Premiere of "Inhalaciones" (2000) A digitalized video of the performance

"Inhalaciones" Esférica Ludens (July, 2000)

Among those video documents I rescued from my own oblivion (I mean those in VHS format inside my library), there was the first performance of "Inhalaciones" (Inhalations) in July 2000 at Foro Contigo América, in Mexico City.

It was a very experimental work with the group growing in all senses; all the characters (also the text, the scenography, etc.) were created during the process, as usual in that time, through Physical actions technique and González Caballero's Acting Method, both in a basic level (the group had been working on it for one year, from zero), except for Guadalupe Durón who was my colleague at González Caballero's Workshop since 1986. I was not very happy with the final text but it worked enough in that moment, today I'm working in a new version of that text, 10 years later, more in the mood of a 42-year old house-playwright than a practical theatre maker, if you know what I mean.

You can find more information in the first post I published about this Esférica Ludens' production: http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/2007/03/recalling-inhalaciones.html

"Inhalaciones" Esférica Ludens (July, 2000)

The video has been digitalized from a VHS format, so the quality is awful; the camera was at the second line of seats, and you will have to fight against the head and arms of a very energetic spectator and also with one annoying sound, a mobile ring, which was sounding all along the performance. From the camera point of view you will possibly miss a very important part of the space, a bath tub, it was behind the bed, on the right side of the stage. I know! This is not a very encouraging way to invite anyone to watch the video, but it is what it is, the only video-document that remains of this moment of my creative life and a moment of the creative life of at least 6 more people, and it was a duty. Even do you can find on it a very interesting visual production, hope you enjoy a little and find more interesting things to save.

The performance was cut in 8 videos, around 10 minutes each, and you can watch it on Youtube or vimeo.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8F60D802A6E543C6

“OSCURIDAD”: a Recall

"Oscuridad"(1)

With: Marisol Solorio y Francisco Camacho

Text and direction by Gustavo Thomas

Produced by Esférica Ludens, Compañía de Arte Representacional.

Premiere: Sunday, August 18th 2002, at the "Caravana de Ecatepec” Festival,Estado de Mexico, Mexico.

About the play

“Oscuridad” was Esférica Ludens’s fourth and best developed work, a result of the exploration of acting techniques that the company had been doing since 1998.

Esférica Ludens had staged four works: Letanía (1998), Tríptico Telefónico (1999), Inhalaciones (2000) and “Entremeses Cervantinos” (2001). Each play had been a direct evolution of one way of approaching drama and acting techniques, and every performance by Esférica Ludens was one step towards the growth of the company.

Work by work we progressed in our exploration and in the use of different acting techniques chosen by the director: González Caballero’s Acting Method, Stanislavski’s Physical Actions Method and Eugenio Barba’s Theatre Anthropology’s Physical Principles.

Our scripts were written initially based on known drama works and then altered during the creative process of every work. That is how “Oscuridad” evolved, along a line of learning; it was a work based on the performer’s work.

The theme arose from our readings of “Le Misanthrope” by Molière and “Les liasons dangereuses” by Laclos. Then the actors created series of physical actions (about 500), the playwright found, during that process, the words that would match his script (at the end a 5000 word text), and the director combined those actions and words into an 80 minute performance.

Marisol Solorio performing "Oscuridad" (last rehearsal)

The play happens in one space and one time, following Aristotle’s principles. There is no scenography other than one table, one chair, two candles working as “stage light”, and nothing else. The year is 1612, we’re awaiting Louis XIV’s death, at a basement of the Palais de Versailles. Our characters are borrowed from Molière’s and Laclos`s works but they are our contemporaries, they think like many of us.

It is an eclectic piece: it combines styles and ways of creating (both avant-garde and classical), without a defined space and time even though space and time exist within the story.

“Oscuridad” was Esférica Ludens’ fourth work in a six-stage plan. It should have been followed by “Invocación” (staging process remained unfinished) and “Misterio” (which remains just a script).

video "Oscuridad" (Esférica Ludens)

(1) "Darkness"

Recalling INHALACIONES

Esférica Ludens, Compañía de Arte Representacional presents:

‘Inhalaciones’

Author and director: Gustavo Thomas
Cast: Guadalupe Durón, Javier de la Vega, Cecilia de León, Francisco Camacho
Design of Scenography and Illumination: Gustavo Thomas, Edgar Ocampo
Video, Photography: Edgar Ocampo and Esférica Ludens
Atrezzo: Esférica Ludens
Executive production: Gustavo Thomas
Technician: Viridiana Martínez, Foro Contigo América
Production: Esférica Ludens, Compañía de Arte Representacional.

Foro Contigo América
Mexico City, Mexico.
July-September 2000

"Inhalaciones" (2000) Slideshow. An Esferica Ludens Theatre Production. from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.