September 24, 2002


Promoting Social Justice Through Theater
Theater Groups From Around the World
Coming to International Conference
Oct. 3 — Oct. 6

(San Francisco)—Theater artists, scholars and activists in human rights and social change from all over the world are coming to the University of San Francisco for a conference on using theatre to promote social justice. The conference will be held at the University of San Francisco Oct. 3-6.

Countries represented include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, India, Nigeria, Peru, Uganda and the United States.

“Theater and social change can be deeply connected,” said Roberto Gutierrez Varea, professor of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of San Francisco. “Theater can play an important role in the process of awareness and restoration. It can be a transformative experience, both for those on stage and in the audience.”

Participants will discuss performance-related issues and share strategies, ideas and performance works. Organizers hope the conference will generate synergy, spawn collaborative projects among participating artists, create new scholarly initiatives, and allow social activists to discuss and examine the role that theatricality plays in the telling of a broader social narrative.

“Our focus this year is on changing spaces: looking at where and how art happens in response to the needs of justice,” Varea said. “It will examine space as locus of transformation, creativity and social participation, and the role that these play in the shaping of personal and community identities.”

The Regional Alternative Theatre (RAT) conference is sponsored by the performing arts and social justice major at the University of San Francisco.

Participants include Groupo Cultural Yuyachkani, a theatre activist group from Peru that had a 30-year history of performing in reaction to—and in defiance of—politics in Peru. Also attending are participants from the Playhouse in Ireland, whose 2002 play Marie—A Woman From Derry about homeless alcoholic packed houses and stunned critics, who called it “magnificent” (Irish Examiner), “spellbinding” (RTE Guide) and “Warm, funny, exasperating, and ultimately, tragic” (Belfast Telegraph).

The conference will feature a number of free performances, including:

Rosa Cuchillo, about the mother of a violence victim in Peru.
Friday, Oct. 4th, 1 p.m.
USF Gleeson Library steps (2130 Fulton Street).
Gropo Cultural Yuyachkani, Peru (presented in Spanish with English translation)

Adios Ayacucho, about a peasant killed by the military.
Saturday, Oct. 5th, 7:30 p.m.
USF Presentation Theatre (2350 Turk Boulevard).
Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, Peru (presented in Spanish with English translation)

Boxing with Ghosts, 7 Stories of the Death and Resurrection — a series of monologues that tell stories of survival and which bring the performers face to face with the darkest pages of their lives.
Friday, Oct. 4th, 7:30 p.m.
USF Presentation Theater (2350 Turk Boulevard).
Soapstone Theater Company. A Bay Area theater company whose performers are male ex-offenders and female survivors of violent crime. It has been featured on National Public Radio as well as local and national television.

As a part of the conference, the Visual and Performing Arts Department at USF will lead a march in memory of actress Evelyn Hernandez, who was murdered earlier this year while nine months pregnant. The march will begin in San Francisco at the Instituto Familiar de La Raza (Mission Street at 25th. Street) on Oct. 5th, 11:30 a.m.

For more information, call Roberto Gutierrez Varea at (415) 422-2071, Peter Novak at (415) 422-5286 or Monica Leifer, assistant director of USF media relations, at (415) 422-2697.