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The Thousand Faces of Don Giovanni: Cultures at the Crossroads
"Don Giovanni and His Servant Pulcinella"
INTRODUCTION
"The Thousand Faces of Don Giovanni: Cultures at Crossroads" activity involves a
contemporary theatre performance, "Don Giovanni and His Servant Pulcinella", and
the musical comedy, along with workshops based on the culturally rich character
of Don Giovanni. The aim of the activity is to create, around a theatrical play,
an intercultural movement bringing together people of different nationalities, creeds
and cultures. At the same time the activity aims to stimulate relationships between
Turkey and Europe through introducing European artists to the Turkish people and
theatrical organizations, and to bring to the attention of the European public the
quality of Turkish artists and their work.
THEATRE PRODUCTION / PERFORMANCE
Don Giovanni, perhaps the most universally recognizable character in European Theatre,
travels through the centuries to dazzle theatre audiences in Turkey and in Italy,
bringing together theatrical magic from Italy (Pupi e Fresedde), Turkey (Turkish
State Theatres), Bulgaria (Triumviratus Art Group) and Poland (Teatr Nowy im. T.
Lomnickiego w Poznaniu). The novel production in Turkish of the piece of musical
comedy "Don Giovanni and his Servant Pulcinella" written and directed by distinguished
Italian author/director Angelo Savelli (co-founder of Pupi e Fresedde in 1976) was
performed extensively in Ankara as part of the State Theatres Fall 2009 program
and also toured the cities of Konya, Adana and Erzurum in Turkey, as well as Florence
in Italy. In this new and independent production, Don Giovanni, the seducer of women
and the mocker of afterlife manifests himself in different versions reflecting the
history of the character in an intricate story that reaches across cultures. Original
soundtrack and adaptation of the piece is by Nicola Piovani, Oscar-winner for the
soundtrack of Roberto Benigni's movie "La Vita è Bella".
WORKSHOPS
The production of the play is accompanied by workshops held in Erzurum, Konya and
Adana dedicated to young people, focusing on the traditions and expressions of the
Italian, Turkish and European folk theatres. The outspoken masks of the commedia
dell’Arte and those of the Orta Oyunu together with the shadow theatre of the Karagoz
and French puppet theatre all meet to tell an original and adventurous tale. Angelo
Savelli worked in collaboration with Münir Canar, expert of Orta Oyunu and Genevieve
Yeuillaz, expert of Visual Theatre from MPM International of Paris.
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