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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Company of Angels: The Story of Charlotte Salomon
Wednesday 06 October @ 18:21:39 |
 by Liberty Finch
The ever sublime Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre kicks off its mainstage season with an emotional production called "Company of Angels: The Story of Charlotte Salomon." A fictionalized autobiography, the play tells the story of a young German Jewish artist, Charlotte Salomon, who died in Auschwitz at age 26—but not before creating an abundant legacy of nearly1,300 paintings she called “Life? or Theatre?”
Based on her artwork, “Company of Angels” focuses on Charlotte's childhood—her struggle against a family history built on secrets, and how she used painting as a method of survival.
 Born in Berlin in 1917, Charlotte was the only child of a middle-class Jewish family. At age 7, her mother committed suicide and Charlotte was told that she'd died of influenza. Her father remarried and although Charlotte was sent to the prestigious State Art Academy, the Nazis forced her to leave school because she was Jewish.
After the start of World War II in 1939, Charlotte was sent to live with her grandparents in the south of France. During that time, her grandmother also committed suicide. Eventually her grandfather told Charlotte the truth—revealing family secrets that had been hidden her whole life.
After being interned at a French concentration camp with her grandfather, Charlotte returned to Nice, France, in 1940 and began working on “Life? or Theater?” She painted this extraordinary sequence of nearly 1,300 gouaches (opaque water colors) in less than two years. Saturated in rich color and filled with the bold use of written words, the paintings contain dreamlike images and underground figures. The imagery of her work lends itself well to the stylistic puppetry of HOTB.
This bold production is the first-ever collaboration between HOTB and Horse + Bamboo, an English puppet and mask theater troupe. Alison Duddle, assistant artistic director of Horse + Bamboo, co-wrote, designed and directs this U.S. premiere of “Company of Angels.” A related documentary film, curriculum guide for teachers and Holocaust survivor speaker series are also part of this profound production. ||
“Company of Angels: The Story of Charlotte Salomon” runs from Oct. 8 to Nov. 7, Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for children. At Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, 1500 E. Lake St., Mpls., 612-721-2535.
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