En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy reimagines the tragedy of Antigone with a cast of non-professional performers residing in Puerto Rico and within its diaspora in the United States, creating a meeting place to uncover the collective consciousness that emerges from decades of environmental, economic, political, and spiritual tragedies. It takes the form of a live performance, experimental film, and installation work. Artist, filmmaker, and theater director Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (originally from Bayamón, PR) invites Puerto Ricans, or descendants of Puerto Ricans, who have migrated to New York in the last 100 years, to participate in a series of Open Rehearsals.

During these rehearsals, Natalia will guide participants through a physical, improvisatory performance-based warm up that will lead to a bilingual and participatory reading of the myth of Antigone. Natalia will create pauses in this reading with performance-based prompts to redirect the play towards the participants’ own migratory experience, and to allow them to trace their relationship to the inherited cycles of tragedy, labor, historical ghosts, and absences that conform Caribbean history. The participants will also be able to pause the reading with their own improvised questions and prompts that emerge through this collaborative reading experience, aiming to revise our history collectively, woven from our lived experiences. Each reading will culminate with an exercise where the participants’ writing and reflections will be placed in dialogue with the script for En Parábola, which is currently in progress. These Open Rehearsals will be filmed for dramaturgical purposes.

In New York, Natalia actively looks to connect with folks who have worked (or their descendants) at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If you have a relationship to this refinery, or if you grew up in the neighborhoods of South Williamsburg, Bushwick, or Red Hook, and are interested in participating, Natalia would love to connect with you. However, all Puerto Rican migratory experiences are welcome to be part of this process of dialogue, filming, and experimentation. No prior performance experience is required, just an interest in performing and forming part of a collaborative and experimental creation process. Please share onward with folks who you believe might be interested and reach out if you are interested or have any questions about the project. Any questions should be sent to contact@amant.org and natalia.lassalle.m@gmail.com.

Image: En Parábola production still. Image courtesy of Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and Laura Sofía Pérez.