DIRECTOR
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 violence. The choir continues to sing Ukrainian music in Poznan also after the premiere. The project is supported by UNICEF and Centrum Kultury Zamek.
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
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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.
Dramaturg and director: Anu Almagro
Poet: Hryhoriy Skovoroda
Composer: Maciej Rychlu
Music arrangement and performers:
Volodymyr Andrushchak
Vsevolod Sadovyj
Light design: Adam Glebodcki
Translation in to Finnish: Eero Balk
Describe your image
Dosier "Voices of Joan"
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Voices of Joan
Voices of Joan is a feminist punk ritual that calls on the spirit of iconic iconoclast Joan of Arc. In an intimate solo performance, theatre-maker Janie Gibson unravels the tangled threads of misogyny and Catholicism as she searches for Joan’s voice in fragments of history, fantasy & fiction. With direction by Anu Almagro (Song of the Goat, Poland) we witness Gibson trade clothes with the audience, play a bishop in drag, rally the crowd from behind a megaphone and incite the audience to build Joan’s pyre with her. With a wireless radio as their ‘time machine’ the artists tune into echoes of Joan in acts of courage and oppression throughout history in search of a road map for resistance in our uncertain times.
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CREATIVE TEAM
Director and Creator: Anu Almagro
Performer and Creator: Janie Gibson
Composition & Sound Design:
Liesl Pieterse
Additional Composition:
Xani Kolac and Toecutter
​Fight Choreography: Gabriel Almagro
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"Janie Gibson channels the spirit of Joan of Arc in this breathtaking performance that addresses us, involves us – and makes us complicit in the outcomes...But we’re not just an audience, we’re part of this trial, this ritual – ...we’re the ones building the bonfire and placing candles in the pyre; it is up to us whether it’s to burn or to remember...she delivers a powerful history lesson that still needs to be learned, where the questioner may be silenced, but the questions remain". Mark Wicket Stage Whispers
National Forum of Music Wroclaw Production:
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https://portal.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/component/nfmcalendar/event/7082
Enchanted Wings
“Enchanted wings” is a musical theatre performance directed for children +5 and their families. It intertwines theatre, classical and contemporary live music in a colourful visual staging with vivid storytelling and movement. The 10 songs which are composed to unfold the growth story of a Family are played by a violin and a guitar and are accompanied with other instruments like a drum, a tambourine, glockenspiel and a pair of spoons. The performance unfolds a story of a young girl who is very sick. In order for her to heal, a pair of magical wings appear. As in any imaginable family, a sudden appearance of a big pair of red wings can become a source of incredible joy but also a source of pain and shame. The show leads the listener through a wide range of human emotions and different ways of dealing with them.
The need for this creation rose from the hearts of four artists who are also parents. The longing for high quality theatre combined with newly composed live music and poetic storytelling made the crew to dive in to the beautiful landscape of a story written by Kaarina Helakisa, a beloved Finnish children book writer. The core is to awaken the listening and respect to hear our inner voice, our intuition.
Text: Kaarina Helakisa
Illustration: Heli Hieta
Direction & Dramaturgy: Anu Almagro
Music Composition: Aleksandra Bugaj & Samuel Alty
Cast: Zofia Sozańska-Alty, Aleksandra Bugaj, Samuel Alty
Light Design: Zbigniew Bodzek
We will leave only bone
-Reflections of Eurydice
The tension between life and death, God and human, and the boundaries of life and love is expressed through the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Odra Ensemble has drawn inspiration from music and poetry from around the world to trace the epic journey of Orpheus and Eurydice. Through Orpheus song and plea to the gods of the underworld we see how the power of love upsets the order of things and how song can cross the borders of life and death. Out of rigorous training and expeditions throughout three years of time comes a theatrical performance inspired in equal parts by mythologies, songs, dances, rituals and performance traditions discovered while journeying around the world.
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More about the show...
Director: Anu Salonen
Cast:
Dimitris Varkas, Julianna Bloodgood, Joshua Doerksen, Janie Gibson, Daniel Han, Alexandra Kazazou, Diego Pileggi
Lighting: Kamil Piwko
Antes De Ayer
Antes De Ayer
The day before yesterday
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Antes de Ayer is a solo performance created by Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro. It scrolls through the history of his family throughout three generations in south Spain where the life was connected with earth, food and play. The performance is based on rigorous physical training combined with humoristic and touching storytelling. The play between action, mimic storytelling and suspension create a wonderful rhythm to the piece. The work of the director was to interweave the action, stories and music in to one dramaturgy.
Director: Anu Salonen
Text and performance: Gabriel Rodriguez Almagro
Music: Sam Alty
Drawing on Schulz
MA in Acting 2012
Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with Song of the Goat Theatre
Life of the artist Bruno Schulz was the source material with the MA in Acting students 2012-2013. Expedition took place all around Romanian countryside and the connection with local people including several traditional artists on music and dance became the main stream of inspiration.
Director Anna Zubrzycki
Assisting director on movement Anu Salonen
Assisting director on music Rafal Habel
Performers: Gabriel Almagro, Ilona Krawczyk, Sam Alty, Piotr Kurjata, Agnieszka Bresler, Mariae Smierowska, Stephanie Bain, Rea Mole, Paolo Garghentino, Seth Compton