LORENZO BASSOTTO

Allyou.net  • 18 marzo 2015

Bam!Bam! Teatro, how everything started?
Bam!Bam! is a theatre company that was born in 2014 from a long experience of some people in theatre for young (and not only). Actors, writers, musician, photographer and of course, promoters, are all working together to create high-quality performances and promote the culture in the young brains! The culture of books and the culture of the living performance. An actor, an audience, one History… and it's magic, it is ancestral. We are people with different experiences and different age but all with the same goal: to develop culture and also our young spirit!
where do you get inspired from (for theatre art)
Every time is different. For the moment we have three different productions in tour. The two performances for young people are about two great literature classics: "Captain Courageous" of R.Kipling and "The war of the buttons" of L.Pergaud. The other is about the First World War "Before Lives Fall". When we choose a new production we must be very attentive about a lot of things. Expecially which are the possibilities that the story give us in terms of dramaturgical manipulation. Normally on the stage there are only two actors and we must find the best way to give life to a written story. Secondary, which is the strong theme, the strong intention presents in the story. What we read and what we want to communicate. We don't like the word "message" for a story, is rhetorical and at the end we are not masters… we are actors. We tell a story and we communicate emotions. that's all.
with whom you like to be one time on stage?
very good question!! I think every one of us have different desires. For me, is not which actor or actress, when you are on stage yours partners are important but not essential. My dream is to work on writing with Guus Kuijer, maybe the most important living writer for young people, winner of all the most important writing awards in the world. It's a belgian writer and everyone of his stories I've read, it's an illumination for me. Maybe one day…
how do you celebrate a successful ouverture with your group/friends
When we have a premiere we don't know if is successful! We work a lot before the premiere, and when it's finished we have different impressions. It's like a just born son, that need a lot of attention and education and at the same time it is a bridge that allows us to communicate with the audience. The performance become a language between the company and the public. It's a very good sensation, and if it runs.. it's magic. In any case after the premiere we have a party for distressing us a little bit!
If you need to lock up something (could be anything from personal, material or nature) today to release it in 5 years time, what would it be?
Strange question… I don't know, maybe if I should lock up something it will be not for 5 years but for the entire life. And I should transmit the love and the passion for my work. The gratitude and the looks of young people during our performances have no price for me.

Thank you Lorenzo for your time as well as using ALLOU.net as your personal web tool. Verona has a lot to offer - The Arena - The Bam Bam Teatro and Lorenzo Bossatto.

EyeEm • marzo 2012

Today we are excited to introduce you to Lorenzo Bassotto! We are fans of Lorenzo’s photos for a long time, admiring his works for the strong atmospheres and stories he creates with his images. In this interview Lorenzo tells us more about his work as an actor and director and what it takes to tell great stories with your photographs…

Hi there Lorenzo! Why don’t you introduce yourself: who are you, where do you live and what do you do?
Hi, I’m Lorenzo, I’m 43 years old and I live in Verona, Italy. Since I was 18 I’ve been working in theatre as an actor, and for me, performing in front of people telling stories is the most thrilling and, in a certain way, dangerous situation to live.
I grew up in a family of photographers, so I was used to have a camera in my hands. Photography has always been natural and familiar for me. Photography, images and their evocation have always followed me, and now also my partner and my love is a photographer who inspires and supports all my works.
My job is telling stories, living others lives, imagine situations, creating connections, evoking a mood, and it’s very funny for me to built imagination. Acting and directing is like the work of a photographer. If I think about it, I didn’t go too far from my father’s work! In this period I’m touring in Sardinia, a wonderful region of Italy. The good thing of my work is also that I can have performances in a little village near Cagliari or at «La Mama» in New York or Melbourne!

What was the favorite picture you took in the past few weeks?
Last week? I can say that the photo that I love is the one I took one day at the end of 2011, inside a parking lot, the one with the swan. I love finding myself in these kind of magic situations. I was simply searching for a printer. I entered in a courtyard and the plastic swan, probably used years before in a fountain or in a lake, was grounded in front of me. It seemed very gloomy and proud at the same time, like it was swimming in the asphalt. In any case, I’m always surprised by the reaction to my photos: a cold one for a photo that I love and a very warm for some unexpected shots.

Your pictures have very strong atmospheres. Do you see a connection between creating atmospheres in a theatre play and creating atmospheres with photography?
Absolutely! I do a lot of performances for young people and for me the word «evocation» is the most important while I’m directing. I hate performances where everything is «visible», a sort of fake-reality, where the scenography pretends to be the reality. I prefer a true object, when possible an old and delicate object, found in a flea market, that can evoke situations and different places, because of its dust, of its «life experience».
The atmosphere is surely a part of this evocation. When I take pictures, maybe for a professional predisposition, I aim to prefer situations that allow me to imagine a development, a plot, the before and the after. The suspended breath in every picture, is the one I try to find on the stage. I love it.

We love your self-portraits. Is there a concept behind?
I love shooting self-portraits and portraits of other actors before and after the show. I adore fixing the tension or the relaxation in the faces. I detect the danger, the instability and the suspension in that time, and I think is a wonderful moment for a portrait or a self-portrait. After the show the faces are relaxed, with the worn make-up and the true satisfaction of having done a good job. It’s difficult that a portrait without this mood, without this standby, would touch me. For this reason to me, many times the «stolen» pictures of people in the streets, are enriched by the total unawareness of the subject, and his state of mind, whatever it is, gives an unexpected power to the picture.

What are your plans for the future?
There are a lot of projects I’m working on: a direction of «Tieste» by Seneca (a good challenge!) with five actors; in summer I’ll be at the Avignon Festival with «The Prophete» by Kalhil Gibran (I act also in French) and in autumn the «Captain Fracasse» by Theophile Gautier. In regards to photography, I will start a project called «Camerini» (dressing rooms) in springtime together with our little printing house «Bäckerei» (in German), founded by me and my partner. Next will come a series of little publications with these photos and a text, a memory, a tale, an anecdote written each time by an actor, a musician, a singer.
In every theatre, room, cinema or gymnasium where I work I like documenting my experiences with photos. The place where the artist starts to prepare himself for the «fight». I like to feel the preoccupation, the happiness that is in the air. While writing, I realize that these are a sort of portraits before and after the presence of the actors..

Thank you very much for the interview, Lorenzo!

L'Arena • 05 agosto 2013

Lorenzo Bassotto ad Avignone. «Là c'è rispetto per il teatro»

IL PERSONAGGIO. L'attore veronese fa un bilancio dell'esperienza al famoso festival francese. Con il musicista Agnello ha presentato due spettacoli, ora in tournée.

L'attore veronese Lorenzo Bassotto, da oltre dieci anni è ospite del prestigioso Festival di Avignone. Una carriera lunga quasi trent'anni, molti dei quali passati presso Fondazione Aida, ma nel curriculum anche il Teatro Laboratorio ed esperienze da solista. Nella città dei papi (dove sono stati anche quelli di Ersiliadanza) Bassotto lavora con il musicista Francesco Agnello, storico collaboratore di Peter Brook.
Proprio con il drammaturgo inglese Agnello ha recentemente partecipato agli ultimi due suoi spettacoli, ha anche composto delle musiche per Dopo la battaglia di Pippo Delbono, ha suonato in uno spettacolo di Eugenio Barba ed è stato contattato da Pedro Almodovar per usare delle sue musiche nel prossimo film. Agnello e Bassotto hanno costruito l'Evangile de Saint Matthieu monologo in francese che quest'inverno ha avuto alcune repliche anche nel resto della Francia.
«Quello che mi fa piacere», dice Bassotto, «è che siamo stati invitati da Eugenio Barba a fare lo spettacolo a Holstebro nel suo teatro a metà settembre e nella stessa occasione faremo anche una replica a Copenaghen».
Ad Avignone oltre a l'Evangile va in scena Le Prophéte di Khalil Gibran, anche qui regia e musiche sono di Francesco Agnello. A Verona lo spettacolo passò al Teatro Filippini proprio quel maledetto 11 settembre del 2001. Da allora il monologo ha raggiunto oltre ottocento repliche in tutto il mondo tra cui Libano, Nuova Caledonia e Martinica. Nella calda città della Provenza Lorenzo Bassotto rimane per quasi un mese raccogliendo in questi anni di Festival motivazioni sufficienti per fare un'analisi e una riflessione sulla manifestazione internazionale. Grandi e prestigiose direzioni, grandi progetti e anteprime sembrano aver lasciato il posto ad un contenitore sempre più eterogeneo.
«Ad Avignone il numero di spettacoli è salito costantemente di anno in anno raggiungendo nel 2013 la cifra spaventosa di 1200 spettacoli disponibili al giorno». La crisi serpeggia anche tra i garage, cortili e giardinetti di Avignone, «le voci dicono che dopo una settimana il trenta per cento delle compagnie aveva già fatto i bagagli per mancanza di pubblico. Ovviamente non c'è pubblico a sufficienza per tutti e quest'anno in particolare. La solita calca insuperabile la si sperimenta solo nei fine settimana e le scelte sono più attente».
Già, tra mille affiches storicamente appese a pali e lampioni come scegliere? «Il passaparola è diventato fondamentale ma non ci si fida più di una sola segnalazione», prosegue Bassotto, «comunque il rispetto e la considerazione che hanno i francesi per il teatro è invidiabile, file educate davanti ai botteghini, teatri pieni di gente di tutte le età, curiosità e attenzione. Diciamo che ogni volta che sono in Francia la considerazione e il rispetto per il mio lavoro è appagante ma sono un po' deluso nel sentirmi come una sorta di "artista in fuga", considerato il fatto che i mezzi per sostenere il proprio lavoro in Italia sono esigui e le possibilità lasciate a pochi fortunati».  Simone Azzoni