“Brujaja” reviewed by Roxanne Arvizu

Highly Recommend **** If you are in the mood for some laughs mixed with cultural education, afro-caribbean music, and
sprinkles of Spanish, then you cannot miss the upcoming streaming of Brujaja, a self-proclaimed
“hybrid experience” that had its world premiere this past weekend, at the closing of the fourth
Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, “Destinos.” Brujaja is a well written, trend-setting
play that seeks to be a counter narrative of something that to many may be taboo, but to others is
a tradition of love, respect, and honor.

With Brujaja, UrbanTheater Company elevates its
commitment to shed light on issues faced by their audience’s diverse backgrounds, and creates a
new breed in the visual arts with its theatrically-filmed-screening, ingeniously devised at a time
where the arts were directly impacted by the pandemic.

Written by Melissa DuPrey in an effort to finally see herself reflected on stage, the play is a
coming of age story centered around Ife (electrically played by Brieann Jasmine), a young,
lesbian, Latine woman of African descent and dark skin, determined to come out of the shadow
of her older, lighter-skinned sister, while living in her mother’s Botanica, and trying to perfect
the familial practice of Espiritismo. Yet, the play is much more than that. Duprey elegantly
wrote a sitcom-like text (surely perfected due to the numerous tv credits she has under her belt)
with an interwoven layer of subjects of colonization, gentrification, identity, healing, forgiveness,
egocentrism, ancestry, history, commercialism, religion, sexism (… shall I go on?).

What’s more, she did not write it in a way that is force fed down our throats (hard to find these days), but
in a subtle and entertaining way that opens conversation and invites you to learn. In Ife, DuPrey
created a rich character who is woke, but humble; bold, but vulnerable; quick-witted, but kind;
and she managed to create six other characters of equal and/or more complexity. Though the
only white man in the play (in a short, but memorable, scene-stealing performance by Jimmy
Man) was used to highlight the effects of gentrification from an individual, deeply human
perspective, it was written with humor, honesty, and respect. DuPrey’s characters are so well
written, that we can easily imagine them all having longer, individual stories, as part of another
play or, again, tv show. Her talent simplified the job of envisioning this as a film, and a new
breed was born.

In Brujaja, theater and film met at the direction of Miranda Gonzalez and the photography
of Matt McCanna. Added to the miz was Mariko Charvat as head editor.They created an engrossing experience which included
poignant close-ups when heavy words such as, “science and the things that come from heavens
must respect each other;” “to live, is to love;” “healing can’t come with ego;” and “you cannot
pretend to know all the answers” were dropped on our laps. It was shot on multi-cam in a theater
setting where we can see the darkness beyond the sets, and yet, are able to be fully engaged with
the actors, to the point where we don’t need an elaborate stage or background on-screen to be
engaged in the story. Gonzalez’s direction required multiple takes and, though we are briefly
able to differentiate between some of the takes, every performance was full, convincing, truthful,
open. This speaks to the talent of the cast, also including Isaly Viana, Wendy Mateo, Beatrice
Jamaica, Maria Velazquez, and Andrew Neftali Perez. As if that were not enough, Gonzalez
cleverly found a way to incorporate dance and music into a play already culturally satisfying.
Further putting Brujaja in a category on its own.

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes and in true Latine fashion, UrbanTheater Company didn’t
sit around and wait for the theaters to reopen. Instead, they created an experience that both
allows you to use your imagination and focus on the dialogue and emotion in the actor, but also
allows for cinematic shots and angles, and Afro-Caribbean dances in between acts. This new
hybrid is surely here to stay, and must undoubtedly be replicated, if we are to hold on to one of
our favorite forms of art in this unpredictable time, when we need to be harmoniously connected
the most.

Needless to say, at 1hr 45 min, Brujaja is highly recommended. Where else will you
learn where “Iburu, Iboya, Ibollelle” came from? Have no clue what that is? Don’t worry,
Brujaja also comes with its own glossary. So mark your calendars and be sure to catch this
one-of-a-kind piece of art.
PRODCUCTION TEAM
Writer – Melissa DuPrey
Director – Miranda González
Director of Photography/Editor – Matt McCanna
Production/Stage Manager – Michelle Housh
Head Editor – Mariko Charvat
Set Design – Regina Garcia
Asst. Set Design – Lindsay Mummert
Muralist – John Vergara
Technical Directors – Manuel Ortiz, JacoB Mulcahy
Lighting Design – Jared Gooding
Props Design – Lonnae Hickman
Sound Design – Giselle Castro
Dramaturg – Jessica Rodriguez
Casting – Adelina Feldman-Schultz
Executive Producers – Tonio Bruno, Miranda Gonzalez, and Ivan Vega
Photographer/Artwork – Joel Maisonet
Graphic Design/Layout – Elena Magdaleno
Production assistants – yaritza Rodriguez, Ignaik
drummers – Arif Smith, Jean-Christophe Leroy, Marvin Vega
Dancer/Dance Costume Design – Tiffany Mondy
Singer – Quincy Raggs

VENUE PARTNER
National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
3015 W. Division Street
Chicago, 60622  312-767-UTC1

www.urbantheaterchicago.org for info and announcement for streaming of this work.