For the Spring season of 2022, Grupo de Teatro VIDA performed four plays at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. Everyone was excited to return to the stage after two years of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show’s name for this year was The Other/ El Otro /O Outro, which reflected this year’s IU Themester theme of “Identity and Identification.”

The novelty was the collaboration with the Department of Theater & Dance. The first-year M.F.A. playwright David Davila debuted his play If They Come For Me In The Morning, They Will Come For You At Night. This ten-minute performance spotlighted the violence faced by the Latino community at the hands of the police in the U.S.A. The play portrayed scenes choreographed by second-year M.F.A. acting candidate Eboni Edwards. After the play, Davila answered questions from the audience about the play and the duties of being a writer.

The comic Portuguese play O Rei da Vela (1937), written by Oswald de Andrade, was co-directed by Ph.D. candidate Aline Xavier and Teaching Professor Vania Castro, and was the production with the largest cast of the season, numbering twelve people in total. The text was adapted by Ph.D. student and writer Bruna Kalil Othero.

After intermission, it was time to celebrate women writers. Director and graduate student Ari Plymale brought to life the play Decir Sí (1981), by Argentinian writer Griselda Gambaro. It questions the power dynamics of relationships by focusing on an absurd interaction between an ordinary man and a barber. The unexpected ending challenges established ideas about language, humor, and politics.

The final piece performed the first two acts of the play Cariño Malo (1990), written by Chilean María Inés Stranger. Directed by the president of VIDA and Ph.D. student Laís Lara Vanin, this play is full of metaphors, symbols, and music. It depicts the journey of three women trying to find their freedom and cure their wounds after experiencing abusive romantic relationships with men. Among the music played and danced was music by Nina Simone, Jennifer Lopez, and classical music played live by the cellist and Spanish major Carson Stout. The play ended with the song “Amapola,” by Andrea Bocelli, while the actors distributed flowers to the audience.

All the performances reflected what VIDA stands for: Vision, Identity, Drama, and Art. The two days were a tremendous success. The full house during both days reflected the hard and genuine work of everyone involved in this project.