free.dom - a solo of many people
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Andressa Furletti
October 10, 2012
What is your job on this show?
playwright and actor.
What type of theater do you like most to work on?
Physical Theater. I love the possibilities it brings and the universality of the body language.
Why is this piece a solo play (rather than a multi-actor play)?
This show marks a change of gears in my career to an independent artist. To do that I had to find what is my own language, my own way of working. It was really important to explore it mostly by myself. The show is about my relationship with my creativity and my creative process , I could have more people in it but being a solo makes more sense to me. I don't think I'll be a solo performer though, it's just a starting point.
What was the most memorable/funny/unusual thing that has happened during the development and rehearsal process for this show?
I had to go to Germany to learn the interactive projection software I'm using in the show and right after I was invited to perform a couple of scenes of the show in Sao Paulo on Robert Wilson's 70th birthday dinner. But the conditions, the budget and the time frame were really challenging. I had to make several adjustments on the software that I had just learned and produce the whole thing in less than 4 days. Time was really an issue and drive in Sao Paulo is a nightmare. One day before the performance I was trying to get to a place to pick up the light equipment with a friend of mine and after 3 hours stuck in traffic and getting lost on this driveway called "Marginal Pinheiros" we remembered the work of a Brazilian artist we love called Helio Oiticica, it says "be marginal, be a hero" so we came out with "be Marginal Pinheiros, be a hero". It made us laugh so hard and helped release a bit of the stress we were in. From that point it became our mantra every time something went wrong and laughing kept us going. It all came together on a last minute as a miracle.
Which “S” word best describes your show: SMOOTH, SEXY, SMART, SURPRISING?
That is a hard one... I has a little bit of all of them.
Theater is a necessary ingredient in democratic societies. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
In some extent. I think theater is a necessary ingredient in ANY society. It's a place to share stories, to see ourselves from a different angle, to step in someone else's shoes, to question. It makes us more companionable and aware and we can all use that in any society.
