The creation residencies at TOPIC continue their course and this April it is the turn of Anita Maravillas, who will end her stay next week. It is a company dedicated entirely to puppet theater, with extensive training and research since its beginnings in Barcelona and with shows produced in the Basque Country.

We are talking about Anita Maravillas, a company founded by Miren Larrea (Basque Country) and Valentina Raposo (Chile). Both were trained in different puppet theater techniques from puppeteers such as Pepe Otal, Jordi Bertran or Herta Frankel, with whom they perfected the string puppet technique.

“It goes without saying that being a puppet show, for us, being at TOPIC is like being at home. They are a great driving force in the Basque, national and international puppetry scene. If you have a puppet show or you like puppets you must stop by TOPIC, wherever you are from,” says Miren Larrea.

“There are many advantages that creation centers have, we can leave the scenery set up all week, we use the technical equipment of the center, we have, in the case of TOPIC, a residence for one of the puppeteers who is not from the Basque Country… The TOPIC would be like High Performance Centers in professional sports,” adds the director of the work Ivan Alonso.

Puppet theater is a genre that survives. The pandemic is not their first crisis. The theater of shadows, objects and puppets has existed since our beginnings, since the shadows in the caves since the stories of our ancestors. “Currently, at both the local and state levels there are large companies creating great works for the dignity of the puppet theater. We cannot ignore that historically it has been treated and perceived as a minor genre of theater, an ugly duckling, cornered in a pseudo-childish imaginary, but in other countries they coexist with other techniques of theatrical expression, like another guest on the scene.”

“The performing arts are essential to deal with situations of loneliness and isolation. During this health crisis, they have offered us a space to live highly curated collective experiences for the community, breaking isolation and reconnecting through something as simple as an active audience that listens, watches and gives in. We need policies that place culture at the center, as a general and essential good for society. Theater has become an antidote to a transversal evil of the pandemic, individualism and loneliness.”

Anita Maravillas’ works are born in her van, during the hours she spends behind the wheel, “we talk about what motivates us, moves us. We look for the engine that will activate the construction, the scenery, the music…”

In the case of the work they are preparing at the Residencia, “Las Cotton”, Miren Larrea proposed a reading on the textile protests in the early 1900s. “We are faced with women who were feared and admired for their bravery in defending their rights. jobs, and consequently the lives of their families. This idea makes us investigate and consider how we would tell this story to an audience in which we also have girls and boys. How to talk about such an adult concept as work, care and the right to a dignified life.”

The first year led them to investigate references: films, press, photos, anecdotes of the time… and with this they built a visual dramaturgy, where the text was not the protagonist. In parallel, Valentina Raposo began to design and build the puppets. They investigated the ideal aesthetics and movement for storytelling. The key ideas of the work have been forged in the company’s imagination, at its core. The direction of Iván Alonso, who understands each idea and image, accompanied by the look and lights of Ion Chávez manages to order the chaos. Then the collaborations arrive: the music of Fran Lasuen, the costumes of Betitxe Saitua, the prop details of Javi Tirado, the vision of Rocío Pindado, the set design of Iñaki Ziarrusta, the order of Ainhoa ​​Bernaola, the lyrics of Miren Amuriza…