Ghosts of the River - ShadowLight Productions
About ShadowLight
ShadowLight Productions was founded in 1972 by theatre artist, filmmaker, shadow master Larry Reed to nurture indigenous shadow theater traditions and to explore the possibilities of the shadow theatre medium by creating innovative interdisciplinary, multicultural work. We are one of the very few professional shadow theatre companies in the world. All ShadowLight’s activities are designed to demonstrate a wide spectrum of Shadow Theatre.
For the last 37 years, ShadowLight Productions has been telling archetypal stories of human behavior solely through shadows. We delve into a variety of cultures to achieve this goal and have been successful in creating shadow theatre works that communicate across cultural and linguistic barriers. The company’s Artistic Director Larry Reed’s interest in world myths and storytelling traditions has taken the company to places such as Indonesia, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan and India in the past. Each journey has profoundly influenced our work and helped us evolve artistically and organizationally.
As we journeyed through a multitude of cultures and languages, it became apparent that mythology uncovers the archetypal truth of a particular culture, and, when reenacted, provides a place for “public dreaming,” ultimately linking the mortal with the sacred, the present with the past, and an individual with his/her community. Shadows are particularly a powerful reenactment tool as they reflect, heighten and transform reality. It was by fate that Reed encountered traditional Balinese shadow theatre (wayang kulit), a form which encapsulates all his interests – film, theatre, shadows and mythology - and eventually set him and ShadowLight off on a life-long odyssey in search of a new kind of shadow theatre with the power to evoke a “mythological” experience for contemporary audiences.
It is poignant in many ways that we are dealing with border issues in GHOSTS OF THE RIVER as our artistic history is all about crossing various “borders.”
Our brand of shadow theatre is hard to describe – shadow theater, puppetry, live animation...??? Larry Reed and ShadowLight Productions have been constantly challenging the conventions of the modern Theatre and Puppetry. We strive to make works that demonstrate the richness and limitless possibilities of Shadow Theatre, and encourage dialogues and contemplation on the “borders” we impose on artistic processes and disciplines as well as on the social and cultural landscape. GHOSTS OF THE RIVER is another chapter in our “border crossing” journey.
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