PLAY

Created by Mexico City based ensemble Pentimento, PLAY is an interactive audio-guided performance that invites 10 audience members into a playfully accelerated process of actor training. Eight short lessons offer warm-up’s, breathing exercises, lectures, videos, improvisation, and even tips for mingling at post-show parties. PLAY asks: Can an untrained viewer be transformed into a professionally prepared actor in a mere 45 minutes?

PLAY serves as Pentimento’s response to the preponderance of acting programs in Mexico City, and the mass production of “trained” young actors who face daunting odds in securing professional work. To create PLAY, director Isabel Toledo personally undertook a new acting methodology each month, for six months. As a result, the work serves as both an interrogation of the state of the craft and a surprising portrait of the artist, enacted by 10 strangers.

Created by Pentimento
Directed by Isabel Toledo
Co directed by Itzel Aparicio
Produced by Libertad Salgado
Dramaturgy by Isabel Toledo
Sound design by Horacio Romo
Scenic design by Nicolás Rodríguez

Pentimento was formed by Isabel Toledo and Itzel Aparicio. Their work focuses on the the development of intimate projects that rescue outdated communication channels for a new generation. Scenic devices are activated by the viewer, encouraging them to become a critical collaborator in the construction of fiction. Pentimento has participated in residencies with Zurcher Theater Spekatkle and the Kunsten Festival das Arts, in addition to working with museums, galleries, and theaters in Mexico City.

Supported by the National Mexican Fund for Art and Culture, FONCA , CONACULTA.