Director: Everett Dixon
Playwright: Derek Walcott
Institution: Universidad del Valle - Colombia
Venue: Univalle Theatre - Aud. 4
Event: ATEC 9th International Forum
The Director
Everett Dixon, professor in the Theatre Arts Department. Actor, director, teacher and translator, he studied theatre directing at the GITIS Academy in Moscow, under Peter Fomenko. In 2002 he was made professor at Del Valle University, in Cali, Colombia, where he has staged more than twenty plays, many of his own translations of classical and contemporary plays unknown in the Spanish-speaking world, often with an emphasis on plays for women. Among his stagings are: Beef No Fish based on Derek Walcott, Don Julio Took Him Away based on August Wilson, and Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel. As a laboratory in support of the development of the Young Creators' Workshop, an outreach program of the Theatre Department in Buenaventura, he founded the Four Worlds Research Group in 2008 devoted to research in post-colonial playwrights. Its first official production, The Piano Lesson (in the Jungle) by August Wilson, was directed by Manuel Viveros.
Synopsis
Dream on Fire Mountain, a play inspired in the dramaturgy of the Santa Lucian author Derek Walcott, is a contemporary comic drama which deals with the desire of a long-colonized people to change the condition of their lives. Titi, an old charcoal burner, sets out on a journey to discover his true identity, after witnessing a vision where he sees himself as the saviour of his race. He sets out on this dream-filled journey with his faithful friend Mosquito, who is all hope in this struggle for survival. Mosquito becomes Titi's conscience, urging him to wake from his dream which will only become true when he decides to abandon the prison of his life. Faced with the challenge of expressing Walcott's dream, the cast and director have decided to adapt the play to a Colombian context, and this stage version evokes those multicultural peoples who have struggled to maintain their identity in a hostile modern world.
