The Iberoamerican Theater Festival (FITB) will take place throughout Bogota over a period of two weeks, presenting a range of international plays and performances from April 4-20.
The FITB festival is held every two years, with 2014 being its fourteenth event. This year’s festival welcomes artists from 26 countries and presents 42 international works, alongside numerous pieces from the best of Colombian theater.
Performances will include indoor theater, street theater, and tent-based cabaret. These genres each bring avant-garde performances: aerial tango from Argentina accompanied by a live orchestra, a Spanish musical performance using recycled materials for percussion, Peruvian clowning, and black comedy from the Czech Republic.
Spaces throughout the city will be used for the festival’s performances, including 20 different theaters, public parks and streets.
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Brazil will headline the festival this year as Bogota welcomes the Galpao Group, reputedly the most important theater group in Brazil. The Galpao Group were established 30 years ago and performed at the prestigious London Globe theater in 2012.
Directors are also proposing fresh contemporary adaptations of classical plays by classic playwrights such as Euripides, Shakespeare, Chekov and Federico Garcia Lorca.
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Plans and arrangements were made for this year’s festival even before the 2012 celebration had finished.
All international performers, particularly those in physically demanding pieces, have been informed that Bogota’s 2,600 meter altitude may mean they need to arrive a few weeks before the festival begins in order to acclimatize.
The festival will also run over 30 workshops in drama, play-writing, flamenco dancing and clown performance. The workshops will be led by experienced play-writers, dancers and choreographers.
To participate in the festival workshops, festival visitors must enroll in the School Festival at escueladelfestival@festivaldeteatro.com. The festival’s website provides a complete program itinerary and descriptions of all participating theater companies.
Sources
- Festival de Teatro (FITB)
- XIV Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota 2014 (Plan B)
- El Iberoamericano hace escuela (El Tiempo newspaper)
- Solo una semana del festival iberoamericano de teatro (La Republica)
- Historias de siglos pasados llegarán al Festival Iberoamericano de Bogotá (El Caracol)
