La Xixa LAB is an innovative theater company committed to collective reflection and questioning of the status quo
About us
The company La Xixa Lab is a project that was born in 2021 with the aim of creating plays to deepen, investigate and experiment with different methodological tools that maintain critical debate, exchange and citizen participation, from a intercultural and intersectional perspective.
We are the theater company ofLa Xixa Theatre,a non-profit association aimed at the research, development and multiplication of theatrical tools and popular education as a means of social transformation.
From La Xixa Lab, we create innovative, aesthetic and avant-garde proposals in the artistic, theatrical and cultural fields. We are a group of artists from various origins who co-build a creative space to highlight our visions and knowledge.
Our innovative point
The Xixa Lab establishes its bases with the deep conviction that art, from its first primitive expressions, has been a means or a tool to try to understand our environment and ourselves. In the same way, the performing arts open up spaces for new imaginaries and sensitivity, both personal and collective. Without art, there is no social change and it is from here that the methodologies emerge that, as a company, we want to investigate and link in a new creative process.
More than a company, we are a Theatrical Research Laboratory.
A space of experimentation capable of bringing together methodologies with the aim of creating theatrical pieces that do not respond to a conventional structure, in terms of script and staging. On the one hand, we work with a flexible dramaturgy, which we have named "Live Dramaturgy", which does not aim to have a fixed, established result, but is in constant change. This is why the participation of the public will be fundamental, from the creation process, since it will be their contributions that will give shape to each work.
This process will be repeated for each function. Therefore, the piece that is represented will never be the same, but will be adapted to the information and stimuli that the audience gives to each performance.
In addition, we work from a gender perspective, where the methodology is specifically designed to identify, reflect and find collective alternatives to structural oppression to give space to the voices of people who suffer from these inequalities. For this reason, there is a permanent formation of the cast with internal and external experts on issues of gender equality and sexual diversity from intersectional and decolonial perspectives.
Likewise, our projects are developed from an intercultural perspective, where we work to generate spaces for creation and critical questioning in favor of intercultural coexistence.
Methodologies
Theater of the Oppressed
At La Xixa Lab we are inspired by the methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed. The Theater of the Oppressed (TO) developed in the seventies by the Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal has been one of the main tools of participatory communication and popular education movements in Latin America. Unlike many aspects of social theatre, the Theater of the Oppressed (TO) is a political theatre. It is a collective essay of emancipation. The TO uses theatrical games to de-mechanize our perceptions, making us aware of our cultural filters by making explicit and collectivizing our own conflicts and experiences. The collectivization of individual problems, and subsequent extrapolation to a group history, allows to look for collective alternatives to situations that are usually difficult to solve from an individual position.
Work Processes
Process Work basically focuses on developing a state of consciousness; that is, helping people and groups to become aware of how they perceive and live their experiences, learn to change their approach and discover the information that they do not notice or marginalize and that limits their ability to respond. Applied Creativity allows us to use the different forms of expression that human beings have in order to be able to generate sustainable changes by working at different levels of experience, a debate and a joint problematization, which aims to constitute an essay of our acting and making them act in everyday life. It is dialogue in action.
Future perspectives
Each resource, each technique, each essay and each function aims to remind us: Why and for what we work and who our work serves. Many probably feel the need to serve something higher or nobler with their work, but we aspire to fulfill these desires in action. And we have the deep conviction that it is precisely the actions aimed at promoting interaction between diverse communities that are fundamental to achieve more intercultural communication, social inclusion and the fight against racism, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination.
The team
Actor i director teatral. Teatre d'Intervenció Social amb Jordi Forcadas, Anna Caubet i Héctor Aristizabal. Clown, Teatre Físic, Dansa Teatre, participant a més de 6 residències creatives amb Globe Teatre d'Avinyó, França i amb Kaddu Yaarax a Dakar, Senegal. Àmplia experiència treballant en el Teatre Educatiu, Social i de l'Oprimit/des a més de 20 Festivals de Teatre Fòrum i Teatre de l'Oprimit en l'àmbit local i internacional. Des del 2021,dirigeix i coordina el projecte La XixaLab.
Actriu, diplomada en Gestió Cultural, Dinamitzadora en Teatre Fòrum i finalitzant el Màster de Mediació Artística; art per a la transformació social, la inclusió social i el desenvolupament comunitari de la UB. Compta amb estudis de Programació Cultural i Formació d'audiències, dirigits per l'especialista Javier Ibacache i Uqne Lipeikaite, del programa Santiago es Mío, impartits per l'Observatori de polítiques culturals a Santiago de Xile
Actriu i Mediadora Artística de Santiago de Xile. Apassionada del teatre social i treball col·laboratiu, s'ha especialitzat en Teatre i Educació, i s'ha format com a Dinamitzadora de Teatre Fòrum Interseccional amb La Xixa Teatre i en Artivismos Feministas Latinoamericanos a l'Escuela Otra Tierra. Ha treballat com actriu de doblatqe, directora teatral i facilitadora. Co-fundadora de 'l'Associació Cultural Motor de Búsqueda (Xile).
Inicia carrera al 1990 amb Elena Brancatti en tallers d'actuació i veu, al seu país d'origen: Uruguai. Continua l'any 2001 a l'escola d'art dramàtic Itàlia Fausta i al centre cultural Tritón a Montevideo-Uruguai (clown i pantomima). Al 2004 migra a Espanya, per a participar en tallers de Teatre de l'Oprimit (Grup Projecta i La Xixa Teatre). Al 2014 s'incorpora al grup Entretambores i com a actriu a Insolitaes. Clown, mim, titellaire performer i ballarina de candombé.
Inicia carrera als 14 anys (2007) a Colòmbia, a l'Institut Popular de Cultura (IPC). Ja a Espanya (2010-2014) continua el seu procés formatiu durant 4-5 anys a Acting Face i Escola d'Actors de Barcelona (EAB). Ha tingut l'oportunitat de treballar en dos grans escenaris com és el Teatre Muntaner i el Teatre Alexandra. Ha participat en diferents anuncis publicitaris i actuat en diversos curts. A finals de 2020 va tornar a tocar les taules en un espectacle de microteatre. És percusionista de calaix
Nascuda a Barcelona, amb diverses formacions en relació a la interpretació, a escoles com El Timbal, Col·legi de Teatre de Barcelona i Eòlia - Escola Superior d'Art Dramàtic. També té coneixements en escriptura teatral i pedagogia teatral. Actualment cursa un taller de clown impartit per Fèlix Moreno. S'ha presentat a diverses sales de la ciutat, tant amb col·lectius, com amb treballs personals.
Egressat de la Universitat Major Xile (2014), actor, ballarí, director, productor, docent i coreògraf. Al 2015 i 2016, treballa a companyia de teatre “La Atrevida”. Des del 2015 fins al 2017, exerceix com a professor ajudant de Francisca Infante, a classes de Ball a la Universitat Major, facultat d'arts i classes de balls teatrals a la Universitat Catòlica de Xile. Forma el duet “Zuinger”. Cursant“Laboratori de Teatre Físic de Barcelona” dirigit per Jessica Walker a Barcelona.
What do we offer?
Catalog of Forum Theater Works
I AM NOT RACIST, BUT
La Xixa Teatre presents a piece by Teatre Fòrum to combat rumours, stereotypes and work on coexistence among the population, in order to enhance the relationship with diversity for reasons of origin.
Synopsis:
Andrea and Maria Jose have been roommates for 3 years. They are out of a job, without a roommate and the owner of the flat is intimidating them because they don't pay the rent. They need a roommate urgently. Soni is a Moroccan boy looking for a room near his work. He can pay for a room but he doesn't have an easy time getting it. The candidate awakens all prejudices and stereotypes. How to question them?
A SUBJECT OF GENDER
La Xixa Teatre presents a piece by Teatre Fòrum about the discrimination and violence for reasons of gender, sex, origin, class and sexual orientation experienced by people who feel identified as women in the working world in terms of relationships of power, micro-masculinities and the consequences, in general, of a patriarchal society.
Synopsis:
"A gender issue" takes place during the job interview for a waiter at the "La Nébula" restaurant. The last two finalists, Mónica and Roberto, with very good references and professional experience, will have to demonstrate their best skills in front of the person in charge of the interview to finally be chosen._cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
THE NEW
In this staging, a daily situation is recreated that many and many young people experience when they relate to cultural diversity, with their self-knowledge, their identity, their life and migration stories; when Young Migrants Alone relate to the host society, etc.
Synopsis:
A young newcomer who lives in a sheltered apartment, enrolls in a mixed basketball team. It's the new one. There they meet Laura. Everything is going well and the relationship is progressing but not everything is so easy. What will his mother say? And the friends? Will someone help them?...
FAIRPLAY
The theatrical piece that La Xixa Lab puts on stage recreates an everyday situation that many young people experience when they relate to cultural diversity, their self-knowledge, their identity, etc.
Synopsis:
A conflict occurs in the girls' locker room. Charlie, who has just arrived at the high school, has tried to kiss Lucia, against her will. How do we understand this situation?; Is it considered harassment?; Is it something normal?; Do we need to stop this type of situation?; How can we manage them? This theatrical piece positions us in front of all these questions and many others in relation to diversity and alterity.
WE WILL FREE SARA!
This piece by Teatre Forum is aimed at people who are in a situation of working in tasks related to care in a broad sense, either taking care of children, the elderly, as internal or external staff of the home, but also to the rest of the population since ultimately we all have a responsibility around this, either when hiring and considering how to establish a working relationship with someone where their rights are respected or, simply, to realize what is happening around us in relation to this problem.
How it works...
How does the Forum Theater work?
Based on proposals by B. Brecht, P. Freire and mainly A. Boal and his Theater of the Oppressed (TO), it seeks to work towards the staging of conflicts that transit in our everyday life, through dynamics that invite us to intervene and act out change alternatives on stage. In this aspect, the methodology puts the actor and the spectator on the same level, creating the actor/actress look; thus generating a debate and a joint problematization, which aims to constitute an essay on how we act and make us act in everyday life. The Forum Theatre, is a proposal for dialogue in action that makes it possible to find in theatrical activity an effective instrument for understanding and finding solutions to social problems.
A forum theater session has as its starting point a representation of a short scene, which explains the conflict, but in this "anti-model" representation, the protagonist gives in to this conflict. This is why the facilitator of the session then invites the audience to open the debate and to come on stage to replace and improve the actions of the protagonist.
The facilitator will provide data to feed the debate and create a collective reflection around prejudices and stereotypes. Thus, the participants, through their performances on stage with the other actors and actresses, can intervene and propose their thoughts, wishes, strategies and solutions to suggest to the rest of the audience a series of alternatives action The scene is reinterpreted as many times as interventions proposed by the audience are expressed. Next, the feasibility of each proposed solution is subjected to debate and analysis in order to generate a dialogue, which visually allows people to become aware of inequalities, as well as look for collective alternatives to change and cope to these problems.
How does the Image Theater work?
Through the Image Theater and the performance, 4 (four) scenes are worked on, in different spaces that make up a circuit, the objective of which is to give visibility to the theme and stimulate the interaction and participation of the public. At the same time, each scene will be animated to encourage debate and reflection.
CARE AREA
La Xixa Teatre presents the realization of a performative intervention in the public space, with the aim of sensitizing the public about care work, which commonly falls to women.
WE ARE WELCOME
La Xixa Teatre presents the realization of a small-format theatrical action and interaction with the public, entitled "Are we welcoming?" with the aim of sensitizing citizens to the importance of shelter actions as well as coexistence in diversity free from prejudice.
Contact information
+34 625 27 72 63 / +34 647 76 16 33
Carrer Erasme de Janer, 8 08001 Barcelona
