Nine Can't Miss Events at Mirada 2018

If you are in Santos, on the south shore of Sao Paulo State, or plan to spend a few days on the Santos region, don’t miss out: the fifth edition of the Ibero-American Performing Arts Festival takes place over the next 10 days, with 41 different shows. Here is a few of its can’t-miss events. Come along with us.

  1. Colombia as the honored country
    With nine shows staged for the first time in Brazil, Colombia is the honored country of this edition of the Mirada. In addition to displaying the colors of the Colombian flag, the city will also be occupied by works that emphatically portray cultural, political and historical elements of contemporary Colombia through theater and dance.


    Colombian production La Despedida (The Farewell) | Photo: Rolf Abderhalden

  2. Performances across the entire Santos region
    The displacements (and detachments) proposed by the Mirada are always some of the festival’s biggest highlights in each of its editions. The possibilities have been expanded for this year’s edition, since, for the first time, the Mirada will not only occupy some of the historic and iconic places in Santos, but will also extend to other cities in the region, proposing different flows, occupations and encounters.

  3. A jungle in the middle of Sesc Santos
    The installation by Mapa Teatro, located right in the middle of the Communal Area at Sesc Santos, seeks to promote a reflection on the abyss between utopias and dystopias of yesterday and today in a scenery representing a Colombian jungle where, among car carcasses, a drive-in cinema exhibits scenes from old science-fiction films. Directed and designed by Heidi and Rolf Abderhalden, the installation will be on display through September 15.

  4. Female presence at the Mirada
    The presence of female directors, playwrights and actresses at the Mirada has increased significantly. Bia Lessa and Grace Passô (Brazil), Manuela Infante (Chile), Chela de Ferrari (Peru), Lucero Millán (Mexican born, Nicaraguan resident) and Jimena Márquez (Uruguay) are some of the examples of a striking female presence in this year’s edition.


    Peruvian performance Ñaña | Photo: Release

  5. Nicaragua trembles
    Making its debut at the Mirada, Nicaragua is represented with “La Ciudad Vacía” (“The Empty City”), a production by Teatro Justo Rufino Garay. With a cast of Mexican and Nicaraguan artists, the show features three characters who symbolize distinct moments in the country’s recent history: an earthquake in 1972, the Sandinista Revolution (1979-1990) and the present. “La Ciudade Vacía” can provide valuable insight in the attempt to understand the current situation in this Central American nation, where more than 300 people have died from political violence.

  6. The Meeting Place
    In addition to offering a careful selection of shows and performances, the Mirada also wants to be a space where people build relationships and exchange experiences. That is the purpose of the Meeting Place, which offers educational activities in the daytime and fun and live music at night, with a mixed lineup of DJs and Latin American bands. It’s a place where the people who create and participate in the festival can come together and socialize.

  7. Did someone say free meal?
    Portugal’s military dictatorship lasted 48 long years, from 1926 to 1974. So it would only make sense to depict this period with an extra-long production. In “Um Museu Vivo de Memórias Pequenas e Esquecidas” (“A Live Museum of Small and Forgotten Memories”), actress Joana Craveiro presents a study on this period and the events that followed the Carnation Revolution, which ended the authoritarian period and restored democratic rule in the country. The show consists of seven monologues, for a total of five and a half hours. Audience members will be treated to a free dinner.

  8. Antunes Filho is back
    Antunes Filho, director of the Sesc Theater Research Center, will be at Mirada with his company to debut a new production: “Eu Estava em Minha Casa e Esperava que a Chuva Chegasse” (“I Was at Home, and I Hoped the Rain Would Come”), based on a screenplay by French playwright Jean-Luc Lagarce. It is a show about hope, a theme that is always appropriate – even more so during troubled times like these.


    Eu Estava em Minha Casa e Esperava que a Chuva Chegasse (I Was at Home, and I Hoped the Rain Would Come) | Photo: Inês Correa

  9. The construction of an artistic imaginary for Santos
    Luiz Fernando Marques and Nelson Baskerville host the workshop Construindo Imaginários (Building Imaginaries), as part of the project “Manufaturas de Monólogos” (“Monologue Manufacturing”). In this creative process, the Santos-based directors guide local artists in an investigation into the minimal infrastructure needed for staging a play. The resulting works will be presented to the audience on September 7-9.

By Alberto Cerri, Anderson Carvalho, André Venancio, Marinho Rodrigues and Thais Amendola Sesc Online Editors