The community theater group Matemurga (currently made up of more than 80 residents of all ages) was the protagonist of a special event: the Villa Crespo ensemble directed by the playwright, singer and musician Edith Scherbecame the second Argentine cast of these characteristics to arrive in Europe (specifically Portugal) to carry out workshops and a presentation of their show wounded neighborhood. One of the shows was on April 9 at Largo do Carmo, Faro, and the other will be this Thursday at Praça da Alegria, Porto. This is a very particular and unusual event. The only antecedent of this type of tour occurred in 2001 in the presentation made by the Catalinas Sur Theater Group in Barcelona. In turn, the possibility of traveling is the result of a lot of effort and a few months before the group completes 20 years of tireless work. 20 years, as Scher says, “of broadening the horizon of what is possible and building with others”.
“When our story began, in August 2002, it was a huge incentive for us to appreciate the achievements of the Catalinas Sur Theater Group and the Barracas Cultural Circuit, our older brothers. I think that having achieved this goal encourages community theater in general and stirs up the possibility of dreaming”, says Scher.
The fact of carrying the functions of the show wounded neighborhood a Portugal finds its roots in the trips made by the director, who twice gave workshops and directed in that country. “I traveled to Portugal to transmit the practice of community theater in 2013 and 2018. The first time to Santa Maria da Feria and the second to Faro. On both occasions I was invited by Hugo Cruz, director of the MEXE Festival. From the beginning I felt that Portugal was a country in which community theater could flourish”, he says.
From these exchanges arose the possibility of facing a common production. “I found out that there was already a community theater experience in Quarteira (a town near Faro) whose director, Miguel Martins Pessoa, had been in Buenos Aires, had seen us and had been very enthusiastic. I spoke with Rui Gonçalves, from the Teatro Das Figuras, where the activity had taken place, and we agreed that, if we could afford our tickets, we would have accommodation, food and everything that was needed for artistic production in Portugal. I would come a month before and work with residents of Faro, co-directing with someone from there, to merge into a common project with Matemurga”, says Scher. So it was that he returned to Buenos Aires and proposed the idea to his companions. By pure lung, with some minimal help from subsidies, they managed to collect the money to travel.
I remember very well that once Ricardo Talent, director of the Barracas Cultural Circuit, told me that we should not do what we could, according to the resources we had, but that we had to be able to imagine what we wanted to do and then see how we would get the resources to achieve it. That stuck with me and has been an axis of my work ever since. Being excessive with dreams. Go after them, find a collective way to make them happen”, recalls Scher.
Community theater is theater by neighbors for neighbors, a practice that emerged with the birth of the Catalinas Sur Group (1983) and was strengthened with the appearance of the Barracas Cultural Circuit (1996). In the case of Matemurga, the group was born in 2002, from a call by Scher. In 2006 it began to take root in Villa Crespo and since 2015 it also has La Orquesta del Mate, directed by Yamila Bavio, and which offers various training workshops (wind instruments, guitar and percussion). In 2016 it also added a group of puppeteers directed by Sergio Ponce.
“Matemurga is a space of happiness for a large number of people and has the potential to be so for many more. In a world in which most of the things that determine our lives are decided by others, having the opportunity to play, to build with others, to create, to transform our lives, is something that is priceless. Community theater invites you to imagine other possible universes, opens a path so that the community, drawing on memory, identity, celebration, generates a story, generates fiction and poetically expresses its view of the world. Matemurga invites us to dream of other worlds and to go after that dream”, summarizes Scher about the collective experience.
-What does this trip mean for the group and for you in particular?
-For the group, this trip is the realization of a dream and the confirmation that collectively goals are achieved that are impossible to achieve alone. It is a very important achievement, linked to the excess of the logic of community theater that always goes for more. As for me, this trip implies an indescribable emotion, a strong commitment, a way of planting myself in life, together with my companions, defying the stillness of what seems immobile, a way of propitiating a more beautiful, more supportive existence, more empowered and more intense.
-What balance do you make 20 years after the creation of this project, also taking into account the different political contexts it went through?
-It was 20 years of permanent growth. Of course, political contexts change and influence and there are moments more complex than others, but it was persistence, work, conviction and collective strength that sustained Matemurga. The most difficult thing to understand is that art is not a filler or a complement for when other more important things are resolved. Neither is it a means or a tool. It is, instead, a transformative practice in itself. The community has a right to art. The balance is highly positive. Matemurga transformed our lives and created a solid framework for projects to be born within the great project. It will continue to grow and expand. It will excite others, it will set new goals.
-What plans do you have for the future after the tour?
-This year we are going to perform functions of several historical shows of the group. Our community orchestra, La Orquesta del Mate, will give concerts and the group of community puppeteers, Los Títeres del Mate, will premiere their show. In May we will open new spaces for artistic production: dance and community theater for teenagers. We will also publish a book that we wrote in a pandemic (our third book) and we will finish an audiovisual version of our show lack of airreleased in December 2021. We are also about to record an album called Songs in Pandemic, a material composed and written in that period. Of course we will also have a big party in August, the month of our birthday, and we will close the year with a street court with some function or concert.
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