Contadores de Estórias: Brazilian Puppetry For Adults

27 Oct 2008 Category: Arts & Crafts, Worldwide

Contadores de Estórias: Brazilian Puppetry For Adults

Conveying all just through gestures: The Brazilian puppet theatre Contadores de Estórias is focussing on topics for adults, mirroring scenes from everyday life. A still from "Concepção" (Conception.)

In the arty, picturesque Brazilian beach town of Parati you’ll find a puppet theatre for adults called Contadores de Estórias (Storytellers.) For more than 30 years this troupe, comprised of Rachel and Marcos Caetano Ribas, has been touring the world with their puppet stage plays in which all of the emotion is conveyed only through gestures. The couple crafts their puppets themselves and they give puppet theatre workshops every year. For PingMag, Marcos explained all about their marionette art.

Written by Aroldo Cardoso Jr.

First, when did the group start?

In 1971. Rachel and I were studying in New York. She was studying illustration and I theatre and dance. We decided to work together, mixing our experiences, and so came the idea of doing a puppet play.

Giggling elders: A still from the “Maturando” (Maturing) puppet play about growing up. It has been running since 1987 and was shown in Rio de Janeiro, Londrina (Brazil,) Lisbon, New York and Minneapolis.

How do you come up with an idea for a new puppet?

The puppets are usually made by Rachel, the illustrator of the company, sometimes by her own idea, sometimes by mine — but we always discuss them a lot before they are finished.

The characters you create are of such great variety: we saw a businessman, two Indians and an elderly couple to name a few. What do they all have in common?

We have been around a bit and we see our pieces as slices of life that will express the emotions we want to talk about. The characters are chosen accordingly. However they do have many things in common. If you look closely you will notice that they are usually very Brazilian in type, and that they normally move in a gracious, soft way.

Watch a scene from “Maturando” (Maturing) and see how the puppets’ gestures convey it all without words! It won the Brazilian “Mambembe” theatre award.

With these characters you often broach grown up themes — which are still not usually associated with puppets…

We found that puppets can be surprisingly good when you want to attract people — children, and especially adults — and make them go deep into the universe that we are trying to create. In fact, I believe that some of the vignettes that we have presented would not work properly if they were done by live actors. You have mentioned the elderly couple, for example. Their vignettes consist basically of their whispering in each others’ ear, words that the audience does not hear, and then laughing in a flirtatious way. Well, if that vignette was done by live actors dressed up like old people, I sincerely believe it would convey neither the feeling nor the message about ageing that we wanted to provoke. I think that, most of the time, adults do not expect that a puppet would be able to move them. But it does, and when they realise it the emotions are already there and it is too late to back up. That miniature world is a trap that easily catches you while you’re unaware of it.

Still from “Mansamente” (Tamely, Peacefully) — amazingly, these are still puppets on strings.

And how do you start working on a scene?

There is no fixed way. It could start with an idea, or with a puppet, or something we saw, or anything really.

When you have an idea for a scene, in what order do you think of costumes, lights, music, etc.?

Generally, when we think of a scene, we think also of how we are going to do it. If with puppets, dancers, or both, or what. Music usually comes right after and lights more towards the end. But there is no rule to that either.

Another still from the “Mansamente” (Tamely, Peacefully) stage play.

While creating, do you go back and forth between the scene’s elements, such as story, scenery, puppets, or do you follow a clear set of steps?

We try to follow a set of steps, a more or less established development route, but, most of the time we have to make changes in it that are demanded by the work we are doing or the people we are working with or our own difficulties.

Now you get to see the puppet’s actual proportions: Rachel Ribas and Marcos Caetano Ribas working on stage on “Concepção” (Conception.)

You’ve also done a few hybrid projects combining puppets, dance, performance and “actor’s” theatre. Was it a challenge to balance the art of puppetry with these other arts?

Yes, it was quite a challenge. To use dance concepts — that we were already using with the puppets — with real dancers, was something that we (or mostly me, I confess) were eager to do. After all, dance was part of my performing arts education and I wanted to make use of it. But it was not easy, mainly when we tried to mix the two arts. Very soon we had to understand that puppets are puppets and real dancers are real people. Each one with their own limitations. And each one with their own, very specific, techniques and possibilities. The basis of the piece we did were the drawings and sculptures of Auguste Rodin and the piece was called “Rodin, Rodin.” Finally, I think, we managed to find a language that worked for both dancers and puppets.

Watch an interesting scene from “Concepção” (Conception.)

Do you have a different relationship with the audience when you’re playing with puppets as opposed to other ways of performing?

Actually, no. The media, if we can put it this way, is different, but the concept behind the language is quite the same, and, surprisingly, people react pretty much the same way. I guess, one of the characteristics of our plays is that we work a lot with the audiences’ emotions, and that remains the same, with the same impact. That happened when we finally managed to tune up the language, in “Rodin, Rodin.”

Have you seen, in recent years, any trends in puppet theatre?

I think that puppet theatre has developed quite a bit in Brazil lately. There are more groups working now than when we began. And there is this huge festival called Sesi Bonecos that happens every year in three or four different Brazilian states.

Now what would that be: A still from the “Chapeuz in hover melho” fairy-tale (Little Red Riding Hood.)

Contadores de Estórias also carries some other projects, such as a network for Latin American puppet theatre groups. Tell us more, please!

It was a network of presenters of all kinds of contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean. We started it in 1991, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, and stayed in it for ten years. It was a huge project, involving about 30 different countries and it grew to out of proportions for us, so we left. But it is still going on and we are honorary members.

Wolf in a granny’s clothing: “Chapeuz in hover melho” (Little Red Riding Hood.)

What else were you working on besides puppetry?

We have been involved in several projects in our career, the most recent one was the recovering of the gold trail in Parati. It was an 18th century route that connected the town with the interior of the country, which was very important in Brazilian early history. The whole thing began with the idea of making a play about it. It was called “Descaminhos” and was performed to celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2001. The research for that play led us to a very profound study of the trail’s history that then led me to write two books about it. There, at the actual trail, we directed and organised an archaeological prospection, and a lot of other things during a long period of almost ten years. But right now we are in the process of getting ourselves out of this project and trying to focus more on our theatre work.

Finally, what’s next on your schedule?

When we are not abroad, we perform regularly every Wednesday and Saturday, year round, in our theatre in Parati. Right now we just came back from the US and we plan to tour in Chile and Spain, but, unfortunately, not in Japan. But we would love to go there! Why don’t you invite us?

Inviting! The Contadores de Estórias theatre building in picturesque Parati, Brazil.

We’d love to! Thank you, Marcos Caetano Ribas of Contadores de Estórias!

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