Number 3, September1998
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Translation from the original italian version by Giuliana Dettori and
Ulla Vedda.
This issue appears with a three months delay, and we apologize with the readers.
Main topic of this issue is again the italian tour of the Grupo-Circo, that ended on May 24th: a great success, with more that 25 shows in as many italian towns. We have collected the impressions of some people in the audience and also the chronicle of the preparation of one of the performance, and we hope to give you an idea of the atmosphere, the passion, the work and the enthousiasm that people have put in this project. Pio Campo, founder of the Vila Esperança, tells us about the feelings that this tour left in the hearth of the actors, and what impressions they received coming back home.
But Vila Esperança is not only the Grupo Circo, and life in Brazil has gone on, with some more labour but unchanged enthousiasm: the calendar of the activities of the first semester 1998 is full of initiatives, as Regina, costums-designer of the Grupo-Circo and educator at the Vila, tells us.
News: this bullettin is now also available on paper. Presently the graphic is very simple, text only, but it has a good quality printing, in order also to make photocopying easy. If you want to receive a paper copy (of this issue but also of the previous ones), you can contact us by e-mail: vilanotizie @ picaflor.xs4all.nl
or by fax:
+31 71 5121872
By means of a sequence of allegories, we lived back the story of creation, when America belonged to the Indios, who later have been driven out of their Paradise by the Europeans; the myth of Prometeus, the hero who defied the order established by the ancient Greek Gods, the mighty ones, in order to give the fire to the men, the humble ones, therefore being condemned to be in chains, as a slave, for all his life, nevertheless preserving a yearning for life and endless freedom, like the immortality that he took away from the Gods.
Then we have lived again the fight of humble Matheus to defend at all costs his freedom, his ox, his wish for life, from the attack of the powerful ones, with the help of all his strengths, his Latin-American ethnical roots, the Indian one (the shaman) and the Afro-Brazilian one (the orixà).
The answer of Matheus to the powerful man who asks him "Who are you?" - "I
am a man with an ox" - "Then you are a cowherd"- "No, I am man with an ox"
- contains the main aim for which we fight by means of Fair Trade, that is
to <B>give back human dignity to all those who have been deprived by the
current economic system<B>. The Grupo Circo works in Brazil with the street
children; it is exactly in defence of children, against children
exploitation, that Fair Trade has concentrated its effort this years,
getting involved in two campaigns to put pressure on Mike and Reebok to
stop making use of children's labour for their products, and supporting the
campaigns "Fair Ball" and "Global March".
From the bullettin of the association Abacashì, Novara
I have watched the show in Novara in a hall full of quiet people and noisy children. I had the impression that the age range 20-30 was completely missing. Does it mean anything? This has really been a different evening, cheerful and interesting. Besides the issue of solidarity with those who make something good, the show has been useful also to get to come out some hundreds people living in Novara, including myself (I had not met some of those people for several years, though we live at few hundred meters from one another) and to remind them that, if a Real Ultimate Aim of Life exists, this is probably not only the improvement of their own economical position.
The show is amusing but not so easy to understand at first sight,
especially for somebody who tries to explain it to a three year old girl;
in any case, she liked it very much, she remained up to the end with her
eyes wide open, then asked me to tell it all again from the beginning, and
finally fell asleep into my arms.
Davide, Novara
The Grupo Circo of Vila Esperança has passed through Ancona. The show is extremely enjoyable also for children. However, in my opinion, it is not very harsh with us, Western people. Or maybe I am too hard with myself and I would have preferred it to make us feel more guilty.
They (the performers) are very good, and have left a very pleasant memory. They remained one day in the house of common friends, so that we had the opportunity to meet them in person and chat a little, on serious and not serious topics: they have offered us an unforgettable evening.
These youth who got committed with Vila Esperança have made an
extraordinary choice of life, it is true, but actually they are
"normal"people. I mean, the excuse that some people make this kind of
choice of life because they are exceptional people does not stand; it is
us, the "regular people", who use this excuse in order not to do anything.
Ugo, Ancona
The Grupo Circo has been in Pisa; I went to the show with my son, who is eight years old; he liked the show very much. Obviously, the part that he found more interesting was the war with paper balls between Matheus and the landlord: we were on the side of Matheus, and he had much fun in throwing balls against "that unpleasant wife of the landlord".
The space where the show took place is rather small(the hall probably has
little over one hundred seats) , moreover it was not full: what can I say?
the usual "cold" answer of Pisa to enterprises that would deserve more? or
maybe the effect of an insufficient diffusion of the leaflet of the show?
Well, I got the impression of something limited to a small group of people,
each of which was there because some friend had asked him to go.
Giovanni, Pisa
Among those present at the performance no one knows what is going to happen: Nobody has ever worked with the organization of a theatrical show. We like the idea from the very beginning, it excites our fantasy a little. Yes, we know Vila Esperanca: some already support it with monthly contributions, others have only heard talking about it. For the great part of us it's still an abstract thing: names without faces, stories written on paper..... So what..... why, of course, come on and let's embark in this adventure, without knowing what's expecting us.
We get the first uncertainties already at the departure: as the performance dates aren't decided yet it is not possible to reserve showroom for the moment. In the mean time we start by trying to reach as many people as possible. From the very beginning we involve the "Commercio Equo e Solidale" in Novara and province: Abacashì, the local association, will give us its support and place at our disposal its status of incorporated company (very important!) for the claim of sponsorship to the public authorities and Chamber of Commerce (which will let us use its conference room free of charge for the show). At the same time we also contact:
Everything seems to go promptly without difficulties ... however ... however we have not yet squared up our own ignorance of the Italian bureaucracy as regards performances. Suddenly everything seems to be about to fail. We still haven't got the authorizations, the permits, problems we had not expected arise ... The bureaucratic machine seems to crush us. We feel lost and for some time we fear the worst. But everything gets resolved at the best, and we can start again! We print the leaflets, distribute the playbills just arrived from Verona, we set forth in grand style with press releases, contacts, messages passed by word of mouth, and already after a few days we have the first positive replies.
We find willing people and those enabled help us: they offer us technical assistance at the performance, they offer support of the press... Some day before the performance, a presentation of the philisophy of the Vila Esperanca project before an audience of very attentive friends, interested persons and some journalists deserves an article in the newspaper "Il Corriere" of Novara which represents furthermore publicity for the performance.
And while we continue to carry out our advertising work the performance day comes nearer and nearer, and consequently we become more and more curious to know what will be the result of all our organizing. Someone tells us not to delude ourselves, some other one tells us not to worry, and there's somebody else who fears the competition with the performance of Giorgio Gaber at the theatre in front of ours.... Who knows....
Finally the Grupo Circo arrives to Novara! We get to know Lucia, Pio, Renusia, Robson and Shirley. Only for a moment, however: time is short for the tour and almost all the half day at disposal passes away with our arranging the scenes and the show room. What a pity , we had time to talk only during lunch that we had hastily at 4 o'clock in the afternoon... More than two months work of preparing the performance had created many questions in us, a desire to know more profoundly Vila Esperanca, almost a wanting to touch with your own hand the faces and the persons componing this adventure which is a little crazy, a little utopian and which unwinds in a so distant village. There is not much time for comunicating, that's true, but a moment was enough for the Grupo Circo to transmit that greatly intense potential of "humanity that makes history" which strikes everyone who gets in touch with them.
The performance starts in the evening, about nine o'clock. The doorways continue to spit out people, the showroom gets full in a moment, the audience tries to find a step of the stair case, or a piece of wall, if anything to lean against, and those who arrive late have to accept standing places. It's a success that exceeds the most optimistic of expectations. Too many people, almost, a human mass of 600 people who at intervals made the performance a little distracting... But who could ever imagine such an answer from our half-asleep Novara of Piedmont?
It has been very nice, this working like fools in odd moments, sometimes skipping the meals , or worrying about the uncertainty of a certain situation... For something you have only heard talking about, or seen in fotos , or read about on the Web pages. Of Vila Esperanca we actually had no experience of touching it with our own hands, of experiencing something in a way that it gets into you. From the beginning conscience had induced us to participate in a just thing; at the end, having seen the love with which Pio, Lucia, Renusia and all the others of the Vila bring about the project, conquers our hearts.
I would like to go back with you to the experience of our journey in Italy, starting from the end, from the return to Goiàs. I don't know if you ever had the chance to open your house door, after a period of absence and feel embraced by a wave of tenderness. Your eyes become wet and your legs surrender to the temptation to let go, to grant the body to disorderly lie on the ground, free to listen to a familiar music, your home's music. We came back in the early afternoon of a sunny and very tropical day; as soon as we came out of the bus, many hugs, smiles and some tears were waiting for us. The Vila greeted us back with its colours and the children's voices in the park. The staircases of stone and the pathways, cleaned and adorned as for a feast were open towards the nicely smelling gardens, towards the houses anxious to show inside them order and disorder in perfect harmony, on the monkeys drunk of nostalgia like the human beings. I confess that I spent the first days in a kind of contemplative ecstasy, unable to do other than enjoying the smells, touching everything with my hands, exploring with my eyes and feeling surprised how much the children had grown up and how much our companions, who had remained at home to work during our tour, had filled everything with love.
Today it is the birthday of Regina (one of the educators). The school children have prepared for her some greeting cards with their first graphical improvisations; almost all drawings represent houses. This made me think of something which is probably obvious and not original, that is, that the house represents our need to feel listened, loved, safe, and when we leave it we feel happy if we can find around us the same welcome, the same love, the same safety. I say this with the tranquillity of one who has lived in many different houses and has always found, even in the middle of the desert, the possibility to feel at home and to be at home. It is clear that the world is full of houses, each with a different aspect. I think that to feel at ease depends on carrying with us our own colours, our own ornaments, and to understand that anybody else can do the same, without feeling excluded, outsiders ... Out of what community, of what home?
Let us now go to the journey and the tour. These months have been for us very important and full of emotions. The show "Bumba-Meu-Boi Bumbà" is the fruit of six months of work in which we have tried to evoke in the scenes our hope, our beliefs, a way of thinking in a new society, in an education open to worldliness, in an art not finalised to itself, hence able not to contemplate itself but to seed new wishes, dreams, concrete proposals of change. We have gone through big slices of Italy, running in order to arrive on time to adapt our show to the space at disposal, which sometimes made the realisation of the show difficult. In two cases we have been compelled, with great disappointment, to cancel the show because it was not possible to have the minimal conditions to present a show of this kind, but we have tried to offer alternative meetings, in which we have discussed about Vila Esperança.
The 25 performances realised have almost always been an experience of great sharing, a live communication with the public, who responded to our solicitations by taking the part of some character, by supporting with words, by making war against the power of the colonels of the world by means of paper guns which were symbolic ... but not too much. For us, to be actors and educators means exactly this, to give the art a concrete appearance of change, of strength, of courage, of colour. And we found an Italy fertile and thirsty for all these elements which make life a unique and irrepeatible experience. I have wished to start this talk with our coming back home and the happiness to be home again because this has been many times the feeling we experienced with those who welcomed us in Italy, with great care and kindliness. Both on the other side of the Ocean and at home, this is what happens when there is a desire to meet and to respect one another, to surprise each other with our lives, to share joy and pain. This kind of love generates solidarity, the true one which is sharing and respect, the one which conducts you by your hand and does not get proud of itself but is pleased simply to gather together people so that they can admire one another and no one is without a home, his own unique and different home.
There is another type of solidarity (fortunately we meet it rarely), which goes around in the streets, and is proud and slightly ridiculous; it feeds itself with bread and charity and has a limited vocabulary; it says all the time ... "You poor ones, look how beautiful I am; come and learn from me, since I know everything..."; it is slightly dirty and dusty. Since we do not like much to talk, and we are trying to discover a new language to express life in its concreteness, we think that the show ``Bumba-Meu-Boi Bumbà''; has accomplished its aim and put into communication our hearts, prescribing new ways for hope, real paths to start walking on, perhaps together. Both on the other side of the ocean and at home. We caught any gesture of love, without missing a glance, any attention, the ironed bed-sheets and the house, the house where we have lived together. It is impossible to name anybody. We meet at home and we recognise each other at a glance. Then it is a feast. Bumba meu boi, bumba meu boi bumbà.
published also on the bullettin of the association Rete Radié Resch
During the absence of the Grupo-Circo Alegria de Povo, the activities have continued at the Espaco Cultural Vila Esperanca. Besides the routine work (school, brinquedoteque, space maintenance, care of animals and plants, the solving of thousands of every-day problems, big as well as small), a work has been done together with the children to celebrate Mother's Day. The children of the first grade have prepared an album with drawings and sentences, and those of the second grade a book of recipes, which is the result of the research and the interviews with their grandparents, made during the month of February during the activities regarding the Ancestors. During the festivity the children sang, recited poems, and when they had handed over their presents "a delicious snack with mummy" was offered. It might seem quite normal to you all this, but here it is very important how to value this event.
Beside this work, another work regarding the Brasilian Indians has been done. The children who attend the school as well as those attending the bringedoteque, were present at the showing of the audio-visuals. They coloured terracotta charms and sticks, they made collars out of seeds, flags, taquara straw decorations; they learnt local dances and songs and prepared, together with the teachers, the exposition of objects of local production, until the arrival of the Big Festivity of May 13, at the Teatro Territorio Livre, in the presence of parents and friends. And finally, maize and manioca for everybody!
The following week a written and oral valutation-examination was made with all the children concerning the commemoration of our Native Ancestors.
The participation of the teenagers of the Dance-Therapy group was fondamental. They collaborated with responability in all the activities of this period, even if they were "on holiday" as Pio (their coordinator) was in Italy. During the last week of May the children of the brinquoteque and school participated actively together with Rosangela .... (teacher and didactic headmistress of the scool-Editor's note) at the Opening of the Meeting of the "Asembleia do Povo de Deus" organized by the Benedictine Monastery, telling the story of a local myth and singing the song of the Suruí Indians, "Wine Merewá". What a lot of work without the Grupo-Circo, but what a success!
As soon the actors of the GrupoCirco returned from Italy they immediately began working again together with the others ...
June was dedicated to the preparation of the unfailing festivity of Festa Junina. During this month, every group prepared folk dances, typical of different Brasilian regions, and, together with the Andean peoples who commemorate The Harvest Festivity on Jue 21, we organized the Festivity of the Sun of the Inca people. On June 26 the 'Teatro Territorio' was all full, with people and joy! The Grupo-Circo opened the party, and then go with the quadrille, the folk dances and the exciting "Sun Dance" performed by the teen-ager group! The ox of "Bumba-Meu-Boi Bumbá" surprisingly came down the stairs of the Theatre with his colourful and sparkling mantle, leaving everybody enchanted.... The magic Ox! In this way the first half-year of activities finished. Now we are all on "holiday", organizing the second half-year!
During the first semester several people have visited the Project: n27 from Brazil, 3 from France and 2 from Italy. Antonio Vermigli and his family (from Quarrata) and Sara and Vito (form Bergamo) have been our guests in January: Diony and Marcia have been our guests in June.