Puppets, shadow theater, masks, videos and a story of bullying in Cholula, one hundred years ago, encourage the return of Alberto Lomnitz as stage director to the Shakespeare Forum, where during July he will present this multimedia work for girls and boys from eight to 12 years old Trino, in search of his inner power. He tells Proceso that, like Trino (played by the playwright and actress Paulina Soto Oliver), he suffered bullying at the age of ten. Allegory of the fabulous “hero’s journey”, the show also invites children to develop personal knowledge to create their stories at home, playing with craft media. Clarissa Malheiros, Conchi León and Ángel Luna act.
MEXICO CITY (Proceso).- The wonderful introspective journey of a ten-year-old boy named Trino, who suffers bullying, is the subject of the multimedia theatrical and puppet show directed by Alberto Lomnitz Trino, in search of his inner power. The work of the actress and playwright Paulina Soto Oliver, it will be at the Shakespeare Forum in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City throughout July.
“I have always been passionate about theater for boys and girls,” says Lomnitz, “but it has been a while since I directed a play here in my Mexico City. Recently at the Casa de Cultura Cancún I directed Historias de ninxs nube, so I am happy to return to the Shakespeare Forum with this production that is frankly very worthwhile”.
In Historias de ninxs nube, a work produced by Nunca Merlot Teatro in Quintana Roo, two stories written by Saúl Enríquez and Maribel Carrasco were combined. As for Trino…, Lomnitz defines this story as a spectacular and educational work:
“The project arose with the dramaturgy of Paulina Soto, of course, who wrote a beautiful text, which within the stories for young audiences can be classified within the stories called ‘the hero’s journey’. It is a sobering story with an important life lesson, a journey of knowledge, of learning”.
The piece is co-produced by Omar Saavedra and En su Tinta. Set a century ago in Cholula, Puebla, the protagonist is a ten-year-old boy: Trino was born with smallpox and was orphaned by this disease. Although he survived, his face was left full of marks and he suffers from school bullying that a kid nicknamed El Tomates abuses him. Lomnitz continues:
“In addition to the scars, one of his eyes was closed by smallpox, and his face has suffered a lot of rejection by his schoolmates, the children of the town and by society in general. Trino has become a violent child who defends himself against being teased, and this has caused him enormous isolation; So, on his trip, two people accompany him: one is his godmother, the woman who raised him and adores him, Doña Camila, a beautiful character played by Conchi León… ”
The other is Nahui (“a curandera or a curandero, the genre is not well defined”, details the director), played by the Mexican-Brazilian actress Clarissa Malheiros, who takes the boy Trino by the hand on a fabulous journey to find himself himself along with his magic wolf and nahual.
“In the cast we also have Paulina Soto as Trino, interpreted at the same time by a table puppet 70 centimeters high, perfectly articulated. Ángel Luna plays several characters, but above all, he is the one who manipulates El Tomates, Trino’s antagonist, that is, the main bully or bully, so to speak, who ends up being his friend and who, like most of the time, is a table puppet.
“This work combines on the one hand the two table puppets whose movement is incredibly precious, while on the other we have a universe of shadow puppets on a background screen, which interact with all the other characters and with the pair of large puppets that I mention, in large format, a head of a giant balloon and a cow…”.
The puppets are the creation of Humberto Galicia, “an extraordinary puppeteer who does a spectacular job of incredible beauty,” he says. The design of the screen and the visual conception of the shadow puppets, combined with videos, multimedia devices and natural lighting effects, is carried out by Héctor Cruz (“who currently in Mexico I believe is our main video designer for the scene”).
There is original music recorded and live by Ricardo Lomnitz (“besides being my son he is a very experienced audio designer and composer for the scene specifically”). The period costumes are by Sabina Aldana (“with blankets and natural fibers, textured and painted with pure ancestral organic techniques”), plus the scenery, lighting and masks by Carolina Jiménez:
“This is a team of creatives and a sensational cast in a play for boys and girls between the ages of eight and twelve,” he adds.
“Buliado” as a child
Son of social anthropologist Larissa Adler (1932-2019) and geophysicist Cinna Lomnitz (1925-2016), Alberto Lomnitz received the 2010 National Playwriting Award with his brother Claudio for their drama El verdadero Bulnes (2009). He has lived in Mexico since he was 10 years old… just Trino’s age:
“I was a spoiled child,” he exposes by telephone to Proceso. In fact, when I was a child I knew the term bullying well, which comes from English, because I studied at the American School. I used to say to my bullies like this: ‘That’s a bully’, a bully; Fortunately, the word has now come to light as a synonym for bullying, because when I was little, I would still end up scolded by the school for being in a lawsuit. But it’s not that I was looking for a fight, I was the bully, a victim, do you understand?
“It was a tremendous thing for teachers to ignore this matter, something brutal for a girl or boy, that type of isolation and signaling by classmates, it was very strong. What is interesting about this story is how Trino’s departure is finally raised, as the title of the work says, in search of his inner power”.
Trino’s bully is El Tomates, he adds:
“There is a moment when, thanks to Nahui, he embarks on a journey that culminates in a nighttime visit to El Tomates’ house, where what Trino understands is that El Tomates is a victim of abuse by his father. He realizes that that cruel child with him is reflecting the violence he suffers in his own home. And that’s how empathy can be generated between the two boys, that creates the difference and that’s where the path to healing for Trino begins.”
During the press conference to announce the season on June 14 at the Shakespeare Forum, Paulina Soto Oliver (CDMX, 1981), author of Purificare (The Texts of the Chapel #12) and founder of the independent company Tonalli Creación en Movimiento, AC, stated:
“The story of Trino was told to me by my grandmother when I was a child, her story took place in Puebla, but it is a universal story, her folklore reminds us of a Mexican childhood. On this wondrous journey toward her healing, Trino will discover what makes her heart sing, and she will understand that her compassion strengthens her inner power.”
The protagonist manages to find those people who love and support him in his life, focus on those positive aspects and, above all, discover a way to love himself, explains Lomnitz:
“That is the journey that Trino has to take, I feel that it is a very well told story. But I want to emphasize that there is a double value for me in this work. On the one hand, there is the story itself that is told, that is, the theme it touches on. And, on the other hand, the way in which the story is told through puppets, through a game of shadows; Of course, this is achieved here because they are created by top-notch artists, only that deep down they are things that any boy or girl has within their reach and may not have been made by Humberto Galicia.
“For example, with a doll anyone can create shadows. We all do it, all the children at some point project them with a sheet and a spotlight, with paper cutouts and dolls, we tell our own stories and that is something fundamental from childhood. Play to tell stories”.
Entertaining playfully is an innate activity, it abounds:
“But the games are also learned. Everything seems to indicate that the representational game, the symbolic game is something natural in childhood. Likewise, the way of playing is something that is transmitted between classmates and school playmates and friends; however, it can be learned by watching others. I believe that Trino… is a story that is told in a way that invites the adult or child audience so that, when they get home, they take out their toys and dolls, take out their cardboard and start cutting to create stories with those techniques. Well, in the play the puppets, masks and shadows are made with great mastery, but I think that this is a very valuable way for children to play”.
Born in Santiago de Chile in 1959 and a naturalized Mexican, Alberto Lomnitz has a long career as an actor, teacher, playwright, producer and stage director. He founded the innovative company Seña y Verbo, a pioneer in theater by and for the deaf, in Mexico City in 1992 (Proceso, #848).
“I was the artistic director of Seña y Verbo for 23 years until March 2017, when Eduardo Domínguez, who is deaf, took over,” he says.
With a bachelor’s degree from UNAM and a master’s degree in communication and theater from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he was artistic director of the National Theater Company from 1998 to 2000. Alberto Lomnitz calibrates the season:
“The one we are going to have with Trino is going to be very short…” at the Foro Shakespeare de Zamora 7 in Colonia Condesa, only one month throughout July, with two performances every Saturday and two every Sunday, at 11 and 1:00 p.m.
“Then the play will go on tour in San Luis Potosí, where we will be at the Multipurpose Theater of the Center for the Arts, and then to Guadalajara, at the Experimental Theater of the UdeG. I think it is worth taking the opportunity to see this highly creative children’s play, written and performed by the excellent playwright and actress Paulina Soto Oliver”.
Since the pandemic, on a personal level, Lomnitz has been more dedicated to acting than directing. Therefore he concludes:
“Trino, in search of his inner power will be my return to the children’s theater, but I have not stopped directing after the very hard blow that the pandemic caused us.”
