid).

Photo : Katanga : the Malta Drama Centre's contribution to boost indigenous talent from Africa.

Intermediate students at the Centre have been rehearsing to enter Pizzi-Pizzi-Kanna, a parody about "finding one's way in a cacophanic, mad world", for a Youth Theatre Festival in the Czech Republic (2011).

Written by Mario Azzopardi, the parody offers a broad scope for experimentation in physical and vocal  anges. The Drama Centre's entry is being directed by Lino Farrugia, who acknowledges he is working with highly motivated students :

"The piece is giving us a basis for crucial experiments in both theme and style," explains Mr Farrugia, "and we're doing our outmost to export a very exciting piece of theatre."

The Drama Centre will also be submitting an application to take part, also in 2011, at the festival entitled Theatre Days of European Cultures for Independent and Non-professional Groups in Paderborn, Germany.

Photo : Rehearsing for the Czech Republic Festival

Resident tutor Ms Yvette Buhagiar has participated, on behalf of the Malta Drama Centre, at the Feria Internacional de Teatro y Danza in Spain.

The festival is intended to present the latest and the most avant-garde techniques in the performing arts.

"What came out very clearly from the Feria," explains Ms Buhagiar, "is that theatre is a mirror of society : it speaks to society, with society and about society."

Themes presented at the festival were emotional abuse, illegal immigration, obsessions, domestic violence, love, solitude, chatting on the net, religion and its influence, programming humans and capitalism.

THEATRE AND DANCE IN HUERTA

Photo : Ms Yvette Buhagiar

KITBIET DWAR IT-TEATRIN is a unique anthology of expert views, interviews and other documents which the Malta Drama Centre is publishing in association with the Ministry of Education and the Lifelong Learning Department at the Education Division.

The anthology, edited by Mr Mario Azzopardi, is published to coincide with the 2010 edition of Malta's Book Fair a the Mediterranean Conference Centre. It features writings by Prof. Oliver Friggieri, Prof. Charles Briffa, Prof. Joe Friggieri, Dr. Marco Galea, Dr. Paul Xuereb, Mr Immanuel Mifsud, Mr Albert Marshall, (the late) Mr Charles Clews and Mr Mario Azzopardi.

TEATRIN is a traditional genre introduced in Malta in the middle of the 19th Century. Losely based on comic effects derived from the COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, tragic melodrama and the French VAUDEVILLE. Teatrin survives to this day and students at the Malta Drama Centre are exposed to the extended possibilities of the genre.

Photo : Student-actors at the centre exposed to teatrin techniques.

AN ANTHOLOGY FEATURING TEATRIN

Seven senior Freestyle Dancers from the Malta Drama Centre were invited by the President's Community Chest Fund team to perform at the launch of the 2010 edition of the Strina campaign, which assists needy persons within the community.

The troupe gave an initial live show at a local school and was later filmed by the Palace's TV crew. The filmed sequences will be screened in 25 schools participating in the Charity campaign.

At another level, the Drama Centre was asked to produce and present, for the same purpose, three brief monologues related to issues tackled by the Community Chest Fund. Resident tutor Ms Lizzie Eldridge wrote and performed three monologues in English, presented at Independent Schools, while Ms Ninette Micallef, a veteran actress, interpreted at state schools Maltese versions of the monologues adapted by Mr Mario Azzopardi, the Centre's coordinator.

Photos: MDC Freestyle Dancersizzie

            Lizzie Eldridge

The Free Style Dance Group at the Malta Drama Centre was invited to perform during two programmes of SESSI, a weekly survey of youth issues.

The programme, presented by Natasha Turner, a PSD specialist and author, includes a creativity section, where Maltese youths expose their talents to televiewers and talk about their work in progress.

SESSI is scheduled on Channel 22, a State station focussing on educational broadcasting.

The Free Style Dance groups at the Drama Centre (prep classes, intermediates and seniors) are tutored by Tiziana Nasser and Antonella Galea.

On Channel 22, the senior group performed new choreography based on Dinja Flimkien, a title launched for the Community Chestfund Campaign (2010).

Photo : A sequence from the Drama Centre's interpretation of Dinja Flimkien on Channel 22

KITBIET DWAR IT-TEATRIN (Writings on Teatrin) is a seminal collection of testimonies, interviews and analytical articles on a popular form of theatrical entertainment which developed in Malta from the middle of the 19th Century onwards.

Its influence and resonance is still felt locally on stage and on television.

Published by the Malta Drama Centre in association with the Ministry of Education and the Lifelong Learning Department, the anthology is edited by Mario Azzopardi and includes contributions by Prof. Oliver Friggieri, Prof. Joe Friggieri, Prof. Charles Briffa, Dr Marco Galea, Dr Paul Xuereb, Immanuel Mifsud and Albert Marshall.

It also includes eight pages of historical illustrations and an appendix on theatrical activities in Gozo, besides an unpublished long letter by the late comedian Charles Clews which exposed his ideas on the genre.

The book contains four extensive interviews with senior citizens, all over ninety, who were either active in or keen spectators of teatrin in their youth.

Kitbiet dwar it-Teatrin is introduced by Education Minister Ms. Dolores Cristina who poses pertinent questions as to the possibilities of extending the genre to meet contemporary expectations.

The book is available from the Malta Drama Centre (Tel : 21 220 665) and Merlin Library in Blata l-Bajda. Copies obtained from the Drama Centre sell at a subsidised price of Ten Euro.

SEMINAL PUBLICATION ON TEATRIN

The recent saga involving the murder of Sarah Scazzi in Italy, which has been given massive media attention, has been ‘transformed’ into a forum-theatre project by the Malta Drama Centre.

The case has been dramatised to focus on the phenomenon of child and adolescent sexual abuse, even within a domestic environment.

Actors from the Community Theatre course, conducted by Ms Dorothy Singh and Mr Mario Azzopardi, the Centre’s coordinator, are currently touring towns and villages with the play. The first presentation was launched this week at Siggiewi.

In forum-theatre the audience is invited to substitute actors to explore “alternative outcomes” or to “hot seat” them to investigate their characters’ motives.

Photos:

A Court Scene acted out by the Community Group.
The crime victim receiving comfort.
A section of the audience at Siggiewi.

FORUM THEATRE FOCUSES ON INCEST

One of the professional photographers who collaborates with the Malta Drama centre is Luca Portelli.
He recently created a set of evocative images based on working sessions by the Free Style classes, conducted by Anronella Galea and Tiziana Nasser.
With work that covers a range of events, photo modeling, still life and night life photography, Luca Portelli has all it requires, to paint with light that special moment.
He was introduced to photography at the age of 10, when he was given a Kodak Eastman film camera for his birthday. You always saw him taking pictures and when he travelled he made sure to carry his camera and obviously enough negatives with him, to take those unforgettable snapshots. When he was studying at the age of 17 he managed to buy himself his first SLR; a FujiFilm. It was his pride and joy and it was with the help of this camera that he learnt many camera techniques and how to deal with lighting situations.
It was the year 2009 when he moved to another brand. His move led him to a brand new Nikon SLR. This camera continued to help make his ambitions come true. He started venturing into Baptisms, TV Programs, Corporate Meetings, and Festivals etc... and still going on strong.
With the help of those who believe in him Luca is always widening his horizons and willing to learn new things about the world of photography.

For the first time ever, the Malta Drama Centre will take part in Carnival celebrations. For the 2011 edition of Carnival, more than sixty Freestyle Dance students will be touring towns and villages with a medley of pop-rock numbers choreographed by dance tutors Tiziana Nasser and Antonella Galea.

Malta Drama Centre students aged between seven and sixteen, will present shows at Zebbug (Malta ), St Paul's Bay, Zabbar, Siggiewi, Marsaxlokk, St Julians and Vittoriosa.

In April (2011) the students will also give a special performance at a Malta Talent Show in the Gozitan village of Gharb as part of the Western Magic National Festival.

As from April 2011 the Drama Centre will start accepting new applications from children and young people wanting to take dancing sessions in Free Style.