Review Fix chats with “Girl Inside the Mirror†writer and director Nicoletta Mandriotti, who discusses the production and her hopes for it.
About the Production:
The subconscious is a mysterious place: to submerge is to discover our lights and shadows, our true and complex selves. GIRL INSIDE THE MIRROR is a short dance/movement-based Surrealist piece that dives into the subconscious of a Latin-American character, the Girl, who emerges into a parallel world; the core of her most vulnerable side, where all her ghosts and shadows from her past remain, and where she can either face them or through the voice/presence of her inner child, or let them disappear her.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?
Nicoletta Mandriotti: I´ve been always inspired by nature, since I grew up surrounded by it. However, this piece came through an Automatic Writing I did at home, while I was alone and in complete silence. It came to me as a continuation of one of my Writing classes. I had a strong image in my head and I just started writing. It was after Act 2 that I had a better understanding of which direction this piece was taking: towards a trauma I passed during my teenage years and that I wasn´t been able to fully face it and express it until now.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Mandriotti: This particularly process, as well as my most current ones, have been pretty much the same: I listen and I write. I just do it. I really can´t tell how, it comes as a necessity, as a storm that can´t be stopped. I do not have any particular way of doing it, any routine or time. It can come during the day, while reading or taking a shower, but also during the night.
Review Fix: What makes this different or special?
Mandriotti: This is a non-realistic, original, movement- based piece. It plays with memory, so every Act is different since it gets into the present, past and future. So, the Aesthetic of each Act is totally different from each other, and lights are our main source to portray it. From Surrealism we get into Black Humor, and then we end with touches of Theater of the Oppressed.
We have 10 women on stage from all over the world and from different theater and dance backgrounds. The sound I use to tell this story comes from the inner body´s sound I perceive from our performers, as well as through the stomp that some of them emit on stage. We are also using some environmental sound as well as music, which has been worked by our amazing Composer.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Mandriotti: I learned that there are always ways to keep digging. There is always something you can keep exploring and diving. That´s what makes this project so exciting, because there are always new ways of telling this story. This doesn´t mean changing the text, but rather the movement. Also, I learn (once again) that I don´t have 10 hands but 2, and that it is okay to slow it down.
Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?
Mandriotti: My ultimate goal for this production is to connect -as much as possible- in a spiritual way with whomever comes to see this piece.
I want to keep telling this story in different ways. Movement plays a key role for me in this aspect. So, it is very exciting to look at the horizon and see the different variations you can get through this aspect.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Mandriotti: “Girl inside the Mirror†got selected into another Festival, which is very exciting. We will start rehearsals pretty much right after Planet Connections. This time with a new choreography and movement, so the adaptation will be fresh and different. I am also in the development of conceiving a new piece, so more coming.
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