Journalism Amateurism hypnotism
Rui Catalão
Learning to look - eye-to-eye - of events, Build stories witnessed face-to-face in the first person, Answer such concrete questions as: What, who, when, where, how, why?
The cast will function as a team of journalists that will gather twice a day in the “newsroom”. All the ideas and collected material will be discussed in group. The purpose is to learn how to pick stories from daily life, how to communicate, how to follow an event, an occurrence, or simply a daily-life task and transform it into a story – in order to stage it as a performative act.
The show AMATEURISM HYPNOTISM JOURNALISM will be the outcome of a workshop with 15 sessions of practice. There are no professional requirements (free admission to non-actors). Each day the participants will be sent to a given neighbourhood or town. The aim to find stories though observation, listening and interviews. Video and photo cameras, recorders and notebooks will only be tolerated as memory aids. The collected material can be wrapped as short stories and anecdotes or news, reports, portraits or even interviews. These stories can take a whole week of work, or simply a couple of hours.
AMATEURISM HYPNOTISM JOURNALISM is a stage project where, way before stories start to unfold, the performers are already engaged in hypnotizing each other and the audience with the power of their gaze – it’s through their eyes and ears that they capture life, and the life that surrounds them. Journalism is not just a profession, it’s a profession of faith, through which we feel the vibration of the community we live in, and choose the bits and pieces that make our hearts bump: “amateurism” doesn’t mean only those who work as non-professionals, but also those who dedicate themselves to the things that make them feel in love with what they do.
Directed by: Rui Catalão
Participants: to be defined in the work meetings.
Light Design and Operation: Cristóvão Cunha
Set design: Sara Franqueira
Production Management: Tânia M. Guerreiro
Production: [PI] Produções Independentes
Coproduction: TNDM II