For the Spring season of 2023, Grupo de Teatro VIDA put on a show consisting of live music performances and a total of four plays enacted by a diverse cast of undergraduate and graduate students, professors, postdoctoral researchers, and community members. The title of this year’s show was Lo que Existe Between Us: Borders and Bilingualism. The show took place at the Waldron Arts Center in downtown Bloomington on April 27-29.   

The show started with the Ritmo VIDA band (Eliza Dowd, Pepeu Fidelis, Paulo Ventura and André Franco) playing Chega de saudade, by Vinicius de Moraes and Antônio Carlos Jobim.

The song was followed by the Brazilian play A falecida (1953), by Nelson Rodrigues. This three-act play was adapted and directed by the Brazilian writer, performer, and Ph.D. student Bruna Kalil Othero. Twelve artists were involved in this performance, which included Brazilian music and humorous sketches.

The second piece was a monologue from the Spanish play Venceréis pero no convenceréis (2018) by José Luis Gómez. This play was directed by Teatro VIDA’s president, Ph.D. student and dancer Laís Lara Vanin, and performed by actor Carson Stout. In this play, the audience participated actively by reacting to the monologue on the projector’s screen.

After the intermission, the band retuned to the stage and played music written by Paulo Venutra and Pepeu Fidelis. Jules Fernandes, the winner of the 2023 Spanish and Portuguese song festival sang a final piece to introduce the last two plays of the show.

The first play, La mujer que cayó del cielo (1971) by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, was co-directed by Stephanie Estrada, Ph.D. candidate and President/Artistic Director of the IU Ballet Folklórico, and Luna DeCastro, an undergraduate at the IU department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance.

The final piece, Veronica’s Recipe for Guacamole (2023), was specifically written for Teatro VIDA by the MFA student and award-winning playwright David Davila. Laís Lara Vanin directed this play, and was inspired by the Netflix show Bridgerton, Shakira’s dances, and the Brazilian Ana Maria Braga’s cooking show. The featured the cello player Carson Stout, whose music followed Veronica, a Latino woman dressed to impress and ready to take care of her broken heart.   

There was also an exposition on stage which consisted of various objects reflecting on the themes of Borders and Bilingualism. These included a tapestry with the word VIDA sown in it; a world map, painted in watercolor by IU graduate Luma Melo (R&D scientist); the painting Todos son eu by Dr. Jaqueline Coelho Sampaio; and the book People from Bloomington by Indonesian writer Budi Darma. 

Lo que Existe Between Us: Borders and Bilingualism was made possible by the commitment of the cast and directors, the work of president Laís Lara Vanin, the support of stage manager Ari Plymale, the help of Teaching Professor Israel Herrera, and  the following sponsors: Department of Spanish and Portuguese, IU Funding Board, CLACS, La Casa, the Student-Led Activities to Promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Middle Earth Co-op House, and Domino’s Pizza.