Compagnia TPO

Com­pag­nia TPO was founded in 1981 as a visual the­atre com­pany. From its early years the com­pany pro­duced children’s the­atre con­ceived as paint­ings in move­ment, mak­ing use of artis­tic objects, mechan­i­cal devices, and plays of light.

Since then the group has con­tin­ued to focus its atten­tion on the fig­u­ra­tive arts, with per­for­mances for chil­dren that have been described as works that bring together the­atre and con­tem­po­rary art. Since 1999, under the direc­tion of Davide Ven­turini and Francesco Gandi, TPO has been explor­ing the use of dig­i­tal graph­ics, com­bin­ing tra­di­tional the­atre with other artis­tic forms such as dance and video art.

Their exper­i­men­tal work with dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies facil­i­tated the devel­op­ment of new modes of inter­ac­tion between per­form­ers and the stage-space, by apply­ing computer-controlled sen­sors to images and sound.

This process has led to “Children’s Cheer­ing Car­pet”, a the­atri­cal con­cept in which per­for­mances are con­ceived as imag­i­nary jour­neys in “sen­sory land­scapes”, where artists dance to images and sounds explor­ing new ways of telling stories.

The Children’s Cheer­ing Car­pet is the­atre of the senses, where the audi­ence can also explore the space and take part in an expe­ri­ence of “immer­sive the­atre”. It is an envi­ron­ment of play — play­ing with the arts. The suc­cess of this con­cept has brought inter­na­tional fame to TPO and has opened up new paths for col­lab­o­ra­tion with a vari­ety of Euro­pean and now Aus­tralian artists (actors, dancers, musi­cians, writ­ers, engi­neers, design­ers and illus­tra­tors). This syn­ergy has given rise to projects which put new tech­nolo­gies to artis­tic use, cre­at­ing an inno­v­a­tive rela­tion­ship between chil­dren and performers.

Since 2002 the com­pany has taken part in numer­ous inter­na­tional fes­ti­vals in Europe, Asia, the Amer­i­cas and Aus­tralia and at present is rec­og­nized as one of the most orig­i­nal and out­stand­ing groups for children’s the­atre in Europe. TPO was awarded the Ade Art Dig­i­tal Prize (Polve­rigi) in 2004.

The Children’s Cheer­ing Car­pet for­mat has enabled TPO to cre­ate per­for­mances and inter­ac­tive instal­la­tions that chil­dren and adults appre­ci­ate through­out the world. In 2008, Com­pag­nia TPO were com­mis­sioned by the Aus­tralian Fes­ti­val for Young Peo­ple (Come Out 2009) to col­lab­o­rate with Aus­tralian direc­tor Jason Cross and Indige­nous artists Lou Ben­nett, Deon Hastie and Del­wyn Man­nix and cre­ate the 4th CCC work – Saltbush.