“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.