The stage director and playwright Lucía Miranda will give a conference open to the public this Wednesday, May 31, as part of the Campus MAPAS program at the Guiniguada Theater in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The stage direction of professionals and non-professionals is one of Lucía Miranda's weaknesses: who apart from directing, also writes and teaches. The artist from Valladolid confesses that she loves to write although she suffers a lot from it. As she advances in this interview, her work as a playwright has a lot to do with being a journalist and an anthropologist.
– In the conference that he will offer at Campus MAPAS, he proposes transporting us to high school and college classrooms, to a flour factory, a park, a hospital, also to large theaters... All this without leaving the Guiniguada Theater in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. How will it be possible? What can advance us?
The idea of traveling through all these places has to do with the type of theater I do where the community is at the center and the stories are born from there, from them. In MAPAS I will talk about how stories and people are closely linked to spaces and how the theater that we do from the company has to do with that, with linking stories to spaces and with converting any space, not just a great theater , in a scenic spot.
Historically, when there has been talk of community theater, it has always been located in civic centers or in smaller places, with fewer possibilities, and I think that one of the great changes in recent years is being able to put this type of theater and this type of stories in the big theatres, call it the National Dramatic Center or Lliure Theatre.
– How do you value the emphasis that MAPAS places on promoting and revitalizing the cultural sector on the islands through the training of professionals?
I think that the work that is being done by MAPAS to promote and invigorate the cultural sector on the islands is enviable. The professionals of the islands cannot access the same type of proposals that are generated in Madrid or Barcelona, due to the cost of the tours and the difficulty of exchanges between professionals.
I think that the emphasis that MAPAS is placing on bringing professionals and making these meetings happen is going to be very fruitful in the future because it will surely bite the bug and open up opportunities for professionals there but also for professionals here who We will meet the islanders and we will discover other ways of doing things that are not only Madrid and Barcelona.
– What is your opinion of the contribution made by professional markets, such as MAPAS, in the necessary international promotion of artists and companies?
There is a big difference between MAPAS and other types of markets and it is that link with the South Atlantic and the arrival of programmers from Latin America or Africa. That is something quite enviable that cannot be found in other markets. These co-production and exhibition links with both America and Africa are extremely necessary and it is a luxury that they are being carried out.
– You have a very personal way of understanding and doing theater, how would you define your creative process?
My creative process always starts from a conflict -which I normally have- and which I want to relate to others. I always start from a question that has to do with not understanding something in life and ask myself: how will they understand this, how will other parts of society and the world live this?, to put that question or set of questions in common, not with others artists but with collectives and groups that can range from girls and boys, adolescents to the elderly, with functional diversity, etc.
Once at that point, then I do invite other creators, be they light designers, set designers, costume designers, actors, composers to ask it with me and put together a show. It is a deeply collaborative process, a very careful, long-term and very democratic process in the sense that it starts with many questions, listening to many different people and putting everything in common.
-Can you introduce us to the term 'art-education' to which you refer on numerous occasions?
The term art-education ('teaching artist') It has been in Anglo-Saxon countries for thirty or forty years and in Spain it has begun to gain strength in the last five years with programs such as Audaces or Proyecto Ornitorrinco, together with the appearance of educational departments in theaters. I put a lot of emphasis on this concept because many people in the world of creation don't know about it. For me, an art-educator is a professional who dedicates himself to creative projects in a professional way, call himself an actor, choreographer, director, composer... A performing arts professional who dedicates part of his time to education and educational environments. I am not referring to artists who, when they are not creating, give classes to other professionals, but rather those who work with non-professionals: with girls and boys, the elderly, etc.
– Does theater have much to say in society or is it rather the other way around?
Augusto Boal, a Brazilian educator and theater director, used to say that the citizen is not the one who lives in society but the one who transforms it. I think this statement has a lot to do with the question you ask. I believe that there are as many 'theaters' as there are creators or groups of people doing theater.
The theater that I propose has to do with listening to society and working with different groups within it. I don't think it's better or worse, I think it's a tool and a way of understanding theater. Even when I work on commission as a director, for example this season in 'The Dragon's Head' At the National Drama Theater where there is no work with the community but with a cast of actresses and actors, I start from the same theatrical tools, from the same listening, I create the same environments with professionals as with non-professionals. So, it seems to me that there is the non-distinction between the world of theater and the world of society.
Augusto Boal tells in his book 'Games for actors and Non actors' one thing that I really like about this topic but, since I don't want to get involved, I'm going to leave it for the conference...
– In 2011 he founded The Cross Border Project a project not at all common in the world of performing arts and culture but at the same time very necessary. What would you say is the essence of your company?
I think the essence of crossbrother and the most concrete added value of the company is its versatility. One day we may be working with a group of non-professionals in a very diverse context with characteristics that we have never faced before and the next day we may be performing at the Teatro Español in Madrid or the Teatro Lliure in Barcelona. There is a level of adaptability and listening to contexts that is very difficult to find in a company. Our essence of work starts from listening to a problem that exists and summoning a group of diverse people (professionals and non-professionals) to work on it, ask questions and generate a creative product. In the same way, we are able to do 'the art for the art', although always with a social purpose. We can create a professional artistic product while we can work in very specific contexts facilitating solutions, mediation, meeting... We are configured by a very hybrid profile.
– You are a versatile professional, as well as a playwright and director, you dedicate part of your time to training. If you were given a choice, could you choose between one of the aforementioned facets?
Being honest, what I like the most in the world of theater is directing. I think that being in a rehearsal room is the closest thing to being in the park, to being a girl and fantasizing again with a lot of possibilities where we believe that stones and sticks are everything we want them to be. I love writing stories but I suffer from it a lot, I love more the process of prior investigation where I work with people, interview… I think that my work as a playwright has a lot to do with being a journalist and an anthropologist, it allows me to live very different lives and has allowed me to be in places incredible from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Miami. The part of dramaturgy that I like the most is that, the previous process in which I collect all those stories and meet people. I don't have a good time alone in front of the computer, I get pretty crazy.
The formations are also a part that I adore but that has to do with that part of the playwright who investigates. The training allows me to go to places I never imagined, to meet people with very different profiles, this training that is not only for performing arts professionals but has to do with generating and providing tools to very diverse people.
Despite everything, my favorite is without a doubt directing, both professionals and non-professionals. It is where I think there is more freedom, more play and the highest level of listening in the here and now.
