Ep. 38: MERENDIANDO with Paula Zelaya Cervantes
October 7, 2020
“Creativity is basically learning how to manage fear.” – Paula Zelaya Cervantes
This week’s guest is Mexican playwright, director and translator Paula Zelaya Cervantes. Since graduating from the University of British Columba and returning to Mexico City, she’s created several multiple award-winning plays, which have been celebrated by some of Mexico’s biggest cultural institutions.
In this conversation we talked about the difference between translation and adaptation, how an audience favourite at the Vancouver Fringe Festival became a Mexican theatre hit, and what it’s like to be an independent theatre artist in Mexico City right now.
Show Notes:
- Paula studied Theatre and English Literature at the University of British Columbia
- Los Metros, a new annual theatre award ceremony for theatre excellence in Mexico City
- Narraturgia, a style of theatre presentation that “responds to limitations”, with limited set and lots of oral description
- The play El amor de las luciérnagas uses this technique
- The Orbweaver or El Hilador, a play that went from the Vancouver Fringe Festival to winning several awards for productions in Mexico City. Here’s a 2 minute mini-performance for the Vancouver Fringe, so you can get a taste!
- Kathleen Flaherty at the Playwright’s Theatre Centre and Matthew Willis in Vancouver, and once once producciones in Mexico City helped develop the show
- Paula adaptated of El zoológico de cristal or the Glass Menagerie by Tenessee Williams, Boys and Girls by Dennis Kelly and Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire
- Paula’s adaptation of Bichito or Little One by Hannah Moscovitch, with live streamed performances until October 27th!
- MNFSTXIX, a call for producers to “create theatre in less expensive ways”
- The “massive feminist movement” in Mexico. In the past months this has included nation wide strikes and protests, and most recently a federal building being seized in protest of violence against women.
- Paula’s merienda for the spirit: a costal de semillas, or a heating pad in the shape of an elephant! You can make your own too.
All Merendiando episodes are in Spanglish, English, or Spanish. New episodes of Radio Aluna Theatre are released on Wednesdays. Follow and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Radio Aluna Teatro is produced by Aluna Theatre with support from the Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Metcalf Foundation.
Aluna Theatre is Beatriz Pizano & Trevor Schwellnus, with Sue Balint; Radio Aluna Theatre is produced by Monica Garrido and Camila Diaz-Varela.
For more about Aluna Theatre, visit us at alunatheatre.ca, follow @alunatheatre on twitter or instagram, or ‘like’ us on facebook.