Now celebrating its 10^th anniversary, the Performing Americas Program (PAP) is the only systemic international cultural exchange program in existence in the United States that is based on reciprocity and knowledge building. With its focus on exchanges between the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, the program has successfully toured 34 artist/companies and funded an additional 30 Creative Exchange residencies throughout the hemisphere.

PAP has made possible the presentation of Latin American and Caribbean work by more than 50 U.S.-based presenting organizations, and presentation of 17 U.S. artist companies in 47 different cities across Latin American and the Caribbean by presenters who may have otherwise not been able to support these artists’ work.

Designing, funding and coordinating an international exchange program has been a formidable task—especially in the less than visionary national climate of international diplomacy that has prevailed since the program began in 2001. Almost in spite of this, however, this project has flourished, showing that the need and demand for international cultural exchange is as strong and possibly more important than ever. Presenters and artists from all parts of the hemisphere have responded that more programs like this need to exist, grow and be supported.

After their 2010 Creative Exchange residency in Guatemala with Grupo de Teatro Artzenico, Goat in the Road Productions of New Orleans reported, “The opportunity to conduct a Creative Exchange residency through PAP was a dream come true. We are rarely paid a living wage for our work as artists in the United States! To receive a salary to make and share work with an exciting group in Latin America for three weeks was an utter gift to us – as artists, as teachers, as citizens of the world. Thank you.” In the summer of 2011, Goat in the Road reciprocated by hosting Artzenico in New Orleans where they continued the work they had begun a year before.

Reciprocity, peer exchange and knowledge building are core values of all of NPN’s international exchange initiatives, and working with partner networks abroad has amplified the possibility for facilitating the growth of true exchanges among artists, communities, and presenter-curators. The host organizations in both the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean open the doors to their spaces to offer artists a new, respectful and dynamic environment to create, present and engage in contemporary performance practice. Selected curators from across the continent also travel to meet hosts, artists and see live work abroad, key to the success of program.

NPN’s coordination of the tours and Creative Exchange residencies has increased the capacity of NPN Partner organizations and other U.S.-based presenters to present international work, by providing funds and facilitating the often-daunting prospect of obtaining visas for foreign artists. We’ve also increased the visibility of U.S. artists abroad by funding and coordinating their travel to festivals and presenters as far away as Buenos Aires, Uruguay, Brazil and Santiago, and as close as Puerto Rico and Mexico City.

“Performing Americas has boosted touring, U.S. visibility and creative partnerships at a time when the U.S. suffered dismal public relations abroad as a consequence of the second Iraq war.” (Randy Gener, American Theater Magazine, September 2010)

The artists who travel within the program share their artistic and cultural languages, creating lasting and meaningful relationships that not only expand their own cultural horizons, as well as those of the host and audience, but also dispel destructive myths and stereotypes by conducting honest human exchanges that do the work international diplomatic relations fails to do.

Looking forward to its second decade of work abroad, NPN has broadened the scope of its international exchanges by adding new partnerships with the Korea Arts Management Services (KAMS) and the Japan Contemporary Dance Network (JCDN), and by leveraging its experience to identify new possibilities across the globe that will provide more opportunities for artists and presenters within NPN and beyond.

Since 2001, the Performing Americas Program has been a partnership with La RED (Red de Promotores Culturales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe) for a hemispheric exchange program which subsidizes reciprocal tours using the NPN Performance Residency model. Funding for Performing Americas is provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and, for Los Angeles artists and arts organizations, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.

For a complete list of activities, participating artists and hosts, and recently posted guidelines for our upcoming round of Creative Exchange, please visit the Performing Americas Program section of this website.

To find our more about our partner network, La RED, visit www.redlatinoamericana.com

 “The respectful co-existence of artists and producers/presenters was a revelation. The shared sense of vision and purpose was inspiring.”

“In general, the emphasis placed on relationship building always sets a different tone, and sets this meeting apart from other field gatherings.”

“Artists are integrated into the meeting is a thoughtful way. Very few field gatherings do as well.”

For the three-and-a-half day conference, NPN Partner Straz Center for the Performing Arts opened its halls for plenary sessions and breakouts. It was difficult to choose which of the fourteen Idea Forums to attend — topics ranged from disaster-preparedness to social networking to hip-hop theater to queer art practitioners. The Straz also presented exciting performance showcases that featured NPN Creation Fund artists who received subsidies to commission new work, as well as Tampa-based performers.  For the second year, #NewPlay TV! livestreamed the two evenings of performances.  You can watch the archived footage by following these links:

• Friday, December 9, 2011
• Saturday, December 10, 2011

In an effort to think outside the box, be environmentally-friendly and cut down on printing costs, this year’s meeting relied more on online publications. Q-R codes (two-dimensional barcodes) read by many cell phones were used to help attendees retrieve materials and navigational aids as they made their way through the meeting.

Springboard for the Arts presented two filled-to-capacity professional development workshops that addressed key issues that artists face in their careers. The St. Paul nonprofit is an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists.

Click here to see the complete job description

Interested candidates should submit a resume, cover letter, and three references by end of business on Monday, January 16th, 2012.

All artists who have participated in the VAN program in the past three years were invited to submit proposal to create a POD Installation, as were visual artists from Tampa. There were no conceptual or thematic parameters. Artists were encouraged to propose a project that would best present their work. A selection panel of NPN/VAN staff and VAN Partners chose the following three proposals from many worthy applications. Participating artists will be engaged under a VAN Exhibition Residency contract and will serve a week-long residency at the Annual Meeting.

The VAN POD Installation Opening Reception will be held 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. on Thursday December 6, 2011 on the Jaeb Plaza of the Straz Center, Tampa, FL.

Housing is a Human Right

Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone, Brooklyn, NY

Housing is a Human Right is an ongoing multi-platform documentary project that creates a space for people to share stories of their community and ongoing experiences of trying to obtain or maintain a place to call home. The project is not just one story, but many; it is a growing collection of powerful first-person stories exploring the complex fabric of community and home, painting a living portrait of human rights. Stories are recorded in the tradition of oral history and shared as audio stories, photographs and multimedia across multiple platforms, including interactive exhibitions in unconventional spaces & broadcasts via traditional and new media outlets.

Untitled, 2010
C-print
11 x 17 inches
Photo Credit: Michael Premo

Repository: A Taxonomy of Remains

Margie Livingston, Seattle, WA

Livingston’s installation will consist of two tables lighted from above and holding specimen trays of her own design and construction. The specimens arrayed in the trays will be individual fragments left over from the creation of a larger, established body of work: my Paint Objects, acrylic works straddling the boundary between painting and sculpture, which she has been making for several years. The installation’s title and the “remains” to be presented, along with the manner of their presentation, allude to the material and conventions associated with museums of natural history.

Plank, 2011
Acrylic
1 5/8 x 3 1/2 x 97 5/8 inches
Photo: Richard Nicol

Safety in Numbers

Jono Vaughan, Tampa, FL

Inspired by Vaughan’s drawings that chronologically document the changes and alterations made to his/her hair since 2005, Safety In Numbers is a performance-based work that invites Annual Meeting participants and members of the community to assume the identity of the artist through physical transformations, such as hair cutting and make up application. For the project, Vaughan will be transforming the POD into a hair salon where each day stylists will be cutting volunteers’ hair into the same style as the artist and will be applying make-up in styles created by the artist. Like the artist’s drawings that never feature the front of his/her face, Safety in Numbers explores the power of anonymity through the creation of as many clones of the artist as possible.

 The Back of My Head, 4/5/10, 2010
Colored pencil on paper
30 x 15 inches

VAN installations at the Annual Meeting in Tampa are made possible with assistance from

The scope of both projects is to develop the context for a systematic artistic exchange by creating strong connections in Asia and opportunities for all partners involved to travel to other countries to investigate local cultures, the arts, cultural policies, and working methodologies. To this end the NPN International Program has supported annual trips to its partner countries. This fall, the Asia curatorial team – Yolanda Cursach of MCA Chicago, Illinois; F. John Herbert of Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Scott Turner Schofield from Out North, Anchorage, Alaska; and George Lugg, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA – traveled to Seoul to attend the Performing Arts Market Seoul (PAMS) on October 10-14, 2011, followed by five days in Tokyo to meet with several funders and their Japanese partners as well as see performances at Festival Tokyo. NPN International Program Director Renata Petroni accompanied the Asia delegation to Seoul while MK Wegmann, NPN President and CEO, and Kyoko Yoshida, Executive Director of U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network and consultant to the Japan Connection project, joined the delegation in Tokyo.

This was the second visit of the U.S. curatorial team to PAMS. The first visit focused on getting to know our South Korean partners, visiting their spaces, seeing a wide range of performances and showcases programmed by PAMS, and learning about the structure of the performing arts in South Korea, which is quite different from ours. In South Korea the arts are supported by the Ministry of Culture and, in few instances, a corporation will build its own art space and fund its programming. In recent years, the South Korean government has poured millions into the infrastructure of the arts without training new leaders or creating programs designed to support the development of contemporary arts. This policy led to the construction or reconstruction of amazing spaces run by government-appointed staff with little or no knowledge of the arts, who program only government-supported companies. To influence change and infuse energy in the independent contemporary arts sector, the Korea Arts Management Services (KAMS), the equivalent of an Arts Council, supports producing venues and independent producers who work with emerging artists, and companies who explore new forms. To strengthen the independent sector, KAMS, inspired by NPN, has been encouraging different venues to form a network capable of presenting and touring guest artists.

This year’s visit was as intense as last year’s.  The focus this year was on seeing work, meeting the artists in specially organized sessions and in their studios, deepening our connection with our partners during formal and informal meetings, and learning about Asia. Since 2009, PAMS has moved away from the concept of ‘market’ by placing greater importance on connections among artists, performing arts professionals (presenters, promoters, and producers), as well as sharing information and ideas rather than simply plugging artworks to overseas buyers. To facilitate these connections, PAMS sets its focus on a particular region every year: Europe in 2007, Central and South America in 2008, North America in 2009, and Northern Europe in 2010. The 2011 PAMS highlighted Asia, reflecting the West’s growing interest in the region and the increasing interest of Asian countries in each other. Three interesting panels discussed the social and cultural contexts of Asia’s different regions; one of the most fascinating debates that arose from these discussions was around the existence (or not) of an Asian identity. In addition to the 13 PAMS showcases*, which present the best works in dance, theater, music and multi-disciplinary arts of the previous year, PAMS partnered with the Seoul Performing Theater Festival and SiDance to present Korean artists during the week of the conference. This enabled the U.S. team to see additional performances each evening, including two particularly interesting works: The Inspector, a collaboration between the physical action of Dong Theatre, music by Bulsaechul and installation art by Hong Shi-Ya, and Hiroshima-Hapcheon, the third visual/performance in the Marebito Theater Company’s Hiroshima-Nagasaki series.

The week in Tokyo was less hectic but no less interesting and the U.S. curatorial team was able to steal a few hours to explore this intimidating metropolis of 13 million people where tradition, pop, techno and neon craze live side by side. Disasters and lax planning laws have destroyed most heritage buildings and modern ones mushroom at incredible speed, giving the cityscape an impressive heterogeneous character. Unlike Kyoto, which is built on a grid, Tokyo grew concentrically around Edo Castle maintaining the labyrinthine dimension of medieval city planning. The resulting cityscape is a fantastic mix of old and new.

In between sight-seeing outings, the delegation attended several performances including at the edge of midnight and K by Mum & Gypsy, a theater/dance work written and directed by Takahiro Fujita and produced by Agora Theater, a well-known venue that supports the creation of new work by emerging artists; Asyl, a multi-disciplinary collaboration between choreographer/dancer Misako Terada, musician/singer Fuei Mishimatsu and videographer Naoto Lina produced by the Japan Contemporary Dance Network (JCDN); and two performances programmed by the Festival Tokyo, of which Landscape-Tokyo by Ishinha was of particular interest. The delegation met with several foundations to investigate possibilities of future funding for our Japanese partners in connection to the project. The meetings were encouraging and informative. We learned that the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are still felt in unspoken ways. The mood in the country has changed as people, especially in the North and on the East coast, wonder how radiation may have affected them. We heard that the arts are also changing as artists are trying to cope with the senseless devastation and its unknown consequences. Although some artists and arts organizations have participated in the first recovery efforts, much more needs to be done and both funders and our JCDN partners have asked members of the U.S. delegation to share their experiences with the recovery efforts in their cities after natural disasters. MK Wegmann and F. John Herbert have been asked to conduct a session at the next T-PAM conference in February 2012 about the role that artists and arts organizations played in the recovery efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Cedar Rapids after the 2008 floods. Discussion between NPN and JCDN will continue at the NPN Annual Meeting in Tampa, December 8-12, 2011.

*PAM Showcases 2011 – * House Number 1-28 Cha-sook (Theatre Nolddang), You Cannot Say I did it (Performance Group TUIDA), The Inspector (DONG theatre company), Killbeth (Playfactory Mabangzen), No Comment (Laboratory Dance Project), Argument (Choe Contemporary Dance Company), Musical Chairs (PDPC), Dancing Grandmothers (Eun-Me Ahn Company), Rhythmic Space: A Pause for Breath, Space Bamboo (GongMyoung), Jeong Ga Ak Hoe Meets World Literature (Jeong Ga Ak Hoe), The Near East Quartet (N.E.Q.), Fire Cliff (Minouk LIM). The International Showcase included Hikky Cancun Tornado by Japan’s hi-bye theater company, and Built This City by Australia’s Polyglot Theatre

Guidelines and applications forms for Performing Americas Creative Exchange 2012-2013 will be available in English and Spanish on December 15, 2011 on the NPN website.  You can also find there a list of the artists and presenters who have participated during the past three rounds.

The National Performance Network is pleased to have the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation for this program.  The Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Los Angeles is a partner through its support of Los Angeles-based applicants.

Every year, two different curators from Latin America come to the United States to see work by U.S. artists, and select companies that can later tour to festivals and presenting organizations in the southern hemisphere through the Performing Americas Program of the National Performance Network. The curators who participate are members of our partner network, La RED (the Network of Cultural Promoters of Latina America and the Caribbean), and come from all parts of the continent.

The two curators selected for 2010 were Marianella Protti from Teatro Punto Cero in Costa Rica and Cuauhtemoc Najera Ruiz from the University of Mexico’s Dance Division in Mexico City, Mexico (UNAM). Both chose work from two distinct U.S. artist companies to travel in the 2011-12 presenting season. Typically, the Latin American curators will travel to the NPN Annual Meeting, and to one other festival or artist presentation in order to see live work by U.S. artists from across the country, getting two separate opportunities to experience contemporary performance and program for their specific community and organization.

The two artist companies selected were Rudi Goblen from Miami, FL, who traveled to Costa Rica, and Miguel Gutierrez from New York City who traveled to Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico. Both artists performed their original work for local audiences, and while they had very different performance experiences, the challenges and rewards were similar.

Rudi Goblen took his piece Insanity Isn’t (check out the great trailer on his website to get a taste) to an outdoor festival, TransitArte, in San Juan, Costa Rica, which has a huge city-wide program in outdoor spaces that serves thousands of theater patrons throughout one week in March. Rudi was willing to adapt his piece to an outdoor environment, and took the risk of performing his text and dance-based piece in what can be a complicated outdoor performance setting, and to do it for a non-English speaking audience on top of it. Rudi performed three shows for large audiences who applauded the artist’s unique piece, which was probably, for most, a once-in-a-life-time experience with American hip-hop dance theater. They went on to do two more performances, and then Rudi traveled to two other smaller towns outside of San Jose to give b-boying workshops with youth.

Of  the experience, Rudi said doing his show outside and “needing to adjust to the unforeseen circumstances taught us to be quick thinkers and improvise whenever necessary,” and that audience response was so overwhelmingly positive, that they were sure they had made an important impact with the workshops and performances. Rudi spent the next two weeks in Torrealba y Siquierres, giving workshops to kids, which was an amazing experience for both him and the students that got to train with him.

Miguel Gutierrez traveled to Mexico in April with two pieces, and performed in Mexico City and Guadalajara in two different UNAM-sponsored theater venues. UNAM had also organized workshops with students and community members, and had planned to do some post-performance discussions. Najera, the curator who selected the tour, had seen Miguel’s work live in New York City, and was clear he wanted to present the work to audiences in Mexico.

Miguel reported that he definitely felt a certain amount of risk in presenting his pieces Difficult Bodies and Retrospective Exhibitionist to the Mexican UNAM audience. The work is most definitely challenging for a NYC audience, and there is always an ‘unknown factor’ when taking your work to a new city outside of your own country. Although Mexico City is a world capital, there is not necessarily as much access to the same kind of contemporary experimental dance and performance. Since the tour, Najera said that the work was a complete success with audiences, and that there was wide interest in bring Gutierrez back to continue to work with both dance and theater students across the federal university system.

Both companies emphasized how the participant response from workshops was particularly important to the overall success of the tour, and that the tour experiences helped them grow as a company.

Because of the varying cultural, economic and linguistic realities across Latin America, it’s difficult to generalize or define what touring is ‘like’ south of the border, but a very large number of U.S. artists continue to want to break into this market, or build on the travel they have done to select countries. While there is a vast range of touring locales across Latin America — from well-established and soundly-funded annual international festivals to rural community theaters — there is consistently also an amazing amount of work produced and presented for very large audiences, with very few resources. Festivals in all major capitals in every Latin American and Caribbean country create accessible programs, run thousands of varied and well-attended theaters, and seem to be keeping very alive the concept of festival and theater making. On PAP’s curator trips to many of these festivals, we’ve experienced this hospitality and community buy-in first hand, and there is definitely a curiosity and desire to see work by more U.S.-based artists. Often, ideas of planning (read time sensitivity), marketing and audience development are very different from our conventions in the U.S., but there is almost always a jaw-dropping audience turnout and resourcefulness on the part of the producer that seems miraculous.

PAP supports touring and long terms residencies for U.S. artists in Latin American and the Caribbean. For more information on NPN’s International Projects, please contact edoud@npnweb.org.

For more information on La RED, visit www.laredlatinoamericana.com.

photos are courtesy of Rudi Goblen

The National Performance Network Receives Support from American Express for the Growth and Development of Arts Leaders

NEW ORLEANS, LA (September 29, 2011) – American Express awarded the National Performance Network (NPN) $25,000 to support its Mentorship and Leadership Initiative (MLI).  The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative gives artist-centered organizations time and space for personal renewal, resources to support leadership development and succession in a planned and strategic way, and the ability to create a mechanism for quick and easy access to the intellectual capital inherent in artist-centered organizations.

This is NPN’s first grant from American Express Foundation. The funds will support five to seven Mentorship and Leadership Initiative projects over the next year. Recognizing that leadership is exercised in many ways and that people and organizations have diverse learning needs, MLI allows a wide range of projects. In addition to supporting attendance at institutes, workshops or trainings, NPN also honors a traditional journeyman/apprentice model, where long-time, ongoing associations build competency and craft.

Since 2006, NPN has made more than 50 Mentorship and Leadership Initiative Awards to NPN Partner organizations.“ The NPN Mentorship and Leadership Initiative has served as a fulcrum in assisting and moving a talented individual to a core position in our organization,” says Mary Luft, Executive Director of Tigertail Productions in Miami Florida.“ In light of the economy, professional development budgets are the first item to be cut. In order to keep the field moving forward, investment in individual growth is needed more than ever. American Express recognizes that transforming and diversifying the current landscape of non-profit arts organizations begins with the development of leaders.” says Stanlyn Brevé, National Program Director of the National Performance Network.

About the National Performance Network (NPN)

The National Performance Network (NPN) is a group of diverse cultural organizers, including artists, working to create meaningful partnerships and to provide leadership that enables the practice and public experience of the arts in the United States. NPN annually leverages nearly $3,000,000 in financial support for the creation and touring of contemporary performance work. The Forth Fund is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.

About American Express

American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. American Express appreciates the impact that excellent leaders can have on business and society as a whole and dedicates significant resources to attract, develop and retain talented employees with leadership potential.  The Company also extends this commitment to leadership development to a broader community. One of American Express’ three platforms for its philanthropy is Developing New Leaders for Tomorrow. Under this giving initiative, American Express is making grants focused on training high potential emerging leaders to tackle important issues in the 21st century.  Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, foursquare.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/companies/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

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Steve Bailey, NPN's New COO

The National Performance Network is proud to announce that Steve Bailey has been engaged as Chief Operating Officer, effective September 1, 2011.

Bailey, co-founder and producing director of Jump-Start Performance Co. in San Antonio, has a long relationship with NPN. Jump-Start joined NPN as a Partner in 1994, and Bailey was the board chair right after the critical transition period when NPN was becoming independent from Dance Theatre Workshop. Bailey says, “NPN is one of a very few national organizations that have a strong, consistent concern for artists. Those values really attracted me to work for NPN. They have created – and continue to modify – systems to create, produce and tour new work. I have great respect for its history, its leaders and its potential, and I’m excited to be joining a terrific staff team.”

Trained as a theatre director and lighting designer at Trinity University in San Antonio, while at Jump-Start Bailey directed 75 original productions seen across the U.S. and South America. He will continue his artistic connections with Jump-Start for the near future; he is co-directing the 2011 season opener and will continue his long-time work with Divadlo z Pasaze, a Slovak theatre company for mentally challenged people.

Bailey, 53, is widely recognized nationally as the face of Jump-Start, but he and the company have made a focused effort in the past few years to develop and share leadership across the organization. A new producing director for the company will be named mid-September.

São Paulo, the team’s first destination, is a sprawling city of 11 million inhabitants, high-rises, high prices, traffic jams, smog, and crime. It is also the largest metropolis in Brazil and the heart of its financial, economic, commercial and cultural life with explosive energy, artistic creativity and relentless activity. Home to millions of immigrants, São Paulo is one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse cities in the world, reflected in the mix of cuisines, theatres, opera and dance companies.

Founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1554, São Paulo remained dormant until the 19^th century when the coffee commerce attracted financial interests and waves of immigrant workers. The city’s urban expansion at the cusp of the 20^th century was not regulated by urban planning and today’s landscape is characterized by a rapid dynamic of construction and destruction resulting in a chaotic and eclectic mix of national heritage buildings and modern masterpieces by celebrated architects.

The team was lodged in the historic center of town, half a block from the famous Copan building by Oscar Niemeyer with a roof top café overlooking the city and the Italica building, the tallest in São Paulo and in walking distance from Praça de la Republica and the Municipal Theater, a jewel of baroque architecture. Despite the unforgiving heat and humidity, the presenters took in as much as the city as time permitted by the intense program curated by Celso Curi which offered an interesting and diverse overview of the current dance groups working in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The works ranged from young and upcoming solo hip hop artist Diego Granato who, with charm and humor, improvised pieces for indoor and outdoor spaces, choreographer Marcos Abranches who questions the idealization of the body in dance from his perspective as a person with a disability, and performer/visual artist Michel Groisman who creates dances for the objects he designs, to mid-career choreographers Marcia Milhazes who, in collaboration with visual artist Beatriz Milhazes, creates elegant pieces about Brazilian culture, to icon Angel Vianna who after dancing with Rudolf Nureyev, established a school in Mina Gerais which trained many of the choreographers and dancers on the Brazilian stage today.

As most of the showcases took place in the beautifully renovated cultural center of the State of São Paulo Department of Culture, located in the Jewish neighborhood next to La Luz, the team had the opportunity to visit this area which is undergoing major gentrification and urban transformation. Predominantly inhabited by poor, working class population living in illegally rented dilapidated and over-crowded apartments with shared bathrooms and kitchens, prostitutes, crack addicts and other creators of informal commerce, La Luz has been identified by the City as priority for a political program of urban renewal with the intention of transforming it into a “cultural neighborhood.” The first projects include the renovation or re-utilization of La Luz’ several historic buildings such as the Luz train station which was recently renovated to include the Portuguese Language Museum, the renovated Pinacoteca do Estado, and the partially reutilized, Júlio Prestes train station which includes the Sala São Paulo concert hall, home to the State Symphonic Orchestra. The first housing demolitions are under way, leaving gaping holes waiting for new construction.

In addition to showcases, the team attended full-length productions at various SESC facilities such as Pompeia, a converted factory designed by Italian architects Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi, and Pinheiros, an impressive facility inaugurated in 2004. This gave the team the opportunity to meet Danilo Santos de Miranda, the visionary SESC director, and understand the structure of this unique national non-profit organization which is the largest provider of social and cultural activities in Brazil.

Created in 1946 to “inspire fraternization and bring together mankind,” the Social Service of Commerce (SESC) is funded mainly by Brazilian commerce and service industries through a mandatory tax passed in 1946 which dictates that every company pay 1.5% of its total payroll into the SESC Fund. SESC. São Paulo alone has the highest annual operating budget of  US$598 million, with 32 centers, the largest concentration in the country.

After three whirlwind days of meetings, showcases, full productions, museum visits and dinners, the  U.S. and La RED teams left São Paulo for Curitiba accompanied by Celso Curi, our host. After a shaky arrival where the team was lead in a treasure hunt for an open restaurant, we were taken to a comfortable hotel to get ready for the opening of the Curitiba International Theater Festival. A Hollywood-style event organized in the spectacular setting of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, the festival was inaugurated with speeches by the Ministry of Culture, the director of Itaú Bank, the main festival sponsor, the Mayor and the Festival Director, followed by an open air performance of Richard III directed by Gabriel Villela, a well known and respected director, followed by a party for a thousand guests with food, drinks and a dreamy atmosphere.

The following days the team attended the rehearsal of Debra Colker’s Tathyana, a new work commissioned by the festival and based on Evguêni Oniéguin, a novel in verses by Aleksandr Púchkin; Argentinian company Timbre Quatro’s Tercer Cuerpo, a work about loneliness and disfunctionality directed by Claudio Tolcachir with intelligence and wit; Newton Moreno’s The Book, a work about the process of going blind performed with great skill by Eduardo Moscovis, a well-known TV actor; and Cia Atores de Laura’s, Adultery directed by Daniel Herz and inspired by the universe of playwright Luigi Pirandello.

As the shows took place in spaces throughout the city, the team had the opportunity to visit different areas, its parks and museums. After the chaotic experience of São Paulo, the team landed in a oasis of tranquility. The antithesis of São Paulo, Curitiba is the Capital of the state of Paraná (state) with a population of almost two million people. Although it lacks the excitement and energy of São Paulo, according to The Reader’s Digest, it is the best place to live in Brazil. Unlike São Paulo’s uncontrolled urban expansion, pollution and administrative corruption, Curitiba is well organized, clean (in 2007, the city was placed third in a list of “15 Green Cities” in the world, according the U.S. magazine Grist, and is considered an international model of urban planning, transportation and environmental sustainability, boasting 554 sq ft of green space per inhabitant. Curitiba Master Plan was adopted in 1968 and designed by Jaime Lerner, who later became mayor. The plan suggested strict controls on urban sprawl, a reduction of traffic in the downtown area, preservation of Curitiba’s Historic Sector, and a convenient and affordable public transit system. Curitiba was recently recommended by UNESCO as a model for the reconstruction of the cities of Afghanistan after the U.S. invaded in 2001.

These two very different experiences made the trip an enriching experience. The grace, kindness and generosity of our hosts made it memorable.