Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) welcomes the XXXVII Encuentro de Teatro Tijuana (28th Theater Conference Tijuana) and the 30th Congress of the Mexican Association of Theater Research (AMIT), in cooperation with the National Coordination of Theater of the National Institute of Arts!

This event will take place from September 19 to September 29 in several areas of this cultural venue where plays from Baja California and other states such as Nuevo León, Yucatán, Oaxaca, Mexico City, Querétaro, and Sonora will all be performed for this latest edition. Around 63 artists will amaze the public with a total of 10 performances which will take place at the Show Room with new and exciting surprises!

The curtain of this amazing event was raised on Thursday, September 19 at 5:30 PM: the awaited 28th Theater Conference Tijuana began with Dr. Vianka Robles Santana, managing director of CECUT Tijuana, welcoming all attendants as this authentic theatrical celebration started.

One of this administration's gambles was to work closely in favor of the audience, looking to widen their stage possibilities regarding themes and industries. Our goal is to find opportunities to reach people that, due to their condition, are away from cultural infrastructure such as theaters and do not have access to several different artistic forms of expression.

She pointed out that in CECUT they have been working hard to collaborate with several different partners in Mexico and the binational border area in order to help the theater community engage closely with the immigrant community. This will help to bring art to all places and create a space where one can express oneself and meet others for those who are currently in a mobility condition; this also helps them to integrate while enriching cultural dialogue.

Once the inauguration act was over at around 6 PM, the doors of the Show Room were opened for the first performance of Marina & Isabel. This is a play by playwright and director Bárbara Colio, from Mexicali, Baja California, known for her extensive theater palette, who has also performed in several different countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, the United States, and Argentina.

It should be noted that this play won the National Óscar Liera Theater Award in 2021 and its tour around the world has delighted thousands of spectators.

This play stars Carmen Mastache (Malinche/Marina) and Ana Ligia García (Isabel/La Católica), though it does not follow a conventional plot. The story is about an impossible meeting between two women who made history in two different eras but whose lives never intertwine: one was born while the other one died.

Isabel is the director of a multinational company, while Marina is the union leader and translator of a group of workers currently on strike, in a world where they fight a strange virus. Though this may seem unusual, theater offers infinite possibilities as this play will take us on an unknown journey in which both women discover themselves as the characters they are and face off against themselves and their destiny of being erased by their author. It is the story of two women who, together, begin a fight for their own existence.

Amidst laughter, arguments, and a conversation that breaks the fourth wall between the characters and their author, these actresses will take the audience through an unexpected journey, in this historic chronology, that would normally be impossible to imagine, but that theater manages to make a reality.

Once this play ended, the Baja Californian playwright came on stage and spoke to the audience, telling them how excited she felt and how satisfied she was by finally being able to perform this play at this border city.

Congress of the 30th Anniversary of the Mexican Association of Theater Research will take place at CECUT

The Mexican Association of Theater Research (AMIT) is an institution dedicated to the study and promotion of theater in Mexico and the world. It was founded in 1993 and its goal is to bring together researchers, academics, and artists interested in this type of art.

It is its 30th birthday and, to celebrate, CECUT will become the venue of this great event from Tuesday, September 24 to Friday, September 27 from 9 AM to 6 PM. There will be 17 talks and 2 grand conferences led by José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, MA and Dr. Jorge Francisco Sánchez "Jofras" who, alongside two other presentations on theater info, will all be a part of this congress.

In addition, a talk about theatrical plastic arts and the participation of 60 theater stars will be the key subject matter of this unforgettable experience. To learn more about this Congress by this renowned association, check out the the following link.

Plays in unconventional places

One of this year’s main approaches will be the use of unconventional spaces. Half of the stage proposals of this event will take place at the venue's alternative sites such as the El Cubo lobby, the Terrace, the IMAX staircase, and even Av. Revolución in Downtown Tijuana. With this proposal, they hope to attract new audiences and create a unique atmosphere for attendants, the public at large, and theater fans.

Throughout this whole week, attendants will not only be able to enjoy these plays, but also workshops, talks, deep dives, and conferences, all for free and led by distinguished personalities of this artistic field.

Workshops will be carried out by members of the National System of Art Creators: Eloise Kazan, MA with a workshop about costumes, Sara Pinedo, MA with creation in communities, Karla Martínez, MA of the National Theater Coordination, will offer a workshop on production, and Patricia Estrada, MA will be in charge of the direction area.

Activity Program at XXVIII Encuentro de Teatro Tijuana

Theater Plays

Are you bringing something from Mexico?

Two immigrants have been unjustly arrested in the United States at different moments. As such, a series of meetings and disagreements begin to take place between people in prison and their families in Mexico. In this invisible network of family bonds, all that remains is yearning and absence.

Presented by: Compañía Ensamble-Teatro (Baja California)
Date: Friday, September 20
Place: Showroom
Time: 7:00pm
Free admission, for people 15 years of age or older

Atardecer Salvaje

We are grass, songs, sky, earth, and howls. Suddenly, a stroke of good luck and we are surrounded by a wind giving us life, but only for an instant. This is the story of that wind that makes us travel and how we can say goodbye with joy to those who are no longer with us, those who keep dancing in the air.

Presented by: La historia de todxs (Nuevo León/Mexico City)
Date. Saturday, September 21
Place: Fountain at the terrace
Time: 6:00pm
Free admission, for people 6 years of age or older

Revancha

Both a documentary and fiction, this theater play showcases the life inside a rehab center for addicts. It portrays in a very open and sincere manner being “locked up” as an opportunity of change through the 12 steps of AA and how to be part of a community beyond a group of friends, family, or a sect.

Presented by: Abemvs Teatro (Sonora)
Date: Sunday, September 22
Place: Showroom
Time: 6:00pm
Free admission, for people 15 years of age or older

Nocturna, caminata de noche para mujeres

A presence on stage expanded to invite women of all ages to reclaim nightlife spaces through movements, care, and pleasure. Here, the concepts of body, territory and affection come into play, as a line between lively arts, the formation of ephemeral communities, and the urban action of occupation at night with gender perspectives is drawn at last.

Presented by: Astrolabio (Querétaro)
Date: Monday, September 23
Place:
Starting point: Avenida Revolución and Calle 2da, Downtown
Arrival point: Staircase at the IMAX Dome
Time: 6:00pm
Free admission with prior registration, for women who are 12 years of age or older

Fuga. Vitrina de la desesperanza

One-person show that explores the border between theater and performance, from the perspective of a visual artist and scenic creator: it consists of the pieces Con la casa a cuestas, Hecho en México, Los viajantes, The other side, and Vaivén del retorno, which talk about the violent migratory relation between Mexico and the United States, evoking concepts of freedom, identity, displacement, and memory.

Presented by: El manicomio creativo. Laboratorio de Interpretación Escénica de TEBC. (Baja California)
Date: Tuesday, September 24
Place: El Cubo lobby
Time: 7:00pm
Free admission, for people 12 years of age or older

Bravas Muchachas! La historia también es nuestra

Theater play on foot whose goal is to promote spaces for awareness and reflection of the role of women in public spaces and political participation, through the spread of the historical, didactic, and interactive perspectives of the first women in Mexico who were elected in popular political positions.

Presented by: Corriendo con lobas. Experiencia escénica (Yucatán)
Date: Wednesday, September 25
Place: Botanic Garden
Time: 6:00pm
Free admission, for people 12 years of age or older

Benda’ Muxe’ (Mi hermana Muxe)

It is said that to die in the isthmus is to die happily. But when a muxe dies, where do they go? In a quite peculiar shack stuck in limbo: La Pascuala, Pocaluz, La tía Sonia, and La Tortolita kill time by telling stories of everything, others, and themselves. A new soul comes their way and each soul that arrives gives them the chance to have fun and the power to transcend.

Presented by: Ces Enríquez Cabaret. (Mexico City/Oaxaca)
Date: Thursday, September 26
Place: Showroom
Time: 7:00pm
Free admission, for people 15 years of age or older

El puente de piedras y la piel de imágenes

After a forced exile due to war, Momo and Mung get to know each other without speaking the same language, but with a common past: violence in their country pulled them away from their families. Both are now on a journey where they will face socially destroyed landscapes.

Presented by: Tijuana Hace Teatro. (Baja California)
Date: Friday, September 27
Place: Showroom
Time: 7:00pm
Free admission, for people 12 years of age or older

Théâtre 0rchestra SoNiDeRa L@StheM@S

A call to party, the pleasure of dancing, the power to create wishes, to become another, to transform ourselves, to get together with our tribes, and all of that, through a banishment of the stage where reality and truth intertwine and make us face an enigma of what we see.

Presented by: Foco alAire Producciones. (Mexico City)
Date. Saturday, September 28
Place: El Cubo lobby
Time: 7:00pm
Free admission, for people 18 years of age or older

Workshops

Direction of actors and actresses

Participants will learn to build work groups, motivate, and stimulate the searching process to achieve more solid results in their projects.

Taught by: Patricia Estrada
Date: From September 20 to September 22
Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Place: Rehearse Room

Introduction to costume design for theater and cinema

An introduction to the basic tools and concepts to understand the costume design process in scenic and cinematic projects.

Taught by: Eloise Kazan
Date: From September 25 to September 27
Time: 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Place: Rehearse Room 2

To walk, eat, dance, and other types of care, statements, and protest

This workshop will allow for one to review the practical and conceptual lines of work in order to discuss together the purposes of the affectionate and effective qualities of the play-process.

Taught by: Sara Pinedo
Date: From September 25 to September 27
Time: 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Place: Rehearse Room

Talks

Deep Dive: “Atardecer Salvaje”

In this relaxed talk, the "La historia de todxs" project tells us how the creation process to put "Atardecer Salvaje" on stage took place.

By: Nathalia Fuentes
Date: Sunday, September 22
Place: Showroom Lobby
Time: 5:00pm
Free admission

Talk about the creative process behind “Benda’ Muxe’ (Mi hermana Muxe)

Ces Enriquez shares the different phases he went through to reach "Benda' Muxe", starting from its creation with a specific community.

By: Ces Enriquez
Date: Wednesday, September 25
Place: Showroom Lobby
Time: 5:00pm
Free admission

Deep Dive: “Bravas Muchachas”

The director of the "Bravas Muchachas" project shares with attendants the creative process that took place in order to get this play to the stage.

By: Liliana Hesant
Date: Thursday, September 26
Place: Showroom Lobby
Time: 6:00pm
Free admission

The 28th edition of Encuentro de Teatro Tijuana will become, once again, the theater space par excellence to bring together audiences from the city's several different areas and sectors, where the wisdom from several Mexican states and the region will be shared.

We invite you to follow the social media pages of CECUT to learn all about their future activities:

Website: https://www.cecut.gob.mx/

Facebook: Centro Cultural Tijuana - CECUT

Instagram: @cecut_mx