... Gustavo Thomas Theatre

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...

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 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".

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Toronto Buskerfest 2012 (Some photographs)

This occasion I could only spend some hours of one of the four days of Toronto Buskerfest 2012, the already famous street performances festival organized in many Canadian cities during summer. I had the opportunity to see two full spectacles, one by a Mexican acrobat, Pancho Libre, and another one by Ernest The Magnifique, an australian performer.

I'm sharing some of my photographs and I hope you like them.

Pancho Libre Performance at Toronto Buskerfest 2012

Ernest The Magnifique Performance at Toronto Buskerfest 2012

Slideshow of photographs of Toronto Buskerfest 2012

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Where The Wild Things Are...

Picture of the book by Maurice Sendak I bought last Sunday.

Y cuando mis cosas de adulto se habían vuelto de lo más difíciles/

y la confusión reinaba alrededor de mis palabras/

me hice un regalo de simpleza y claridad,/

Where The Wild Things Are.

(And when my adult things become so difficult/

and confusion reigned around my words/

I made myself a gift, a gift of clarity and simplicity,/

Where The Wild Things Are.)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Practicing Taijiquan in Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland (2012)

Doing Taijiquan in Quidi Vidi Village, Newfoundland (Saint John's, 2012)

Gustavo Thomas. Taijiquan. (Newfoundland, Canada. 2012)

In this new era of my Blog, where I'm sharing more of what I call the theatre of my life, I'm starting to include my Taijiquan practicing.

As some of you know I've been doing Taijiquan since my 20's and studied in China for almost five years, so this Oriental discipline is already an inherent part of my life, one more part of that theatre I want to expose (or share) openly.

Taijiquan, among many other virtues, has helped me to retake my balance in many occasions, a balance to my mental heatlh as well to my physical one, especially after some terrible illnesses and accidents. Of course I have a great affection for it.

This time, in my travel through Newfoundland, I practised it en two occasions; what I'm showing today was during my visit to the small village of Quidi Vidi in Saint John's (the capital of the province). The set probably is not the more spectacular but it's beautiful and inspiring. First I tried some postures to warm up and after then worked with the 8-Step Yang form, the most basic. You'll notice that I'm doing it little bit quicker than normal and it was because some tourists arrived at the precise moment I was starting to move, they were pressing me waiting for me to finish and take photograph from the same spot. Even though, it was a nice moment and I greatly enjoyed it.

video: Taijiquan Yang 8 Step-Form in Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland (2012)

Gustavo Thomas. Taijiquan. (Newfoundland, Canada. 2012)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Delicacy Of The Aged. Three pieces of digital work over photographs. (From My Butoh Blog. 2012)


Delicacy of the Aged 1: The Source (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Three images, digitally worked, extracted from my Butoh Vlog. The inspiration came to me from a sentence said by Kazuo Ohno during one of his workshops in his studio, in Yokohama, about the idea of moving with the 'delicacy of the aged". Working with that proposition I've transformed the sentence in my experience of enjoying being aged.

A wrote a poem about the same subject, it will be the subject of other post.

Delicacy of the Aged 2 (From my Butoh Vlog. Digital Work Over Photograph. 2011)

Delicacy of the Aged 2: The Recovered Matter (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Delicacy of the Aged 3, The essence (From my Butoh Vlog. Digital Work Over Photograph. 2012)

Delicacy of the Aged 3: The Essence (By Gustavo Thomas. 2012)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (2011)

Bugaku Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine (2011)

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

In May 2011 I had the opportunity to see live a Bugaku 舞楽 dance ritual performance at one of the most beautiful temples of Japan, the Meiji Shrine, in Tokio.

Bugaku is a group of court dances with more than 1200 years of age and it was till the 1950's of the last century that those dances were hidden from the general public.

Obviously I'm not a connoisseur but it seems that what I saw that day was a very standard version of these dances: very slow, smooth and rhythmic movements with a royal attitude performed by a group of dancers wearing Buddhist clothes (even when the Meiji shrine, in this case, is a Shinto temple).

The act of dancing is very short; the music and the musicians have a very important role; and the preparation and the exit of the dancers occupies most of the time of the performance itself (that's a very common characteristic of Japanese ritual performing arts).

In my point of view (very ignorant in anything about Japanese ritual dances) what's remains in the memory of everyone is the visual beauty of the spectacle with such a formidable set around.