Creation

Theatre of Glass has been created by the West Midlands-based artists of  PuppetLink working with a team of artists from the puppet company S.A.Marionetas, based in Alcobaça, Portugal.  Over the months building up to the premiere of Tempestade, the two companies have worked together – in both countries – to develop new techniques in spectacular, cinematic-scale shadow puppetry, using glass puppets, sand and water, projected by moving light sources onto a 7m x 5m screen.  Meanwhile, in Portugal, glass designers and makers from the world-renowned Atlantis Crystal (Cós), and the glass training school Crisform (Marinha Grande) have been creating the original glass puppets for Tempestade. 
An eclectic mix of instrumentation is being used by both English and Portuguese composer/musicians to create the music that drives the performance, including water-filled glass bowls, glass chimes, acoustic and electric guitars, found sound manipulated by a ‘granulator’ (computer programme), and a specially made double psaltery – a kind of medieval harp.  Much of the instrumentation – in glass, wood/strings and Perspex - has been created to have visual impact as a projected object as much as for its musical sound. 
Tempestade is faithful to the fundamental themes of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but is essentially non-verbal.  Although it retains fragments of poetic language, the story is told with images and sounds rather than words.  Tempestade will appeal to adults and young audiences (although it is not intended for those under 9 years), with its mix of Shakespeare, original visual theatre, shadow puppetry and object manipulation, contemporary and traditional music.
The idea of the Theatre of Glass was conceived in 2007 by S.A.Marionetas of Portugal and PuppetLink of England, whose artistic directors – José Gil and Clive Chandler – were inspired by the possibility of creating shadow theatre by projecting moving lights through glass. Thanks to the collaboration of glass artists in both Crisform and Atlantis Crystal in Portugal, this idea has been realised in the innovative production of Tempestade.
As well as its experimental shadow theatre techniques, Tempestade relies on original music to create its story and its dynamic. Our talented composer/musicians are creating Tempestade's fundamental musical score with traditional instruments, computer-manipulated sound, as well as with instruments specially invented for this production – the glass bowls and chimes and the wood and string double psaltery.

Special thanks go to Janine Christley of the International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge, for providing encouragement and the first platform for this work and to Catarina Carvalho, Museu do Vidro - Marinha Grande.

Atlantis Crystal - Theatre of Glass + Hugo Amado

Crisform - Theatre of Glass + Nelson Dinis