The Anita Maravillas company has been the first ‘inhabitant’ of the TOPIC creation residence this 2023. Immersed in the creation process of its next show, ‘Andereño’, which will be released in October of this year.

“We want to rescue the image and work of those teachers of the Republic. We have chosen a brave teacher from a small town, who creates her own school in the forest, revolutionizing its operation and breaking with a gray past. Happiness invades the school, until the adults start a war. A true story, translated into a story, with a fable-like imagery, since our protagonists are small animals. We have opted for a very puppet-like aesthetic, an imaginary that only puppets can offer us”, says Miren Larrea, one of the founders of the company.

In 2022 Anita Maravillas passed the first phase of table work, where the different ideas and proposals need to be tested. In the second phase of the show they held a residency, in June, in Harrobia-Bilbo. They are currently in phase three, which is being carried out at TOPIC, where the company is working to be able to present final decisions to future collaborators in props, costumes, set design… “we try to investigate the needs that our protagonists (puppets) will have, and how they will dialogue with the rest of the stage space when we enter the fourth phase, the final one before the premiere”.

The premiere of the work will take place at the Zornotza Aretoa, where they will carry out the last phase of the residency, on October 7, 2023 and then ‘Andereño’ will be performed in different locations in the Basque Country.

Anita Maravillas has been collaborating with TOPIC for years. In “Cotton”, their last show, they did a post-premiere residency to adjust for the Spanish premiere at FETEN. We are puppeteers, Miren continues, a company that has been exclusively dedicated to puppet theater since its origins. The TOPIC is a museum and center for puppet creation, we believe that the link is necessary to relate to the different agents of the same sector.