The Earthquake in Chile, a story by Heinrich Von Kleist.

Picture Storytelling: a show for actress, sounds and paper cuts.

Artwork  and Performance : Patricia O’Donovan

Text: Sections by Heinrich Von Kleist  with dialogues adapted by Patricia O’Donovan

Box and lights: Mario Keizman

About the show:  The show consists of 14 separate tableaux.Each tableaux is made of semi translucent paper onto which the cut out pictures arranged as in Comics, are glued on. The public sees me act the characters and narrate the story as I simultaneously illuminate the pictures with a lamp . The show belongs to the genre of of picture storytelling such as still exist today in many cultures, the Kamishibai of Japan, the Wayang Beber of Indonesia, the many forms in India as well as in the West. As well it makes reference to Comics and to Shadow Theater. A DVD of the show is in preparation. Below are stills of my papercuts.

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (1777 –1811) was a German poet, novelist, dramatist and short story writer whom most puppeteers know from his work “On the Theater of the Marionettes”. The story opens with a young man about to hang himself in prison. The woman he loves, condemned to death for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, is about to be beheaded and the earthquake happens. Tearing down not only buildings but social conventions, the disaster opens up a chance for reconstruction and change. But that chance soon fades. Inflexible, deeply rooted laws and codes of behavior, Kleist tells us, grasp humans in moments of crisis more strongly than any earthquake could tear apart. Kleist leaves us little consolation in his unsparing vision of the human condition where the innocent pay for the crimes of the guilty, who go unpunished.

Characters

• Jerónimo Rugera - A Spaniard, the lover of Josefa
• Don Enrique Asterón- of a rich nobleman of Santiago. Josefa’s father
• Josefa Asterón – Jerónimo’s lover.
• Felipe - The son of Jerónimo and Josefa
• Don Fernando Ormez - An acquaintance of Josefa, husband of Doña Elvira
• Doña Elvira - Don Fernando's wife
• Juan - Doña Elvira and Don Fernando's son
• Don Pedro - Doña Elvira's Father
• Doña Isabel - A relation of Don Fernando
• Doña Constanza - Sister of Doña Elvira
• Maese Pedrillo - A cobbler
• Don Alonzo - An acquaintance of Don Fernando and Josefa, a naval officer

Notes  The story takes place in Santiago, the  capital of the Kingdom of Chilecapital . On the 13^th of May, 1647 it was hit by a 8.5 Richter scale earthquake which devastated the city. At that time the Colonial Church operated a court responsible for judging all actions that allegedly threatened the Christian faith: the Holy Office of the Inquisition.  In this story, a parable of injustice and inevitability, we understand why Kafka considered Kleist his honorary ancestor.

Festival: International Puppet Theater Festival of Jerusalem, August 2011

  Technical requirements:  A table and chair, total darkness, electric output. 

For an adult audience  of 30 people. 

Set up and break down: 30 minutes

Duration: 50 minutes

On stage: one performer.

Languages: The show can be done in either  Hebrew, Spanish or English. Hebrew translation of Kleist: מ  א ז"ק. Press א.י.ל Schocken Publishing House Tel Aviv, 1982.

Contact: Patricia O'Donovan

email:patod3@gmail.com

Tel:++ 972-2-6246470

Jan's Daughter.

Credits:



Direction, performance and design: Patricia O'Donovan.

Music: Jerry Garval.

Cello: Yana Donichev.

Flute, recorder: Yael Birger.

Guitar: Steve Peskoff.

Clarinet, saxophone: Ariel Mordehaev.

Violin: Reuven Ben-Hanan.

Child’s voice: Daniel Ben Haim.

Percussion, trombone: Jerry Garval.

Recording and Editing: Yaron Mohar and Gil Stein.

The Yellow Submarine, Jerusalem.2001.

Text by Patricia O'Donovan adapted from the true life story of Hannah Yakin a writer and artist living today in Jerusalem.

Puppets’design and construction: Patricia O'Donovan.

Light design: Dov Mielnik.

Technical assistance: Mario Keizman.

Costume: Jaqueline Behar.

Angel: Jurg Beier.

A production of the Train Theater, Jerusalem .




Above: Hannah Yakin's sisters, Miriam and Alexandra live in Holland and  came to Meppel to see the show.Here they are full of excitement after the performance, holding puppets of themselves!!!!

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS


ABOUT THE SHOW


SUBJECTS FOR WORK IN CLASSROOM


FESTIVALS


ABOUT THE ANGEL

This article appeared in Hebrew (Ha Shoa be Teatron ha Fringe ha Israeli.)in Teatron - an Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre, 26, 2009.pp. 65-73. It will be published also in English in a book about modern Israeli theatre, but at present it's still early to give the details of it.

Head in the Clouds

Head in the Clouds was my first show produced by the Train Theater right after graduating from the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem, inspired in 4 stories written by Eugene Ionesco, some say he wrote for his little daughter. Object theater.For ages4 -6.

See credits and international and festivals .

My first show produced by the Train Theater right after graduating from the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem. Inspired in 4 stories written by Eugene Ionesco, some say for his little daughter.If I had to draw on paper its structure, I'd draw a flower, with a center and petals. Each petal was a scene of the imaginary trip of the young Josette, the protagonist, looking for her  hiding father.The center is the reality of her parents' bedroom where Josette's tired father manages to both sleep and play by pretending he is far away someplace and sending Josette to look for him.Thus the show moves from petal to center to petal back to center etc.From the city to the bedroom to the sea ,back to bedroom, to the zoo, the moon.... Theoretically it could go on as long as I added scenes.As Josette creates the landscapes of her imaginary play she increasingly disorders the room.Finally her mother comes back to a messy bedroom, a sleeping father and a tired but happy daughter.

The show is Object Theater with shoes, sheets, umbrella,pillows, gloves etc transforming into whatever prop or character the protagonist wants.From its creation in 1989 until 2003 I worked with Alan Whinston who created and played live the music for the show. He had as well an Object Orchestra I'd call it, a table full of sound-making toys and instruments which he played.His music was integrated to the action in such a way that each character was not only characterized by a voice, movement,object etc but by a musical sentence that Alan gave it.

The show was a big success for many, many years, both in israel ad the countries abroad where we performed such as Mexico,Spain and Germany.

Eventually Alan got tired, left the show and it went into dormition for many years until I revived it with the music of Yarden Erez.His music was more melodic and got recorded. It gave more space for acting at the pace I wanted  since I was not coordinating my actions with the live music ( Alan was NOT an improviser), but the absence of Alan's playful toy-like orchestra which so fitted so much the concept of the girl playing in her imaginary world was felt. The new version never picked up and eventually the show ended its long stage life.