BORDERLANDS THEATER streaming Antigone at the Border

BORDERLANDS THEATER streaming

Antigone at the Border

 

Written by Marc David Pinate

Directed by Ricky Araiza

A virtual theatre event

Tucson’s Borderlands Theater and Teatro Bravo of Phoenix come together for a groundbreaking collaboration of digital theatre-making. Based on interviews with DACA recipients and Latinx Border Patrol agents, Antigone at the Border sheds light on the emotional labor and mental health toll experienced by Latinx border communities affected by US immigration policy as both enforcers and the enforced.

 

About the Play

When the body of her deceased brother is ordered to be left in the desert, DACA recipient and humanitarian aid worker, Antigone Guzman, confronts her uncle, Creon Cardenas, the newly appointed border patrol chief of the Thebes sector. A postcolonial reimagining of the Greek classic told through live-streamed video and edited digital media, Antigone at the Border explores age-old questions of membership and belonging.

nventing Digital Theatre

Working under the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic required a total reimagining of how to make theatre online. Employing drone cameras, green screens, and a complex arsenal of high-resolution web cameras, microphones, and Bluetooth technology the artists behind Antigone at the Border crafted a hybrid digital performance that combines elements of film making with traditional theatre techniques. The result is a completely new kind of performance tailored for an online, digital venue that hopes to wow audiences with a mastery of technology and compelling storytelling.

 

Building Relationships among Latinx Artists and Communities in Arizona

Antigone at the Border represents a bridge between Latinx/Indigenous theatre makers from Tucson and Phoenix. “We cannot wait for the mainstream, historically white arts institutions to come around; as Mexican, Chicanx, and indigenous artists living in our ancestral homelands, we must use our collective resources to create statewide networks in order to build the diverse audiences whose experiences remain at the center of our work” said Borderlands Theater artistic director, Marc David Pinate. In that regard Pinate and Teatro Bravo artistic director, Ricky Araiza, met with immigrant serving organizations Aliento (Phoenix) and Scholarships A-Z (Tucson) as the play was being developed. This past August Borderlands Theater held a creative writing class for sixteen undocumented writers from around the country that also contributed to the development of the play. “Our hope is to build a long-term reciprocal relationship with immigrant communities that lasts far beyond this project,” stated Araiza.

 

Tickets and info: http://www.borderlandstheater.org/antigone-at-the-border/

 

 

-------------------------------------

TucsonStage home: www.TucsonStage.com

Recent announcments: http://tucsonstage.blogspot.com/