Today begins the Comfama San Ignacio Theater Festival, which is held in parallel with the Manizales. Works that propose debates.
A classic television journalism format is that of the interviewer sitting next to a guest who asks questions, usually planned, to talk about different topics. In the United States he popularized it Larry King and in Colombia the example is that of I José Gabriel.
What would happen if it is done on stage and is called theater? Does anything change? Does a guest politician or the host journalist become actors or characters? Have they always been?
These questions are resolved in Capitals sins, one of the productions that will be featured in the 53rd Manizales International Theater Festival and the 4th Comfama San Ignacio Theater Festival. The director made them Marianella Morena at the end of 2020, when he summoned her Gustavo Zidane, director of the Sala Verdi, in Montevideo, so that he could think of something alternative, performative, for the season. They no longer had time to put on a conventional play.
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About the work
In the cities where they have presented it, Morena says, they have described this presentation as “theatrical journalism or performative hybrid”, but for her there is no definitive definition, it all depends on the viewer and the way in which they connect. Defining it is in some way breaking with the experience itself.
The action consists of seven interviews, one for each capital sin, lasting approximately 50 minutes and each includes a journalist, a politician of any ideological spectrum, an actor who reacts to the responses of the interviewee and a band that accompanies .
The questions revolve around three thematic axes: culture, politics and sins, one specific in each encounter. The journalist has total freedom to decide what questions to ask, some are planned, others spontaneous. There are only a few guidelines, a previous work, which is done with Morena that does not interfere with the vision of the journalists.
For its presentation in the country, Sergio Restrepo, head of the Comfama Cloister, points out that “four (sins) are going to be presented here (in Medellín) and three in Manizales, but the two festivals are going to see all seven” because of virtuality.
The journalists in charge will be Ana Cristina Restrepo and Claudia moraleswhile some of the politicians will be Jorge Enrique Robledo, Marta Restrepo, Maria Angelica Robledo and Daniel Carvalho. It was sought that they had different ideologies, that they did not belong to the same political party, in order to cover the entire spectrum.
From this work, Octavio Arbeláez, director and curator of both festivals, says that “it seemed very pertinent to the situation in the country” and adds that “the political or artistic spectacle produces media characters and the news coverage seeks to attract attention. Attention of the public or citizens? What would the difference be? Or, where is the border?
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The festivals
The truth, which is one of the characteristic values of journalism, comes out and is questioned with Deadly Sins. It will be precisely the topic to be discussed at the 53rd Manizales International Theater Festival and at the 4th Comfama Theater Festival, which for this edition have the Truth Commission as an ally.
The two festivals are held simultaneously, so they share artists, experiences, curatorship and dates: they start today and end on October 3 (see Background).
There will be 177 artists, 76 performances, 7 countries: Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, France, Spain, Portugal and Uruguay. In addition, they will have three samples: Theater and truth, Theater and transmedia and Immersion and residents to the street.
On this occasion, Restrepo explains, the theme is the truth and the relationship it has with the theater. Arbeláez points out that “it is particularly attractive that this situation occurs in dramatic representation, since the theater largely tries to reproduce human situations, experiences and emotions, and in doing so, as we have already seen, it cannot be closed to a single concept of the truth ”.
Hence, the Truth Commission will give a preview of “the processes it is carrying out and which it will present in its report on November 28,” says Restrepo.
The programming will be mixed between virtuality, live presentations and street theater. The latter will be held, in Medellín, “mainly in the Plazuela San Ignacio.” Part of the digital programming will be seen directly on the YouTube profile of the Manizales Theater Festival and another in projections at the Comfama San Ignacio theater
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