Residency

Jim Manganello & Valtteri Alanen

Duration

1 – 14 February 2027

Tube Man (courtesy of Manipulate Arts)

Residency Types

International Visual Theatre Residency Partnership

Artforms

Theatre

Image: Tube Man (courtesy of Manipulate Arts)

Tube Man (Scotland/Finland) is an epic history of man told through and among hundreds of inflatable tubes. Two men (what are they doing here? are they lost?) manipulate these tubes – ridiculous and vaguely phallic – with leaf blowers, hoovers, foot pumps and wind machines. The manipulation of the objects becomes subtle terrain for moments of differentiation, competition, collaboration, and violence. Tube men are those tall, flapping figures that you see outside car dealerships in America. This is a show about contemporary masculinity that is by turns satirical and tender.

Tube Man will be made by Shotput Co-Artistic Director Jim Manganello – an American choreographer and director in Glasgow – and Valtteri Alanen – a Finnish sound and visual artist in Prague. Valterri and Jim met through an international exchange in 2024, and they immediately clicked in temperament, interests and humour. Tube Man, it could be said, is the result of their affair.

Valtteri Alanen

Valtteri Alanen is an object-theatre maker, performer and sound-Artist based in Finland and working internationally. He finds himself persistently interested in the drama of forest ecology and land ownership, the phenomenology of puppets and sound, as well as bicycles, good friends and machines that make weird noises. Having graduated from MA in Directing for Devised and Object Theatre in DAMU, Prague and Puppetry in Turku Arts Academy, he is now working as an independent artist and a freelance Sound-designer, sound-engineer and musician.

Jim Manganello

Jim Manganello is a director of dance, theatre, and opera. With Lucy Ireland, he founded and is co-artistic director of Shotput, a dance-theatre company in Glasgow. Previously, he led Fratellanza, a theatre company in his hometown of Detroit. Previous work with Shotput includes Ferguson and Barton, Totentanz (Five Attempts at a Dance of Death), and Arlington – as well as The Slow Dance, a podcast project in which teens educate adults about sex. In 2027, he will co-direct the company’s new show about emotions, Accidents of the Soul. He’s worked as a freelance director, movement director, and dramaturg around the UK and in the US and Belgium. He has been an artist-in-residence with Imaginate, Lyra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, where he co-created pieces with young people. He trained at École Lassaâd in Brussels, the National Theatre Directors’ Course, and Birkbeck.

Shotput

Shotput is a dance-theatre company. We make work about contemporary life with athleticism, humour, a touch of tenderness, and a striking visual voice. We are fascinated with how humans work – and even more, how they work together. Our productions are full-bodied and ambitious. They are born of experimentation and collaboration. We define our work not as a collection of shows, but as a network of relationships with artists and audiences. Founded in Glasgow in 2018, Shotput is embedded in Scotland and committed to internationalism.

Taking place in early 2027, the International Visual Theatre Residency is a new initiative delivered in partnership with Manipulate Arts and international festival partners Arrivano dal Mare! (Ravenna, Italy), TIP-Fest (Turku, Finland) and Go Figure! (Oslo, Norway). The programme supports mid-stage development for ambitious visual theatre projects, creating space for artistic exchange, experimentation, and the development of high-quality new work.

Six projects from artists across Scotland, Finland, Italy and Norway will be supported. Audiences will be able to check out early performance sharings of these projects as part of Undercurrents, Manipulate Arts’ new event championing bold, untested new visual theatre, puppetry and animated film in February 2027.

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