Ep.82: Merendiando with Lara Arabian and Carla Melo
October 26, 2022
There are times where… I just want this moment for the Armenians… for them to feel like they are seen and for anglophones to just for a moment feel displaced. – Lara Arabian
when you are uprooted from your culture… how do we construct this notion of ancestry? I think that doesn’t necessarily have to do with blood ties. Especially as cultural workers, artists – we are always looking for someone in the past that will inspire… who is able to navigate this world where the ground is always moving…. – Carla Melo
Meet Lara Arabian and Carla Melo, the writer/performer and director / co- creator of “Siranoush” a multimedia, multilingual one-woman show that was part of this year’s Rutas Festival. Lara Arabian is a trilingual Dora nominated Toronto-based performer by way of Beirut, Lebanon, upstate NY, and Paris, France. She is also a passionate arts educator and is on the faculty of Sheridan College in both the Musical Theatre and the Performing Arts Preparation programs. Carla Melo (Ph.D., UCLA) is a researcher, director and performer invested in creating and thinking critically about the intersections of performance, social engagement and activism. Through a decolonial and hemispheric lens, she has paid particular attention to performances from across the Americas, with a focus on Latin American, Afro-diasporic, immigrant and indigenous populations.
Siranoush explores the writer/performer’s desire to dig deeper into her cultural roots, through a reimagining of Siranoush, a 19th century ethnic Armenian actress by that name, who was a trailblazer both on and off the stage. Tapping into ancestral knowledge and diasporic memory, the performance takes us across time and space to explore the power of theatre as a way of cultural survival and female empowerment.
All Radio Aluna Theatre episodes are in Spanglish, English, or Spanish. New episodes are released on Wednesdays. Follow and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, 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 TD Bank.
Aluna Theatre is Beatriz Pizano & Trevor Schwellnus; Radio Aluna Theatre is produced by Monica Garrido and Lucia Linares.
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