THEATRE SHOW NEWS
WINGS THEATRE SHOW, "LABYRINTH OF THE BUTTERFLIES"
TRAVELING TO SOUTH AFRICA FOR AWID 2008
”The Labyrinth of the Butterflies”” is the name of the theater show comprised of music, theater, poetry, dance, ritual, wisdom, stories, testimonies and multimedia, featuring women from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. They lived in various eras of world history and in their life endeavors in a variety of disciplines, made contributions that have hardly been acknowledged, yet these ideas represent significant perspectives to address today’s urgent global problems.
Rehearsal of the "Lucy" segment of the theatre show
The 80-minute show will be performed for audiences in Latin America and the Caribbean and also worldwide through a process of “internationalization” that will make use of multimedia to reach both Spanish and non-Spanish speaking audiences while keeping the Latin American and Caribbean identity of the show.
It is based on the book Women: Metamorphosis of the Butterfly Effect by María Suárez Toro and constructed by a group of feminists in Costa Rica for internationalization with the support of an international advisory group.
The world premiere will take place November 4-6, 2008 in Heredia, Costa Rica.
The first international presentation will take place at AWID (Association of Women in Development) Forum, “The Power of Movements” in Cape Town, South Africa the night of November 16th at 8:00 p.m. for women in the Forum. It will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles.
Some of the characters in the show include:
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“Lucy”, one of the oldest skeletal remains found, who presents the contribution of women’s bodies to the evolution of the species. She claims that there is a lost paradigm in history that exists in all of us, and stresses the urgency for humanity to reconnect to that Vital Re-emerging Paradigm. It is about the feminist movement challenging paradigms and challenging androcentrism and andropocentrism in the sciences. (Africa: origins of humanity, female bodies: human evolution)
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Mileva Maric, mathematician, physicist and Einstein’s first wife, who contributed to his Nobel prizewinning work, but was never recognized. It has been the feminist movement that has brought her back to life. (European, disabilities)
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Rosa Parks, the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA tells her own story regarding the potential of the butterfly effect applied to social movement building. In the show, African-American Rosa Parks reconceptualizes the butterfly effect when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in the Southern USA, contrary to segregationist laws of that time. With this action Rosa, together with the civil rights movement, unleashed a wave of nationwide protests that led to the abolishment of those racist laws.Both the current and past names of the show honor the "Butterfly Effect" from Chaos Theory that says everything is so interconnected that the smallest action in any one place can have an immense effect elsewhere.(United States, African-American)
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- Molly, a fictional character and microchip who tells us what life is like for a homemaker who makes choices. (Movement building and new technologies)
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Mayan Guatemalan eavers represent Latin American feminism and bring in their identities and a political perspective about a globalization that is not about homogenization, but weaving our common threads as women, and about bringing diversity. (Latin American, indigenous)
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Wings of the Butterfly has also registered a workshop (tentively scheduled for Nov. 17th – the day after the theatre show) where the actresses, some members of the Wings of the Butterfly team and at least two members of the International Advisory Group will construct a quilt where women participants will express their resonances with women in (the show), whose contributions have remained invisible.
Participants will also be asked to express how the butterfly effect in movement building has played a role in the strengthening of their visibility and validation of their contributions.
Description and methodology: We will present a brief introduction of the book and its contribution to the visibility of alternative paradigms expressed in women's experiences throughout history. Each panelist will have 5-10 minutes each to talk about their insights gained from the book and the project Wings of the Butterfly, and the implications in movement building.
Participation: Following will be an exchange where participants can talk about their resonances with the women presented, then will create a piece of a quilt, all of which will be woven together with a metaphor designed by the group. Comments and questions will be solicited.
This session is relevant because it will showcase how artistic expressions of all women can connect issues, voices, experiences and women in a way that goes beyond rational discourse, thus contributing to reactivate a more holistic women’s and feminist movement.
ONE OTHER PROJECT WE WILL TAKE TO AWID:
"BUTTERFLIERS"
"Butterfliers" is a wing of the project that aims to recognize and make visible women whose contributions need to be rendered visible. These women are "butterfliers" because they help the project grow in scope and numbers -- the number of women who are featured and the perspectives they add to the process.
For this Project, “Butterfliers” are those women with whom we find resonance in the feminist struggles for a world where our lives, our rights, our inputs and our untamed voices can have a dignified place.
“Butterfliers” are the women who stand out in the struggle for gender justice, and in the processes of democratization of our societies against the abuse of power, denial of our rights and invisiblization of the women’s contributions.
“Butterfliers” are those women who excel in their contributions while promoting feminist alternatives towards an inclusive world of social justice, equality and a healthy planet by also challenging, with other actors, the paradigms of domination and exclusion.
In February 2008 we declared the Nicaraguan Nine “butterfliers” in the project. They are feminist leaders who were named as Butterfliers for their courage in confronting injustice, persecution and violations of women's human rights by the Ortega government of Nicaragua. The women have been accused of violating Nicaraguan law when they defended a 9-year-old girl who was raped and made pregnant by her stepfather.
To commemorate International Women's Day on March 8th, 2008, Wings of the Butterfly paid homage to the nine Nicaraguan activists at the Autonomous Encuentro of Feminist Writers & Artists of Latin America and the World, along with the International Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua. (http://www.radiofeminista.net/feb08/notas/FIRE_lafranja_english.htm)
Wings of the Butterfly would like to propose that AWID, JASS (Just Associates) and FIRE choose 5 “butterfliers” in movement building from each region of the world and honor them the night of the presentation of the show.
WINGS has also been recommended and is applying to the SUNDANCE Documentary contest, “Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary” for documentary films that combine the art of storytelling with topics in the field of social entrepreneurship. Istar Jasim, a young feminist and award-winning movie producer and director has just accepted the challenge to take WINGS theatre show to the screen.
WINGS TEAM GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA
Co-coordinator: María Suárez Toro, Puerto Rican and Costa Rican feminist communicator.
Web "ms"-tresses:
Administrator and Spanish production:
Yarman Jiménez, Cuban-Costa Rican feminist communicator
English production:
Margaret Thompson, US feminist communicator and academic;
Executive production:
Ailyn Morera Ugalde, Costa Rican actress, director, script writer.
Producer,
Arline Sobalvarro Solbalvarro, Nicaraguan resident in Costa Rica, professional artistic producer.
Artists in the show 2008, “Labyrinth of the Butterflies”:
Doris Campbell Barr, Afro-Costarican choreographer.
Raquel Hernández Castro, Costa Rican actress.
Alejandra Solórzano, Guatemalan resident in Costa Rica, actress
María Fernanda Campos, Costa Rican choreographer.
Larissa Coto, Costa Rican, percussionist.
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