TEATRO FESTIVAL
The new event of the Hispanic Arts Society.
Teatro Festival is considered the first festival of its kind in Spanish in Calgary, Canada. Performances of the works will be held annually, during the months of May and June. The festival is sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts.
The Festival will begin its journey on June 10 & 11, 2022 at the DJD Dance Centre, 111 12th Ave. SE, Calgary. We will start with the staging of “Por Los Que Tuvieron Que Partir (For Those Who Had to Leave)”, an original idea of the Peruvian-Venezuelan director, Igor Olsen.
This 90-minute adaptation of the Peruvian production “Por Los Que Tuvieron Que Partir” is based on immigrants and their stories. The Hispanic Arts Society’s cast has 11 local performers and are led by the directing team Igor Olsen, general director; and Vicky Velasco, Adjunct Director. Teatro Festival is produced under the umbrella of the Hispanic Arts Society run by Mariela Parra, General Producer.
“After 35 years of supporting local Hispanic artists in different art disciplines, the Hispanic Arts Society is excited to continue its journey in creating a theatre culture in Spanish in Calgary. We have presented several international plays in Spanish and have also collaborated with the independent productions of local Hispanic theatre companies”, says Mariela Parra, President of the Society.
For this year’s festival, we will be producing five different plays from five different Hispanic playwrights: Ana Melo (Alicia in Wonder Airlines / Venezuela), Ingrid Luciano (Sed / Dominican Republic), Daniel Mariani (En un lugar que ya no existe / Venezuela), Fabian Silva (Con los pies mojados / Uruguay), and Kathy Serrano (En muchos lugares del mundo / Venezuela-Peru). The duration of each micro-play is between 15 to 20 minutes and this format is known as “Micro-Theatre”.
These five stories will make the Hispanic community in Calgary feel represented. Their struggles and joys of being an immigrant will be reflected in these stories.
The cast is composed by:
- Ameli Pereira and Ivanna Soler (Sed)
- Adania Reyes and Marlon Torres (Alicia en Wonder Airlines)
- Estefanía Saldarriaga and Iván Gómez (En muchos lugares del mundo)
- Antares Ramírez, Wilson Reyes and Francisco Silva (Con los pies mojados)
- Camila Schroh and Jaime César (Un lugar que ya no existe)