... Gustavo Thomas Theatre: September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

The book "Método de Actuación de Antonio González Caballero" (Spanish edition) is now in ebook version at the Kindle Store (2012)

Ebook of "Método de actuación de A. González Caballero" is already at the Kindle store

It has been another long wait but the Spanish edition of my book "Método de Actuación de Antonio González Caballero" is already on sale at the Kindle store in Amazon. This is exactly the same text already published in paperback: 381 pages (more or less, depending of the Kindle app version you use) with all the exercises and "apoyos" from González Caballero's acting method, with direct quotations from the master's voice.

As commonly occur there are minimal changes from the original text, mostly because of the change of format: for example, there are no links in the list of content, but you can easily find any word or sentences in the 'search" window.

The most important and valuable thing is the price, US $ 9.99 (instead of US $20.00 + shipping of the paperback version), and that you can easily download the book to your electronic device (mobile phone, tablet or computer) and start reading and working with it almost immediately.

Here's the link to the Kindle store:

Kindle amazon:

www.amazon.com/Actuación-Antonio-González-Caballero-ebook/dp/B009HUT5AA

It's time to rest a little bit around this project (around González Caballero's Acting Method) and continue with my personal work.

Hope in no much time I can start the work of the English version of this very important book.

The book "Método de actuación de Antonio González Caballero" (Spanish edition), in paperback, is on sale in these sites:

Amazon España:
http://www.amazon.es/Método-Actuación-Antonio-González-Caballero/dp/1466261919

Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Actuación-Antonio-González-Caballero-Spanish/dp/1466261919

CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/3677417

The ebook version:

Kindle amazon:
www.amazon.com/Actuación-Antonio-González-Caballero-ebook/dp/B009HUT5AA

Friday, September 28, 2012

Bearded Man With Red Pillows (Digital Work Over Photograph By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Bearded Man With Red Pillows

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Armando Partida about Oscar Liera . Homage to Oscar Liera at Foro Luces de Bohemia. (1997)

I apologize (once again) to the English speaking followers of this Blog, this is a video only in Spanish: Armando Partida, the Mexican theatrical researcher, talks about Mexican playwright Oscar Liera during the homage realized in 1997 at Foro Luces de Bohemia in Mexico City.

Armando Partida sobre Oscar Liera:

Armando Partida: sobre Oscar Liera (1997) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

"Body And Cushion" (Digital Art Over Photograph By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Body And Cushion

Friday, September 21, 2012

"Trilogía Oscura. Parte 2: La Cura", a play by Gustavo Thomas in ebook format (2012)

Cover of the book "Trilogía oscura. Parte 2: La Cura", a play by Gustavo Thomas (2012)

In 1997 José Enrique Gorlero wrote about La Cura:

"Stories alienated in the past. Short, tight, meticulous language. References to fiction and reality. Personal search through the maze of shared stories. Gustavo Thomas created deep inside his laboratory where actors are the original subjects. Failure of the memory (the subject undoubtedly falls into this generation); defeating of love. The event that might have been, the caress that could exist. Insecurity of everything. Crisis. Probably the "cure" is a metaphor, absence, a calling for change.

"Sexuality as a pastime of the defeated, intimacy as a result of deep loneliness. Commitment and again, absence. Creatures of the end of the century: the blind, the one that sells herself, the ghost or the angel of death.

"Perhaps Thomas's thoughts and research include severe theatrical resources, the same textual synthesis that becomes image, sound, space and economy of gestures. Yes, it's another generation that flies over our theater, with the force that will surely reach the transformations. " *

La Cura is a strange text, all the Trilogía Oscura (The Dark Trilogy) I think it is; those are texts that offer me, as an author, a door to the unknown paths of my own dramatic poetry, romantic and dark poetry of the late twentieth century where I saw that love, sexuality and death were intertwined because of the defeat of the utopias and because of the raise of AIDS.

This -only in Spanish- ebook version (September, 2012) goes beyond that which was staged in 1997-1998 at Foro Luces de Bohemia in Mexico City, this text is more mature, with more delineated and strong characters, but without losing what attracted me so much in those years of my life, a great sense of exploration and a researching of human pain and sarcasm in our speech, freedom ...

The book is on sale in the Kindle Store www.amazon.com site for US $ 3.00 and you can download it directly to your cell phone, your iPad, your laptop or your desktop computer:

http://www.amazon.com/Trilog%C3%ADa-Oscura-Gustavo-Spanish-ebook/dp/B00992CDNW/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1

Site of Amazon kindle where "La Cura" is on sale

If you want to read an extract from the play it's better to download the "sample" than seeing the book inside that amazon offers, I don't know why the format they offer has lost all page breaks and that makes it look messy; the "sample" shows exactly what the text is like.

* Original in Spanish:

“Historias enajenadas en el pasado. Lenguaje en síntesis, apretado, meticuloso. Referencias de la ficción y de la realidad. Búsqueda personal por los meandros de historias compartidas. Gustavo Thomas construye en la profundidad de su laboratorio; allí los actores son el origen del viaje. Fracaso de la memoria (el tema, sin duda, compete a esta generación); derrota amorosa. El suceso que pudo haber sido, la caricia que debió existir. Inseguridad del presente. Crisis. Probablemente “la cura” sea metáfora, ausencia, vocación de cambio.

“La sexualidad como un pasatiempo de los derrotados, la intimidad como una consecuencia de la soledad más profunda. Compromiso y otra vez, ausencia. Criaturas de fin de siglo: un ciego, la que se vende, el fantasma o el ángel de la muerte.

“Quizá la reflexión de Thomas incluya una severa investigación de recursos teatrales, la misma síntesis textual que deviene en imagen, sonido, economía de espacios y gestos. Sí, es la otra generación que sobrevuela nuestro teatro, con la fuerza que seguramente alcanzará las transformaciones.”

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A Children's Tale Tree (Digital Painting By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

A Children's Tale Tree

To tell stories for children, either by writing or playing, you need a fantastic tree full of colour and simplicity.

There will be time to start writing them ...

Monday, September 17, 2012

"Detroit Industry", A Diego Rivera's Fresco at the Detroit Institute of Arts (2012)

Diego Rivera's mural "Detroit Industry" at Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit. 2012)

To look at any of the Mexican masters of art in museums and exhibitions abroad is not only very interesting but it also makes one very proud. The history of the Detroit Institute of Arts and Diego Rivera (as well as the fashion of wondering what Frida Kahlo was doing at that same time) is already part of the mythology of the history of art in Mexico, and possibly in the world. Although Detroit is currently not the best place to visit in the United States (the city is mired in an economic crisis that has left it half-desolate and with extremely high levels of violence and poverty), the DIA, as the museum is known, is still one of the best places to appreciate world-class painting and its collection is truly one of the most beautiful and interesting that I have seen. *

The fresco (mural) "Detroit Industry" was painted by Diego Rivera between 1932 and 1933; we Mexicans know it from our elementary school books (at least those of my school years) and its images are present in tens of illustrations about Mexican muralism. Its main theme is precisely the Detroit industry, which is none other than the automotive and related ones. Apparently it's Diego Rivera's the largest mural outside Mexico.

Just after one enters the museum the receptionists offer detailed information about the highlights of their permanent collection among which, of course, is "The Industry Of Detroit"; you receive a clear explanation of how to get to the room where the mural is, in the central hall of the museum, a privileged space due to its light and spaciousness.

After what little I've read of the research that Renato González Mello has done on the esoteric part of Diego Rivera in his works in Mexico City (especially the mural in the central building of the minister of education, "La SEP"), I could look at this fresco in Detroit with a new idea in my head; at some other moment I would have contemplated it only aesthetically as a perhaps direct and propagandistic remnant of social movements of the last century (like socialism, class conflict, etc.) and, though it certainly is very influenced by that, the addition of an esoteric interpretation extends the enjoyment and learning from what is observed. Then those images of curvy women, of plants and fruits, of earth, roots and seeds, and of course the positions of the characters and the colors used within the overall composition of the painting, acquire another dimension. Obviously I am not an expert and I will not delve deeper, but I can refer you to the latest research on the work of Diego Rivera by Dr. González Mello et al.

I share here my photos of the mural. I hope you enjoy them.

Slideshow of photographs of Diego Rivera's fresco "Detroit Industry"

* I've already published in the Blog some photographs of Vincent van Gogh's painting The Diggers.

About "Detroit's destruction" maybe this note by the BBC about Detropia, a documentary, helps to understand the current situation in the city: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19578766

Saturday, September 15, 2012

This Child Behind The Glass Looks Like a Girl (Digital Art Over Photograph By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

This Child Behind The Glass Looks Like a Girl

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A Kyogen Performance at the National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂) in Tokyo. (2011)

As you would expect, there is no visit I could do to no matter what Japanese city where I do not look for the opportunity of seeing a traditional theatre performance, a kind of theatre that I admire and enjoy very much. In May 2011, in Tokyo, I could only go to see Kyogen, which is a comic performance that normally accompanies Noh plays. As it took place inside a theatre I was not allowed to take any pictures or video of the performance, but I could take some shots of the building and of the beautiful "stage" of the National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂).

Contemporary Noh and Kyogen theatres are theatres within theatres, as if the space for Noh were a permanent stage: the spectacular wooden theatre (which has not changed in form or building materials since the sixteenth century) is surrounded by a modern event space, with the consequent addition of seats where originally there was just an open space for spectators in Shinto temples.

National Noh Theatre Stage (Tokyo, 2011)

The lighting, which is modern, is directed to the "stage" (to the original Noh theatre) in a completely open way, with no changes during the performance and no adding any kind of "atmosphere". Occasionally during evening performances in temples or outdoors at festivals (I saw one in Osaka with the actors on a boat, for example) torches are used, giving a very special effect on the atmosphere, but the use of electrical light as part of a production’s design is never seen.

This Kyogen performance had a special meaning for me because, for the first time in my life, I was attending a performance of Japanese theatre with subtitles that translated everything to English; every seat in the theatre had a screen, you could choose between Japanese and English, and so you could follow the performance without focusing only on the movements and the music (which can be interesting but also very tiring). A wonderful addition for those of us who do not speak Japanese, because it really turns that performance into an event that is very enjoyable in every sense; for the first time in my life I could laugh watching Kyogen through understanding the verbal element and not only through visual cues. These are treasures of modernity that are well appreciated.

Most viewers are people over 50, many of them fall asleep just as soon as the performance starts, but a good deal of them really enjoy the show, you can tell that they are familiar with it and they know what to expect from it. It is not a ritual theatre anymore, of course, and it is not a theatre with great and famous actors and shouts of the public as in Kabuki, but it is highly respected, people applaud vigorously and shows are almost always sold out.

The Kyogen performance

Kyogen plays, in contrast to Noh, are very simple plays about earthly subjects, related with trickeries and vices, usually common people and with not very stylized movements on the stage. In the last play of that evening program, for example, The fish sermon, a drunk fisherman wants to fool people by pretending to be a monk, and when he's asked to give a sermon he starts to give a list of all the fishes he knows instead of religious sentences, as simple as that.

Just as a reference I transcribe the program with the plays performed that night which, as I mentioned earlier, was only Kyogen. There are many sites on Internet which resume Noh and Kyogen plays, so you can make a simple search on Google if you want to know more about them.

Three plays and a musical piece (about 90 minutes)

- Otoshi-Suo (The discovered gift)

- Tsuen (The tea Monk)

- Uo-Zekkyo (The fish sermon)

Slideshow with images of the National Noh Theatre

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Nude In The Mirror (Digital Art Over Photograph by Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Nude In The Mirror

Sunday, September 9, 2012

"Golem", A street perfomance by Shadowland Theatre at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto (2012)

Ashkenaz Festival Street Performance "Golem" by Shadowland Theatre (Toronto. 2012)

Every two years Toronto celebrates the Ashkenaz Festival, and one of its main events is the performance and parade, in the end of the festival, by Shadowland Theatre, on one subject referent to the Ashkenaz culture.

This year the theme was "the golem", that mythical monster of the Renaissance Praga, which once he is alive gets mad and kills everyone who's not a believer, and the only thing could stop his fury is being in love.

Shadowland Theatre works using giant puppets, Klezmer musicians and non professional actors who are volunteers from the Jewish community of Toronto.

Slideshow of photographs from the "Golem" performance in Toronto

Friday, September 7, 2012

This Child Behind The Glass Is A Clown (Digital Art Over Photograph By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

This Boy Behind The Glass Is A Clown (Digital Work Over Photograph. 2012)

All and every one of us change when we're seen through a glass...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Soledad Ruíz about Oscar Liera . Homage to Oscar Liera at Foro Luces de Bohemia. (1997)

I apologize to my English speaking followers, this is a video only in Spanish. Soledad Ruíz, the Mexican teacher and stage director, talks about Mexican playwright Oscar Liera during the homage realized in 1997 at Foro Luces de Bohemia in Mexico City.

Soledad Ruíz sobre Oscar Liera:

Soledad Ruíz: sobre Oscar Liera (1997) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Writing To My Dead Friend (Video From My Butoh Vlog. 2012)

This is part of my daily morning training, and nothing else. After walking and working with some postures and inner images, a short choreography emerges, that's what you see in this Butoh vlog.

Video: "Writing To My Dead Friend"

Writing To My Dead Friend / Escribiendo a mi amigo muerto (Butoh Vlog June 18, 2012) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Japanese Sleeping Beauty (Digital Art Over Photograph. By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)


Japanese Sleeping Beauty (Digital Art Over Photograph. Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

I was travelling on the train from Yokohama to central Tokyo, while the car was emptying I could observe the image of a young man sleeping in his seat, exactly in front of me: his long hair and the shape of his face made me think that it was a teenage girl rather than a young man; he, as a well educated Japanese, kept his body very upright while sleeping. Then I decided to photograph him and later try to transform that image digitally. I'd discovered him as the live image of a "Japanese sleeping beauty".

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