https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1 My theatre artistry, defined after a semester of collaboration en-us 2022-04-18 02:55:49 UTC 2022-05-14 05:17:43 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f3ad.png demianchavez https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1/wish/2146521946 As theatre artists go, I think I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve. My passion for theatre was fueled by Latino theatre artists, and the inspiration I’ve garnered from them has been apparent in my collaborative work this semester. It was present from the get-go, in my first module for this course – Playwriting with Pat Shaw. For our final assignment for Pat’s section, we were tasked with writing monologues based on personal experiences, and then combining that monologue with a partner to create a new work. I wrote, of course, about my hometowns of El Paso and Juarez, and the sight of the border from a road that runs through the Franklin Mountains in El Paso. My partner wrote about a funeral, and though our monologues could not have been further apart, we combined them into an account of driving on Scenic Drive in El Paso. Our monologue and performance had a funeral tone not present in my original text, and one that I don’t often use in my work. This combined work, still about the border, showed my inspirations from the start of collaborating in this course. 

]]> 2022-04-18 03:32:44 UTC https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1/wish/2146521946 demianchavez https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1/wish/2146522129 This entire course is tied together by collaboration through different mediums – playwriting, dance, design, and devising. All were incredibly useful experiences that encouraged me out of my solitary comfort zone, but none more so than our Dance module with Joel. Of the mediums we explored this semester, dance is by far the one I’m least acquainted with. I’ve written plays, done some theatrical design, and even experimented with devising, but dance is simply something I’ve never explored in any meaningful capacity. This made it the perfect medium for working collaboratively, as having minimal dance experience pushed me to be a more open collaborator, who had everything to learn from his peers. For our last assignment in this section, we were tasked with creating a movement piece, drawing inspiration from a poem, statue, and piece of music. The process of creating our final piece for this section was on that only further reinforced my belief of Theatre as Communion. The aspect of communal creation was only enhanced by working in an unfamiliar medium, which gave me a fresh perspective on the aspect of performance that I hold dearest.

]]> 2022-04-18 03:32:58 UTC https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1/wish/2146522129 demianchavez https://padlet.com/demianchavez/mntcn74091j9t4l1/wish/2146522198 When I wrote about my theatrical aspirations for the first iteration of my Personal Statement, I mentioned the Cohen New Works Festival as a possible place where I could bring my border-centered work to, as part of a conscious effort to take my work beyond the borderland. For the Design section of this course with Rusty, we were tasked with designing an installation, ostensibly to be pitched to Cohen New Works. Though with this particular work I didn’t bring in many of my border and Latino theatre influences, this was nonetheless an invaluable lesson in collaborating with Cohen in mind. I’ve had the good fortune of producing my own work in the borderland, but this was an instructive experience in creating something meant for a non-border audience and space, particularly UT theatre audiences and spaces. The installation we designed, centered around a console with which audience members could interfere with a performance of Death of a Salesman, interested me, though I’m unlikely to pursue it in the future. Rather, I’ll be taking the lessons learned in designing and pitching it as I prepare to pitch and collaborate on a project of my own for Cohen 2023.

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