Aluna Theatre, Theatre Revolve and Tridha Arts Association (Toronto, Canada) present Project Entrada, the creation of a new professional theatrical production, created and presented in Bogota, Colombia, and in Toronto, Canada.
This dynamic project is the coming together of three like-minded individuals and organizations, Natasha Mytnowych (Theatre Revolve), Beatriz Pizano (Aluna Theatre) and Adriana Sabogal (Tridha Arts Association) as we strive to produce a relevant, groundbreaking collaboration between Toronto-based artists and Colombian professionals exploring the movement of people, goods and ideas between our two countries, to create a work of a shared vision.
Theatre Revolve is a not-for-profit organization that empowers female artists through the creation of live theatre, artistic training, mentorship and leadership development in dynamic projects of immediate impact and global implication, while establishing and strengthening local and international arts networks.
Aluna Theatre is a not-for-profit company that creates, develops, produces, and presents artistically innovative and culturally diverse performance work, with a focus on Latin Canadian and woman artists.
This project has been in development for over four years. Beatriz Pizano (Aluna Theatre) received a grant to establish a relationship and the seeds of this project with the Corporation in 2003. In 2006, the Canada Council supported the travel to Colombia for Natasha Mytnowych (Theatre Revolve), Beatriz Pizano (Aluna Theatre) and Adriana Sabogal (Tridha Arts Association) which resulted in the further development of the project’s details in collaboration with Corporation Artistic Director Patricia Ariza and Carlos Satizabal.
Our project is inspired by the work of Patricia Ariza, Artistic Director of Corporacion Colombiana de Teatro in Bogota, Colombia, is promoting social empowerment among Colombia's most excluded sectors of society, including indigenous people, blacks, drug addicts, women displaced by violence, and especially youth. Her movement enables these groups to engage with society at large, and in safe community-based settings to present their own solutions to the country's problems of poverty, violence, guerrilla groups, drug trafficking, corruption, refugees, and other social issues. We have included a more thorough explanation of the work of Patricia Ariza in Bogota with refugees, youth and disadvantaged people in the context of a professional theatre company with her letter of support. This description provides a thorough context for the scope of her incredible work and what we stand learn about ways to create community-based theatre from this internationally renowned trail-blazer in the field.
Project Entrada is a professional production that will be created by a team of professional artists, ten of whom are from Canada. The project will be directed by Patricia Ariza (Colombia) with the support of Carlos Satizabal, and will follow their unique Collective Creation process which has devised an incredible body of work over the last 30 years. It should be noted that while we have a tradition of “collective creation” in Canada, the specific Colombian process has a rigour and structure to it that makes it distinct from our own. The Corporation is an internationally renowned alternative theatre company, one of the very first in Colombia to create politically based, highly visual and very relevant works that speak to a large and passionate audience. The Corporation is also renowned for its ability to collaborate with people from many communities from across Colombia including the Indigenous and Amazon natives, and particularly displaced persons, training them as professional artists and collaborating with them on dynamic large-scale projects. Project Entrada will follow such a tradition, culminating in a large-scale, outdoor performance. The team of professionals will include Canadians Beatriz Pizano (director, performer), Adriana Sabogal (producer), Daniel Arce (video artist), Claire Calnan (writer, performer), Lisa Codrington (writer, performer), Ame Henderson (choreographer, dance, performer), Trevor Schwellnus (designer) and Natasha Mytnowych (producer, dramaturge and community arts coordinator); and Colombians Patricia Ariza, Carlos Satizabal and members of their professional ensemble that they will select. The team will also include two emerging professionals who have come through the Theatre Revolve training and performance process. The team of Canadian and Colombian professional artists will devise the work and collaborate with displaced children, youth and adults to create an outdoor spectacle that reflects the emotional minefield and political chaos as a result of the displacement of over 1-million Colombians due to the armed conflict of the city. The project will also examine the challenges faced by so many new Canadians as they struggle to continue in a new city (Toronto) that is still learning how to support this increasing population. It should be noted that not only do all of our professional artists have incredible skill and acclaim in their outlined artistic fields and practices, but all of them are passionate about community and youth arts and are very excited about how this process will push them to examine how they approach this facet of their work.
Impact of the Project
This artistic collaboration will have many outcomes that will enrich the practice of the Canadian theatre artists learning from the work of the Colombians, and vice versa. We have structured our project in three components to illustrate the different aspects of the work:
- The professional production will be devised and created though collective creation. Elements will be developed prior to travel (including some writing and idea generation), but the bulk of the work will occur in Bogota at the Corporacion Colombiana de Teatro. Artists will work from 2pm – 7pm each day on this project. It will be directed by Patricia Ariza and all professional artists will collaborate on the production’s development.
- Professional artists from both countries will facilitate daily workshops on their expertise within the theatrical practice, on subjects such as direction, dramaturgy, new play creation, design, rigging, technical theatre, video and new media, choreography and movement, collective creation etc. Artists from both countries will lead workshops in their methodology and teach specific skills that all members of the team will learn. The ensemble of Colombian theatre artists at the Corporation and neighbouring theatre La Candelaria, as well as other professional artists from Bogota, will be invited to attend these daily exchanges of practice. These workshops will occur from 9am – 12:30pm on alternate days.
- The large-scale street performance will feature the incorporation of children, youth and adults from the displaced communities in Bogota. The Corporacion works with numerous communities to develop artists and create professional works through a rigorous process that has resulted in many renowned works. They have an approach to community work that pushes the boundaries of the practice that Canadians are just beginning to explore. All of the professionals will learn specific methods and approaches to building upon shared experiences to produce very effective theatrical endeavors that are of great meaning to the participants. The professionals will observe and participate in the Corporation’s work with its numerous community projects from 9am – 12:30pm on alternate mornings.
The result of this work will be a large-scale, dynamic, political and professionally led production that will be able to be replicated in process by the professionals in Toronto with Canadian communities. Will be seeking support from the Component IV to bring the work to Toronto, and incorporate new Canadian children, youth and adults from the immigrant and refugee communities into the project in its Toronto presentation. This incorporation will build upon the work of Theatre Revolve in Toronto, and push the integration of professional and community art. The structure of this project, whereby a team of professionals devises and then can re-create the community integration components of the project in a new city, is what we feel makes this work unique. The process of engaging with people from both communities who are actually experiencing what the work is about, moreover engaging them in cultural activity and the professional presentation of new work, will have an impact on the depth of the professional work. The Colombians have been approaching their work, their audience, their relevance and their connection to their communities in this way for some time. Their “community” projects have toured internationally and achieved great acclaim, a result of the professional approach they have to this work – it is seen as essential to the work they do. Some of the most dynamic professional artists at the Corporation had come from these community endeavors. Moreover, the Corporation is a vital cultural and political institution in Bogota because its work both reflects and engages with its people on many levels. The work is integrated, not forcefully separated from its “community”. In Toronto, we identify this approach as essential to understand and try to employ – our diversity of our audiences, vitality of our communities and relevance of our art to an increasingly diverse city is dependant on it.
We intend this to be the first international collaboration of Aluna Theatre/ Theatre Revolve/Tridha Arts Association, and it will be a template for future international collaborations and community building arts-based projects. We there are many future possibilities for new collaborations, to examine the child soldier crisis in Uganda, the AIDS crisis in Africa, or the war in Serbia, among many others. Moreover, we believe that this project has the power to profoundly change the participants and the professional artists involved, by bringing together so many people who are typically not in direct contact with one another. By breaking down social, economic, age, experience, cultural and traveling across geographical boundaries, we hope that we will make so impact fostering an enriched, understanding, supportive and proactive community. |
