Genius Loci
February 24, 2020
One thing is very clear, that I am to shy to be on a stage and that my shyness prevents me from living certain important experiences. Well, that’s why I am an artistic consultant and not an actress. Nevertheless, observing the work of Astragali Theater artists in preparing a performance with cast formed of very different people, professional actors and students from different countries, is still a beautiful experience. And it enhances for me the conviction that research theater is the really meaningful type of theater, since it gives both the actor and the audience the opportunity to find in themselves and in each other things that they weren’t aware they had.
Assisting at the birth of a performance, it is fascinating to see how director Fabio Tolledi, actresses Roberta Quarta and Simonetta Rotundo and the other people of Astragali are training and tutoring the performers in a variate and intensive program of eight hours per day, mixing Qigong with karate, breath exercises, voice exercises, chorus, coordination exercises and creative acting. It is interesting, above all, how the performance is created from disparate pieces of material that actors bring from themselves, becoming instruments for the antique myth of Medea to continue its creative process in contemporary times.
Being a witness of the subtle, ineffable, almost mystical way in which the rehearsals flow, extracting, with surgical precision, the meaningful actions and feelings, I came to regard the Astragali team almost likepriests and priestesses of the ancient gods, in charge with conveying to the mortals of today the messages of genii loci. And their work requires, like in ancient times, discipline, focus, initiation and mystery.