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Oana Mardare - on play and convention
Starting in September, we launched the Animat project, a complex cultural program taking place over these months, aimed at familiarizing very young audiences and adults with object theater.
In addition to guest performances, the project includes a series of performative readings based on contemporary stories in which household objects become characters, challenging children's imaginations. Responsible for the "3 Stories on a Grater" series are Oana Mardare (actress) and Selma Dragoș (director and playwright). On the occasion of presenting the second story on November 13 and 15 at Reactor, we invited Oana to answer a few questions about this endeavor.
Tell us about the context in which you became part of the Animat project. Why this interest in doing performative readings for children?
Oana Mardare: I am on maternity leave, at a certain distance from the pressure of delivering anything professionally. I want to work only as much as I can and as much as it does me good, and of course, to do something that makes sense and, if possible, something I didn't have time for before. Ever since my pregnancy, I started gathering books for my daughter's library, with great joy at being able to discover contemporary children's literature at this stage of my life, which is much denser and richer than when I was little. This immersion reminded me of another period of my life, when storytelling for children was part of a certain routine, back when I played in the Madame Pové performance series, created with Delia Gavlițchi at MiniReactor. Jump in time: during a walk with Selma Dragoș in the first months after giving birth, we discussed how we could play with contemporary stories in an open, performative format. In parallel, the team at Reactor was discussing testing an animation theater project, returning to a programming component for young audiences, and slowly but surely the series of performative readings with objects began to take shape as a component of the project.
What is the relationship you build with the audience in these performances? What expectations are there regarding the children, and what reactions do you think/hope it generates?
O.M.: Right now we are preparing the second story, so I can speak about how the two performances of the first story, Big Wolf & Little Wolf, worked out. They were surprisingly different, due to the framework set before each one. The first performance was an effort to keep pace with the audience, who had a lot of room to intervene. In the second performance, I had more room to play and more responsibility for delivering the story. I admit that the "chaos" of the first performance was a delight for me; I really enjoy feeling that the audience is highly engaged and having fun, like a shared play. It's a feeling I haven't found in theater for adults, a co-creation in a true sense. One of the series' bets is for the audience to "buy into" the proposed convention, that a funnel is a wolf, for example. Small negotiations take place, and some persuasion might be needed. If the audience's space is generous, the convention ends up being renegotiated or challenged along the way. It's very amusing to do this in theater. The appetite for playing with convention was a meeting point between Selma and me; it's a shared interest in how convention is constructed in theater, especially for children.
Tell us a few words about the entire "Stories on a Grater" endeavor: what do they contain and how are the stories structured? What stakes do they have together and/or separately?
O.M.: We use storytelling mechanisms and principles of object theater to explore the construction of convention and story together with the audience. Imagination plays an important role. All the stories have structures that allow for a lot of freedom. There is a gradual increase in the complexity of these structures. The series currently has 3 stories, chosen for slightly different ages. The curating of the selection belongs to Selma and supports the directorial concept, which Selma will explain better. According to it, I am practically a story grater. But I don't look like a grater; in fact, we have a grater that plays all sorts of other roles. The universe of objects differs for each story, but there are also common objects. The first story - Big Wolf & Little Wolf (by Nadine Brun-Cosme) is a very simple story, the most poetic of all, about how someone begins to slip into your soul, unnoticed. We played with the main elements to test the principles of working with objects, with the audience, with the story. The second story - The Little Boy Who Could Bite His Own Nose (by Alex Moldovan) opens up to the children's social environment (parents, classmates, their parents, school, the city) and ironizes parents' passion for supporting their children in finding their passion (talent, their "thing"). Once found, if the rest of the world can see it in full glory, all the better. The third story - The Three Astronauts (by Umberto Eco) opens toward the adult universe and toward the universe-universe, the one with planets and grand dilemmas, in which 3 astronauts from 3 different countries discover that they are equally afraid of the dark. It is a very moving story that I think all adults would need.
Does anything change in your current role as a co-creator of a cultural mediation framework dedicated to children? How do you perceive this endeavor in relation to what happens at Reactor?
O.M.: This endeavor, along with the entire Animat project, seeks to reclaim a space dedicated to young audiences, out of the conviction that it is important to have this dimension in our work, that it is something that completes what we do. The cultural mediation component has become a natural part of our relationship with the audience. It energizes me immensely to see Selma working on mediation with the children, before and after the performance, but also to follow this entire project. It's something I need during this period, something that fuels me with meaning regarding the world in general. I feel that it is very difficult for me right now to look in directions from which no light comes anymore.
photo: Gabriel Neacșu
Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grant beneficiary.
Project carried out with the support of the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council.
