North-South Embraces
2 international exchanges build cultural bridges between the U.S. and Latin America
By Randy Gener
The Brides, an international collaboration between Pregones Theater of New York and artists from Belgium and Slovakia. (photo by Erika Rojas)
You can formalize an international cultural exchange program—or you can set up a looser, more customized network built by sweat equity. If you're passionate about forging fruitful cooperation with likeminded theatre colleagues in Latin American countries, the plan need not be to simply fund-and-facilitate reciprocal exchanges. A more unorthodox approach may be more suited to your circumstances, more in sync with your aesthetic ideals. What about throwing your hat into a transnational ring in which equity is found in the collective process of creation rather than in the power of individual financial assets?
Whichever road you take, it isn't likely that you could depend on U.S. government support, anyway. Since the demise of Arts International (AI) in December 2004—it was “probably the most important of the post-cold war cultural exchange organizations that ultimately went bankrupt,” says Margaret C. Ayers, president of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation—U.S. financing for international exchange programs has been markedly slashed. And the politics of, say, obtaining visas for foreign guest artists still depends on bureaucratic caprices and mysterious logic.
Some hardy internationalists jump into the tempest-tossed waters anyway. In “Forging Connections in a Fragmented Hemisphere” (May/June '10), American Theatre identified the stresses, joys and hard-to-crack challenges of connecting with artistic partners from Central and South America with whom we might feel simpatico. Because that essay sought to give national attention to some Latino and Hispanic festivals and nonprofit troupes that blur the boundaries between a Latin American rubric and a U.S. Latino/a paradigm, what may not instantly be apparent are the structures that undergird an ecology of hemispheric solidarity. Just how are these cultural exchanges created and organized? Are there existing programs that build an international network of support based on cultural linkages?
Two remarkable schemes—the Performing Americas program and the Worldwide Virtual Carrousel project—bear closer scrutiny for the depth of their involvements with Latin America, the breadth of their visions and the potential for global impact. These projects share core values: fostering close interactions between artists and curators from the North and their colleagues from the South; building knowledge about how to break into international markets; and encouraging longer-term relationships. It's all about developing a brain trust, if you will. Reciprocal exchange, rather than the unilateral mode of export or import, is the unshakable principle that guides both projects, even if (as we shall later see) it is not always possible. Both initiatives promote geographical, ethnic and cultural diversity (let's face it: Latin American theatre is plural, not singular) and provide fresh opportunities for emerging troupes, mid-career artists and underexposed performers to show off their wares in a babel of new contexts.
Beyond these macro-objectives, the similarities end. The main thrust of the almost 10-year-old Performing Americas program—designed, led and executed by project director Renata Petroni—is to create a centralized fund and residency exchange. PA is an offshoot of the now-defunct AI, which established the program in 2001 with major support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; it was integrated into the National Performance Network in 2005. The writer Radhika Subramaniam, in a 2008 evaluation of the program, calls PA's efforts “a systematic circuit of convening, communication and community engagement.” “The program is about pure exchange as much as presenting,” says Elizabeth Doud, program coordinator since 2005. “It all depends on what's happening—who is doing the best theatre in which country.” Curators from NPN are recruited and selected based on responses to a call for participation; six curators rotate on cycles of three so that every two years the program brings in fresh blood. U.S. curators must commit to two years of programming in which they would host at least one Latin American company a year.
Performing Americas has boosted touring, U.S. visibility and creative partnerships at a time when the U.S. suffered dismal public relations abroad as a consequence of the second Iraq war. Since PA's inception, 13 Latin American artists and companies have toured to 46 U.S. venues, 13 U.S. artists and companies have toured to 37 Latin American venues, and 28 extended residencies in the U.S. and Latin America have occurred. Staffers of NPN and La RED, the partnering Latin American entity, interact on an ongoing basis by attending each other's annual meetings and showcases. Says Doud, “The money we have is reserved for those who have made a commitment to present Latin American artists. But we try to make it easier for others to get on board. So if you have a travel budget, you have an extra ‘in’ when we’re hosted, because of our La RED contacts. U.S. presenters who work in larger organizations have more travel savvy, so it is easier for them to break into festivals and just do it. Lots of other people, however, don’t have that experience. We in the U.S. tend to be spooked about travel; it’s harder to get people out of their shells.”
The artists selected for support are required to interact with the local communities in each site to which they tour—otherwise, PA would simply be exporting artists. La RED has, for example, supported the tours and residencies of U.S.-based artists to La RED sites in Central and South America: Grupo de Teatro Artzénico of Quetzaltenango, Guatamala, hosted New Orleans–based Goat in the Road Productions to create new work, give workshops and support a shared goal and vision of touring their companies’ work internationally. Teatro Luna Blou hosted Miami-based Teo Castellanos when he taught spoken-work performance to local artists and youth in Otrabanda, Curacao.
Achieving true reciprocity has been the toughest hurdle so far. NPN is struggling to sustain its international programs in an environment of belt-tightening and economic cutbacks; La RED, a network of cultural promoters from such countries as Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Mexico, has faced its own difficulties harnessing funds that would go directly to PA activities. It used to be that NPN and La RED matched each other's financial input, but that scenario no longer holds true. “Now we use money managed by the NPN network to fund everything,” says Doud, “including artists' fees and travel and visa arrangements. The host organization pays for per diem, hotel expenses and local performance costs (such as marketing) if there's a performance-based tour.”
Still, La RED is an essential force of diplomacy—what it lacks in resources it makes up for in the strength of its contacts: with presentation venues and relevant movers-and-shakers in each region. Says Doud: “When U.S. work is hosted abroad, we’re often the only American artists to be seen in Latin American festivals and venues. For Latin American presenters, understanding the U.S. arts ecology can be a huge deal. Very few get that experience, because they often work at organizations that are just getting by.”
When working across borders, the importance of knowledge-based exchange cuts both ways: For instance, the curatorial selection of artists can be hampered by the necessity for all the presenters to agree that what a particular work originally meant for local audiences will also speak to foreign audiences, and that entails taking a risk. “Still, we’re holding the purse strings,” Doud continues. “So we make the final decision on how the money is spent—that creates inequity. Our intention has always been to correct that problem. We’re willing to partner with La RED to help them find other resources.”
The Worldwide Virtual Carrousel theatre project, on the other hand, decentralizes North-South cooperation among a growing number of participants. This latter project is an inspiring model of how a nonprofit producing entity (in this case, Pregones Theater of the Bronx, N.Y.) has become empowered to work internationally. WVC is, in effect, a path-finding Internet-based exchange and an organ of multilateral artistic cooperation. At a gathering last year in Antwerp, Pregones signed a protocol agreement with the other core members of this ambitious project: Tswelopele Performing Arts (Tembisa, South Africa); Arena y Esteras (Villa El Salvador, Peru); Sering vzw (Antwerp, Belgium). A troupe of Iraqi artists, Red Zone Company, also belongs to the network; although Red Zone encountered problems securing a visa to enter Belgium, it remains a player.
As Pregones producing artistic director Rosalba Rolón relates it, WVC employs a merry-go-round metaphor as an organizing principle. “We are all involved in developing a virtual theatre school, where we can exchange production ideas, experiences, texts, music, photos, teaching bundles, work processes—anything that's created, we circulate it among the participants from different countries,” Rolón says. Through the Internet, this methodology links artists, musicians, dancers and directors from underprivileged communities of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Intriguingly, Pregones's first full-fledged collaboration did not involve South Americans. Director Jorge Merced and composer Desmar Guevara rehearsed with colleagues from Belgium and Slovakia to fashion The Brides, which debuted in New York in 2008. Featuring Rolón, Mia Grijp and Viera Dubakova, The Brides was followed by Pepe's Island (Belgium, Peru, South Africa) and First Love (Belgium, Peru, U.S.A).
“All of a sudden, we have resources from all over the world,” Rolón continues. “Right now, we’re circulating a story. It is moving from country to country. Each country takes from what we all to add to this pot of creative ideas. Then you let go. Maybe the idea is picked up in Johannesburg and turned into something new and different. Pregones turns the ideas into something else. All the members get together in two years, and we showcase the work. We’re extremely excited with the idea of seeing this one core story transform into three different plays. We’re also beginning to pick up a collaboration in Colombia so that we can create an ensemble exchange.”
Since the success of the Carrousel project depends on the resources brought in by its participants, theatre productions become byproducts of a sort. Intriguingly, Pregones’s first full-fledged producing collaboration did not involve South Americans. Director Jorge Merced and composer Desmar Guevara rehearsed with colleagues from Belgium and Slovakia to fashion The Brides, which debuted in New York in 2008. Featuring Rolón, Mia Grijp of Belgium and Viera Dubakova of Slovakia, The Brides was presented in three languages (four when it later premiered in Slovakia). That show was followed by Pepe’s Island (Belgium, South Africa and Peru), and then First Love (Belgium, Peru and the U.S.A.).
Developed over a four-year period in which Sering has played a lead role in fundraising from the European parliament, the Carrousel partnership grew out of the intrepid years Pregones has spent trolling the festival circuits, attending congresses and offering theatre workshops at places as far-flung as Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Netherlands. Ensemble training sets Pregones apart from more conventional ways of making theatre, so there was a natural curiosity among its members to encounter how troupes in foreign countries create devised theatre. What they found were other below-the-radar ensembles that share this Puerto Rican troupe’s socio-artistic bent, its resolve for community-based interactions and its belief in developing ensemble-based training.
Compared to touring-and-residency exchanges supported by Performing Americas, the Carrousel’s decentralized process takes far more time and energy, as well as patience and dedication. For one thing, Pregones did not commit to the Carrousel project overnight. Pregones went through a long flirtation phase with its other partners—almost a nine-year span of checking out one another’s work, showing up for workshops, and presenting foreign productions in their own home bases. The Carrousel model is less likely to attract immediate buy-in from U.S. artists, who might view as fathomless the effort the Carrousel process needs, but it makes sense for Pregones, which insists on get-your-hands-dirty collaboration. Says Rolón, “It would probably be easier if we just acted as presenters of Latin American artists and all we had to do is find the presenting money. But the role of a theatre presenter basically limits the exchange somewhat; engaging in a real collaboration is more constrained. When we are working with local directors and artists in another country, our job is to follow them. When they are here in New York, they follow us. We need to identify that this is working but this other thing is not. We cannot push it.”
By comparison, no collaborations or direct exchanges among the presenters from NPN and La RED have yet grown out of their participation in the Performing Americas program. Moreover, despite NPN’s firm belief in the importance of community engagements to realize cultural exchange, some artists have balked at the very notion of conducting outreach activities. “It’s not just about showing up and doing a show. You really have to communicate clearly what community engagement means—what the expectations are for U.S. artists. Some artists are not very good at doing master classes. Others expect to get paid extra for them. Do you want to work with seventh-graders? Maybe they thought they agreed to do one thing and they come to the city and find something different, and there is no one there who can explain the situation—things can flare up.”
Artists from Latin American sometimes don’t understand the concept of a residency. “What is residency?” they will ask. Doud continues, “Just because residencies are an NPN value does not necessarily mean that it is their value, too. Things can blow up in the face of presenters. Traveling is stressful. When artists are in a foreign country, they want to be seen at their best. You have to be careful, as coordinator of the program, that you are not putting them in a situation where they’re uncomfortable.”
With a dose of humor, Claudia Urdañeta, a presenter from Venezuela who has been involved with Performing Americas from its inception, sums up the heartening dream of creating cultural bridges between the U.S. and Latin America when she remarks that while hemispheric exchanges might sometimes feel like putting grains of sand on the ground, “There is still no other way to make the beach.”
blog comments powered by DisqusView our comments policy