{"id":551531,"date":"2026-01-29T12:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551531\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:22:16","slug":"a-global-trio-powers-teatro-dallas-boundary-pushing-international-theatre-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551531\/","title":{"rendered":"A global trio powers Teatro Dallas\u2019 boundary-pushing International Theatre Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Teatro Dallas<\/a> producer Mac Welch<\/a> was planning this year\u2019s International Theatre Festival, one of the groups had an unusual request: It needed him to track down 10 television sets made between 1985 and 1990. Certain brands of that vintage can be manipulated in ways that later models can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be able to cast images onto the TVs, so they need to be operable,\u201d Welch explains. \u201cSpecific TVs can also send a certain amount of power or signal, then you\u2019re able to jam them to ensure they make certain sounds and types of static. I said: \u2018That is so clever and way over my head. Just tell me what to get. I have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch has been hunting for the sets ever since, combing thrift stores and antique shops, contacting colleges and theater companies, perusing Facebook Marketplace and posting on his social media accounts. It\u2019s an added challenge to the usual festival work of securing visas and making travel arrangements for foreign artists. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested to see how their show pans out,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest question mark. \u2026 That\u2019s my primary experience with Teatro Dallas: It\u2019s the type of theater I would never see anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Spectrum by Portugal\u2019s ASTA: Teatro e Outras Artes is by far the biggest and most expensive of the three productions in the festival\u2019s 22nd edition, Welch says. ASTA is bringing three actors, two projectors and a technician for what is described as an immersive, sensory experience using sound and imagery to create a kind of post-reality. It\u2019s inspired by Plato\u2019s allegory of the cave in which chained prisoners mistake shadows on a wall for the real thing.<\/p>\n

Like Teatro Dallas co-founder Cora Cardona<\/a>, ASTA is a member of the international theater network Red Escena Iberoamericana. REI is made up of companies, venues, schools and festivals from Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Mexico, where Cardona is now based.<\/p>\n

\"Hugo<\/p>\n

Hugo Kogan of Argentina\u2019s La Granada Teatro is starring in and co-directing the one-man show “Potestad,” which he has been performing for years.<\/p>\n

Roque Basualdo<\/p>\n

Though the organizations have been working together for a long time, they began more formally cooperating during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Teatro Dallas festival has booked another member as well, Hugo Kogan of Argentina\u2019s La Granada Teatro. Kogan, who has appeared at the festival before, is starring in and co-directing the one-man show Potestad, which he has been performing for years.<\/p>\n

Confronting one of the darkest chapters in Argentina\u2019s history, the 1985 play by Eduardo Pavlovsky, a psychotherapist, writer and actor, is about a man caught up in the systematic kidnapping of children during a military dictatorship. It will be performed in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt delves into a father who is now alone, a journey through his grief and past loneliness,\u201d Welch says. \u201cA lot of the play is him realizing that he has, although indirectly, perpetuated a system that resulted in the death of his loved one. He\u2019s acknowledging that he\u2019s justified his entire life allowing for these atrocities to take place. Is there a way that he can forgive himself and come out the other side changed? What do you do when you feel trapped in a system that is also the result of your own doing?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big appeal for us is that it is an Argentinian talking about Argentina and the experiences that he has had personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third show in the festival, Strategic Love Play, came through a personal connection Welch has with its director, Dhruv Iyengar, a Chicago native who grew up in India and briefly lived in North Texas, where he worked with Shakespeare Dallas and Junior Players.<\/p>\n

\"Dhruv<\/p>\n

Dhruv Iyengar is the director of “Strategic Love Play,” one of the festival’s shows. The London-based Iyengar briefly lived in North Texas, where he worked with Shakespeare Dallas and Junior Players.<\/p>\n

Jordan Fraker<\/p>\n

Now based in London, where he went to college, Iyengar runs a company of South Asian theater artists, Pur\u0101na Productions. He reached out to Welch about participating in the festival. They decided Strategic Love Play, a two-hander, would be perfect for the Valentine\u2019s Day slot. In 2024, it had an off-Broadway run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was just a no-brainer, the one we really got excited about,\u201d Welch says. \u201cThey just finished their London run with really great reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by Miriam Battye and based on her own book, it tackles the transactional nature of romance in the digital age, specifically British pub and dating culture post-pandemic. Described as raw and humorous, it explores intimacy among the algorithms, asking what\u2019s being sacrificed in a culture obsessed with convenience and choice. <\/p>\n

All three shows are running one-night-only in the main auditorium of the Latino Cultural Center. While Spectrum and Potestad will be presented proscenium style with the audience in the room\u2019s regular seats, Strategic Love Play will be performed with the audience on stage with the actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very personal, very intimate play, like you\u2019re at the table with them on their first date,\u201d Welch says. \u201cThey found each other on an app.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than trying to draw the same audience for all three shows, Teatro Dallas is marketing each production to people who might relate to the individual genres and aesthetics. Welch has been reaching out to local pockets of South American immigrants and descendants for Potestad, and dancers and performance artists for the visually oriented Spectrum.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s at least one show for everyone, he says, while acknowledging common themes. \u201cAll of them have a sense that, \u2018Things are passing me by. I\u2019m along for the ride. I\u2019m an indirect victim,\u2019 and what we\u2019re subject to in the technological age. How do we take control?\u201d<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

The 22nd International Theatre Festival runs Feb. 7, 14 and 21 at 6 p.m. at the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St., Dallas. $25 per show. teatrodallas.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Juicy<\/a>North Texas theater collab on \u2018Hamlet\u2019 spinoff heads to Dallas<\/a><\/p>\n

Another co-production, an interactive one-woman show, opens soon in Fort Worth before going to Dallas.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Musical \u2018Six\u2019 gives Henry VIII\u2019s wives their turn in the spotlight<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tony-winning show returns to Dallas this month before moving on to other cities, including Fort Worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Teatro Dallas producer Mac Welch was planning this year\u2019s International Theatre Festival, one of the groups had…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":551532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7260,241995,358,1148,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-551531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-performing-arts","11":"tag-teatro","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-theater","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115978367630428640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}