Who: David Mendizábal
What: Livestreamed presentation
Where: Soho Rep. YouTube
When: Thursday, June 17, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: During the pandemic, Soho Rep. started Project Number One, in which eight artists were paid as salaried staff members, earning $1,250 per week plus health insurance to develop new work while shining a light on the problems creators faced as theaters closed and Covid-19 spread around the world. Becca Blackwell, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Stacey Derosier, David Mendizábal, Ife Olujobi, David Ryan Smith, Carmelita Tropicana, and Jillian Walker met regularly to discuss what comes next for theater makers. In May, Smith released The Story of a Circle, a personal tale in which he pulls no punches from Walkerspace, and Tropicana is posting her podcast That’s Not What Happened here.
On June 17, director and designer Mendizábal will begin streaming his contribution, eat me! Describing the show, he writes, “They say that every seven years we essentially become new people, because in that time, every old cell in our body has been replaced by a new cell through a process known as autophagy. Autophagy literally translates to ‘self-eating,’ which got me thinking: What are the parts of myself, or ideas I’ve held on to / that I would eat away if I could? / What would I replace those ideas with?” The film is inspired by an Ecuadorian ritual in which people share “guaguas de pan,” or bread babies, with their lost loved ones on November 2, Día de los Difuntos (Day of the Deceased). Mendizábal (On the Grounds of Belonging, Tell Hector I Miss Him) sees his film, which is edited by Yee Eun Nam, with music and sound by Mauricio Escamilla and animation by Jeromy Velasco, as “a release and a rebirth” as we return to life together.