“Children were the only ones who could save the world. Only they could bring trees back to the cities of the humans and to the whole Earth. They would have to search for the Tree of trees, the giver of seeds of beauty and then take them back to the world of grown-ups. But they would have to follow a treacherous winding path through the woods, full of obstacles and dead ends….”
Alberi maestri kids is a journey of initiation, a performative path in woods or parks, for children between 5 and 10. Children will be guided through an incredible experience in which fascination with performance becomes intertwined with a true personal experience. This is achieved using the techniques of immersive theatre, encounters with extraordinary beings and headphones playing binaural sounds.
Alberi maestri kids is an itinerant and experiential performance to discover the world of trees and plants, principle and metaphor of life itself. A journey of encounter with the plant world, with its amazing existence, with its complexity, its intelligence and its incredible ability to analyze and solve complex situations, to act in a network, to face aggression.
How much do we truly know about trees and the infinite complexity of the vegetable world? Not much, if we are being honest, and this leads us to ignore the fact that they are the most essential part of life on this planet. There are 3000 billion trees on the earth, without considering all the other forms of plant life. They are responsible for the process of photosynthesis, which produces all of the oxygen in the atmosphere and all of the chemical energy used by other living beings. Plants have many more senses that animals and they live in non-gerarchical but still extremely complex communities. These incredible living beings can communicate among themselves, undertake long migrations from one side of the Earth to the other, overcome deep trauma and even bring life to places where it had disappeared, making desolate landscapes fertile again.
A character from a fairy tale, a kind of Pied Piper, will lead the children through this enthralling performative journey. The children’s great adventure through the forest and its creatures starts with the guide telling of when he was a child just like them and lived in a world where all trees had disappeared. The guide will accompany the children, who will be given special stereo headphones, on this extraordinary and surprising journey. The children will be invited to cross the boundary between the world of men and the world of trees and follow a magical path. The path itself talks to the children, explaining the tree’s structure and collective intelligence. The children will quench the thirst of living roots, they will see small mushrooms growing out of the ground, and will meet the forest elementals, which are the tree’s spirits. At the end of their journey they will understand the beginning of life on the Earth: seeds. Through words, sights and sounds the children will discover the arboreal world and finally meet the Tree of trees. Here life will start anew when the children receive precious seeds as a gift from this great giant.
Sound, walking, puppets, installations and touch all combine in Alberi Maestri Kids to form a journey of discovery divided in various stages along a path which follows the shape of the land. The guides will lead the children along this journey during which they will have the opportunity to learn about the incredible world of plants in a fun and captivating way. They will encounter different species and explore them using all their senses, and will also meet amazing woodland creatures.
Alberi maestri kids is a travelling outdoor performance, which can take place in parks, gardens, woods and in any season; its usability respects social distancing as spectators walk in single file and spaced one and a half metres apart.
