“Crescent Moon Bear” (ParaMana Puppet Theatre Company)
The Crescent Moon Bear is an adaptation of a traditional story borrowed from the Japanese oral tradition. It is a shadow theatre performance for children and teenagers that talks about love, universal values and moreover about the bravery of a little girl who in order to save her father’s soul sets off to a dangerous journey into the deep forest.
Through the various themes and messages conveyed in the play we wanted to talk about the irreversible consequences of war. War is part of human history some may say part of human existence.
Children do conceive and question the social and existentialist issues within the community they grow. As parents, teachers and educators we know that very well. Thus how can one talk to a child about the vanity of war? How is it possible to clarify the irrational – the absurdity of war? The illogical, thus the absurd is inexplicable, its dimensions are beyond common sense. On the contrary, we may teach our children History convey sincerity and openness and above all inspire them universal values, so they may become authentic people. To face them as adults to-be who one day will create a world based on truth, equality and communal values.
Thus, through The Crescent Moon Bear we approach children by talking about love, persistence, faith, courage, and bravery. One’s love can move mountains! so they say.
Through the use of innovative techniques we compel you to watch a very personal piece of art-work produced by ParaMana Puppet Theatre. This performance is based on three dimensional shadows, experimental shadow theatre, and projections of images through a wooden hand made projector, live narration and electronic music.
ParaMana Puppet Theatre
The Company’s Work
ParaMana Puppet Theatre consists of six individuals that derive from various artistic backgrounds: creative writing, painting, theatre, arts, music and poetry. All of us have the common purpose to share our artistic knowledge and our sensibilities for the experimentation and expansion of Puppet Theatre in Greece. Our main motif is the love that each of us nourishes for his art and the instinctive interest to share with the public our thoughts, and concerns through this unique medium that is the Puppet.
We experiment, we discover, we learn and enrich our techniques every day. But above all we travel! This is our way to escape from the repetitive reality of every day life in a city: by drifting away from the unconsciousness of dreams, to the realism and reality of life. What a beautiful and interesting game that is: to be alert!
From 2007 ParaMana Puppet Theatre organises workshops of construction and animation for adults and children and builds puppets, masks and set design for other theatre companies in Greece. ParaMana Puppet Theatre performs in theatres and in the streets and until now, it has created three shows: Femme Squelette, 02-02, and The Crescent Moon Bear.
ParaMana Puppet Theatre is experimenting on various puppet techniques: Bunraku, Human Size Puppets, Three dimensional Shadow Theatre, rod puppets and table top puppets.
The company has performed in various venues and festivals in Greece and abroad:
International Puppet and Mime Festival in Kilkis – Greece, Imagini dell’interno in Pinerolo – Italy, Cultural Festival of demos Kazantzakis – Crete, MCF Michael Cacoyannis Foundation – Athens, Epi Kolono Theatre – Athens and in the streets of Thessaloniki, Crete, Patras, Athens etc.
At the end of the performance we invite the children backstage where we present our technique and constructions. We discuss with them about the issues brought out in the play, and we bring forward technical issues that we faced in the process of the making of. We then encourage them to play, to try out this fascinating game that is created between the light and shadow, how to animate a figure, how to bring an object into life through the use of light and shadows.
