“GOODBYE, MOTHER”

Mar 25, 2017

“GOODBYE, MOTHER”

Women’s issues are making strides in equal rights. Our voices are becoming more audible and are definitely resonating but there is a huge backlash to all this progress: The Femicide rates have increased globally.

I met Patricia Masera, a theatre performer from Paraguay, based in New York City, and working mainly in technical theatre on Broadway, in 2012 working on Hotel Project, in NYC. Since then we’ve been cooperating on different stages of our own work, until this year when our desires and goals met to create and produce “GOODBYE, MOTHER”.

“GOODBYE, MOTHER” is a new play about femicide that gives a voice not only to the women who can’t talk anymore but to the people who stay behind.

All these people and the human networks around them and the impact that every single femicide has on every single person. “GOODBYE, MOTHER” shows that the women killed are not numbers in a yearly list. We need to give them names and lives and people around. We need to see them as they are.

She was my friend. She was my mother. She was my sister. I was alive and loved. I was surrounded by family and friends and my killer. She was my mother and I left her there. I had a daughter, and a husband. I had a father and I left him alone with her. She was my favorite aunt and all I have are beautiful memories of her, she baked me lemon muffins. My aunt Marcia, she was 32.

The project has grown exponentially since its conception. Our initial phase involved research and interviews with key people in three cities: Asuncion, London, and New York City.

We are determined to get as much information as possible to hear the voices of the people around the victims and to catalyze them in one universal piece of work, that can be heard and understood regardless of origin.

After our research and development work, the writing phase started. We will soon start producing the work for its presentation in New York, London and Madrid.

CLICK HERE TO READ "GOODBYE, MOTHER"

Thousands of women are violently killed by their partners or family members, every year. A study published by the United Nations concludes that Femicide:
• Is difficult to eradicate
• It has significant prevalence in all regions
• Is important to monitor
• Needs future research work to better understand enablers/drivers and perpetrators.

“GOODBYE, MOTHER” focuses on the last point of the report that is, to my understanding, the only area in which art, and theatre in particular, can contribute, and it is our responsibility as artists to take on the task.

Picture: Patricia Masera by Tim Becker

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“THE CHEF”: A critic.

Feb 15, 2013

“THE CHEF”: A critic.

“I felt very special and vulnerable. Especially with the performance of Lucian from Romania. It made me feel like the performance was about me as if I was performing in some way and not him.

Then touched upon very sacred parts of me and my childhood-that was my journey back to a beautiful memory of my grandparents at happy times when all were alive. made very sensitive. And Lucian was just so real, I had a sense we had known each other for ages and could talk and talk.”

Tony Naumovski for Time Out New York.

THE CHEF. LDA: New York Edition premiered on February 5th, 2013 at the Gershwin.

LDA: New York Edition: “THE CHEF”

Jan 14, 2013

LDA: New York Edition: “THE CHEF”

THE CHEF. LDA: New York Edition will première on February 5th, 2013 at the Gershwin.

PopUp Theatrics, the New York Theater production company founded by Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu are preparing the third edition of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR (LDA) and I wrote “THE CHEF” for it.

THE CHEF is a play written specifically for this show. It’s about Lucien, a Romanian cook trying to get a cooking show on the US national television. The lovely actor, Toma Danila, located in Romania, will cook for the audience in New York and they will taste their favourite dish. Yes, they will. He’s going to perform some astonishing magic too. THE CHEF will be directed by the great Michel Melamed. I can’t wait to see what they are going to do with this text!!

It’s been a pleasure to know them both, I truly hope we’ll meet sometime, somewhere.

LDA: New York Edition

Dec 18, 2012

LDA: New York Edition

I am thrilled to announce that I will be writing one of the pieces for LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR that will première on February 5th, 2013 at the Gershwin in New York, US.

PopUp, the theatrical production company formed by Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu are very happy to start preparing the third edition of LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR and they have invited me for the second time, to be part of this exciting project. In the previous edition, that premièred in México on October 24th, I participated as the director of one of the pieces, ADELA. This time I’ll be writing one of the plays. I’m really excited about exploring the strategies to approach and reach the audience, in this project, from the playwriting point of view.

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.

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 a video of the previous edition of LDA here.