Rodrigues' Pornographic Angel Flies at Yale Summer Cabaret

Yale Summer Cabaret has announced the second production of its 2007 season: Nelson Rodrigues' Pornographic Angel, translated by Alex Ladd and directed by Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento.  The production will run from July 5th through 14th.

"Look through the keyhole and discover the voyeuristic world of Brazilian playwright, fiction writer and journalist Nelson Rodrigues. Summer Cabaret continues its 2007 season with Pornographic Angel, a performance by New York ensemble Tantrum Theater based on the first English translation of Rodrigues' short story collection, Life As It Is," according to Summer Cabaret notes.  "A self-proclaimed 'pornographic angel,' Rodrigues' elegant and poetic language earned him a place as Brazil's most acclaimed playwright.  His lifelong experience as a criminal reporter—he began working at his father's newspaper at age 14—put him face to face with the most bizarre episodes, which Rodrigues turned into short stories printed in the newspaper column A Vida Como Ela É (Life As It Is)."

Director Tatinge Nascimento explains, "Pornographic Angel is a performance that evokes Rodrigues' image of Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s and also appeals to contemporary American audiences. Tantrum Theater works collaboratively to create the world of the play, one that includes physical acting, live and recorded music, and multimedia. As we combine period and contemporary elements, the company's main drive is to approximate these short stories to the spectator's urban daily reality."

Pornographic Angel's run at Summer Cabaret is the first time an audience will be exposed to the work, and it is a precursor to a one-month run at New York City's Ohio Theatre. 

The cast will feature: Sara Bremen (love/sad at Studio 42, the Living Room Festival at HERE), Jeff Morison (who teaches Voice and Speech at Marymount Manhattan College and the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University), Tom Rabstenek (Gored, 1Macbeth with the SAINT Company), Paul de Sousa (Rodrigues' The Asphalt Kiss, The Decline of the American Empire, film: The Interpreter), and Perri Yaniv (Darkling at American Opera Projects, Word Infirmia for FringeNYC and Montreal International Fringe Festival).

The production will feature Set and Video Designer by Marcela Oteíza, Lighting Design by Ji-Youn Chang, Costume Design by Katie O'Neil, Sound Design by Veronika Vorel, and Props Design by Nick Benacerraf, with Roberta Pereira as Line Producer.

Tatinge Nascimento teaches at Wesleyan University.  An actor, director, and scholar, while living in Brazil she studied with the Odin Teatret and also participated in different meetings of Eugenio Barba's International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA).  In the United States, Tatinge Nascimento joined Cleveland's New World Performance Laboratory (NWPL), with whom she performed Mother's Work, Recital of the Bird, and the solo piece Veredas in Europe, the United States, and South America, and participated in Jerzy Grotowski's final Objective Drama Session at the University of Claifornia-Irvine.  Tatinge Nascimento has contributed numerous articles to Biblioteca Teatrale (Italy), Didaskalia (Poland), Folhetim (Brazil), Theatre Topics, Theatre Forum International, Theatre Journal, and Dance Research Journal and forthcoming anthologies.  Most recently she was a scholar with the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards' project Tracing Roads Across (2003-2006) and directed the Anglophone premieres of Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues' Lady of the Drowned and The Deceased Woman.

The performance schedule is: Thursday, July 5 at 8:00pm, Friday, July 6 at 8:00pm, Saturday, July 7 at 8:00pm, Wednesday, July 11 at 8:00pm (sold out!), Thursday, July 12 at 8:00pm, Friday, July 13 at 8:00pm and Saturday, July 14 at 8:00pm.  Single tickets range from $14 - $25. Membership and group discounts available.  Buy tickets online at www.summercabaret.org or by calling 203.432.1567.

Doors open at 6:00 for dinner by Chef Anna from Anna's on Orange Street. All performances take place at 217 Park Street between Chapel and Edgewood streets in downtown New Haven.

Photo courtesy of www.summercabaret.org