DIRECTOR
Photos by Frans Rinne
Photos by Frans Rinne
Photos by Frans Rinne
Photos by Frans Rinne
Pandora - Opening
TEHDAS TEATTERI, TURKU, FINLAND ​ - Premiere 2024
“Welcome to the feast of the gods, from which the gods themselves are absent. And none of us should be here either…”
A celebration abandoned by the gods, a forbidden after-party inside an empty building. Only a small group of spectators can fit in.
The ritual of objects and sounds begins, and the myth of Pandora unfolds again and again from surprising perspectives.
The performance carries its audience through reflections and imagined visions—of Pandora herself and of the moment the box was opened. The myth of Pandora’s box is explored as a symbolic explanation for the world’s crises, but does it truly explain anything more than the fact that once, a woman was curious?
Alma Rajala’s solo work is a shameless performance about a woman who was meant as revenge upon humankind. It moves between object theatre, puppet theatre, and physical theatre, creating a kaleidoscopic series of visions. The ordinary reality and magical quality of objects merge into dreamlike moments and chains of images. The amplified sounds they produce conjure a surreal soundscape.
The strange celebration continues, even though the box has been opened.
Creator and performer: Alma Rajala
Co-creator and director: Anu Almagro
Music: Pekko Käppi
Lightdesign: Ada Halonen
Costume design: Amita Kilumanga
Puppet artist: Heini Maaranen
Chor Skovoroda "Happiness" Ethno Port Poznan 2023
Chor Skovoroda
Premiere 23.6.2023
Ethno Port Festival Opening Concert
Grand Hall, Centrum Kultury Zamek
Poznan, Poland
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Music for "Chor Skovoroda" is composed by Polish composer Maciej Rychly to give the power of polyphonic singing to the poetry of Ukraininan poet and philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda. The idea is based on the vision of Ukrainian singer and conductor Volodymyr Andrushchak who trained the choir in Poznan. The music itself is sang by young Ukrainian people who fled the attack from Ukraine to Poznan, Poland to save their lives and continue their lives without the daily threat of war. The choir continues to sing Ukrainian music in Poznan also after the premiere.
The project is supported by UNICEF and Centrum Kultury Zamek.
Chor Skovoroda "Happiness" 2.6.2023 Ethno Port Poznan
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Poetry Hryhoriy Skovoroda
Composer and wind instruments Maciej Rychly
Director Anu Almagro
Choir preparation and conductor Volodymyr Andrushchak
Multi-instrumentalist Vsevolod Sadovyj
Quitars Mateusz Rychly
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Old Skovoroda: Volodymyr Andrushchak
Young Skovoroda: Wincenty Szydzisz
Choir:
Alona Kravchenko, Alina Zinchenko, Anastasiia Dziuba, Inna Kucher, Oleh Nesterow, Anastasia Iskra, Vitalii Rufov, Anastasiia Skliarova, Ilona Mykolaishyn, Karolina Omelczenko, Kateryna Bronytska, Marharyta Gurova, Daria Hrechukha, Krysztof Neldner
The Garden
of Divine Songs
Premiere 3.12.2022 Centrum Kultury Zamek Poznan Poland
Ukrainian poet philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda was born 3rd of December in 1722. Our interpretation of his poems create a musical landscape based on his inner journeys as a spiritual seeker of wisdom and the core of human soul. Skovorodas collection of poems "The Garden of Divine Songs" is for first time partly translated in to Finnish. Our dramaturgical approach allowed us to choose poems which reflect the spiritual awakening and search through lifetime of a man. Little boy in the garden of birds meets a hawk. A grown up man, a writer in his early path of creation, struggles to find the right words. Grown up man asking questions about happiness and realizing that he will not find them in "the moneyed city but going to the fields". Old man sees the beauty of the surrounding nature and has the wisdom to allow himself to stop in front of the miracle of life and just listen. The courage of Ukrainian people and the freedom they require is already written in to poetry three hundred years ago. Our garden of divine songs include nine songs composed by a polish composer Maciej Rychlu and arranged and performed by musicians Volodymyr Andrushchak and Vsevolod Sadovyj.
Poet: Hryhoriy Skovoroda
Dramaturg and director: Anu Almagro
Composer: Maciej Rychlu
Music arrangement and performers:
Volodymyr Andrushchak
Vsevolod Sadovyj
Light design: Adam Glebodcki
Translation in to Finnish: Eero Balk
Photo by Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro
Photo by Lee Illfield
Photo by Lee Illfield
Photo by Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro
“Gibson’s punked up version of the passion of St Joan is an electric, ground-breaking production…Gibson extracts an iconic religious figure from history and grafts her onto a contemporary stage”
Olivia Farag, Sydney Theatre Reviews
Voices of Joan
L’Escorxador Cultural Centre Elche, Spain 2019
Melbourne Fringe, Australia 2019
Adelaide and Newcastle Fringe, Australia 2020
Sydney Brand X, Australia 2022 and 2023
Newannual Festival Newcastle, Australia 2024
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Voices of Joan is a feminist punk ritual unravelling the history of misogyny through a radical retelling of the story of Joan of Arc. In an intimate solo performance, Janie Gibson searches for Joan’s voice in fragments of words throughout history; words spoken at her trial, translated in textbooks, imagined in poetry and illuminated in drama. What is revealed is an ancient story about gender, truth and power with startling reverberations today. With direction by Anu Almagro (Song Of the Goat Theatre), Gibson transforms into the multitudinous voices of Joan: from the teenage warrior, to the fervent revolutionary, to the bishop that tried her. Using wit, humour and multiple on stage costume changes Gibson pokes fun at the patriarchy, rallies the crowd from behind her megaphone and invites the audience to build Joan’s pyre with her. With a wireless radio as her ‘time machine’ she tunes into echoes of Joan’s story throughout history in search of a road map for resistance in our uncertain times.
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Performer and Creator: Janie Gibson
Director and Creator: Anu Almagro
Lighting Design: Fausto Brusamolino
Composition & Sound Design: Liesl Pieterse
Additional Composition: Xani Kolac and Toecutter
Dramaturgy: Emilie Collyer
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Enchanted Wings
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National Forum of Music
Wroclaw, Poland
2019-2020
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A young girl, a princess, is very ill. No one is able to help her and the whole kingdom is suffering, afraid that she might never recover. One day a strange healer appears, who is able to cure her. However, the king and queen’s rapture of happiness doesn’t last long as something completely unpredictable begins to happen…
The idea to create an interactive and high quality performance for children was born out of the meeting of an international cast of four multi-talented artists, who are also parents. Enchanted Wings is inspired by the story of the Finnish writer, Kaarina Helakisa’s Princess Wings, which poetically illustrates the importance of a supporting environment to allow children to discover their uniqueness.
Taking her experience from working with Song of the Goat Theatre, Anu Almagro will direct this piece that is a celebration of children’s imagination, full of dance, physical theatre, live music and songs sung in Polish and Finnish.
Aleksandra Bugaj and Samuel Alty will compose the soundtrack to be performed live, using violin, guitar, voice percussion and loopers that will be bursting with energy and color.
Enchanted Wings will be a performance to enchant and spread the childhood wings that lie dormant inside all of us!
Artistic Team:
Kaarina Helakisa - Writer
Anu Almagro – director and dramaturg
Aleksandra Bugaj – music, violin, voice
Zofia SozaÅ„ska – scenography, voice, dance
Samuel Alty – music, guitar, percussion
Zbigniew Bodzek – light
Photo by Karol Jarek
Photo by Karol Jarek
Photo by Karol Jarek
Photo by Karol Jarek
We will leave only bone - Reflections of Eurydice
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Premiere at Song of the Goat Theatre
Purkyniego 1, Wroclaw, Poland
1.3.2013
"We Will Leave Only Bone - Reflections of Eurydice" is a theatre performance by the Odra Ensemble, founded by Finnish actress and director Anu Almagro, exploring themes of life, death, and memory through the myth of Eurydice, staged in Wroclaw, Poland and Thessaloniki, Greece.
Performance is inspired additionally by several expeditions taken by the members of Odra Ensemble company to Italy, Greece, Balkans, Finland and Romania.
Company is known for its intense, physical approach inspired by Polish laboratory ensemble work following the Grotowski's poor theatre. ​​
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Artistic team:
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Director: Anu Almagro
Actors:
Julianna Bloodgood, Joshua Doerksen, Janie Gibson, Alexandra Kazazou, Diego Pileggi, Daniel Han, Dimitris Varkas