Political Theater

an Analysis of Two Creative Processes by the Group Investigación de Procesos Creativos en Artes del Espectáculo (IPROCAE)

Abstract

As the author of this work, I define myself as an activist theater artist, understanding the practice of theater as a discourse-producing activity, which must be taken into account when thinking about the different forms of interventions. The option for political activism through theater combines political action with scenic representation, engaging individual agents in the collective praxis. We understand that theater, as any other form of art, is not a neutral space but a practice that has always consequences in the political realm.

The IPROCAE1 group to which I belong has been working since 2008 with the aim of generating a space for the study of artistic action that arises from the very heart of its practice. We thus develop the concept of "artist/researcher" in which both activities are embodied in the same person, operating on both discursive orders simultaneously, and abandoning the idea that creation comes prior to reflection. We propose that both instances circulate together, overlapping, generating dialogues and inquiries in a mutual complementary process. The objective of this work is to present a first approach to the analysis of two creative processes of the staging and performance of the plays “Children of the Stone” based on the text “Seu Bomfim” by Fabio Vidal, and the play “The other men in Eva” by Santilli, Aramburu and Maran. Both plays represent discourses of strong political significance. “Sons of the Stone” frames its story in the union struggle of the quarrymen of the city of Tandil, and ‘The Other Men in Eva’ speaks about Eva Perón's death and the disappearance of her paraffin-covered corpse.