RAT 3 Rats in Brasil

["Christopher Danowski" <oritutu@hotmail.com>]

Hi all,
We got back this week from a too-short time in Rio de Janeiro for the 
Hemispheric Institute's conference on performance & culture in the Americas 
(next years conferences will be held in Mexico City & NYC); so I just wanted 
to send a note on to y'all (or yins, or ustedes, whatevah) with some 
impressions:
1st impression, Karl Marx: "Imperialism in the woist thing I ever hoid."
Here's some more:
Trees covered with plastic & crepe paper & rainbow-colored foam rubber 
disks, walls that had colored-paper spirits hanging off of them, a dozen 
tents that no one was ever seen to emerge from, a toilet covered with 
papier-mache made from a Rio newspaper; a woman performing how they solve 
problems in Brazil by trying to cut a pineapple with a dull knife; a lot of 
fooken patchouli.
We were there for the three-day intensive, lotsa papers & keynote speakers; 
the more workshopp-y part of it was a two-week thing, but looked sort of 
amazing.  What we could get to see was amazing.  Long & fiery conversations 
about race, privelege, power, language (over an hour talking about the term 
"American"; a word to be embarrassed by, to include the 20 or so other 
countries that fall under the American title, or just a word).  Ran into RAT 
Diana Rasnovitch (missed her presentation since Eliana, the 11-month old 
4-toothed rat in a backpack was fidgety & trying to sing at that moment); 
missed Augusto Boal's workshop, & some very interesting-looking Candomble 
things, but did get to see Gomez-Pena & Sifuentes' "Mexterminator."  
Interesting work with perspective & perception, removing the hegemony of the 
straight-on gaze, & when Eliana began poking the dead chicken & drawing the 
cameras & spectators' attentions, I felt like something new was being formed 
in the dirt beneath the stage.
Tamara (mother of Eliana, sea-goddess, fe-maverick) presented a paper on 
Zapatismo (Schechner called them Zapotecas--nice try, same country at least) 
& theater in Chiapas, which of course I thought was the most brilliant thing 
ever written academically; met some very groovy people also doing work on 
Indigenous theater in Mexico.
Diana Taylor (& Julie Taylor) both from NYU (I think) organized the thing, & 
will continue it annually until they get tired--it was a very open & 
radically socio-logical forum, with volunteer translators, so that 
Portuguese & Spanish & English were flying in all directions, & of course we 
were keenly aware that everything was ultimately mistranslated, including 
our own mater tongues to ourselves, but something of the sentiment was 
getting communicated (especially the need for more communication among 
practitioners separated by the complex web of political borders making me 
feel like this isn't an island when it is).  Also especially recurrent, the 
question of wtf to do now, how to make theater in this time of neoliberalism 
& globalism, & how can performance, particularly political performance, do 
anything in this hemisphere?  Does/will image take primacy over text, if the 
movement toward a less-literate society seems permanent, how does history 
get retold, & can it ever be told?  & why does Tricky Dick of the TDR insist 
on using the royal "we" to designate "white citizens of the US", even when 
speaking to a crowd where 90% do not fit the designation?  And, how can I 
eat the food without consuming the culture (because the food is really good 
food ohmygod)?  Why write plays?  & why did we have to travel so far, to a 
country not especially known for its free expression (until recently), 
before feeling like we could talk about the things that seem to matter the 
most?
Okay, enough of this for now--I just got a new temp job, & finally had some 
time to post this, & had a free computer to do it.  I would absolutely 
reccommend this to anyone who thought it might be worthwhile; go go go, in 
2001, go by all means & check it out--the coffee won't be as good as 
Brazillian coffee, & I'm not sure if there's a place on earth as beautiful 
as Brazil, but the people involved in this have made me feel very, very 
full, & curious, & sad, & angry, & extremely fortunate to be living & 
working in a field that offers absolutely everything except for money.
Peace to you,
Chris Danowski
Curator of New Works/Playwright in Residence/Conspirator
Theater In My Basement
Minneapolis
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