Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Wire Bend Folklore Theatre’s latest production, “The Boy & His Dog and Other Stories” will feature three mini-plays during its School and National Tour from March 20 to 25 in Naparima Bowl.

Auditions for performers and artisans will be held immediately after Carnival.

Wire Bend founder Rubadiri Victor said he founded the company two years ago with the idea of using artisans from Carnival, Hosay and Ramleela to create fantastic sets and costumes. “The purpose is to redeploy their skills and the traditional characters for 365-days-a-year use, so they aren’t just employing these phenomenal skills only for a particular Festival. We combine that with cutting edge young animators to create interactive animations about indigenous and ancestral folklore.”
Victor said this is the third season of shows being put on by Wire Bend and he’s pushing the envelope by featuring life-sized and giant puppets, a combination of Minshall and Jim Henson-style puppets. They will be animated using locally made robotics. In the audition call, in addition to performing artists, animators, dancers, puppeteers, actors and multi-media artistes, Wire Bend is looking for flash animators and animation illustrators, male and female lead actresses with dance experience and actors/puppeteers.
He said the aim is to create entertainment where entire families can be entertained simultaneously, similarly to when he was a child. “I don’t think there are many things anymore that entire families can come to and enjoy. I also want to create an artifact that I think could compete with Disney and Nickelodeon. The idea is to create an experience to match what people would get going to see a new release in IMAX, but is indigenous and that’s the challenge we’ve set ourselves. We want to raise the bar of how we feel about local mythology and folklore.”
Applicants should be able to immediately begin rehearsals and pre-production. The tour will feature three new stories: ‘The Boy and his Dog’- about the adventures of a boy and his magical dog; ‘The Old Man, the Four Kings and the Last Deer in the World’ which will feature animated recreations of the Creation stories of the five major tribes of the world; and the return of ‘Anansi and the 10 Dragons’ featuring some new Dragons and staging. In a release, Wire Bend said “The previous audience favourite ‘Anansi and the 10 Dragons’ features costumes by dragon-costume champion Jason Meighoo; Paramin blue devil genius Mark Felician; and Elder dragon Master Vernon Mohammed. Costume and set construction is overseen by young Master-artisan Michael Guy-James, ably augmented by contributions by younger apprentice talents.” School shows will be held twice daily during the week from 9:30 to 11:30 am and 12:30 to 2:30 pm with regular night shows for the pubic on Friday and Saturday from 7 to 9 pm.
Portfolios, resumes, and interest are to be submitted to rubadiri@yahoo.com. For more details contact Rubadiri Victor at 797-0949 or Arlette at 716-6010 or find ‘Wire Bend Folklore Theatre’ on Facebook.