Orlando’s arts institutions are increasingly emphasizing the diversity of Central Florida’s cultural community, offering creative outlets for members of historically marginalized communities. But despite those outreach efforts, the fact remains that the vast majority of mainstream artistic opportunities are oriented toward English-speakers, which leaves out a significant swath of our area’s Latinx population. In a bid to redress that imbalance, downtown’s Fringe ArtSpace teamed up last weekend with the Latina-led nonprofit Open Scene to present the third annual Festival Latinoamericano de Artes Escénicas (Latin American Festival of Performing Arts) — or FLAE — featuring three days devoted to Spanish-language theater and Latin American artists.
Open Scene was founded in 2019 by Venezuelan journalist Thamara Bejarano, debuting with a performance art piece on Church Street at the Creative City Project’s Immerse festival, where they also presented the intriguing “Exquisite Corpse” virtual reality experience three years later. During the pandemic period in between, Open Scene streamed readings of Lorca and Ibsen en español, but it was their Fringe 2022 production of Claudia Vargas Vega’s Raquel, a searing drama about anti-trans violence, that really caught my attention. In addition, Open Scene has held several playwriting contests (their latest, “Escena Abierta,” closes June 30) and created three installments of “Voices,” a series of dramatic documentaries and socially conscious shows.
For this year’s FLAE, Open Scene returned to Church Street and brought to ArtSpace Miami’s Havanafama for a kabuki-inspired interpretation of La Casa de Bernarda Alba and Texas’ Teatro Dallas with Gustavo Ott’s tragicomedy Passport. I stopped by on Saturday for the festival’s grand finale, a “Noche de Zarzuela” revue of the 17th-century Hispanic operatic subgenre by Central Florida Vocal Arts’ Opera del Sol.
The evening began with an hour of live guitar music in the ArtSpace lobby, which was temporarily transformed into a visual art gallery, prior to the main presentation starring soprano Mariangel Cestari, mezzo-soprano Stefanie Diaz, tenor John Teixeira and baritone Jose-Manuel Lopez, under the direction of Bert Rodriguez. These internationally experienced vocalists were supported by a superb chamber quartet fronted by dynamic viola player Daniel Cortes, along with a twirling trio of human chrysanthemums from Raymi Dance.
My last experience with Open Scene, their 2023 Fringe drama La Cantante Vuelve, was undermined by unintelligible high-tech translation devices, so I was thankful they weren’t needed to thoroughly enjoy the Zarzuela; after all, opera has been appreciated across linguistic lines for centuries before supertitles arrived. Bejarano says her company will continue experimenting with “state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology” that will allow them to offer all their content with subtitles and audio in more than 25 languages.
However, it was evident from the audience’s enthusiastic reception that this colorful, emotionally charged concert didn’t need a school of bionic Babel fish to make an artistic impact.
“The reaction to this week’s festival from both patrons and artists has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Open Scene production director Mariela Saad. “The fact that the public was captivated by every performance is a testament to the quality and appeal of our offer. The great feedback received further reinforces the success of the event. These reactions make us feel extremely pleased and excited about the future. They validate our efforts in building an Open Scene Community that fosters a shared passion for the arts, culture and their universality.”
If you didn’t make it to this year’s FLAE, you’ll have plenty of future opportunities to see Open Scene in action at Fringe ArtSpace, because they are one of three organizations chosen to join the Collective, Orlando Fringe’s recently relaunched incubator program. Along with Meka King’s Sonflower Joy Music and Without Fear Theatre, Open Space will participate in an 18-month mentoring program, and receive up to $20,000 (plus over $35,000 in in-kind services) to produce multiple shows in Fringe ArtSpace’s season starting next spring. This new program is sponsored by the Downtown Development Board, and spearheaded by Fringe’s newly promoted Creative Learning Producer, Genevieve Bernard [aka, full disclosure, my wife].
“Our hopes for our time with the Collective incubator are filled with excitement and anticipation,” says Saad. “We see this opportunity as a valuable platform for collaboration and growth. Through it, we aim to foster meaningful partnerships, exchange ideas and explore new possibilities together. This collaborative environment will provide us with resources, support and networking opportunities that can help us bring new and innovative projects to our audience. Our goal is to accelerate our growth, expand our reach and continue bringing exciting experiences to the community we serve. We are grateful for this opportunity and optimistic about the positive impact it will have on our organization and all the parties involved.”
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This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2023.