Barbara Thieme – General characteristics of MAGAPAR
The theatre has completely resigned from using words, and has turned to body, light and music language forms expression.
Every Magapar s play conveys certain values. It is a kind of a message encoded in the sequence of acts. The message should inspire the spectator to create his own interpretation. The theatre does no give simple answers : it odes not impose on the spectator s ready-made ideas. What it wants to achieve , is to make him aware of specific life situations, to show different attitudes and encourage him to decode “the message” himself. It is he to decide, using his imagination, sensitivity and experience, what each stage act means. What is shown on the stage in a symbolic way, concerns every human being s matters such as : the values search, study of oneself, and which is the most important, awareness of “light abundance”in us. This light can brighten up – from the inside – our “human cover” and we can turn it on to other people. This is the essence of life !
The performances by the Magapar Theater introduce the audience to the spiritual world of magical scenery. This is the world created by the movement of human body, music and light. It is magic, which takes audiences on a journey full of fantasy through the realm of joy, dreams, love and suffering.
This is the world we conceive in the heart.
AUTHORIZED THEATRE M A G A P A R www.magapar.com
Theatre of Light, run by Barbara Thieme, also a director, set designer, choreographer, screenwriter, light and sound operator, has existed since 1983. Barbara Thieme holds all copyrights to the Magapar Theatre and its performances. The theatre takes part in national and international theatre festivals. So far, Magapar has performed in Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Poznań, Lublin, Kielce, Rzeszów, Olsztyn, Przemyśl, Zbąszyń, Bydgoszcz, Jarosław and her hometown Lubaczów.
Barbara Thieme has presented her plays at international theatre festivals in: Switzerland, France (twice), Denmark, England: Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Canada, Turkey, USA: New York International Fringe Festival, International Theater Festival – in Florida, Tunisia, Finland, Greece, and as a guest in Ukraine, Hungary, Italy and Portugal. She is a scholarship holder of the Janineum Institute of Culture and Science in Austria. A great friend of the Magapar theatre was Cardinal Marian Jaworski, thanks to whom the theatre was hosted in Italy at the special invitation of the Vatican. Barbara Thieme is the winner of many awards, thanks, diplomas and distinctions, including 2 awards of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Award of the Minister of National Education, the Polcul Foundation Award, 3 awards of the Marshal of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship and distinctions in the national competition Instructor of the Year. Magapar received international awards at the Florida festival: Outstanding Music and Sound, Best Youth Ensemble, Best Premiere of a Production, Outstanding Visual Effects.
The Magapar Theatre has many press releases in both domestic and foreign press, e.g. „Gazeta Wyborcza”, „Scena”, Życie Podkarpackie,
„New York Experience”, „Herald Tribune”, „Diario de Coimbra”, Le Choix, and also takes part in radio and television broadcasts.
Classes on international, contemporary theatre have been held, among others, on the Magapar Theatre. These seminars have been held at Oregon State University, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, New York University, as well as in Zagreb, Toronto, Santiago and Mexico City.
” The World Explained by Physical Vision ”
The idea of Magapar is based on physical and visual form of theatrical expression, which means no words. Words, as Barbara Thieme puts it, are superfluous ballast in the theatre. They divert the audiences’ attention from such theatrical forms as: movement, stage design, dance, body, light and darkness, music and gesture and such themes as: death, good, evil.
Light
Light is one of the elements that make up „Magapar”. It is sometimes delicate – romantic. Sometimes it introduces peril or tragedy. That is why we constantly change lighting: from darkness, semi – darkness – rapidly becoming intense to spot – beamed details of the stage design, or figures lying motionlessly on the stage. A peculiar climate of the performances is created by lighting waxed and waned, using different filters, play of colours and shadows.Light is, in fact, a living being in the theatre. It can, as people often do, hesitate, cry or shout, stay silent or mourn. You can even hear it when it stays still for a short while but it never dies away. Every single flicker is a form of expression: request, protest, delight. The performers mus not only see it and understand it, but should hear it, feel it, trust it as well.
Darkness
Darkness is a state of awaiting, a messenger of the inevitable. You can feel it. It is almost palpable. It feels thick as if darkness were filled with darkness. It is shapeless, bodiless, and full of mystery. In it – everything is born, in – thoughts, actions and emotions are hidden. The more it is imbued or dense, the louder it seems to appeal. It cries with its motionlessness; a kind of inertness, inevitability, thus transforming into the subject of art. In its calmness – deadness it tends to be alarming , questioning – guess – work. You can experience its burden; you can even hold it in your hand. On the one hand it is safe; you can take shelte r there, on the other hand it is treacherous; you can find someone or something there. This is Darkness!
Death
Death is inevitable. It appears in Magapar’s performances, although it takes on a form of sleep from which we will liberate ourselves one day. This death can put the performers to sleep on the stage, the light wanes a bit, the music dies away and the stage design stops changing. The whole stage „freezes”. Death is mighty regardless of an individual or all generations: it is mighty because taking possession of our bodies it leaves our souls. In Death something ends ; at the same time something new is born. It brings hope to new life. The hero of „The Prince” by Saint – Exupery leaves his cloak on the stage : death has come and the body would prevent him from coming back to the planet. The body is also too heavy for the soul to be lifted. It must be shed ; you are coming back to Rose.
Good and Evil
Good and evil are one of the main themes present in Magapar’s plays. Despite the , so called, Universal Good and Evil there is something in – between: different forms , or shades of good or evil , sometimes marked so subtly that they are almost invisible or unreal. In life people are „haunted” by the following questions: „Are we strong enough to fight the evil?”, ” Do we want to fight it ?”, „What is good ? „, „What is evil ?”, „Do they permeate or shape each other?” , „What relationships are there between good and the individual and other humans?” „Are decisions beneficial to me are harmful to others.” If so , are we willing to give up our aspirations for someone else’s sake?
Music
Music plays an important role in Magapar’s performances. It seems to be a conductor who guides the whole stage action. Each music phrase prompts ultimate reaction of the performers, lighting , and stage design. The theatre uses different kinds of music composed by: N. Paganini, T. Baird, E. Morricone, Kitaro, J. M. Jarre , M. Bilinski , Vangelis and Cz. Niemen.Melodrama and great visuality of their music becomes an ideal artistic material for Magapar. Analogically, if you can hear light, you can see music as well. This is not the question of visuality contained in musical compositions but the problem of plastic creativity of every single sound which can develop itself in the viewer’s imagination.