Statue of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry & the Little Prince, Toulouse, France
In 1942 a French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, inked out one of the most famous of children’s stories of all time, Le Petite Prince (The Little Prince). His vision of a stranded pilot’s imaginative experience has sold more than 80 million copies and been translated into 190 languages. Many have dreamed of the exquisite world of the ‘le petite prince’: the sheep, the planet, the Lamplighter; but few have ever tried to actually create it. In an act of either insanity or brilliance, Dhira Rauch and her collaborator Alyssa Ciccarello, have pulled from the pages of the iconic children’s literature to create the environment of The Little Prince for a unique performance at the Brooklyn Lyceum. This piece titled: The Little Prinsinn takes you inside the pages of the classic French novel through the use of shadow puppetry, pop-up paintings, an original musical score, costume sculptures, original animation, antique projectors, and integrative performances. Think of it as being inside a Jim Henson or Guillermo del Toro movie.
The Creative family: (from left) Baris Gokturk, Sarada Rauch, Dhira Rauch, Naren Rauch
This is not your everyday kind of performance. It takes someone with a vast experience in alternative style theatre to really recreate Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vision. Co-creator Dhira Rauch has such a background with her history of original works and performances in shows throughout out the United States; as well as performing in her sister’s original piece at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. For Dhira the story conveyed in The Little Prince is one of the hardest and most important shows she’s ever been a part of. It has been crucial for her to have talent that matches her energy and enthusiasm for this piece. So for part of the artist team she asked the members of her family to take the journey with her and the Little Prince. Although Dhira has worked with members of her family before, this is the first time her brother, sister, brother-in-law, and even mom have all worked altogether on a show.
On one of the first perfect days of spring GYFO sat down with Dhira to discuss the kid’s story she’s made for adults and her families’ involvement. We started by asking: Why The Little Prince?
“I wanted to do a play. . . something known. But then looking around I thought ‘eh’. . . .I don’t want to do any other plays out there, so what about a story. A story that’s not just held up by the theatre, but that more people will connect with. So, Alyssa, my collaborator, and I were looking at doing some story that was well known; I thought about the Little Prince and sent it to her, it{the response} was an immediate. Then talking with my brother and sister, they both, as i have had with many people, had their own story…have had their own journey with it {the Little Prince}”
The Little Prince is extremely popular. We asked Dhira: Why this concept of the Little Prinsinn and not just the texted verbatim?
“What’s really great about the story being the Little Prince, is that it’s not a play. It’s not just necessarily known by
people in the theatre, it’s known by a really wide demographic; And people tend to have this relationship with it. The other night I was speaking to a woman I worked with, who’s Polish. . . {I} said something about the Little Prince…and out comes this story, about a Polish folk song that’s really popular!… her whole face just melted…talking to her, she said she had goose bumps… her chest just went ‘ooph’ (Ms. Rauch physically shows the emotional weight conveyed by her friend). . . . This seems to happen whenever I talk about the Little Prince. . . . It’s a lot of responsibility and that’s why we are doing it visually and not trying to just do the story. People have their own imagination of how beautiful it is; where trying to fulfill the environment of the story; trying to set the landscape of the story, so they can create this world from the story.”
Dhira’s brother Naren Rauch has a written music for short films, TV, and numerous TV commercials, including a piece recently featured in a Kia ad. When asked why she choose her brother for the show, Dhira said:
“Doing a visual piece that does not have spoken text, I had thought about it as an almost silent film that’s being scored. When I approached my brother, {I said} “I’m gonna put a lot of this on you; the feeling, the mood, even the aesthetic will be in the hands of the music.” By having it be the auditory driver and by not have anyone speaking, we can really dip into the sea {story} that’s told with music…. He has an exquisite sensibility to…make it feel good…to take an idea…{and make} the color of a mood. And with a couple of notes take you into another world.”
Dhira’s sister Sarada Rauch is a writer and a ‘visual’ extraodinaire with a background in still painting, video, and animation. Sarada’s work has been seen throughout the world, included the original piece done at the Fringe Festival. She has been highlighted in Arts News & Beautiful/Decay Magazine. When asked about her sister’s involvement, Dhira replied with great respect:
“My sister is an artist, sculptor in different mediums. I came to her for animation. She does stop animation, often photoshop based. . . which is so cool! In her work all of the pieces of art come together. . . seamlessly from some other entities. So, I gave her the sheep scene. . . “draw me a sheep”, {scene} has a specific aesthetic to it and has a humor. . . . through her work she puts you in her own imaginative world that I haven’t see in other aesthetic {pieces}. For the sheep scene. . . her vision is so distinctive that it fulfills the whole theatricality of it.”
The visual responsibility for part of the show is international painter, Dhira’s brother-in-law, Baris Gokturk. Dhira explains his tactile contributions:
“Baris is making pop-up painting! Which, let’s just say, we’ve been working every night till 2 in the morning for two solid weeks with the amount of work it’s taking. . . . What we are trying to do is make a pop-up book that opens and has that ‘pop-up’ {effect} from 2D to 3D. . . giant ones! We are making a giant baobabs that opens, it’s really amazing!”
'Taking the lead', Dhira Rauch standing tall with the rest of her family: (from left) Sarada Rauch, Naren Rauch, and Baris Gokturk
Finally Dhira’s mom who is someone who doesn’t consider herself an artist, yet created such artistic artisans, is helping paint the set and, along with Dhira’s father, is so excited about the show and the family’s involvement. Dhira says:
“So when I talked to my mom and said it was the Little Prince. She was (Dhira’s pauses) like “ooohhh” (Dhira points to her heart). . . . And then adding in the family it was. . . (Dhira face lights up and physically shows the emotion within: ‘a child who has a very proud mother’).”
In addition, the illustrious artist contribution by Dhira’s family, The Little Prinsinn has an all-star creative team. Alyssa Ciccarello is, as mentioned above, the co-creator of the show; shadow puppetry from Andy Benincasa, planet chandeliers and installations Anna Perricci, costume sculptures by Brynn Almli; Dotty, an the opaque projector, and a special appearance by Megan Schenk, as the lamplighter. Also, Maya Orli Cohen is contributing her video eye and performative spirit and Michael De Roos harkens from Holland to join the cast of beautiful clowns.
Join these great artist on their journey to a completely different world…
The Little Prinsinn
At the Brooklyn Lyceum
May 11- 13 8p; May 14-15 7p
May 17-20 8p, May 21 7p
Get Tickets Here!
I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But he, or she, would always say: “This is a hat.”
–The Little Prince,
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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