 | Augusto Casafranca performs in "Adiós Ayacucho," which will be staged by Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani on April 13 and April 15 at the New Theater. |
Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, a celebrated theater collective from Peru, will be in residence on campus this month as a guest of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the Yale College Theater Studies Program.
During their stay, members of the troupe will take part in a variety of activities during "A Festival of Performance, Politics and Memory" being held April 13-21.
Since 1971, Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani has worked at the forefront of political performance, theatrical experimentation and indigenous performance cultures. Yuyachkani is a Quechua word that means "I am thinking/I am remembering." Under this name, the theater group has devoted itself to the collective exploration of embodied social memory, particularly in relation to questions of ethnicity, violence, and memory in Peru.
Known for its creative embrace of indigenous performance forms as well as cosmopolitan theatrical forms, Yuyachkani is considered one of most important companies of Latin America's so called "New Popular Theater." The group actively participated in the activism that led to the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru, and continues to participate in advocacy around the Commission findings and recommendations; for this work, Yuyachkani received Peru's National Human Rights Award in 2000.
The festival will include the following events:
Members of the troupe will stage two plays, "Adiós Ayacucho" and "Antígona," at the New Theater, 1156 Chapel St.
"Adiós Ayacucho" will be presented at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, April 13 and 15. It will be performed by Augusto Casafranca, with musical accompaniment by Ana Correa. A post-show discussion with members of the creative team will follow the April 15 performance.
Based on Julio Ortega's short story of the same name, "Adiós Ayacucho" is a parable about violence and national memory. The play follows an indigenous victim of the social violence of the 1980s as his spirit searches for the means to reconstitute his violated body so he can be at rest. The performance combines traditional and contemporary Andean movement, sound and image in a call for peace and social justice.
"Antígona," a re-telling of Sophocles' "Antigone," will be performed by Teresa Ralli on Thursday and Saturday, April 14 and 16, at 8 p.m. A post-show discussion with members of the creative team will follow the April 16 performance.
First performed in 2000, "Antígona" illuminates the struggle of contemporary Peruvian women to find and bury family members lost to Peru's decade of violent civil conflict. Developed through interviews with families of the "disappeared," this retelling of Antigone seeks to offer hope for those who were unable to respond heroically in the face of atrocity, but who have a new opportunity today to remember and take action.
Both plays will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles. Tickets are $10-$20, with special rates available for seniors, students and groups. Tickets can be purchased by phone at (203) 432-1234 and in person at the Yale Rep box office, 1120 Chapel St. (at York).
"Human Rights and Theatre" will be the theme of a symposium being held 4:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, in the New Theater. While there is no fee, participants should register in advance at (203) 432-5269.
The event will include conversations with human rights artists, activists and scholars on political theater and human rights mobilization; a light supper reception; and a performance of "Rose Cuchillo" by Ana Correa. The latter is a short street performance, in which a spectral woman in white tells the throngs in the marketplace of her transformation in the face of social violence from the gentle Rosa Blanca (White Rose) into a blade-wielding fury named Rosa Cuchillo (Rosa the Knife).
Troupe members will present three lecture-demonstrations, all of which are free and open to the public. They are:
* "Yuyachkani: The Actors Prepare," focusing on Yuyachkani's development and acting methods, on Wednesday, April 12, 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Rm. 101, The Fence Club, 220 York St.
* "Gender, Theatre and Activism in Peru," looking at the actors' workshops with disenfranchised women, and related activism in contemporary Peru, on Thursday, April 14, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Rm. 101, The Fence Club, 220 York St.
* "Theatre, Memory and Community," about Yuyachkani's theater and its relation to Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, on Thurday, April 21, 6:15-7:30 p.m., second-floor faculty lounge, Law School, 127 Wall St.
"A Festival of Performance, Politics and Memory" has been made possible with the generous support of the following sponsors: The Root Boy Slim Fund, The Yale College Theatre Studies Program, The Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, The Yale Center for International and Area Studies, The Yale College Department of American Studies, The Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights, The Yale College Women's Studies Program, The Latin American Student Organization, Humanity in Action at Yale, JUNTA for Progressive Action, Machu Picchu Restaurant and Pollería, and La Piazza Restaurant.
For more information on the festival, contact Rosey Strub at (203) 432-5269 or rosemary.strub@yale.edu.
T H I S
Activist Peruvian theater troupe
in residence during April
Performances
Symposium
Lecture-Demonstrations
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