WHY THEATRE AND ART

PERFORMING ART AND AMUSING CHILDREN

This is a short fairy-tale or, in a certain sense, the story of a small Italian miracle which was created, grew and developed in Bolzano, a medium-sized town in the North of Italy. It was carried out in order to invent small and big artistic emotions together with small children and young adults. Without any presumption, only a sound conviction and a lot of passion.

This is the story of the Association BRICABRAC, a very small reality of high quality in the world of musical theatre, for young people aged 6 - 18 years. Since its official founding in 2000, the company has managed step by step to be in the limelight several times at World Festivals for Children's Theatre and Music on account of its hard work and many projects. It has received international acclaim for its pedagogical and educational efficiency and also considerable acknowledgement and flattering appreciation in the international and foreign press.

This is, of course, quite difficult for professional experts to achieve, especially when working with children and not only "for " them.

What makes Bricabrac so special? Perhaps it is that pinch of playful risk, typical of children, of venturing in uncommon things that do not find their place in the common thought.
What about making theatre with children so as to present and let them live art, mostly modern and contemporary? We really need a bit of smiling audacity to let the children experience the most important streams of modern and contemporary art by way of theatrical staging, as if it were a game, in which they have to construct décors, scenery and costumes. We place important narrative texts in their hands, and let the children harmonize the various visual, plastic, musical, verbal and gestural languages, like in a kaleidoscope.

In short, BRICABRAC wants exactly to stimulate the curiosity of these young minds towards the various artistic forms.

An example?
We literally plunged the children into a well-known fairy tale, The Nutcracker, changed , however, into something completely new by means of a very colourful futuristic dimension. The Futurist movement became the springboard for a slightly irreverent reinterpretation of old stereotypes: the lesser known pages and the most amusing ones from the story were read. Our inspiration came above all from the world of Depero and especially from the drawings from Le Chant du Rossignol, which turned into a magical circus of colours, forms and mechanical elements that the children immediately grasped and made their own. What is there to add? Oh yes, the music written for children by Satie, Poulenc and Casella and the lyrics by the greatest Italian futuristic poet and designer, Sergio Tofano, known as STO. And finally the choreographic contribution, undoubtedly very simple, however, always in line with Bauhaus and O. Schlemmer.

Is this a pedagogical intent? Is it an interactive experience? Is it an educative game? Is it the artistic education? Is it an experiment?

To be honest, we cannot give you a precise and articulated answer: we only know, and we can confirm this after many years of experience, that it works really well. We most definitely know what it isn’t: neither animation, nor improvisation, trends that we completely reject. Children and adolescents need to “put their fingers in the pie” in what they are doing or studying. Watching, listening and repeating isn’t enough.

It is undeniable that in order to feed their creative and intelligent curiosity simply ambling around museums (art or science, it doesn’t really matter) but denying them some practical activity (copying, messing up, making experiments) leads to poor results. Watching isn’t enough.
These theatre paths of curiosity towards art mainly aim at respecting the age and especially the intelligence of the little ones, also at giving them the opportunity to practice art in a “gymnasium of ideas” and to do “mental gymnastics” along the lines of the extremely suitable provocations of a great Italian master of design, as well as a very sensitive creator of opportunities for childhood: Bruno Munari.
Without the fear of avoiding this or that artist or author (i.e. Tinguely and Melotti for The Frenzy of Orlando; Calder and Mirò for The Magic Flute), this or that figurative or literary stream (careful choice of good fiction), only because it might not be “suitable” for the children’s understanding. We believe that one can present children with more or less anything in the right context, in the proper way, in the appropriate time and respecting sensitivity and good sense. At times even provocations. But never banalities, vulgarities nor mystifications.

How do we work at Bricabrac, primarily considering the small children aged between 6 and 10, or the delicate age of adolescence? With extreme caution, sensitivity and time, providing as much input as possible, two weekly meetings of open confrontation and at times amusing and animated squabbles on how art moulds composition works and on the contrary how their compositional work moulds, changes and interprets art.

Thus there is no intention of creating "little artists", but the stimulation to tempt them to be "little curious consumers of art". And what is the result? Click on PERFORMANCES…