Runs May 31 – Jun 7 2008 at Frederic Wood Theatre.
Check it out at Bella Luna’s website
BELLALUNA’S FUTURISTI :
In the spirit of the turn of the century Italian Futurists, an ensemble of like-minded artists of various mediums with a hunger for excitement and change, Directors Gerald Vanderwoude (UBC) and Susan Bertoia (BellaLuna Productions) have assembled a prodigious ensemble of performers, designers and artists to re-create, pay tribute to and experiment with an art form that had an incredible impact on the shape of art and life as we know it.
It should be noted that the Futurist theatre was the public expression of a movement that involved every aspect of life. Not simply a Theatre movement, or a style, it was the megaphone of a changing society. The world was experiencing a great deal of technological advances at an astounding rate; futurism was the industrial revolution personified of the art world.
While the paintings and sculptures of the Futurists are better remembered due to their lasting tangible nature, very little is known about the theatre, because many of the theatre scripts were created without the possibility of production. For example, FRANCESCO CANGIULLO’s Detonation that has as the protagonist a bullet fired on a cold deserted night after an uncomfortable silence. This scene is easily imagined today as a film short (by filmmaker Flick Harrison), a form that was just beginning at the time when it was written.
The influence of this new way of presenting reality and absurdity is seen in playwrights like Beckett and continues to inspire artists with its rebellious, even revolutionary style. In 1909, the theatre was a very traditional and studied craft that was not to be altered… We can thank the Italian Futurists for breaking the mold.
Looks good!