FIT 2.0, The Second Annual International Online Festival by Julia W. Rath

Article on FIT 2.0, The Second Annual International Online Festival of Latino Theater

The Second Annual International Online Festival of Latino Theater (a/k/a FIT 2.0) is currently being held March 18 through 27, 2021, sponsored by Water People Theater. Thirteen plays from all around the world, presented in Spanish and English, are being screened via Zoom by select judges and a virtual audience, each of whom will vote for their favorites. The results of the competition will be announced at noon CDT on Saturday, March 27th, when cash prizes of $400, $600, and $1000 will be awarded. The top three winners will subsequently have their videos shown online on Thursdays in April at 7:00 p.m. CDT at “ONLINE SE@SON live,” Water People Theater’s virtual stage.

For the purpose of writing this article, I was asked to sample the programming by watching one play of my choice. To narrow down the options, I decided: 1) The show should be near the beginning of the run (either March 19 or 20); 2) It should be created in the U.S.A. (so as not to favor any one international entry over another); and 3) It should be written by a woman (considering it’s also Women’s History Month). That narrowed things down to one contender: “Memorias de una Presidiaria” (“Memories of a Convict”) in Spanish with English subtitles. The video was screened on Saturday evening, March 20th, during a live event, introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

A one-woman show, playwright/actor Catherine French captures what it feels like to be a convicted felon in a guerilla prison in Colombia, ruled by the Cartagena drug cartel. Falsely imprisoned for the poisoning and murder of her husband Alberto, she narrates her own story via letters she has written and entries in her diary. Inspired by Colombian author Fernando Soto Aparicio’s book “While Rains”, the playwright depicts the horrors and emotional angst she confronted during her years in prison and describes sharing a jail cell with three other women. Then after her untimely escape, a different kind of confinement awaited: namely, a life of prostitution followed by thoughts of suicide and personal regrets that her life was not destined to turn out any better. Such is the fate of a Colombian woman with no financial means, whose parents could not bear their daughter’s incarceration—and whose lover (Fernando) spurned her, thinking that she could actually be guilty of committing such a terrible crime. “Anger is inevitable,” she says. “It climbs our legs and suffocates us.”

I will admit that the performance grew on me over time. The main character starts out being quite forlorn and distant at the beginning but draws us in during the course of recounting her abuse and how she has abused herself. “How do you fill the emptiness of your soul?” she asks. This is a woman who lives in the shadows and has no name but speaks her truth. A major takeaway is this line: “Life is a mist that prevents us from seeing what is really there.”

Though the lighting, costuming, and makeup sometimes seem overly dramatic at times, this was necessary to break up a solo performance. Director Héctor Florez does a nice job with a minimalist set and a one-camera design.

In advance of the show, we were given instructions on the video stream in both English and Spanish. We were told to click on Gallery View in Zoom and click the three dots (…) in the blue button on the upper-right-hand-side of our own picture and select “Hide non-video participants.” To receive the English language subtitles, we had to enable closed captioning at the bottom of the screen. But my Zoom screen did not list that as an option—at least not initially. Perhaps this was a quirk with my computer setup, but I had to do some manipulation on the fly. I believe I went to a settings tab on the menu bar and clicked on everything I could think of. Only then did I see the closed-captioning option. Once I enabled closed captioning (and saw the CC at the bottom of the screen), I discovered that the type was much too small, and I went back and increased the size to the largest possible. The captions themselves were done nicely; but on a few occasions, they came after the fact or something seemed to be missing.

At the end of the performance, there was a brief after-talk, hosted in Spanish by Rebeca Alemán, president and founder of Water People Theater, and Iraida Tapias, its artistic director. Executive assistant Rubén Meléndez summed up much of the conversation in English, at which time we were given instructions on how to vote for video contest entries.

Water People Theater, based in Miami and Chicago, is in its 20th anniversary year. It has as its aim to strengthen solidarity among Latin peoples and demand excellence in the theater arts. The second annual online festival represents a means of celebrating creativity during the pandemic and demonstrating talent without having to travel.

For a complete schedule of events (including the full slate of plays) and more information about the festival (FIT 2.0), please go to https://waterpeople.org/fit-2-0/.

Tickets are $7 per play, with complimentary viewing available for those who apply.
Please visit https://waterpeople.org/box-office/ to purchase tickets.

To learn more about Water People Theater and their mission, see https://waterpeople.org/.