The Pessoa project: three readings

These readings were part of our development process for Casa de Pessoa (first performances: August 23-26, 2012).

In June, we got together groups of performers, dramaturgs, playwrights, poets, and other curious folk to read and play with a script-in-progress. The script is available to read here.

Over the course of three evenings, we:

• learned about “fado” and decided on the possible title of “Casa de Pessoa” (Pessoa’s House/House of Person, based on “Casa de Fado,” places where fado is sung);
• discovered the red thread (as the Germans say) running through the script, in a line that’s already there but buried: “We’re here to free Pessoa’s heteronyms from the prison of Pessoa’s words”;
• started racking our brains about how to better define the relationship of the Zeniths;
• added some bleating, read about the “other” definition of “heteronym,” and got excited about audience participation possibilities;
• started to take baby steps into exploring our apartment space;
• realized that Caeiro is in the nouns, Reis in the verbs, and de Campos is in his own head;

…and a lot more. (If you were involved in the readings, and want to leave any thoughts about the script or the workshops, we’d love to have you comment on this page!)

Pessoa round 2 from Yinzerspielen on Vimeo.

Pessoa round 3 from Yinzerspielen on Vimeo.

Thanks to some fantastic feedback and productive evenings, Patrick and Cory are working on revisions to the script; stay tuned for next steps.