Performances at Palma, on with the casting! No, stop!

It seems easy to be supportive... #1

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How do they laugh in Africa? #2

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Simone, do you want to go to Mozambique? #3

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I am going to Mozambique! But to do what? #4

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The meetings #5

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Where do I start? #6

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Meeting with

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The first contacts with Mozambique #8

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Agenda first mission in Mozambique #9

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First mission: arrival in Maputo #1

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But where am I? #2

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Meeting with Alvim Cossa #3

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Teatro do Oprimido Show #4

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Meeting with the Machaka Association #5

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The Show by the Machaka Group #6

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Manuela Soeiro and the Avenida Theater #7

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Gonçalo Mabunda #8

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Meeting with the Luarte Association #9

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Luarte Show #10

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Maputo - Pemba Journey #11

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Vitor Raposo #12

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Pemba – Palma Trip #13

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Visit to the village of Quionga #14

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Visit to the village of Quirindi #15

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That wonderful beach! #16

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Visit to the village of Pundanhar #17

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The Mamãe Kit #18

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Visit to the hospital in Palma #19

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Return to Italy #20

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The project continues! #1

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How many meetings are we going to have?!? #2

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Agenda second mission in Mozambique #3

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Second mission in Mozambique, arrival at Pemba #4

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Felix Mambucho #5

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Performance Vitor Raposo and the Tambo Tambulani Tambo company #6

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Pemba – Palma Trip #7

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Performances at Palma, on with the casting! No, stop! #8

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Grupo do funzionarios #9

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Performances (and casting) in the village of Pundanhar #10

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Performances (and casting) in the village of Quionga #11

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Selecting the actors for the Italian stages #12

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Are you ready to come to Italy? #13

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The return to Italy and end of the second mission #14

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Preparing for the first training period at Alcatraz #1

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Arrival at the Libera Università di Alcatraz #2

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We begin! #3

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Mario Pirovano #4

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Acting with Mario Pirovano #5

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Arms going up on their own! #6

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A dive into the theatre #7

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Let’s tell a love story! #8

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Being an actor is hard work #9

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What days! #10

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O falso médico! #11

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We all go shopping! #12

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The performance takes shape #13

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We need an ultrasound! #14

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Rome has never been so beautiful! #15

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Second training session: the first day... #1

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The return of the Mozambicans #2

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A tragic day #3

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Memory tests with Mario Pirovano #4

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Rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals… and that script in 3 languages… #5

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First reading of the script in Swahili #6

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Just for a change, we rehearse... #7

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That damned video! #8

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In and around Perugia #9

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The last rehearsals #10

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Action! #11

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Changes to the show? Change the title?!? #1

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Confusion in Fatima’s House #2

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Preparation of the stage design #3

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Ready to go (again)? #1

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Arrival at Pemba #2

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At Palma under the palm trees (wet!) #3

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First day of the tour: Mute #4

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Second day of the tour: Pundanhar #5

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Third day of the tour: Quionga #6

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Fourth day of the tour: Palma #7

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Fifth day of the tour: Olumbe #8

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Thank you Mozambique, thank you so much! #9

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The day’s programme includes two theatre performances. The first two! During the mission we will see 6 performances by groups from Palma, Quionga and Pundanhar. And no, I don’t know what it means… 🙂

Spettacolo Palma

What will they propose? But most of all, will I understand the plot? Will I be able to see the undertones? And the actors, I have to choose the actors, I must remember to ask what language they speak, and then Italy, they’ll ask me all sorts of things about Italy, about the stage, what will I tell them???
I’ll think about it after breakfast.

Taken almost textually from my notes:

First presentation: a school group from Palma
The story: it’s important to go to school and study.

Second presentation: Amodefa theatre company from Palma
The story: the main character lives between the desire to go to school and study, and the family which instead wants her to work and marry, and set up a home. Going to school and studying is important.

Spettacolo Palma

Everyone stop, we have a problem!!! Does anyone have any rice? Did you see hints of comedy? I look at the faces of my travelling companions…

I got Adelino Gonçalves, a sort of councillor for culture, to explain to me how things work here, namely in the rural north of the young republic of Mozambique. The government uses small theatre groups from schools and communities to spread a series of “messages” to the villages, even the most distant and isolated ones. The messages range from the importance of going to school to the use of condoms, the prevention of pregnancies in girls who are too young.

The companies improvise a plot outline that is inspired by reality, a few quips, a narrator explains the sense of everything, the famous message. No story creation phase, no creative process.
Do you work with a written script? Do you write the dialogues, the scenes? I ask Adelino Geraldo, one of the actors from the second company, who tells me he is also a writer.
“No”, and he shows me a sheet, he simulates writing, he speaks of notes, the message…

After the performances, Felix makes them move, play, sing. It’s clear to see that they are not ‘stage-wise’, maybe because they have never been on a stage, at times the two actors on stage speak to each other, they forget to look at the audience.

So we make them walk, looking directly at each other, we make them play to imitate the movements, we sing firstly together and then solo to see how they handle their own voice and “the voices” together, without imposing themselves and without eating their words.

Perplexed. This is my key word for this evening. I believe I have personally seen the result of a total lack of training. If no-one teaches you how to improvise, you do your best, maybe you have a natural talent, but you don’t have those fundamental, basic notions that are needed.

How many actors like this are there in Mozambique, in Africa?