Inside Directing
Cilla Veronica Back
Directing is arranging together different componets in the best possible way in order to create a crystalline resonance inbetween them. These componets carry our individual and collective memory, our cultural identity. They consist of the actors, of the theme or better yet the “malady” every text embodies – of the set, the lights, the costumes, the choreography and the music. All these elements come together and form what I call a “world of its own”. A separate floating universe. A bubble through which we can recreate time and relive…
The Meaning of Space
With each Directing I first need to resolve what I call the “dilemma” of the scenic space – the solution to this question constitutes the fundament of the Directing itself.
The set is never merely a room, or a house – it is so much more – it incarnates the wound of the text. Theater evokes life, in my work it’s the space that becomes the alive thing: it becomes the projection screen, the magnifying glass of the throbbing conflict, the lifeblood of the characters, it is the “epoch of all epochs” – the timeless universe where everything takes place – where the characters become flesh and bone and emotion.
For me the set is always a metaphor of the inner world of the characters, it is always a mental space.
Since more than a decade Cilla Back collaborates with renowned Hungarian Set Designer Csörsz Khell also known for his work in Budapest Jòzsef Katona Theater. Back also works with Italian Artist and Set Designer, Francesco Calcagnini (Professor at Academia di Belle Arti di Urbino). While working together the challenge for the Set Designer is not to find a solution for a room or a decoration, but how do decipher, how to translate a physical space into a mental space.
When working with Calcagnini and Khell, I'm definitively a better Director. My work becomes more pleasurable and rich – it's a creative indulgence, like exploring a dream. Khell works like a painter; creating patina, ethereal surfaces, he is the master of creating atmospheres. Calcagnini is a poet of the space, like no one I've met, he has the ability to translate the human condition into a concept of Space.
The anatomy of the space outlines the text’s "wound", its boiling point. Space is filled with presence, messages, voices – it becomes the vessel on which I can lay the structure of the Directing, the composition of movement, rhythm, costumes, music, light, etc.
The Use of Choreography and the Meaning of Music
Theater cannot be a replica of life – nor should it try to be – instead it should re-elaborate life.
Theater has the incredible capability to make emotions come alive, it can revive collective – and – individual memory, display human conflicts in limitless shades with exhilarating authenticity and intensity.
Each movement, each step of a character on Stage, is for me a "condensation of life” – therefore it has to be carefully studied. It has to be built up meticulously, filled with meaning. Movement on Stage needs to encompass the intimate human history – the collective and individual "wound" or trauma...
I think this defines my conception of what choreography is about, in a sense it's a key to catharsis.
Every detail on Stage has to be a vessel of communication, that penetrates the spectator's subconscious.
Theater and Dance are the most physical of the Arts. I’m interested in catching the hidden “narration” of the physical body – and as a director I do this through a detailed study of energy, form, rhythm, gestures and the concordance of all these elements. Also the distribution and the use of the scenic space are vital components of the choreographic approach to “tell a story”.
About the meaning of music
My connection to the “soundtrack” of a production is symbiotic with the choreographic work that I do. The creative “hunt” for the music that feels just right for the specific production I’m working on is a precious “tool” for me; in fact music often becomes the inspiration that leads the way, it clarifyes and helps to fulfill and complete my artistic vision.
Costumes as the Skin of a Character
Since from the very beginning of her Directing career Back makes the Costume Design of her Productions.
She is a passionate collector of fabrics, especially antic and vintage fabrics that she also uses in her Productions.
“I very much enjoy the aesthetic whole the that costumes of a pièce create, I love to see in the first run-throughs how the different materials, colours and forms play together – it’s like an aquarium, an undersea world filled with different lights and shades of colours, of movements and sounds of material.”
A costume is more than the sensual, aesthetic aspect of it: it is the very skin of the character. Working as I do choreographically, I am very concerned with what the different materials are able to bring to the movements, what they permit us to do, how they enhance the character’s gestures, physicality and inner being.
A Selection of Productions
From a very young age Back studied classical ballet and modern dance. She also undertook in her teens studies in acting in various professional and semi-professional courses in Finland.
After her matriculation exam, Back moved to Perugia (Italy) where she studied Set Design and Art History. From 1992 to 1996 she studied Directing at Scuola D’Arte Drammatica di Paolo Grassi in Milan (formerly known as Scuola del Piccolo Teatro). During her years of studies Back was strongly influenced by Dance theater and choreographers like Carolyn Carlson and Pina Bausch.
Since 1996 Back has directed more that 40 Productions around Europe. In her natal country Finland, she is considered the most international female Theater Director.
Among Cilla Back’s Directings can be mentioned:
- “Filumena Marturana”, Eduardo De Filippio, Finnish National Theater. The production was also invited to Sant Petersburg for the festival of U.T.E.: Theatres - Union des Théâtres de l'Europe. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- "Far Away", Caryl Churchill, Tri-bühne, Theater Im Depot Stuttgart-Staatstheater. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “A Doll's House”, Henrik Ibsen, Lahti City Theatre. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Tutto in una busta di plastica”, Sirkku-Liisa Peltola, Teatro dell’Arte, Milano. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Cette obscure objet du desir”, Jean-Claude Carrière, Turku City Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Hedda Gabler”, Henrik Ibsen, Turku City Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Set, Costume and Sound Design.
- “3xLife”, Yasmina Reza, Swedish National Theater. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Enron”, Lucy Prebble,Theater Basel. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Fru Catharina Boije och hennes döttrar”, Sofia Aminoff/Fredrika Runeberg, Swedish National Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Le Misantrophe”, Molière, Oulu City Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Sound Design.
- “Lulu”, Frank Wedekind, Wasa City Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design
- “Carnage”, Yasmina Reza, Finnish National Theater. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Fröken Julie”, August Strindberg, Kuopio City Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Set, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Hotel Moliere”, Moliere/Back, Kuopio City Theater, Tampere Theater Festival. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Yvonne-Princess of Burgundy”, Gombrowicz, Det Norske Teatret. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Fräulein Else”, Arthur Schnitzler, Det Norske Teatret. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Yerma”, Garcia Lorca, Schauspielhaus Bochum. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “A Streetcar Named Desire", Tennessee Williams, Lahti City Theatre. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Hilda”, Marie Ndiaye, EU Cultural Program, PROSPERO-project. Schaubuehne am Lehiner Platz, CCB Lisboa. Tampere Theater Festival. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Rosmersholm”, Henrik Ibsen, Finnish National Theater. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “These little town blues”, Pipsa Lonka, Theater Heidelberg. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Edith”, Cilla Back, Wasa City Theater. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Tarantata”, Back/Various authors, Dancetheater Minimi. Directing, Costume and Sound Design.
- “Hedda Gabler”, Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen Theatret, Norway. Directing, Adaptation, Costume and Sound Design.
Administrative positions:
Cilla Back was the Artistic Leader and Asssociated Artist for Finland in the Eu-Cultural Program project “PROSPERO” 2008-2012, a five-year cultural cooperation agreement (2008-2012) drawn up by six establishments:
- Théâtre National de Bretagne Rennes, France
- Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione Modena, Italy
- Théâtre de la Place Liège, Belgium
- Fundacão Centro Cultural de Belém Lissabon, Portugal
- Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin Berlin, Germany
- Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre Tampere, Finland
Teaching and Pedagogy of Drama
Cilla Back has a broad experience as Drama teacher and Acting coach, she has also worked as a pedagogue.
She has tutored Acting students in University level Drama schools and Art Academies, as well as worked as a pedagogue in facilities for the elderly and facilities for people with mental disorders.
Back collaborated during several years with Tampere University Näty that awards a Professional Acting Degree. She has held seminars about Directing in different institutions and schools for instance Russian State Institute of Performing Art.
During a period of two years Back worked with people suffering from mental illnesses, producing several performances shown in State Theatres in Finland. During the Dance theater/film project Elämä, Back worked with elderly people in various geriatric institutions both in Finland and Italy, and collaborated in Paris with choreographer/dancer Carolyn Carlson.