Blackface
Marco Mendonça
- 01.05 — 11.05 2023
- Artists in Residence
- Criação
Marco Mendonça's first creation is in artistic residency from May 1st to 11th at the Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre. On May 11th at 3.30pm the team will share his working process with an audience.
Blackface will be a solo performance between stand-up and fantasy, satire and physical theatre, burlesque and documentary. On stage, Marco Mendonça intends to explore the performativity and history of blackface as a racist theatrical practice — from its roots in the USA to cases in Portugal — as he searches for the limits of what can or cannot be represented on stage.
As we look at the extensive library of events in which this racist practice was used to portray Black people as inferior members of Portuguese society, can we really believe that racism doesn’t exist in Portugal?
Blackface is produced by Alkantara and will premiere at Alkantara Festival 2023.
This residency is part of the exchange program for artist residencies between the Alkantara and the Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre
Credits
Direction, creation and interpretation Marco Mendonça Creation Support Bruno Huca Dramaturgy Support Gisela Casimiro Light Design Rui Monteiro Music Mestre André Costumes Aldina Jesus Production Alkantara Coproduction Teatro do Bairro Alto Coproduction Residency O Espaço do Tempo Residency Support Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre
Marco Mendonça was born in Mozambique in 1995 and lives in Lisbon since 2007. He graduated in theatre at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. He works regularly with the company Os Possessos. He was a trainee at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, where he worked with João Pedro Vaz, Tiago Rodrigues and Faustin Linyekula. He was part of shows by Liesbeth Gritter (Kassys), Tonan Quito and Mala Voadora. He debuted as author and co-creator, alongside João Pedro Leal and Eduardo Molina, in "Parlamento Elefante", a project that won the Amélia Rey Colaço scholarship. In...