Special Function The House of Bernarda Alba and A Conversation with Mexican-Canadian Director Javier Vilalta

Agenda for Thursday September 29, 2022

7:00 PM Grab a coffee at Aroma

7:15 PM  A Conversation with Director Javier Vilalta (This will be in Spanish)

7:50 PM Doors Open at the Theatre

8:00 PM Performance

The House of Bernarda Alba  by Federico García Lorca  Adaptation and Direction by Javier Vilalta

The father of a prominent family is dead. Five women are forced by their mother to live inside their house for eight years and mourn their loss without having any outside contact. In the intense heat of summer, the conflicts, repression , and secrets of the house are unchained, while the walls collapse in fear.

Written in 1936, The House of Bernarda Alba is considered one of the masterpieces of Spanish theatre. Queer playwright Federico Garcia Lorca wrote this all-female play as an analogy of the sexual and emotional repression he experienced throughout his life.

In this new exciting production, the text is modernized for a cast of all 2SLGBTQIA+ performers to give life to Lorca's characters. Sage Theatre's production of 'The House of Bernarda Alba' is a relevant and riveting examination of the oppression and marginalization that members of the queer community continue to bravely battle in today's sociey.

About JAVIER VILALTA

Javier (he/him) is a Mexican-Canadian visual performance creator, stage director, movement coach, and translator. He resides in Alberta, where he attended the University of Calgary’s Fine Arts department.

As a stage director, he has collaborated with companies such as Theatre Calgary, Sage

Theatre, Downstage, Lunchbox Theatre, The

Shakespeare Company, StoryBook, CYPT, Jupiter Theatre, and Calgary Opera.

In 2005 he co-founded, along with Black artist Norma Lewis, the visual performance ensemble 8ROJO. With this group, he has devised five interdisciplinary creations, with which he has toured around Canada and as far afield as Mexico, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Taiwan, UK, and Iceland. With 8ROJO, he was awarded the ‘Innovation in Performance’ award at the 2016 STOFF Festival in Stockholm, Sweden; and he was a finalist for a 2021 Off West End Award in London, UK for Outstanding Production.

He has translated the texts ‘100 Love Poems and a Song of Despair’ by Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca’s ‘Rural Trilogy’. He translated and adapted works from the musical theatre cannon for Broadway's Playbill Magazine and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

Tickets are pay as you can. We recommend a minimum of $15 per ticket. All proceeds go to Sage Theatre.