LUCE estratti LUCE 323 _ Calafiore _ Max Mugnai | Page 8

You have been the long-standing lighting
designer of Fortebraccio Teatro theatre
company. Which are the aesthetical and
technical elements that you have developed
best, collaborating permanently with
Roberto Latini, who is the director and soul
of the company?
What I have learnt from working with Roberto
is that the theatre is alive. Transformation
is inevitable and necessary.
A theatre show grows and transforms along
with us, even though it maintains its character.
One must not become attached, but must
have the capacity to let go what was useful
before but which does not work anymore,
and give birth to something new.
Besides designing and setting up Latini’s
creations, you follow the company on tour.
What does this mean from the point of view
of daily practice for a lighting designer?
What happens when you follow the lighting
of the same show every night, repeating
and duplicating it infinitely in different
theatres?
A fundamental point for me is understanding
the sense of light, how it relates with those
on stage and with the entire show, so that it
is possible to re-propose that sense in different
locations which at times have insufficient
technical equipment.
Often it is a real challenge to succeed. But this
has urged me to learn to find solutions.
I know where I want to reach. I only have to
find the right way. And when the show begins,
it is like magic, everything returns and takes
its shape.
1
2
1 | Metamorfosi
(di forme mutate in corpi nuovi)
da Ovidio
di e con Roberto Latini
2 | Cantico dei Cantici
Adattamento e regia Roberto Latini
had the capacity to become something else.
The play takes place in one night, however
there are various moments of abstraction:
the theatre can take you away from time
and space, and the lighting can be of greatest
help for this.
How was the idea of the portrait of the
protagonists’ parents – which materialize
in the background out of nothing, illuminated
by a warm mellow light as in a painting
by Jusepe de Ribera – born?
In the text of Scaldati’s play, the parents were
in a framed photograph, the idea of putting
them in a painting came to Enzo Vetrano
and Stefano Randisi, and Mela imagined the
frame. My task was to find a way to highlight
the frame, and the fun of making them appear
with a chiaroscuro technique or cuts.
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LUCE 323 / LANTERNA MAGICA
Speaking of theatrical LED lighting fixtures
and moving lights, how does your work relate
with the technical and aesthetic possibilities
that these technologies that are constantly
evolving offer? What implications has
the change from the poetry of incandescent
lights to the advent of diode electronics i
n your aesthetics?
I belong to the old school. I love incandescence,
and not to programme from a console but to
work manually. However, having said this,
I am open to the new technologies, I like to let
myself be contaminated.
I would like to have more time and funds to be
able to study these new technologies and
understand how to use them in a manner that
is valid for me.
At present you are working in a production
at the Piccolo Teatro historical theatre in Milan,
in the comedy Il teatro comico, by Goldoni,
directed by Roberto Latini.
Can you give our readers some news about this
important debut?
No preview, but I suggest they go to the theatre
as one should always go, ready to be moved
by the show.
Which space, location or architecture do
you consider special when you look at light
appear?
I like to look at the sky. It can surprise me
at any time of the day with its transformations.
There is always a lot to learn from the Sun and
from the Moon.