Photo/ Foto: Marlène Ramírez Cancio
New War New War
In this farcical, multimedia political cabaret/musical theater production, Rodríguez, Felipe and Orozco ask whether humor can elucidate politics in times of crisis and war. The piece was written in particular response to the U.S. war on terror and the build-up to what we now know of the Iraq war of 2003. This performance brings to the forefront a reflection on six aspects of the War on Terror: the destruction of a cosmic order; a fourth world war in a neo-prehistoric era; a political war in the global village; a genetic revolution; a gender war; and a cultural war.The performance combines multi-media sets with traditional opera from Orozco, music from Felipe and political satire from Rodríguez.
Biographies:
Jesusa Rodríguez is a Mexican director, actress, playwright, performance artist, scenographer, entrepreneur and social activist, Jesusa Rodriguez has been called the most important woman of Mexico. Her "espectáculos" (as both spectacles and shows) challenge traditional classification, crossing with ease generic boundaries: from elite to popular to mass, from Greek tragedy to cabaret, from pre-Columbian indigenous to opera, from revue, sketch and "carpa," to performative acts within political projects. She and her partner, Argentine singer/actor Liliana Felipe, own and operate El Habito and Teatro de la Capilla, alternative performances spaces in Mexico City. They have won an Obie for Best Actor in Las Horas de Belén, A Book of Hours (1999) with Ruth Maleczech and New York-based Mabou Mines. Rodríguez contributes regularly to Mexico's most important feminist journal, Debate Feminista.
Liliana Felipe is one of Latin America's foremost singers and composers, born in Argentina in the 1950s. She left for Mexico just before the outbreak of the 'Dirty War' (1976), but her sister and brother-in-law were both 'disappeared' victims of the military dictatorship's criminal politics. In Mexico, Liliana went to one of Jesusa Rodriguez's performances. Jesusa, catching a glimpse of Felipe in the audience, remembers saying to herself: "I am going to die with that woman." Since then, Liliana and Jesusa have created two performance spaces, El Cuervo and later El Habito, which they still run. They 'married' in February, 2000. Liliana's music has a wide range of followers in Latin America. She continues to be a powerful presence in Argentina, working with human rights organizations especially H.I.J.O.S. (the organization of the children of the disappeared).
Regina Orozco (La Megabizcocho) is a Mexican interdisciplinary soprano vedette who fulfilled her music and theater studies in the National Conservatory of Music, the Theater Center of UNAM and in the Julliard Music School in New York. Among the prices she has earned are the acting scholarship Salvador Novo, the First Place in the Opera contest of Palm Beach, Florida, finalist in the singing contest of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and one of the awards of Operalia II. She was nominated as best actress in the Film Festival of Venice for her performance in Profundo Carmesí, for which she also received an Ariel award in 1997. She has worked in different productions with the company Divas A.C., directed by Jesusa Rodríguez, among which are Donna Giovanni, Atracciones Fénix, Ambrosio o la Fábula del Mal Amor, and La Sumanita, where she acted as leading roles for a period of four years of tours in Europe and North America.In addition to her extensive credits as producer, writer, actress, singer and performer in diverse film, theater, cabaret, opera and world music projects, Regina Orozco is, since 1999, the director and producer of her theater company, Regina Orozco y Los Tigres de Sumatra (Regina Orozco and the Sumatran Tigers). Both an artist ad a political activist, Orozco is constantly supporting social causes campaigns as the empowerment of indigenous women, the protection of street children, gender equality and the rights of homosexuals.
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