STUPID PEOPLE

Oct 2, 2019

STUPID PEOPLE

Beatriz Cabur directed two different Rapid Productions of “STUPID PEOPLE” by Daniela Fejerman at the Cervantes Theatre in London in October, 2019.

The original Spanish text was performed by Sofía Monreal, Jorge Lucas and Santiago Cabrero, on Friday 11th October 2019 at 7.30pm

The English version, translated by Hayley O’Kell and María Bastianes, was performed by Nicola Peluso, Robert Bradley and George Williams on Saturday 12th October 2019 at 7.30pm.

Sorcha Corcoran was the costume designer, Ignacio Leache the stage manager and Marcus Roche the production manager, all of them, alongside Puerto Baker, Paula Paz, Jorge de Juan and the rest of the staff at the Cervantes Theatre created the best possible environment to work, each and every single one of them showing a level professionalism that’s not easy to find.

What a blast!

STUPID PEOPLE: Two brothers who argue as to who should care for their lonely mother, a couple who sleep together again after a year of separation, a pregnant policewoman, a British father who aims to pick up his son on his birthday, a desperate man who assaults an off-roader driven by a local dignitary. This is a comedy about stupidity, which knows no economic or social barriers. For there are stupid people in all societies, throughout all ages of all sexes, religions and races. But do we stop to think about this ?

What is a Rapid Production? A Rapid Production is the complete play performed by actors with full movement, staging, music and lighting but with script in hand. The Cervantes Theatre pioneered this sort of production when they noticed that when they watched the play they quickly ‘forgot’ that the actors were reading. Rapid Productions are much more cost effective to put on because rehearsal time is significantly reduced so, for the Cervantes Theatre they have become a way of making top class theatre available at a really low price.

STUPID PEOPLE was performed at the Cervantes Theatre, 229 Union St, London SE1 0LR

on Friday 11th October 2019 at 7.30pm in Spanish, and

on Saturday 12th October 2019 at 7.30pm in English.

INTERTEATRO

Jan 29, 2013

INTERTEATRO

The amazingly innovative theatrical project INTERTEATRO has been a hit!

“InterTeatro” was a project by Beatriz Cabur and the Cervantes Institute of Milan with the objective of internationally promoting contemporary Spanish drama. InterTeatro is a new form of theatre that, through the use of technology, combines traditional methods with new forms of communication. The plays that make up InterTeatro are a combination of different formats:
– A live, online broadcast of actors who are performing in another city.
– A pre-recorded video.
– A live performance on stage.

For the first edition of InterTeatro, eight texts were selected from four authors from different generations that represent a wide panorama of styles and ways of understanding the process and purpose of playwriting. The plays were:

THE COLLECTORS by Ignacio García May
R.I.P.me by Íñigo Ramírez de Haro
BLACK AGAINST WHITE by Íñigo Ramírez de Haro
HUMANITY IS UGLY by Íñigo Ramírez de Haro
WITHOUT A MOTIVE by Pablo Iglesias Simón
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Pablo Iglesias Simón
RONENSBOURGH by Beatriz Cabur
THE CHEF by Beatriz Cabur

InterTeatro was comprised of 46 people. Film director Alex Rios worked alongside Beatriz Cabur researching and experimenting multiple new combinations of media in order to create ground-breaking shows.

The first edition of InterTeatro was performed on February 21st, February 28th and March 7th, 2013, at the theatre of the Cervantes Institute in Milan and it was a great success, the audience that came to the first shows on February 28th were back the other two days of performances and they loved the whole series!

El teatro español puede estar atravesando una crisis económica pero no está, ni de lejos, atravesando ninguna crisis creativa. Todo lo contrario. La dramaturgia española está en un gran momento y merece el mayor de los respetos y admiraciones.

La promoción y difusión internacional del teatro español contemporáneo de la mano de sus grandes autores es una responsabilidad que este proyecto asume como propia. Para esta primera edición se han seleccionado siete textos de cuatro autores que presentan una amplia panorámica de diferentes estilos y maneras de entender la dramaturgia. Estos textos se representarán el 21 y el 28 de febrero y el 7 de marzo de 2013 en el Instituto Cervantes de Milán.

Esta primera edición es posible gracias a la colaboración de los dramaturgos y de un equipo fantástico de personas que están trabajando incansablemente para que el producto que se presenta sea el mejor posible y gracias a las grandes innovaciones tecnológicas que se sustentan sobre la red de redes.

Es una gran oportunidad e incluso una responsabilidad incorporar estas innovaciones a la manera que tenemos de hacer teatro. El modo en el que hacemos uso de las herramientas que este presente nos facilita nos define como personas y como artistas porque la red a la que todos estamos conectados facilita enormemente tanto las colaboraciones internacionales como la promoción de la cultura.

De estas colaboraciones surgen productos en los que artistas ubicados en cualquier punto del planeta pueden trabajar juntos y crear productos que contribuyen a crear un mundo más abierto y comprensivo. Creaciones que de otra manera jamás podrían llevarse a cabo son posibles gracias a Internet.

El INTERTEATRO es teatro que se crea por internet y se retransmite para una audiencia específica en otra ciudad, país o continente. Los espectáculos se desarrollan combinando en diferentes formatos la retransmisión por internet, el vídeo y la interpretación en escena en directo. Todas las obras se representan en versión original en español para público adulto.

INTERTEATRO es un proyecto de Beatriz Cabur.

“LDA: ADELA”

Oct 8, 2012

“LDA: ADELA”

LDA: ADELA will première on October 24th in Queretaro, Mexico.

PopUp, the New York Theater production company founded by Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu are preparing the second edition of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR (LDA) and I am directing ADELA as a part of it. ADELA is a distopian play written specifically for this show by Mariana Carreño King, my talented Mexican playwright. She has created an exciting challenge for me: To direct a play in which there are three different dimensions of time and two dimensions of space.

María José Doiz, my actress from Navarra, is working tirelessly with me in our process of creating ways to show how time can move and be shaped in different forms and all this as a part of the creation of her character.

This play is not happening in the present and that is a rarity in the world of the Theater. It has already happened and it will happen again, and sometimes when we are in the present of ADELA it’s not our very same present. So in which time will the consequences of the events happening in this time take place? Will they affect the character or has she been already affected by them?

Borges meets The Wachowskis in ADELA. Watch the audience’s opinions after seeing the show.

LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR

Aug 20, 2012

LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR

I am thrilled to announce that I will be directing one of the pieces of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR that will première on October 24th in Queretaro, Mexico.

PopUp, the new theatrical production company formed by Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu are very happy to start preparing a new edition of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR and they have invited me to be part of this exciting project. LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR explores the question: “What can you get from one person when all the information you get comes through a computer screen?”. LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR is a one of a kind theatrical event: an on-line show for an audience gathered in one place with performances given by actors spread out around the world.

The show itself is planned to take place around the world, but the Mexico audience will view it via Skype. Each audience member is assigned a computer with a ready made connection to one actor located in, let’s say… Paris. The actor will perform a 9 minutes interactive show for this single audience member. When this show is concluded, the audience member will move to another country (computer). There, the audience will find another actor from let’s say… Hong Kong. PopUp pairs each director with a country, an actor and a playwright. Each play will be created specifically for that country and there will be actors from 5 different countries as the US will have two representatives.

In my team, the talented Mexican playwright Mariana Carreño King and the great actress from Navarra, María José Doiz, member since 1998 of (As de T, teatro). I can’t wait to start working with them. Both me and PopUp share the same interest in the collaborative side of this project and how different theatre makers from different cultures work together. We hope you will find this way of work as exciting as we do. Check out the first edition of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR which premiered in New York City on November 12, 2011, here.

“THE HUMMINGBIRDS” THE AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

Jul 19, 2012

“THE HUMMINGBIRDS” THE AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

On June 22nd, I was in Zaragoza for the first presentation in a series of six or more presentations as part of my winning the Internationalists Global Playwriting Prize for my play, “The Hummingbirds.”

I had left San Francisco the day earlier, and travelled by plane through Amsterdam to Madrid, arriving by train to Zaragoza just two hours before the presentation, and hurried to the theatre.

It was a magnificent evening, wonderfully directed performances from each of the actors and dancers, fascinating videography that informed and enhanced my script and a rapt audience that could not take their eyes off of the stage the whole performance. Beatriz Cabur worked tirelessly from the moment she knew she had the space (the first event in this theatre), and brought this play to Spain, as fully realized as possible.

What Beatriz did that was particularly remarkable was make the play uniquely Spanish. The play itself is for two actors of any age, race or gender, and I wrote it with an eye to my own world, not thinking the play would ever have a life outside of the United States. But Beatriz really worked to make it important to the population of Zaragoza and all of Spain, where unemployment is so high and meaningful work is not always attainable. After the play, I had many people in the audience discuss the play with me, and even though I don’t speak Spanish, they felt like many of the conversations I’ve had with audiences in America about the play. This is a testament to the skill of Beatriz as a translator and director, to take the text and move it into the Spanish vernacular for a Spanish audience.

I urge you to support Beatriz and her actors in their efforts to further the life of the play. If I can provide any further information to assist in their efforts, please feel free to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Garret Jon Groenveld

Playwright – “The Hummingbirds”

“THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

Jun 26, 2012

“THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

As a part of the worldwide presentations produced by The Internationalists, and directed by Beatriz Cabur, “The Hummingbirds” by Garret Jon Groenveld, was presented in Zaragoza, Spain on June 22, 2012 at the Armas Center.

Another staging, also directed by Beatriz Cabur, was also presented in Zaragoza at the Arbolé Theatre.

‘Los Colibríes’ is a comedy of menace that takes place in a very near future where, if you are out of work, you are assigned a job by the unemployment office. Odds are, you’ll hate the job, but as the two employment officers say “If you can walk, you can work!” One day, their routine is broken after a fatal act of violence, and delicate questions arise about responsibility, loyalty and killer hummingbirds.

Title: Los Colibríes / Original Title: The Hummingbirds / Playwright: Garret Jon Groenveld / Director and Translator: Beatriz Cabur / Actors: Jorge Andolz, Pablo Lagartos and Carmen Cuello / Video Designer: Alex Ríos / Assistant Directors: Eva Aznar / Costume Designer: Ana Sanagustín / Venue: Teatro Arbolé, Zaragoza, Spain.

DESIGNING “THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

Jun 3, 2012

DESIGNING “THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

Designer Raquel Burgueño has created a poster for the Spanish presentation of “The Hummingbirds”.

Raquel will also design the posters for the rest of the presentations of “The Hummingbirds” that will take place in New York, Mexico City, The Hague, Berlin and Moscow. Once the presentations are finished, all posters will be published together in a collector’s series.

DIRECTING “THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

May 15, 2012

DIRECTING “THE HUMMINGBIRDS”

I am thrilled to announce that I will be directing THE HUMMINGBIRDS by Garret Jon Groenveld, winner of THE INTERNATIONALISTS 2012 Playwriting Contest.

I will direct a full staging of the play which will première at the Centro Musical y Artístico “Las Armas” in Zaragoza, on June 22 at 22:00.

“If you can walk, you can work.”

The Hummingbirds – a comedy of menace – takes place in the very near future where, if you are out of a job for too long, you are assigned one by the unemployment office. Having their routines broken after an act of violence, two employment officers, one single, one married, react quite differently in the aftermath. The Hummingbirds explores the world that might be if we continue to do nothing about creating meaningful work, continue to do nothing to change our rate of environmental destruction, and continue to deny the real root of war and domestic terrorism. Funny, Fast and Foreboding.

Garret Jon Groenveld is a poet and playwright living in San Francisco, CA with an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University. He’s a founding writer of PlayGround and an inaugural member of the Writers in Residence program at the Playwrights Foundation. His plays have appeared in San Francisco, Amsterdam and New York. He teaches playwriting at the New Conservatory Theatre Center.

The Internationalists is a collective of directors from around the world whose mission is to create a more open, sustainable and interactive global theatrical community. They foster creative diplomacy in order to build bridges between artists and audiences of all nations. By developing a global network of artists, they promote the creation of contemporary performance with an emphasis on cross-cultural exchange and collaboration.

The 2012 Playwriting Contest was for a ground breaking new play that addressed the theme of ‘Presence/Absence’. There were 165 submissions from 26 countries.

The Internationalists made a public announcement on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at TheatreLab NYC that “The Hummingbirds” won the 2012 Playwriting Contest. This announcement was followed by an excerpted reading from the play. This presentation took place as part of The Internationalists’ 5th Anniversary Celebration. A live stream of this ceremony was broadcasted online.
On June 22, 2012, The Internationalists, in collaboration with the Centro Musical y Artístico “Las Armas” in Zaragoza, Spain, presented the first full performance of the play as the first full performance the brand new center for music and art. Director and Translator, Beatriz Cabur, will stage the play in the open air, in the courtyard of the theatre, so that anyone from the community can engage with this spectacular show.

Over the course of the next year, the play will be presented in New York, Berlin, the Hague, Bucharest, Mexico City and Zaragoza.