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The
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The first Icarus performance project led to the presentation of Lamentations of Cain – A Vocal Structure (2005). The Cain Project evolved in three phases. The First Phase, entitled ‘The Roots of Performing (2001-2003)’, was marked by the presentations of the solo pieces Amargo – The Tragedy of the Man Doomed to Die (2002-2003) and ICARUS 4 (2003). The Second Phase, ‘Performative – Improvisational – Structural (2003-2004)’, was characterised by the crystallisation of two branches within the Project. Whilst Tekhne Sessions explored the fluid space between technique and performance structures by means of a codified sequence of tasks, the presentations of TWO, TWO.2, and Amargo TWO continued the work on an evolving dramaturgical structure. The Third Phase, ‘Dramaturgy of Action (2004-2005)’, explored the possibilities of a shared dramaturgy by building on the individual dramaturgies of the First Phase and on the dramaturgy of textures and dynamics which informed the montage of individual dramaturgies into duos and trios in the Second Phase. This research led to the presentation of Lamentations of Cain.
In 2006 a new performance process was launched. Taking the cue from the previous project’s point of arrival, a vocal structure was devised as a point of departure. La Reina, Spanish for ‘The Queen’, was inspired by Cervantes’s masterpiece Don Quixote. Material from Cervantes’s work was fused with other literary sources to provide a dramaturgy that explored the carnivalesque. La Reina tapped Maltese and Mediterranean sources in terms of sound patterns and vocal textures by way of traditional songs as well as multi-tiered linguistic configurations pertaining to the Semitic origins of the Maltese language. RISK: El Riesgo de La Reina (‘The Risk of the Queen’, 2007) marked the second step in the evolving performance structure. Based on La Reina, RISK explored liminal areas of theatre performance. Apart from the multi-tiered vocality of the songs and texts, the process incorporated digital/video projections and an installation-spatial setting in its performative weave. Structured improvisation and choral work were also explored. Duration 56 (2008) announced a new departure. The third phase was named ‘Eternal Queen’ due to the dramaturgical and vocal research on Eternal Feminine by Teilhard de Chardin. However, the work on daily actions and spatial patterns within a ‘risk’ (improvisational) structure led to the formulation of a ‘performance installation’ that can be located between training and performance configurations. In exploring the practice of duration, repetition, and improvisation, the ‘Queen’ of Duration 56 can be said to be the temporal dimension of space and action shorn of plot, character, and text.
Frank Camilleri is Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project (Malta) and Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK). He was Academic Coordinator of the Theatre Studies Programme at the University of Malta from 2004 to 2008. He has worked with John Schranz, first as part of Teatru tal-Bniedem (1989-1993) and then as main research collaborator within Groups for Human Encounter (1994-2003). Under Schranz’s direction he performed in Berlin! Berlin! (1992) and Inkontri Possibbli (1995-1996), and together they created Camilleri’s solo performance Id-Descartes which was presented in various European contexts from 1996 to 2003. Camilleri has also worked with Ingemar Lindh (1994-1997) and performed under the Polish director Lech Raczak (formerly with Osmegio Dnia theatre) in La Vita di S. Giovanni (Urbino, 1994) and La Pietra e il Dolore (Urbino, 1996). In 2001 Camilleri founded Icarus Performance Project (Malta) as part of Groups for Human Encounter until 2003. In 2004 the Project pursued its practice independently. The Project’s research in performance process and actor technique has been presented in Poznan (Poland), Exeter and Scarborough (UK), Moscow (Russia), and Evora (Portugal). In the course of his activity in theatre Camilleri developed a way of relating to the work of the actor based on a study of elaboration of acrobatics, plastiques, martial arts, dance, and mime. He has also developed a vocal training regimen which evolved from the work on physical actions. Camilleri has performed, delivered workshops, given papers and demonstrations in various European contexts since 1994. * For more information on Icarus Project please email contact@icarusproject.info. |