Letters from Cuba/Manual for a Desperate Crossing
Project Description
The pandemic of 2020 hit theatre hard. The production I was slated to direct in March 2020 was postponed once and cancelled twice. The TYA production I was going to direct in fall 2020 was postponed until fall 2021. As our university and department decided to forgo any in-person performances in an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic, I was given an option to direct an online performance.
I was grateful for the opportunity to still create, I knew that I wanted to showcase more Latinx authors and performers in our season. In general, our theatre department has been, as many have, white-centered in its productions. So, I began a summer of reading script after script until I ran across Manual For a Desperate Crossing. Its poetry was immediately striking and I knew that the blackbox-feel, experimental, avant-garde nature of this show would lend itself well to the Zoom format. Letters from Cuba was also chosen because I felt it would be important to contrast the love and beauty of the Latinx immigration experience with the desperation of the balseros.
I was also determined to have as much BIPOC representation in our cast as possible. I'm proud to report that with the exception of the actor who played Marc, all the performers identify as BIPOC.
The shows were largely a lesson in discovering how much we needed to learn about online performance. The Fornes estate required us to perform all the shows live. So we spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to create organic, authentic performances when the actors were all located in different spaces. Additionally, the technology required to produce these shows was new to all of us, Our actors became technicians in their own right as there was a lot of adjusting lighting, green screens, camera settings, and Zoom feeds throughout the entire production. Finally, when one of our cast members went MIA during the tech rehearsals, I ended up stepping in as a last minute performer. The learning curve for all of this was steep and stressful.
However, despite the difficulties, I was surprised to find how much the audiences were able to resonate with the stories Ms. Fornes writes about in these plays. I believe this speaks to the strength of her writing as much as it speaks to the innovation we used to create the performances. My hope is that these productions set a foundation for better representation for BIPOC students and stories at Brigham Young University. My work with Latinx theatre will continue with Luna in fall of 2021.
