4ª MITsp
The fourth edition of MITsp – International Theater Festival of São Paulo – takes place between the 14th and the 21st of March 2017 in several venues of the city, such as the Ibirapuera Auditorium – Oscar Niemeyer, Itaú Cultural, SESC Vila Mariana, SESC Pinheiros, SESC Belenzinho, João Caetano Theater, Cultural Center of São Paulo (CCSP) and Municipal Theater of São Paulo. The festival will host ten productions from Belgium, Germany, Chile, Lebanon, South Africa, Brazil and others.
Created by Antônio Araújo, director of Teatro da Vertigem group and professor at the Performing Arts School of the University of São Paulo, and Guilherme Marques, head director of CIT-Ecum – International Theater Center Ecum, respectively artistic director and production director of MITsp, since the first edition, in 2014, the festival supports the experimentation and study in the field of performing arts. The productions presented are based on the hybridity of language and the perception of theatricality as an expanded field. The programming is followed by reflective and pedagogical activities, to promote reviewing, debates, development of the spectator’s view, as well as experience exchange between artists.
The concern regarding the current situation in Brazil is present throughout every curatorship decision of this fourth edition. The first axis is the one of blackness, racism and black protagonist and empowerment, reverberating discussions in both the political and the poetic field.
In this sense, the 4th MITsp presents the seminar “Unspoken Things: racism and mind decolonization” curated by Eugênio Lima and Majoí Gongora. Among the seminar guests are the South African scholar Nicky Falkof, from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), the historian Giovana Xavier, the American sociologist Patricia Collins and the philosopher Djamila Ribeiro.
The second curatorial axis of the festival explores documentary theater, mainly productions that use real facts, text and video documents, creating work of increasingly political character.
SHOWS
The directors Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke and Steven Prengels open the 4th MITsp at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo with the show “En avant, marche!”, from Belgium. This production from les ballets C de la B together with NTGent exposes a band of musicians as a metaphor for society itself. The show has the participation of 18 Brazilian musicians under the conductor Carlos Eduardo Moreno.
The Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué presents a show case of three productions of his repertoire entitled “Rabih Mroué Exhibition”, with the shows Pixelated Revolution, So Little Time and Riding on a Cloud. Actor, playwright and visual artist, Mroué draws on the middle east conflict context and deconstructs its narratives and images.
MITsp brings the renowned Münchner Kammerspiele from Germany with the show Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?, directed by Susanne Kennedy. The show is inspired by Rainer Fassbinder’s film with the same name. The cinematographic language is present in the work, however in unexpected means: the actors wear silicon masks and move in sync with pre-recorded voices.
Director and playwright Guillermo Calderón takes part in MITsp for the second time. The show Mateluna was conceived as a continuation of Escuela, performed in the first edition of the festival. The motivation for this new production came from the ethical and artistic questions raised in face of the imprisonment of Jorge Mateluna, guerrilla fighter who fought against Pinochet dictatorship and who was a collaborator in the creation of Escuela.
In Black Off, the South African Ntando Cele moves between humor and irony to approach the subject of of racist stereotypes. Bianca White is one of her characters, a sort of alter ego of the artist.
Two brazilian shows will debut at MITsp and both examine racism from different points of view. The Mission in Fragments: 12 self-defense scenes of decolonization, directed by Eugênio Lima, engage with Heiner Müller’s text The Mission: Memory of a Revolution, among other authors, in disagreement with the consolidated narratives. In White: the smell of lily and formol, Alexandre Dal Farra and Janaína Leite offer a critical view of the white over themselves, deconstructing the naturalization of structural racism which they reproduce.
The national program also includes the show For The Sky Not To Fall, by Lia Rodrigues Dance Company. The choreographer was inspired by the myth of the end of the world described by the Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa, which inquires what is left for us to do in the face of so many catastrophes and barbarism.
CRITICAL VIEWS
The Critical Views program of this edition, curated by Kil Abreu and Luciana Romagnolli, is made of activities that seek to improve the experience between the spectator and the work, and also add to the discussion about the social, political and economical contexts in which the artistic creation is located. The Esthetic & Political Thinking program includes the seminar “Public dimension of the crisis and forms of resistance”, with four group discussions, a lecture, a talk and a public interview.
Thinkers of different fields of knowledge share their views on the shows in the Crossing Dialogues program. The Ongoing Thought is a program where artists themselves share their creative processes with the audience.
The Practice of Reviewing includes members of DocumentaCena – a reviewing platform of Agora and Antro Positivo websites – among other critics, to review the performances and also to debate contemporary theater using the productions as a starting point. There are also book launches, among them is a title which gathers two unpublished works by Gordon Craig in Brazil and writings of contemporary Brazilian playwrights.
PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES
The curatorial choices of Maria Fernanda Vomero for the MITsp Pedagogical Activities follow the idea behind this year’s edition, proposing activities that deliberate about the urgent issues of Brazil and about the metaphors that shape the way we face the country’s situation. A good part of the program is open not only to artists, but also to the general public. Some highlights are: a three-week artistic residency with the actor and director Ihab Zahdeh, cofounder and artistic director of the Yes Theatre, in Hebron; a workshop by Rabih Mroué; and a workshop by the music director Steven Prengels.
Check out the previous MITsp editions