MISERO PROSPERO Project

THE CIRCULAR RUINS

THE CIRCULAR RUINS

[I. TRACES]

A MISERO PROSPERO Project production

Carlos Rodero
Featuring Podmaniczky Dorottya

And if he left off dreaming about you

Through the Looking Glass, VI

1. Statement

During the last ten years of my career in theatre, I have been developing a progressive
approach to dance and physical theatre. I started to work seriously with dancers and
choreographers in 2007 and I produced three important creations which pushed me
from the word into the movement in a new way. Matruska (2008-2010), Anatomy of
Pain (2009) and Orpheus Stomped in Dirt (2010). Previously, I participate in many
contemporary dance performances as a dramaturgical assessor. Besides that, always
in touch with the experience of physical theatre that involves the research of how to
solve the marriage between text and body. That kind of shows gives me the chance
to explore different landscapes, from many different points of view in order to reach
different results. And maybe they offer as well a way to express my creativity and a
resource to look into myself, as other theatre forms do not. From some professional
reasons, there has not been a new MISERO PROSPERO Project dance production
since 2011. This does not mean I broke the line. I have continued learning and
experimenting with some co-productions, collaborations and workshops. 2017 is the
year in which I will impulse again that work with the aim of summarizing the last
knowledge I got and make a step forward towards new limits. I have chosen The
Circular Ruins as a sample of a new period. With this play I would like to try how far I
can go in playing with various languages and create again a relationship with a
choreographer and dancer.

Page 1|6
 MISERO PROSPERO Project
THE CIRCULAR RUINS

2. The Project

With The Circular Ruins I want to research in the act of creation itself [bring to life in
a solo-duo dance theatre performance], to build a code for an understanding
between creator and his creation, to ask myself about the role of the ritual in our
days and to play with languages such painting and music as a part of an inspirational
dramaturgy. For that purpose I have chosen the short story Las ruinas circulares,
written by the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges, the pictorial and visual world of the
Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum and the music of the contemporary Hungarian
composer Kurtg Gyrgy.
The body in its limits of expressivity, and why not the word as a part of mutilated
body who had been rejected from an unknown paradise. And the work with the
object, as a dramatic resource.
A grey man who wants to create another through a dream. Consequences? The
misunderstanding of creation and the mysticism of error and the purity of failure. The
bankrupt of idealism. The never-ending transfiguration between the creator and the
created. The creation as a dream. The manifestation of thoughts in the real world,
meaningful dreams, and [im]mortality of art: the manifestation of human beings
rather than simple objects.
We start The Circular Ruins with [TRACES] a solo and [ECHO] a duo, two short parts
that may have their own autonomy.
We would like to show in PAO Festival one of those parts.

TIMING

I. [April-May] Guide Lines. Work with Podmaniczky Dorottya.

II. [May 29, 30, 31] AUDITION in Budapest for finding a dancer partenaire.
III. [May-June] Composition of [TRACES] & [ECHO]
IV. [June 29, 30] Presentation of [TRACES] & [ECHO] in Budapest as a work in
progress and recording video.

Page 2|6
 MISERO PROSPERO Project
THE CIRCULAR RUINS

3. Carlos Rodero & MISERO PROSPERO Project

Carlos Rodero
Playwright and Stage Director
1153 Budapest, HUNGARY, Bethlen Gbor utca, 118
+36 70 536 07 54
miseroprospero@gmail.com
http://miseroprospero.com

Born in Barcelona in 1965. When he completed his schooling in 1984, he settled down
in Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. Here he took part in workshops for actors with Magi
Mira and William Layton. He joined La Farndula Theatre. Interludes won the National
Theatre prize and was performed at the International Classical Theatre Festival of
Almagro. It was also in Las Palmas that he directed his first two plays professionally:
Farces by Alejandro Casona and Childrens Farce of the Dragons Head by Ramn Mara
del Valle-Incln. In 1987 he returned to Barcelona where he began his university
studies. He studied theatre at La Casona, one of the most prestigious private theatre
schools in the city with Fernando Grifell (Stanislavskis Method of Physical Actions).
In 1988 he created the independent theatre company MOO TEATRE. From 1988 to
1993 he wrote and directed a series of brief pieces for the company, titled Women
Eating Soup, Some Explanations about the polemic and unknown Shylocks Youth, New
Report About the Dr. Jekylls Health State, Some Advantages of Prostitution in Between
the War Periods and The Unbearable Childhood of Barbara and Rebecca Nightingale; all
of which were radical and experimental in character. In 1990, the company opened
the shows Moorbosis Bazaar and Midnight Stories, performed at the International
Festival of Theatre in Trrega. Between 1993 and 1994 he intensified his pedagogical
activities and gave numerous courses, seminars and workshops in Acting, Body
Expression, Voice, Dramaturgies and Writing Theatre Techniques in Barcelona, Madrid,
San Sebastian, Seville, Granada and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. As an actor he

P ag e 3|6
 MISERO PROSPERO Project
THE CIRCULAR RUINS

appeared in The Miser by Moliere and The Trial about the Donkeys Shadow by Friedrich
Drrenmatt. During these years he took part in Dramaturgic Workshops in Sala
Beckett given by Jos Sanchis Sinisterra, who is well known for his experimental work
on new theatrical languages in writing drama. Rodero continued to develop as a
director as well. He staged many plays on the request of some Catalan companies.
These included plays such as The True Friend by Carlo Goldoni, Frank V by Friedrich
Drrenmatt and Witch Rebellion by Josep Maria Benet and Jornet. In 1995, after
making it through the selection process with the best qualifications, he was accepted
into Institut del Teatre of Barcelona, where he studied Dramaturgics and Stage
Directing with professors like Sergi Belbel, Joan Abelln and Carles Batlle
(Dramaturgics); Jaume Melendres, Jordi Mesalles and Joan Castells (Directing);
Muntsa Alcaiz (Acting), Jordi Basora (Movement), Rosa Victoria Gras and Maria
Jess Andany (Voice and Diction), Iago Pericot (Scenography) and Manu Aguilar
(Production).
During these years he worked as a dramaturgics consultant and stage director with
Modern Spanish Dance and Contemporary Dance Companies like Bubulus Danza led
by Carles Salas performing at SAT Sant Andreu Theatre, or Increpacin Danza led by
Montse Snchez and Ramn Baeza. He also acted as a consultant with the Roberto
G. Alonso Dance Company for the play And you are not here, which was a co-
production with the Culture Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
In 1999 left the country and travelled around Europe, living in many cities and
spending all his time updating and writing unpublished theatre plays like Homage to
Whipped Margot, A Quiet Man, Pornography and The Hold Up.
At the end of 2000 he moved to Budapest Hungary, where he collaborated in the
creation of the puppet company Baobab and directed his first professional work in
Hungarian called Three Wishes. In 2004 he adapted the novel The Mysteries of the
Opera by Javier Tomeo for the stage. It was dramatized in the Merlin Theatre as a co-
production between the theatre, the Culture Department of the Spanish Embassy
and the Cervantes Institute; and with the support of the International Festival of
Contemporary Theatre.
In 2006 Rodero created the Independent Theatre Company PROSPERO. He wrote
and directed the play The Marvelous Five. The play was then performed at the
International Days of Pcs, the Tivoli Theatre and at the National Theatre. At the end
of 2007, Rodero created the Association known as MISERO PROSPERO Project which
incorporated the Prospero Theatre Company. Excerpts from a Working Diary and
Matruska (Russian Dolls), were opened in Budapest at the Millenaris Theatre. Other
versions of Matruska were shown as a work in progress of a dance-theatre line in
Bakelit Multi Art Centrum and Gdr Klub in Budapest, National Dance Festival in Pcs
and International TEATERFEST in Sarajevo.
In the beginning of 2010 the Institute Cervantes of Budapest ask MISERO PROSPERO
Project to create a play from the poems of Miguel Hernndez and Rdnoti Mikls.
Szvhasads was shown first in the Night of Theatres in Madrid and after that in The
National Dance Theatre of Budapest.

P a g e 4|6
 MISERO PROSPERO Project
THE CIRCULAR RUINS

During the summer of 2010, Carlos Rodero created Orpheus Stomped in Dirt, a play
based in Claudio Monteverdis opera with a music adaptation by the Blazs Elmer
Jazz Trio who performed it as well on the stage with the dancers. The play was
opened in Tivoli Theatre in Budapest and in Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid with the
last version of Matruska (Russian Dolls) last autumn.
From the beginning of 2011 a new period started for MISERO PROSPERO Project, led
from that moment in his solo career by Carlos Rodero. This period started with the
production of the play Muder considered as one of the Fine Arts, based on the novel
written by Thomas de Quincey. Also Rodero collaborated in the dramaturgy of Las
Salvajes, based on Las Salvajes en Puente San Gil by Jose Martin Recuerda, with the
Catalan dance company Increpacion Danza, directed by Ramon Baeza and Montse
Sanchez, shown in the International Fira de Tarrega, in Barcelona and in Bilbao. In the
beginning of 2012 the company worked in Meeting Kurt Weill, from the songs
composed by the German artist, with the collaboration of the Turkish mezzosoprano
Tulu z shown in Ndor Terem in Budapest. During 2012 and 2013, Rodero
continued working in the dance world showing works like Down Under with the
dancer and choreographer Jobbgyi Bernadett in the International Dance Festival
Solo-Duo in Budapest and in Poznan, Poland. Also carried out some workshops
focused in Physical Theatre applied to Contemporary Dance and Acting Techniques
in Budapest and abroad.
In 2014 Rodero is hired by National Theatre of Pcs to put on stage the play Ay,
Carmela! written by the Spanish playwright Jos Sanchis Sinisterra, opened with a
great success of critic and audience and renewed during the season 2015-1016.
Nowadays MISERO PROSPERO Project is preparing a new production, Costanza, from
The Little Gypsy Girl, the short novel written by Miguel de Cervantes.

Featuring Podmaniczky Dorottya

Page 5|6
 MISERO PROSPERO Project
THE CIRCULAR RUINS

EDUCATION
Csik Ferenc ltalnos Iskola s Gimnzium 1996 2008
ELTE-BTK magyar-mveldstudomny szakirny 2009 2012
PRACTICE
balett: Molnr Mrta, Metzger Mrta 2007-2012, Yuka Kodama 2010
modern, kortrs jazz: Szigeti Oktvia, Fldi Bla 2006-2012
kortrstnc: Hmor Jzsef, Maday Tmea Kinga 2012
cunningham: Vladka Mala 2011-
improvizci: Gbi Rita, Maday Tmea Kinga, Grecs Zoltn (Willany Le)
WORKSHOPS
2008 nyri kurzus: Raza Hammadi kt ht
2009 nyri kurzus: Raza Hammadi kt ht, Joseph Tmim egy ht, Fldi Bla egy
ht, Uhrik Dra egy ht
2010 nyri kurzus: Fldi Bla egy ht, Uhrik Dra egy ht

CURSES

2011-2012: Budapest Tncsznhz Elit kpzs

2012: KET-Terminl, Gangaray Trambulin

P a g e 6|6