Tricks for Gold is a fabula set in late capitalism, in which the protagonist, a live-streamer, imagines that she can find freedom by becoming the object of her own desires – money – and endeavors to transform into it.

This body of research that was originally developed into a stage piece (see below) . Franceschini set out to research the spectacular aspects of stage magic and erotic performances, specifically looking at camming. In the film adaptation, Franceschini and Vitelli develop the research by looking at online streaming and the way forms of performance and storytelling emerge in relation to these late-capitalist technologies and their users. The film voyeuristically scrolls through a series of fictionalized “streaming rooms”, rendered through the abstracted aesthetics of the twilight microcosms found in online platforms such as gaming and camming sites. Jumping from one room to the next we listen to the protagonist tell her story, a dreamy and scattered chronicle of a life spent online for the sake of money,  and her plan to escape what she calls “the stream”.  The work plays with the fantastical possibilities of streaming and videography, such as chroma keying and CGI special effects, and glimpses the worlds of 24/7 gaming or sex-work camming sites. 

CREDITS

Idea, Direction, Performance: 

Frida Giulia Franceschini

Idea, Direction, Music: Sophie Vitelli

Costume Design: Lea Kieffer

CGI: Karl Hedin

Voice: Dani Brown

Lighting Design: Emilio Cordera Checa

Production Support: Amanda Martikainen, Sandra Reytmeier

This film was made possible with the support of

Neu Start Kultur, NPN - Nationale Performance Netz, Minister of State for Culture and Media (Germany) and Callie’s Berlin.

Can a contortion pay my rent?         

Where is my heart going while executing this number?

Can I strip naked and disappear?

The performance studies the concept of tricks and their ability to manipulate our experience of space and time, researching the spectacular aspects of stage magic and erotic performances, specifically looking at camming. By borrowing their specific vocabularies and dramaturgies, tenderly revealing their secrets, techniques, fragilities and the humanity behind contortions and virtuosity, the piece unraveled the empathic potential of what is typically seen as an act of “service” and highlighted the melancholia of tricks as not simply a mode of deceiving and entertaining the audience – but also as a tool of transformation and survival of the performer. 

An infinite striptease whose scenography includes draping objects and an array of costumes to expand the performing body into endless layers of suspense. Dressed-naked for the audience, dancing on the noise of coins. A living piñata, ready to cum cash.

Director, Choreographer & Performer: Frida Giulia Franceschini
Costume Designer & Performer: Lea Kieffer
Outside Eye & Performer: Dani Brown
Music & Sound Designer: Ksenija Ladić
Light: Susana Alonso
Producer: Natalia Sookias
Dramaturgical Support: Isabel Gatzke, Luca Libertini
Research Assistant: Sophie Vitelli, Andrea Speranza

Co- produced by Sophiensaele Berlin and Callies Berlin. With the support of Macao Milano IT, AtelierSí Bologna IT and O Espaço do Tempo Montemor-O-Novo PT.

When moving from one room to the other, searching for a bit of intimacy and somebody to share it with, we don't always find familiar places nor people..
In fact, we don't always find humans.
We take a step into the unknown, we leave ourselves behind, ready to meet something new, something ideal, transfigurated and virtual to melt with.

Be water my friend is a 35 minutes live concert where the audience can interact by texting with a mythical creature. A syren, a friend, a hostess, a statue.  It is an atmospheric room created for the daily action of texting and chatting, and for a moment, transforms it into a performance for our desire of discovering otherness.

Idea: CM Gratitude

Directors and Performers: CM Gratitude (Marion Goix and Costanza Candeloro), Sophie Vitelli & Frida Giulia Franceschini

Music: Marion Goix, Sophie Vitelli

Costume: Sabrina Röthlisberger, Frida Giulia Franceschini, Costanza Candeloro

Light & Tech: Giovanni Brunetto

Produced by Theatre de l'Usine, Gèneve CH. With the support of AtelierSí Bologna IT.

An odd performative duo about absence and precence.

Baby is the creative effluence that arises from the encounter of these two young performers, a creature/energy that is both an abstract/conceptual being and a physical presence on stage, a third element that slowly possesses and moulds the characters’ rhythms and behaviours.

This work isn’t only based on dance: it is also the result of an experimental - tion that deeply delves into the realms of performative exercises, role play, night walks, karaoke and funny compositions. On scene, a couple of objects, a couple of songs, a couple of bodies wrapped up into a simple, tragicomic, bare setting.

The desire to maintain a delicate simplicity has left a certain amount of hollow fertile space inside the projects core, creating a balance between full and empty. The naked dramaturgy is preciously encrusted with almost imperceptible misunderstandings, little innocent mysteries that show themselves from time to time, winking sympathetically towards the audience through a fog of poetry and naiveté

Between spring and autumn of 2014, they started conceiving their first project: tirty-three minutes of original material, created for specific contexts that detach themselves from the classic and claustrophobic theatre box - a huge gym/ swimming pool in an old abandoned hotel in Lapland, a former slaughterhouse that is now a theatre in Certaldo, Italy.

Baby was presented at Fabbrica Europa’ 15 at Le Murate Firenze, at I Macelli (Certaldo) in February 2016 and at BLOCKPARTY FESTIVAL'17 in Cork.

Directors and performers: Viktoria Andersson & Frida Giulia Franceschini

Dramaturgical support and outside eye: Dani Brown

Light: Lorenzo Marini

Music: Phil Collins

Co-produced by NO! Norrlandsoperan Umeå SE and I Macelli di Certaldo IT. With the special support of beloved Tiziano Massaroni.