Director Edgars Niklasons starts working at the Latvian Puppet Theater with a puppet and a performance for students / Article

Today, 10:43

Authors:
LSM.lv Children’s content editing

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Season 78 of the Latvian Puppet Theater begins with two new productions – the puppet “Nina and Le Corbusier” and the show for students “Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” – a new staff director Edgars Niklasons, the theater representatives informed in a press release.

Edgars Niklasons started his professional career in 2011/2012. He has been active in staging children’s and youth performances, as well as in various independent performing arts projects in recent years. Last season was especially successful for the director, when two plays by Edgars Niklasons were nominated as Play of the Year for Gamers’ Night – “Pipe Tooth Only” (Rezekne Theater “Joriks”) and “Nils Holgerson’s Wonderful Journey” (Mikhail Chekhov’s Riga Russian).

From this season, the director has started an active creative career in the team of the Latvian Puppet Theater, in order to present two new works to the audience for evaluation at the end of September. On October 1, the premiere of the show “Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” staged during the pandemic will take place. On September 20, the release of the 1st series is awaited by a digital work created in a unique author’s technique – the doll “Nina and Le Corbusier”, who will talk to children about their inner world in the form of animation and puppet theater synthesis. The first 3 series will be available to viewers free of charge and on the theatre’s Youtube channel, and will be released on September 20, September 27, and October 4.

In a series of live animated films or dolls, the whole family will be told in simple and understandable language about various emotions that each of us first gets to know in childhood. The first three series will be dedicated to emotions such as anger, joy and fear. Lellene was created in author’s technique, ie the overhead projector serves as a medium to capture the animated 2D cartoon images of the actors in video format. The transparent material of the puppets, which determines the aesthetic tone of the series, is as an integral part of the poetic world of this work, in which the main characters create a feeling of disarming fragility. Each series will be complemented by the experience stories of two Latvian Puppet Theater actors about communication with the respective emotion, which will be entertaining and at the same time valuable information for children and their parents.

Edgars Niklasons: “These two works are very different in form. I staged a knight at the end of last year, when everything was closed. It is a very energetic, bubbling and unrelenting show, contrary to what our daily life was like at the time, with the existing limitations. In my opinion, we have managed to create a light, comical performance that strikes the viewer in a way, saying that everything will be fine. The idea of ​​the doll Nina and Le Corbusier is rooted in the rules set by the pandemic, but it is clear that it will live well outside them. We want the series to encourage children to have a conversation with their parents, helping the little ones to understand how they feel in one situation or another, and not to confuse the range of human emotions. When creating this work, we understood with the artist Evita that in reality many things do not change in life. However, there is no stage in life in which, as an adult, you can tell yourself – “now I always act adequately, make the right decisions and are always able to convey emotions correctly”. However, we are all children, only a few of us are imprisoned in the adult body. In terms of content, I want the Knights to give strength and energy to the little ones to fight their daily battles, but Nina is like a friend’s shoulder in this crazy time, when everything is so volatile and unpredictable. ”

The creative team of “Nina and Le Corbusier” consists of its director and playwright Edgar Niklason, artist Evita Beta, video artist Vladislav Loik, composer Stanislav Kulikov, puppet animators Rūdolfs Apse and Elīna Bojarkina, roles played by Lauma Margrieta Kambiksala, Lauma Margrieta Sirmais and Artūrs Putniņš.

The performance “Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” will be shown on October 1 and 2 at the temporary play of the Latvian Puppet Theater – in the Great Hall of the Riga Latvian Society House. Information and tickets – www.lelluteatris.lv.

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