If you happen to find yourself in Madrid in the following months, do not hesitate to come visit me at the theatre Nuevo Apolo, were Trágala, Trágala, the musical… will be playing starting on November 5!

Trágala, Trágala… is the most rebellious, irreverent and hilarious musical in Spain. Do not miss it!!!

#TrágalaTrágala

• Dates: Starting on November 5!
• Venue: Teatro Nuevo Apolo (Plaza de Tirso de Molina, 1. 28012, Madrid)
• Upcoming shows: From Wednesday to Friday at 8pm. Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm. Sundays at 6pm.
• Tickets: 15€ – 35€. Tickets.

CC 2.0 Image from Jose Javier Martin Espartosa

The Teatro Español is one of the oldest theaters in Europe which started as a corral de comedias^* in 1582 (Corral del Príncipe). The antiquity of the theatre justifies all the adventures that it has suffered such as a bankruptcy, a fire, some changes of name, building reforms, periods of inactivity, etc.

In the 17th century the theatre even had a group of fans called the “chorizos” who had daily confrontations with the fans of  the Teatro de la Cruz, the competition, called the “polacos.”

Some of the plays that were released in the Teatro Español were written by authors really well known such as Calderón de la Barca, Benito Pérez Galdós, Jacinto Benavente, Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti…  And if that’s not enough, the top Spanish actors have performed at least once in this theatre.

By the way, as off the record, there’s a secret entrance to the theatre at the Prado street, an access easement created when the theatre was a corral de comedias… If you find it, please let me know, I’m really eager to discover it!

You might be wondering why I’m telling you about the Teatro Español history and, although I cannot tell much right now, I promise you’ll discover very soon…

^* Popular outdoor theatre set up in the inner patio of a block

Image of the interview in Politika Daily

I was recently interviewed for Politika Daily in Belgrade. I was thrilled they asked me for some issues that are present both in Serbia and Spain.

Somehow, here in Belgrade I feel a little bit like in Spain; the two countries are similar, especially for the fact that the people in their cities are still chatting in cafes, on the streets, bars…

From my point of view, conversation is the basis for new projects, friendship and creation, the essence of living.

I won’t keep you any longer, here you have the interview link in case you want to read it! (although it’s in Serbian!)

You can also read the Spanish translation of the interview in the following PDF:

Spanish translation of the interview

See you soon!

Íñigo

More info: ArteNY

The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors, has awarded Iñigo Ramirez de Haro’s latest play, “Secret Weapons of Fat Destruction”, with the 2013 HOLA Award for Excellence in Theater, in the category: “Outstanding Achievement in playwriting”

Take a peek of all the winners here:

2013 HOLA Awards for Excellence in Theater
(producer[s] shown in parentheses)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN PLAYWRITING
Quiara Alegría Hudes, Water By The Spoonful (Second Stage Theater)
Íñigo Ramírez de Haro, Tu arma secreta contra la celulitis rebelde/Secret Weapons of Fat Destruction (Thalía Spanish Theatre)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR
Josean Ortiz, La última plena que bailó Luberza (Marañao Theater Company)
Felix Solis, Basilica (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR
Zulema Clares, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (Repertorio Español)
Caridad Del Valle, The Virtuous Burglar (E3Outlaws Productions/Angel Falls Productions)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED MALE ACTOR
Cedric Leiba, Jr., Caridad/Sweet Charity (New Haarlem Arts Theatre)
Pep Muñoz, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (Repertorio Español)Alfonso Rey, Cuba: Punto X (MeLu Communications)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED FEMALE ACTOR
Liza Colón-Zayas, Water By The Spoonful (Second Stage Theater)
Cecilia Saia, Tango Fever (Teatro LATEA/Howling Moon Cab Company)

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Fernán Cardama, Historias de media suela (Teatro SEA)
Loren Escandón, Montera (IATI Performing Arts Marathon)
José Roldán, Jr., Father Forgive Me For I Have Sinned (United Solo Festival)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST
Brenda Feliciano, Gizelxanath, Leonardo Granados, Viriginia Herrera-Crilly, Robmariel Olea, Pablo Zinger, Bésame mucho (Repertorio Español)
Francisco Fuertes, Jesús E. Martínez, Soledad López, William Saquicela, Tu arma secreta contra la celulitis rebelde/ Secret Weapons of Fat Destruction (Thalía Spanish Theatre)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN TECHNICAL PRODUCTION
América Barrera (costume design) and Liliana Barrera (scenic design), The Virtuous Burglar (E3Outlaws Productions/Angel Falls Productions)Valeria Solomonoff (choreography); Esteban Domenichini, Mariana Parma and Teresa Anne Volgenau (additional choreography), Tango Fever (Teatro LATEA/Howling Moon Cab Company)
Miguel Ángel Valderrama (lighting design), Montera (IATI Theater Performing Arts Marathon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
Iván Acosta, Cuba: Punto X (MeLu Communications)
Ernesto De Villa Bejjani, El deseo de Sofía (88 Performing Arts Theatrical Company/Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU)

SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Juan Villarreal, for over 40 years of performing in theater, film and television
Amneris Morales, for her performance in the production La última plena que bailó Luberza (Marañao Theater Company)
Teatro Experimental Blue Amigos (TEBA), on the occasion of its 25th anniversary
Danisarte and Teatro Tocando Puertas, on the occasion of their respective 20th anniversaries
Elena Mohedano and Richard Trujillo, for their work in the production El deseo de Sofía (88 Performing Arts Theatrical Company/Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU)
Basil Rojas, for his work in the production Tango Fever (Teatro LATEA/Howling Moon Cab Company)

GILBERTO ZALDÍVAR HOLA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION
Frágil (Otro Teatro NY/Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU)
Fuenteovejuna (Repertorio Español)

More info: El Blog de HOLA

Thursday, May 30th, 2013 12:56 PM EDT

The most irreverent comedy in recent memory is currently on stage at41-17 Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside. The Thalia Spanish Theatre offers alternating performances in English and Spanish for this riotous new production.

Their intimate venue is the perfect setting for playwright Inigo Ramirez de Haro’s project which includes significant audience interaction. His play is unquestionably bawdy and sometimes scatological. It is entitled, “Secret Weapons of Fat Destruction.” However, it is more than a bold display of outlandish mechanisms that destroy cellulite. The “fat” represents our emotional and intellectual excesses, not merely our physical overindulgences.

The story opens with a “lecture” in impeccable English by Francisco Fuertes as the “Director/Author Ramirez”. He sits on a lavatory seat as he explains his new concept of self awareness. His efforts are as hysterical as they are confusing. No wonder a stupefied audience member named Santiago (William Saquicela) begins a dialogue with Ramirez that leads to an epiphany. He is somehow captivated by Ramirez’s value system. Soon he stands facing us, parroting his newly acquired four word mantra.

By now, the audience is in hysterics. But the zaniest character has yet to arrive.

She is Bartola, Santiago’s wife. Portrayed by Soledad Lopez, her emotions are uncensored as she verbalizes every thought that enters her mind. Parading across the stage, she utters an endless stream of non-sequitors. The ladies in the front row are laughing to the point of tears!

The fourth actor’s entrance from the third row completely turns the evening on its ear. Jesus Martinez as Harry hawks a completely different way of thinking. Somehow Bartola is smitten. She is heard offstage, engaging in extremely suggestive activities with Harry. Clearly, the show’s humor is not for children. Meanwhile, everyone in the audience has been verbally challenged. In fact, my guest has earned the nickname, “Wild Card!”

The ubiquitous Artistic and Executive Director Angel Gil Orrios charms the crowd as usual. Behind the scenes experts also deserve attention. They include translator Sarah Thomas, Assistant Director Alexandra Gutierrez and Tech Director Fabricio Saquicela.

For tickets to this and future productions, call (718) 729-3880 or visit www.thaliatheatre.org. As always, save me a seat on the aisle.

By Cliff Kasden ckasden@queenscourier.com

Starring
SOLEDAD LOPEZ
FRANCISCO FUERTES
WILLIAM SAQUICELA
JESUS MARTINEZ

Assistant Director/Stage Manager ALEXANDRA GUTIERREZ

An unconventional writer/director involves his audience in creating a new kind of theatre entertainment. Witness the COMPLICATIONS OF THE FLESH!

The subject matter is for mature audiences.

SEVEN WEEKS only!

MAY 10 TO JUNE 23, 2013

PERFORMANCES IN ENGLISH:
FRIDAYS 8PM
and SATURDAYS 3PM

PERFORMANCES IN SPANISH:
SATURDAYS 8PM
y SUNDAYS 4PM

TICKETS $25
Students & Seniors $22
Special group rates

More info: Thalia Theatre

DO I HAVE TO DIE FOR YOU TO NOTICE ME? This contemporary masterpiece of intense black comedy creates an amazingly funny and witty topsy-turvy world that puts your values to the test.  Why are we scared of the unspoken, the taboo, the dark side…death?  Since the beginning of time great men have understood that death is part of life, for without death there is no life, and without life there is no death.  There is no security only uncertainty. Inigo torpedoes us into surrealistic situations where you don’t know anymore what’s right,  what’s wrong, what to think, or what to feel…you don’t know if dreams become true or truths become dream, nightmare…you don’t know whether to laugh or cry, die or make love.  Family, Medicaid, Euthanasia, Love, Suicide, the 1% and the rest of Us, Human relations, our place in Nature, the Government…leaps into this celebration of life!  Joy!…Enjoy!!…Enjoy Death!!!

Buy Tickets: Here

Press Release: View

The challenge that I had to face was to present a play in one of the best theaters of Harare in three weeks. So, what could I do with 25 well-known Zimbabween actors from different local companies that the Spanish Embassy in Harare, through the local theatre producer Rooftop, had selected to work with?

Since I had presented two years ago in Kinshasa, Being faithful in Congo is not easy, I decided not to bring one of the 15 plays that I have produced on stage in different countries around Europe and America. Instead, I decided to start from scratch: no previous text, no previous theme, ideas or concepts, no previous anything –except for the inevitable prejudices we all have. We would start from the instruments of the 25 actors present, here and now: their bodies and minds, their sense and sensibility; their feelings and reasons…. So, if there were other actors at the same moment or the same actors at a different moment, the result would have completely changed.

How is possible to produce dramatic material worthwhile of a play if there is nothing previous? There are three basic sources from where everything came: actions, objects, and texts, and one main rule: no acting, we are actors. For the first 10 days, 8 hours a day, we all went through an intense and personal work on actions, on objects emotionally cherished, and on stories told by actors either tragic or comic that they had lived. We achieved to produce a big number of dramatic situations, scenes, conflicts that all came from the world and life of the actors: past, present, social interaction, politics, poetry, music, dance, fantasy, injustice, love, expectations, etc. Mainly, individual characters that you can find at the streets of today’s Harare and today’s Zimbabwe. The final result became a perfect metaphor of today’s world.

For the next 10 days, we were devoted to build a play with all the material we had. When I say a play, I mean something very open, a development, a whole action that grows and has to be interesting, impressive, original, enticing, and of course, amusing for the audience. Boredom is strictly forbidden. Here again we all worked together to solve all the problems concerning not only the structure and the text but also the acting, lighting, choreography, scenography, etc. A clear example of our work progress with objects came up one day: an actress brought a photograph of Michael Jackson’s and she went deep into her feelings of sadness due to his sudden death. We all agreed to include in the play an homage to the great performer and a whole one minute of silence.

Changing the actors´s way of working was one of the main aims of this experience. Wherever I go in Europe, America, Africa, or Asia, actors are expected to wait passively and obey orders from a director that usually comes with a written text. As in real life: we are all expected to obey orders from parents, teachers, bosses, politicians, pastors, traditions, habits, etc. What I try to do through theater is just the opposite: to foster disobedience, independence, rebellion, and above all, to become active in theater and life.

Finally, the premiere took place. Celebrities, ministers, and regular people were part of the audience. Before the actors were to stage, I only repeated one magical word to them: have fun! If you enjoy, the public will be aroused. And they succeeded. When after the play the Minister for National Healing came to congratulate us all, she told me that she wanted to use the play in her program of action. I asked her why and her answer will linger for ever in my memory: because you put forward all the controversial issues of Zimbabwe but with a lot of humor. “That is Zim, a country where even when we are tortured we laugh not to loose our dignity.” She was beaten almost to death two years before.

ÍÑIGO RAMÍREZ DE HARO

Written by Íñigo Ramírez de Haro
Translated by Ronald Rand & Íñigo Ramírez de Haro
Directed by Erica Gould
Acting: Stephen Mo Hanan

More informarion: “Holy Shit” or “We Couldn’t call it what we wanted to call it so we call it HOLY CRAP!!” (link)

Press Release: View PDF

Press Release