La Materia de la Espera
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se supone que hiciéramos una obra en un teatro
se supone que hiciéramos una obra con gente en el espacio.
hubo un momento donde la obra— la historia, los personajes, el escenario, el gaff tape, dejaron de importar tanto
[ la obra comenzó con 14 hombres y una mujer, parados en la corteza del caos del universo ]
lo que comenzó a más importar fue la gente
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we were supposed to do a play in a theatre
we were supposed to do a play with people in the space
there was a moment where the play
the story
the characters
the gaff tape
stopped mattering
( the play began with the idea of making a work with 14 men and one woman, standing in the chaos of the universe)
what started mattering were the people.
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Film | Performance
The Matter of Waiting / La Materia de la Espera is an attempt to translate a live performance that never happened into a tangible and permanent form. This multi-medium project seeks to adapt the one-year production process of an expected performance-run of Albert Camus’ dramatic work, Calígula, slated for Spring of 2020, into a multi-channel film work and a printed publication. Inspired by Marguerite Duras’ memoir La Douleur, The Matter of Waiting is a meditation on waiting as an active practice and state of being & an experiment with liveness, ephemerality and permanence that celebrates theatre as the unparalleled form of simultaneity and viscerality.
The cinematic portion translates the first and the last act of “Caligula” into a film, adopting the current circumstances and regulations of distance as rules and opportunities that dictate the form and narrative structure of the film. Created in collaboration with the original performers of the live performance that never occurred, this cinematic play then breaks apart, developing tangential narratives that emerge and unfold into a love letter to the theatre, to the act of directing, and to the state of waiting.
The printed publication functions as an active archive that attempts to translate live performance into a tangible object. It gathers tangential dramaturgical work— diagrams, notes, writings, materials, notations, dialogues with actors— material that usually remains unseen but that in accumulation, define the final theatrical experience, in an attempt to create a performative experience that honors the theatrical act that never happened. It is currently in progress and created in collaboration with designer Guillermo Casanova and will be published by Bartlebooth.
Performed by : Sierra Priest, Alex Barlas, Hakan Cosar, Ashley Sánchez, Juliana Alvarez, Brittney Brady and Natalia Lassalle-Morillo.
It was created with the support of the CalArts School of Theatre.
