Playwright-in-Residence 2012-13

We are very pleased to announce that Ari Belathar will be our playwright-in-residence for our 2012-13 year. She is a Mexican poet and playwright in exile. Between 1994 and 2001 she facilitated creative writing and popular theatre workshops for indigenous women and children throughout Mexico and founded the first Mexican community radio station during the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1999. After being kidnapped and tortured by the Mexican National Army in 2001 due to her work as an independent journalist and human rights activist, she escaped to Canada where she currently resides.

During the Playwriting Residency, Ari will be focusing on developing her play, La Danza del Venado. It was first developed with us as part of the 2011 De Colores Festival of New Works. It has returned to the 2012 De Colores Festival. We intend to produce La Danza following our production of The Intruder, therefore we want to give Ari as much support as possible.

Ari will be involved in all aspects of Alameda Theatre Company’s artistic growth. She will assist with the production of The Intruder by Amaranta Leyva (premiere slated for April 2013) as assistant dramaturg. She will bring her love of poetry and Latin American literature to Alameda Theatre Company by creating a literary fusion program, bringing poetry, playwriting, dance and multi-media together. We will explore creative ways to bring the literature and theatre of Latin American writers to Canadian audiences. She will help create/facilitate a workshop investigating poetry and Latin American writers, with a public presentation component.

Click here for more information on La Danza Del Venado, part of the 2012 De Colores Festival of New Works.

Thanks to the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council for making this residency possible.

"the work of the writer should come from a community..."

“I strongly believe that the work of the writer should come from a community, that much too often writers are isolated. Therefore the possibility of doing a Playwright Residency with Alameda Theatre represents to me not only the opportunity of working on my own writing, but to do so within a company that reflects and celebrates the complexity of our identities as Latinos in Canada.

Federico García Lorca once said about theatre that: “a community that does not support and foster its theatre, if it is not already dead, it is dying”. Alameda Theatre is creating a foundation for the theatre of the Canadian Latin American Diaspora, which allow us as artists to embrace our diversity and express who we are as Canadian Latinos.

Personally, being part of Alameda’s De Colores Festival of New Works has given me not just the invaluable opportunity to grow as an artist but to do so within a community where I have found encouragement and inspiration. Two years ago I approached Alameda Theatre with a simple idea, and with their support that idea has transformed into my first play: La Danza del Venado. But the most important transformation I have experienced in my time with Alameda is the one within myself, I am no longer just a poet but I am a poet-turned-playwright thanks to Alameda Theatre.

A Playwright Residency with Alameda represents to me not only my immersion in drama and the opportunity to develop my work as a playwright, but also the opportunity to establish myself as a Canadian writer; allowing me to advance my long-term artistic and career development.”

Ari Belathar, 2012

Alameda Theatre Company, 845 St. Clair Ave. W., Suite 206, Toronto, Ontario, M6C 1C3
Tel: (416) 652-5442 | General Email: hola@alamedatheatre.com