The dry and powerful sound of thunder explodes in the theater room, while on the screen the perfect features of lightning are seen, then the silhouette of a woman… A new version of the classic gothic tale Frankenstein begins to weave hand in hand Manual Cinema.
Festival de Artes Vivas Loja will bring together more than 10 countries on stage in its eleven days of programming
The preview of this work was on Friday, November 11, 2022 at the Sucre National Theaterone of the oldest opera houses in South America and Quito.
Chicago-based Manual Cinema is an acting collective, design studio, and film and video production company. It was founded in 2010 By Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. In 2017 he received an Emmy Award for The Forger, a video created for The New York Times. In 2028 he was named Chicago Artists of the Year, by the Chicago Tribune.
The work presented by this group is the result of the union of the well-known tale of Frankenstein with the biography of Mary Shelley, the author of the original novelbut this detail is not the only thing different from the well-known Frankenstein movies, but the way it is displayed.
Manual Cinema delicately and imaginatively combines shadow puppets, film techniques, sound effects and live music until getting an unexpected story about the beauty and the horror that creation can carry with it, turning everything into an extraordinary spectacle never seen before.
In this scaffolding of vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live cameras, and multi-channel sound design, love, loss, and creation merge.
In the lower part of the stage, several actors – each one in front of a projector – show pictures or move their hands while shadows, silhouettes, puppets are projected on the screens… which merge with real actors, configuring, in a fascinating way, history.
Through fictional and real-life narratives of Mary Shelly, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster Feelings of love, family, beauty and the horror that ugliness leads to emerge.
It is evident that kindness when it comes from a monster, even if it is not responsible for its condition, is rejected, however, many times, love prevails.
With all these special conditions, This group manages to completely transform the experience of attending the theaterand Ecuador may be a witness because Manual Cinema –with its twelve artists– will open the Loja Living Arts Festival on November 17, 2022, because United States of America is the guest of honor countryand on the 18th will present the same Show, but open to the public.
I want to thank the Ecuadorian Government for inviting us to be the country of honor this year in this important Ecuadorian festival, which seeks to bring art closer to the people. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share American culture, he says in his speech Debra Hevia, Minister Counselor of the United States Embassy and Consulate in Ecuador.
Some have wondered why show the work Frankenstein when her story was written by an English author, she reflects Debra HeviaWell, the answer is simply -he continues- that the United States is a country founded by emigrants from all over the world, they not only maintain and celebrate their traditions, they combine them with components of their new country to create something new, it is just what Manual Cinema does, he explains.
The public seems not to blink, only at the end of the performance they burst with joy. When the actors introduced themselves, one by one, cheers and applause resounded in the theater.
Being the United States the guest country of honor, Frankenstein will be the work that will inaugurate this Thursday, November 17, the International Festival of Living Arts Loja 2022. The appointment will be at 7:00 p.m. Benjamin Carrion Mora National Theater.
The festival will be held until November 27 in Loja, with the participation of more than ten countries, such as FranceGermany, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, China, Uruguay, Ecuador, Spain, Dominican Republic, Brazil, USA (guest country of honor) and for the first time Turkey.
This 2022 edition returns with an extended program of eleven days of festival, which includes more than 100 activities, including workshops, more than 40 international and local works, and conferences.
The venues for face-to-face programming are Benjamín Carrión Mora Theater, Bolívar Municipal Theater, Teatrino and University House, Alfredo Mora Reyes Cultural Center, stage tent (children’s programming), auditorium of the French Alliance, among others.
The complete schedule of each of the functions (face-to-face and virtual) can be consulted through www. festivaldeloja.com. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
