THE MASK DIMENSION

- A SOURcE

Directed by Carlos García Estévez and Paige Allerton

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The Mask Dimension - a source

We will go back to the origins of Manifesto Poetico’s 25 years of research and follow its journey with the eyes of today.

This Open Laboratory will combine fundamental research and a living pedagogic language while providing rigourous training for the actor.

Tune the physical

Sharpen the mind

Discover the voice

Grasp the space in your hands

… Impact …

Extract from

ASAP JOURNAL - Johns Hopkins University Press

[READ full THE ARTICLE]

MANIFESTO POETICO is an international theater research group and production company that proposes a theater “for and with the people.”(1) Their work began twenty-five years ago after artistic leader and founder CARLOS GARCÍA ESTÉVEZ was provoked by his teacher, the renowned theater innovator JACQUES LECOQ, to delve more deeply into the tragic depth of Commedia dell’Arte and masked performance.

After years of research and collaborations with such artists as DONATO SARTORI, DARIO FO, TAPA SUDANA, SIMON MCBURNEY, and MIQUEL BARCELÓ, CARLOS became a recognized authority on Contemporary Mask Performance.

A contributor to the Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte, (2) CARLOS has taught masked performance all over the world and presented at major conferences and festivals including at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the International Encounter of Theatre of the Oppressed, and the International Commedia dell’Arte Festival. In 2010—responding to a growing disassociation between the theater and more popular cultural forms—he was inspired to entirely reinvent his practice. What was necessary, he recognized, was not more or different forms of theater—that is, more or different depictions of human experience within a previously established representative mode—but new languages, new ways of communicating experience that could accommodate and employ the techniques and effects of our rapidly changing technologies, social realities, and points of view.

With this goal of arriving at new theatrical languages in mind, Carlos began collaborating with the performing artist and anthropologist Paige Allerton in 2014, a partnership that has expanded Manifesto Poetico’s international reach and the scope of its research and philosophy.

Within an international, multidisciplinary, and multilingual context, Laboratory participants are invited to engage with what shapes communication at an elemental level: the deep, structural realities of space and time.

“His performance provoked in me childhood memories.

I love the energy of his collective, please encore!”

- Dario Fo, Masterclass Festival. Padua (IT) 2010

"He has discovered ways to make the life within each character not only amuse and engage the audience, but also grab them by the throat and jerk them into the world on stage and, by extension, the world we live in."

- Sara Romersberger, Stage Director, Dallas 2013

We welcome all genres of artists (actors, dancers, voice artists, film makers, directors, dramaturges, puppeteers, painters, sculptors, architects, designers, musicians etc.). Manifesto Poetico’s Open Laboratories are designed for advanced students and professional artists. Beginners are welcome to apply but may be asked for an interview.