Live Storytelling with Sand: Spanish Theatre Company Brings Dreams to Jersey City

(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) opens 2018 with a dream you will not forget. JCTC presents the New Jersey premiere of Dreams of Sand, an internationally acclaimed multimedia production at Merseles Studios, Wednesday, January 17.

Dreams of Sand utilizes projections, puppetry, music and yes – sand – to tell the life-story of two people – from their childhood dreams through adulthood. The story is told by sand painting, where multicolored sand images are hand-crafted live on a light table and projected on screen, accompanied by live music and large-format puppets. 

Dreams of Sand is a production by Ytuquepintas, a Catalan multimedia theatre company based in Barcelona and founded by the multidisciplinary artist, Borja González.  The storytelling resembles a dream not only through its imagery and music, but the fact an elaborate sand painting is created anew during each performance.  

“Part of the JCTC mission is to support innovative artists, and Borja and his company Ytuquepintas, certainly fits that criteria,” said Olga Levina, Artistic Director, JCTC.  “Dreams of Sand combines different art forms and ways of expression to create what is truly art in the moment. The audience experiences art that is immediate and live Whatever happens that night at Meseles Studios will never happen in the same way again..”

González created Dreams of Sand five years ago, and since then, his show has had more than 500 performances worldwide, including Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Poland, China, Turkey. The only stateside production prior to the Merseles Studios was two years ago in New York. “Now we are back and for me it is a dream to bring my show to this amazing part of the world,” said González. “It's the first time I'm going to act in New Jersey and I'm very excited.”

González is a multitalented performer, actor and artist. His love of visual storytelling began while working as a circus acrobat when he decided to draw pictures while performing.  But 12 years ago, a sand painting video inspired him to create this new form of theatre. “I discovered that the technique of sand is magical. Seeing how drawings are created, then transformed into stories is completely magical, hypnotizes you. It is a spectacle that makes you travel through a sea of feelings.”

The underlying theme of Dreams of Sand is our shared humanity. “The message is clear,” he said. “No matter your race, your culture, we are all born naked and look for similar dreams.”

Jersey City Theater Center - Merseles Studios is located at 339 Newark Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey.