“Cuir Love”, in El Galeón, about multisexuality

MEXICO CITY (Process).- How important are sexual genres on stage? The answer may have multiple reflections, and from there the young playwright and director Laura Uribe investigates Send Lovea position that is inaugurated after a three-year investigation, with dedication to the entire Mexican society.

Based on sex-gender dissidence, the work that is presented at the El Galeón Theater of the Centro Cultural del Bosque (CCB), from May 9 to June 9, is co-produced by the Laboratory of Sustainable Artists (LAS) and 25 Production, supported by Efiartes and a very attractive synopsis:

“Send Love brings together a group of ‘queer’ people to collectively question how our bodies have been affected by the violence of the modern/colonial gender (cis) issue.

“Send Love It is a testimony of love and resilience, where we dance furiously on the tomb of the (hetero)empire, seeking to imagine new ways of representing ourselves, opening the stage to the bodies that have found refuges to celebrate pleasure, enjoyment and (re) existence”.

Before the last rehearsal, Laura Uribe (CDMX, 1984), young director and performance researcher, playwright, performer and teacher, tells Process The origin of Send Love, which closes a trilogy to reflect and create dialogue regarding dissidence. He says:

“Something that characterizes the work of the Sustainable Artists Laboratory, of which I am co-founder with Sabina Aldana, is trying to rethink the way we narrate ourselves from our own experiences. We start from community work, from working with specific communities, and from there we articulate what a staging could be.

“Send Love It is the result of a long-term scenic laboratory and research that we have carried out in recent years, a scenic rehearsal around gender and dissidence. First we did it with Love Streetthen with The deserters (the latter, a stage documentary with trans childhoods and youth) and then with Send Love, which we define as a stage-body rehearsal. We call it that because in some way it means thinking about the scene through one’s own experiences, people and communities. What you are going to see is nine ‘queer’ identities, and what it means for us, to assume ourselves like this in a country with high rates of violence in trans-feminicides and clear attacks on the LGBTTTIQ+ community, and this is what gives result to our poetry.”

The production has a team that includes Art and Costume Design by Sabina Aldana, Lighting by Alita Escobedo, Production Design by David Castillo, Scenic Movement and Choreography by Mauricio Rico, Multimedia by Héctor Cruz, Sound Design and Original Music by Claudia Arellano , Makeup and hair by Maricela Estrada, Graphic design and photography by Héctor Ortega, and Assistance in various areas by Alexis Escobell, Vianey Martínez, Estefania Villamar, Anayansi Díaz, Nancy Arroyo, An Beltrán, Víctor Estrada, Diffusion and Press by Ramés López and Arturo Piedras (PinPoint).

The cast on stage includes: Ana Beatriz, Dante Ureta, Florián Philippe-Beauchamp, Gustavo Gallegos, Índigo Valenzuela, Luis Mata, Narciso, Erin The Monstrosity and Uribe herself.

He explains that the cast arose from the call for a “stage laboratory” that was based on the assumption of sex-gender dissidence, initially bringing together nearly 200 people between the ages of 8 and 70:

“Performers, drag artists, vedettes, cabaret artists, actors, musicians came to the laboratory, a very wide range of expressiveness with the common denominator of assuming themselves as dissidents, and who also had the awareness that our gender expression is used as a political act, and in that point the proposal took a difference with respect to other narratives.

“What I tried was to direct these people, between 180 and 200 people signed up, there was a pre-selection, and be careful: the fact that so many people signed up reveals to us that we are in an explosion of identities, of wanting to see and be, which makes me encouraged a lot; Then there was a selection of 35 people who specifically participated in the laboratory, and from there the eight people (plus Uribe) who make up Send Love”.

It details that the people on stage are not precisely “actors” (four dancers, a star and an influencer), and an intergenerational and transgenerational relationship is woven between them.

–What distinguishes Send Love?

–This project began in 2021, when I applied as a member of the National System of Art Creators, I received the scholarship in 2022 and my interest focused on working with communities. With Send Love It was clear to me that I had to collect the methodological, discursive findings and responses that could remain from the two previous presentations (love street y The Deserters), so that they would explode here.

“It is at the same time a dismantling of all that research, and me as a kind of guide, as it has been from the beginning. The work has something real and something fiction, which generates tension between what seems like a play and sometimes a conference, which is why we define the format as ‘body stage rehearsal’, and that is already very particular.”

And he points out his development of the theme within the experimental:

“From dramaturgy it seemed important to me to look for other ways of narrating ourselves, because what has been done about dissidents or the LGBTTTIQ+ community on screens, mass media, advertising, have been very specific narratives, where even Hollywood and platforms like Netflix have constructed those views towards the community, fictions constructed by cisgender, white men, who are not actually part of the community, stigmatize and direct views. The work also seeks to question these systems of representation and prejudices.”

Uribe, who is also a professor at the School of Theater, Dance and Music of the Autonomous University of Morelos, points out that although the performance is based on experimental theater, it seeks the reflection of “everyone,” that is, the public. in its broadest sense:

“Yes, it is a work that speaks to the LGBTTTIQ+ community, but it is also a challenge that it not only speaks to that community, but also to question ourselves as a society about what has built us, whether you define yourself within the heteronormative spectrum, who has built us, how We have done it, what it is to be a woman, what it is to be a man, and from those very basic questions an echo and reflection is generated, which we will only know until we see the public and their reaction.”

The performance of one hour and 45 minutes is at the El Galeón Theater from May 9 to June 9, on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m., and a capacity of 150 pesos, with tickets via the INBAL online ticketing system (https://teatroinbal.sistemadeboletos.com/) and at the El Galeón box office.