Open Call: Diego Bragà is Looking for Cis Men

Apply for the auditions by April 11

Diego Bragà is looking for performers for her creation We at the Nightclub Suffer Together, an opera for four bodies – one trans body and three cis bodies – set in a nightclub in an expanded utopian and ghostly field (or a bunker). A space for the dance of ghost-archives and for the empowerment of survival tools from queer ancestry. A theatrical and operatic gesture, based on a pickup note received in a nightclub in the 1970s, inviting us to embrace suffering and update a beautiful future ahead.

For further contextualisation of the intended aesthetic, which is fundamental for the opera's libretto, Diego Bragà suggests watching her short documentary Think About The Beautiful Future Ahead.


Profile
Cis men aged 40+ (or who appear to be 40+)


Selection Criteria
- Professional experience in performing arts (theatre/dance), music, or opera;
- Ability to move, sing and/or speak for solo, duo, and choir (note: singing technique is not required);
- Availability to work with choreography;
- Comfort with nudity on stage;
- Interest in the proposal and in group work.

Application Procedure and Deadline
To apply, please send an email to diegobragagal@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on 11 April 2025, including:

- Biography (maximum 2 pages);
- Portrait and full-body photograph;
- Motivational video (maximum 3 minutes).


Audition
Candidates selected for the audition will be contacted by 14 April 2025. The auditions will take place on 22 and 23 April 2025 at Espaço Alkantara, in Lisbon, at a time to be defined.


Creation Work Plan (subject to change)

Artistic Creation Residencies
23-29 June — Polo Cultural Gaivotas
30 June - 11 July — Victor Córdon Studios
8-21 September — Espaço Alkantara
29 September - 11 October — Espaço Alkantara

Technical Residency
4-13 November — O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)


Premiere
14 and 15 November — O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)


Remuneration
Each period indicated in the work plan is subject to an individual employment contract, in accordance with the Labour Code and the Statute of Cultural Professionals.

The base gross amount for the total contracts is €4,270, plus meal allowances, Christmas and holiday pay, when applicable, as well as compensation at the end of each contract, as stipulated by law. The amount indicated is subject to the applicable legal deductions and/or withholdings at the time of payment.

We at the Nightclub Suffer Together

At the height of the discothèque era, the hearts of Latin American and African American immigrants, whole or broken, shared the hopeful loop of 1970s glamour. It was the vitality and power of "marginality," of "hypersexuality," of the pre-AIDS era, of the collective movement that redefined the words "masculinity," "pleasure," "dance," and "sensuality."

The world is at war. An (anti)heroine protects herself in a bunker that was once a gay discothèque in Copacabana during the 1970s, at the peak of the military dictatorship. In her solitude as a refugee and survivor, she encounters gay ghosts that present archaeological layers from both the pre- and post-AIDS, pre- and post-war periods.


— Diego Bragà

Credits

Direction, libretto & composition Diego Bragà Performers Diego Bragà, TBA Musical direction, soundscape Nico Spinoza Musical production Pedro Joaquim Borges Hypeer-pop electronics & beats Diana XL Choreographic support/ movement dramaturg Tânia Carvalho Light design Rui Monteiro Technical direction Ana Carocinho Costume Carlota Lagido Set design Carlota Lagido and Martîm Paintings Martîm Production Alkantara Residency support TalentLAB and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Support for creation OPART, E. P.E./Estúdios Victor Córdon Support for dramaturgy CAMPUS/Rivoli, Festival END, Bolsa de Escrita Teatro Oficina Co-production Alkantara, in the context of Common Stories, a Creative Europe programme funded by the European Union Creation grant O Espaço do Tempo, with the support of BPI and ‘la Caixa’ Foundation