CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FATHER
Debuted in June 2014 at Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade - São Paulo / SP
Duration 65 minutes.
Conception, direction and performance: Janaina Leite
Text: Alexandra Dal Farra
Synopsis
In an old shoe box, Janaina keeps a multitude of notes that contain phrases written by her father, who suffered a tracheostomy and lost the ability to speak. At the same time, Janaina discovers that she suffers from a degenerative disease that causes her to lose part of her hearing. In this context, in silence, father and daughter are reunited. This was the starting point of a work in process of almost seven years that gathered a multitude of materials and sketches, in an attempt to say the unspeakable when facing the delicate subject of incest.
"You are here to ... I need to share it with you. It's a kind of secret. I think it's a secret, which I have. I would need to tell you now. But I don't know for sure. the secret, and ... that was also part of the thing. And it was a kind of healing process. Wanting to tell the secret, sharing it with others. But just that instead of getting simpler, things got more complicated, and in the middle of that process, which was a type of cure, I suddenly discovered that the secret might not even exist "
(excerpt from "Conversations with my father")
Historic
Conversations with my father is an offshoot of Janaina Leite's research on documentary theater that began in 2008 with the experiment Separation party: a scenic documentary. The experience of the show generated a field of research to which Janaina Leite started to dedicate herself, both in the academic aspect, as in the fields of practical research in her creations and in the orientation of several courses and workshops. CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FATHER was already contemplated, in 2012, by the public notice of the State Sec of Culture Proac of Research in Performing Arts and took up residence at the Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade performing openings of the work in process. Also contemplated by the Proac Edital of Literary Creation in 2013 with the proposal of a documentary book. Still in 2013, he was selected by the Audiovisual Edital of the Municipal Sec. Of CCSP for the development of the script for a feature film. The work debuted without support in April 2014 at the Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade with wide public and media repercussions. He was invited to join the Londrina International Festival program in 2014, holds a season in Rio de Janeiro at Espaço SESC and has two more months at the Centro Cultural São Paulo. He also participates in the Feverestival in Campinas in 2015 and the Tusp circuit circulating in the cities of Bauru, Piracicaba, Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos. In 2015, it was part of the São José do Rio Preto International Festival and was part of the São Paulo Culture Circuit. He was nominated for the Question of Criticism Award in Rio de Janeiro in the dramaturgy and scenario categories and received a special dossier in the Sala Preta magazine (ECA / USP), one of the most important academic publications in the country. Contemplated by the Myriam Muniz Edital of Funarte for circulation, passes through Natal, João Pessoa, Recife, Caruaru and Maringá and in 2017, Belo Horizonte and a new season in São Paulo. He participated in the Mostra Cena Depoimento at Funarte created by Cia Fragmento de Dança, by Mostra Solo de Mulheres in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Cia Mugunzá and of Sesc Vila Mariana's program debating the real.
In 2020, it was published by Editora Javali together with Stabat Mater.
Reviews:
"Conversations with my father take part in the debate on artistic production that, in many cases, falls on issues that involve the creative process. Daniel Sibony (2005) catches this same issue when he says that contemporary art reveals the artist in creation. The work , as an event space, transmits the act of making the work enter the world. In some cases, contemporary art makes us question the stories of the construction of the works, preserved in the artists' archives, but not only, because often the works that we see make it impossible to segment the history of its construction, and what is shown publicly. "
Cecília Salles, researcher, teacher, Sala Preta Magazine
“Conversations with my father” is mainly an auto-biographical work, but there is no closed image of the self. The image of the person in this scene is not a sterile personality. On the contrary, she becomes a performance persona. There is something of investment in meeting with others, with each other. She herself says during the play that it is not possible to find what is universal in her story. There is a unique story and a unique person that does not fit into normalcy. The person here also does not present a superficial narcissism reduced to his plastic action, common to many current performances. In his singular life, there is an attempt to communicate with other people, due to the spectator's complicit presence in the face of his oddities, his unfinished work. (...) Janaina wants to find out what happened but doesn't tell us the whole story. We only know of a relationship that seems, at heart, a great passion for the intriguing figure of the father. This passion is like the passion that moves you to create. She wants to discover the truth of her obsessive search. Something happened but we don't know what it is. Neither what moved her to perform the play (was it death?), Nor what her father was like: there are only clues that make us imagine. Animals, gorillas, a truck driver, videos of small situations in a garden, a scenario that is being built as the scenic lighting comes in, a box that we cannot open, conversations exchanged in pieces of paper that could reveal much of the facts. The missing information is so suggestive that we could speculate that the figure of the mother could generate another piece. But things happened; events, such as inaugural situations, poetically transform the work. After all, there is an art horny for life. "
Datasheet:
CONCEPTION AND INTERPRETATION: Janaina Leite.
TEXT: Alexandre Dal Farra.
DIRECTOR AND SCENOGRAPHY: Janaina Leite and Alexandre Dal Farra.
VIDEOS: Bruno Jorge.
ILLUMINATION: Wagner Antônio.
FIGURINE: Melina Schleder.
STAGE DIRECTION: Michel Fogaça.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Rodrigo Pereira.
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Carla Estefan
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Érika Fortunato
Photo gallery:
