Theater in the Community of Roça:
A way of valuing life in the countryside
2011
Contemplated by the FUNARTE Aesthetic Interactions Award
This time in the countryside of São Luiz do Paraitinga, our partners – a rural school in the São Benedito neighborhood and a kitchen at Mr Euclides' house.
The project benefited from realizing that it was possible to hold workshops and exchange ideas and culture in a rural kitchen. I believe this is the greatest gain we have had, as Mr. Euclides served as a physical space for meetings, workshops, dialogues, project research and the montage of small scenes. And it was in that space that we learned many things about the local culture: we learned with children, young people and adults the true meaning of the word live, because in that community life is simple, but full of meaning and joy.
In the countryside, when night comes, the stars paint the sky and during the day the clouds run free of pollution. The mountains seem to say something and the birds dance all the time between one tree and another. There is poetry in everything we look at, this place is certainly privileged in the eyes of those who seek poetry in colors and shapes. The waters of the rivers that cut the dirt roads make a magical sound; timeless. Stopping the car on the road to see a waterfall, waiting for the cows to pass and then continue the journey is something that makes us rethink values, rethink the dynamics of time and space that guide our urban relations, this rural universe put us in the position of apprentice.
There is so much to learn with the eyes amid that diversity of colors, shapes and textures, as there is also much to learn with the ears amid the sounds of birds, oxen, trees that sway their leaves and there is still time to learn with silence of people, learning with their hands on the earth, on wood, learning with the taste of the fruit that is picked fresh from the tree and, above all, learning simple games in the countryside with children.
He who surrenders to the countryside and manages to understand its poetry, sees beyond the stars and does not let the little ant that carries his food home go unnoticed. This bucolic landscape reminds us of Almeida Júnior's painting and the modas de viola, in addition, it contributed to creating, together with the children and young people of the locality, the small shadow theater scenes that portray that place. Our work was born from the plastic universe with the making of the puppets and scenery and went through the choice of soundtrack and manipulation of the puppets.
