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Sunday 17 January 2016

IX-XENEĠĠJATURI - SENSIELA ĠDIDA - L-EWWEL VOLUM

L-EWWEL VOLUM:   S K A R T  /  Ċens Perpetwu



SENSIELA ĠDIDA 2015-2016




   THE SCREENPLAY SERIES: ORESTE CALLEJA 


IT-TNEDIJA TA' DIN IS-SERJE TA' KOTBA tolqot dak li jista’ jitqies bħala qasam ġdid għall-pubblikazzjonijiet lokali li jirrigwardaw it-teatru Malti,  qasam dedikat  għax-xeneġġjaturi, jew skripts miktuba apposta biex jinħadmu fuq it-televiżjoni jew f'xi forma ċinematika oħra.

L-ewwel żewġ xogħlijiet  li jniedu din is-serje ta’ xogħlijiet huma “Skart” u “Ċens Perpetwu”. 

L-għażla saret bi ħsieb għaliex tinkludi żewġ xogħliet li hemm aktar minn erbgħin sena tifridhom.  Infatti, għalkemm “Skart” huwa l-aktar xogħol reċenti, “Ċens Perpetwu” jmur lura għal tmien is-snin sittin meta kien deher l-ewwel darba fuq it-televizjoni lokali (l-MTV) bi produzzjoni ta' Charles Abela Mizzi. Kien dramm fl-istil tat-teatru tal-assurd, dramm hekk imsejjaħ “iswed” tipiku ta’ żmienu u li deher stampat fil-ġabra “4 Drammi”  li għamel żmien twil fil-kurrikulu nazzjonali tal-letteratura Maltija. 

Min-naħa l-oħra “Skart” jirrakkonta ġrajja kontemporanja ta’ bniedem kwalunkwe li jsib ruħu f’salib it-toroq hekk kif il-kamera sseggwih f’dik li l-awtur isejjaħ kammerspiel semi-traġiku tul ġurnata “normali” ta’ ħajtu... li ma tirriżultax daqshekk normali fi tmiem il-jum. Il-fokalizzazzjoni hija fuq il-bidla fl-istil u t-teknika ġdida li joffri l-iżvilupp teknoloġiku filwaqt tinżamm in-nisġa ta’ ġrajja li tibqa’ essenzjalment personali.

Il-kotba huma ppubblikati f'edizzjoni b'qoxra iebsa u huma disponibbli wkoll  permezz ta’ publikazzjonijiet diġitali (epubs, mobi, pdf, eċċ.) mis-sit www.orestecalleja.com.


    PRESS RELEASE - DECEMBER 2015 - SCREENPLAYS MALTA

ORESTE CALLEJA: THE SCREENPLAYS SERIES “SKART” (Vol. 1) – “3 SILTIET” (Vol. 2)

MALTESE LANGUAGE SCREENPLAYS

“Skart”, described as a “semi tragic kammerspiel”, is the first in a series of “xeneġġjaturi” and the name of the play which the veteran playwright Oreste Calleja has just included in the first volume of his series of publications dedicated to screenplays. The books are available as a hardback edition as well as in digital format (epub, mobi, pdf) from the author’s website www.orestecalleja.com. The second book in the series is “3 Siltiet”, a selection of scenes from three of Calleja plays for the stage adapted for the screen.

Screenplays in the Maltese language, especially scripts which follow a dedicated format suitable for the medium, are practically non-existent in Maltese publications. Together with his latest new play “Skart”, which tells of a simple but calamitous event in an ordinary man’s life – Calleja delves back into his repertoire to accompany it with a classic, “Ċens Perpetwu”,  a teleplay which was amongst the very first and rare teledramas written specifically for MTV and screened in the early seventies – a play which for years featured in his first publication “4 Drammi” and in high school and tertiary education curricula. The two dramas thus span some fifty years in the development of the medium which the author tries to summarise in these two scripts. It is begging the question to ask: how far has local television output come from those early days when teledramas were captured on cameras which stood shoulder-high with cameramen and when television sets were build to order in the local MTV studios (or even the parking lot) – only to be torn down again to clear the space for the next live transmission – and the recording tapes erased forever to record on them the next event.

In the second volume of the series, “3 Siltiet”, Calleja follows a different technical endeavor in that he ventures into the adaption of three of his stage plays into screenplays. He includes three selections from Il-Belliegħa fil-Bir, U l-Anġlu Ħabbar and Għasfur taċ-Ċomb.

Despite spending more than half of his adult life abroad in the UK, the USA, Luxemburg and Germany, Oreste Calleja has published several plays in Maltese since his early days in the late 60s when he first came to the fore within the ranks of the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju where he served as Committee member. It was the times of Malta Maltija and the Kampanja Lsien Malti and besides publishing Il-Polz” and “Sagħtar”, the MQL took to the airwaves with innovative programs like Beat u Letteratura and laid the ground for seminal activities like the first ever National Maltese Book Fair (at the then National Museum in the Auberge de Provence), the birth of the Klabb Kotba Maltin, and public literature soirées in village squares and venues all over the island.


The third volume of the Xeneġġjaturi series is due out later this month (January 2016).