Compagnia TPO
Under the direction of Francesco Gandi and Davide Venturini, Italy’s Compagnia T.P.O. (Teatro di Piazza o d’Occasione) is the world’s foremost pioneer in interactive performance media for all ages, though most often for children – creating works for proscenium and alternative spaces – and melding astonishing digital imagery with multidisciplinary performance techniques in the use of music, dance, art, sculpture, digital media, computer technology, lighting, and sound. Their vision of accessibility in the arts is unprecedented, simultaneously allowing festivals and venues worldwide their most rewarding audience experiences while redefining them from the inside out. They have become one of the US’ most sought after companies for family programming, and continue to revolutionize the way new audiences see and feel in the theater. In the company’s work, the stage space – with its images, sounds, and design – is the true protagonist. Thanks to the use of sensors and digital technologies, every production is transformed into an interactive environment where the audience can explore the boundaries between art and play. Dancers, performers and the audience itself interact to try out new expressive forms that aim to surpass all linguistic and cultural barriers.
Compagnia TPO is toured in North America in partnership with:
David Lieberman Artists
Phone: 714-979-4700
Fax: 714-979-4740
E-mail: allen@dlartists.com
shows
Pop-Up Garden
Pop-Up Garden is a show devoted to Gilles Clement (botanist, poet and gardener) and to all those unsung heroes who create gardens in the most unexpected places. It is a celebration of the urban gardening movement, and the transformation of space back to a living, breathing form. It is an invitation to observe plants and their way of dancing in the wind, their being both generous and mischievous all at the same time.
At the beginning our garden is empty, except for Mr. Bu. Bu loves empty, abandoned spaces like the courtyards of old factories. He gives them a thorough cleaning up and then…POP! A lizard arrives and asks him, “Why don’t you put in some ivy instead of asphalt?” And so it happens that, from nothing, Bu creates miniature flowerbeds; as soon as he adds some earth the paved yard begins to change. Bu dances with the plants, he plays at being a gardener, he feels the water, earth, leaves and then… POP! Suddenly she enters onstage: Milady is an agile ballerina, light as a blade of grass. The sight of her kindles Bu’s heart even as she flees among the clouds but then POP!… He is never alone in the garden, other characters appear, some outgoing and some mysterious. The garden has become an independent microcosm living in freedom and movement. POP!
Capacity: 80-150
Traveling Personnel: 5-6
Stage: Proscenium / blackbox
La Casa Del Panda
With dancing steps, following footprints left by a panda, we will venture into the culture and history of distant China. We will understand how, for the Chinese thought, all the elements of nature are in relation to each other in a circular. This is ‘the theory of the five elements (WU XING), one of the fundamental concepts of Eastern philosophy. According to this theory each element transforms and generates the following ones: wood-fire-earth-metal-water.
The “five elements” outline a virtual path in which the audience is really involved thanks to the interactive set that allows images and sounds to react simultaneously with the actions of the spectators, providing a suggestive opportunity of playing that will make the theatrical experience unique.
Capacity: 80-150
Traveling Personnel: 5-6
Stage: Proscenium / blackbox
Bleu!
In TPO’s long awaited journey to the sea, children accompanied by two dancers embark on an adventure of discovery in the world’s oceans, with special emphasis on the Mediterranean Sea – a cradle of nature, culture, and myths. Bleu! begins on the idyllic Greek Islands amongst the stones, sea shells and whispers of ancient legends, wandering through bustling sea ports, and finally diving into the deep blue abyss populated by fish, seaweeds, molluscs, and mysterious ancient ruins of disappeared civilizations.
Borrowing from classical mythology and from stories that compose the very Mediterranean area itself, Bleu! narrates the meeting of two characters: a Sailor and a magical and mysterious being who is a Sea Nymph. It all starts when “She” drops a pearl into the sea so that “He” can find it. The sailor will have to undertake an adventurous journey, plowing the sea waters and diving to the lowest abysses, transforming the story into an active discovery and search for knowledge.
In Bleu! the natural elements of the marine environment become the setting of a virtual journey undertaken by actors and audience alike. The centrally situated stage is floored with a large dance carpet; on this surface are projected images evoking a beach where small treasures have washed ashore and are ready for the taking. Above the stage hangs a large and mobile spiral structure made of tulle fabric; in constant and slow transformation, its surfaces become the screen for projections which allow images to float in mid-air, making the space an even more totally immersive experience.
In this setting small groups of children will interact with the two dancers and the “found” objects, as well as with the play’s images and sounds, in a process of unveiling the secret life of the marine environment.
A co-production with Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana Théâtre Joliette Minoterie Marseille-Provence 2013, Capitale européenne de la culture.
Capacity: 100+
Traveling Personnel: 6
Stage: Proscenium / blackbox
Farfalle
Farfalle (“butterflies” in Italian) is a production that traces the biological emergence of butterflies through the use of dance, video, images, music and interactive technologies. It is a sensorial journey inside the life of the butterfly, from its birth as an egg to its progression as a caterpillar to a butterfly. The audience size is kept small, as each member of the audience participates in a variety of ways, from composing songs and lullabies with their feet, to chasing caterpillars on their bottoms, to using parts of their bodies and the five senses. They may be invited into the cocoon, to create a virtual painting with their arms, or to sit for a rest on an oversized flower.
Capacity: 80-150
Traveling Personnel: 5-6
Stage: Proscenium / blackbox
calendar
Butterflies
April 29 – May 2, 2023 | Texas Performing Arts, Austin, TX
May 5-6, 2023 | Lone Tree Performing Arts, Lone Tree, CO
May 11-14 | Modlin Center, Richmond, VA
May 20 – 21 | Omaha Performing Arts, Omaha, NE
Colors (US Premiere Tour)
March 16-17, 2019, Jorgensen Center for the Arts, U. Conn., Storrs, CT
March 19-24, 2019, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
May 15-19, 2019, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
Panda’s Home
April 23-25, 2019, Lone Tree Arts Center, Lone Tree, CO
April 28-30, 2019, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL
May 3-4, 2019, Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Cedar Falls, IA
May 10-11, 2019, Weis Center, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA