By Heart - Program

by heart

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WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY

TIAGO RODRIGUES A TEATRO NACIONAL D. MARIA II PRODUCTION PRESENTED BY CANADIAN STAGE IN COLLABORATION WITH THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS DE TORONTO

MAY 30 - JUN 2

WRIT TE N & PE R FO R M E D BY

TIAGO RODRIGUES TE X T WITH FR AG M E NTS & Q UOTE S BY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, RAY BRADBURY, GEORGE STEINER, JOSEPH BRODSKY, among others SE T, PRO PS & COSTU M E

MAGDA BIZARRO E NG LIS H TR ANSL ATION

TIAGO RODRIGUES R E VISE D BY

JOANA FRAZÃO STAG E MANAG E R

SARA CIPRIANO E XECUTIVE PRO DUC TIO N

RITA FORJAZ E XECUTIVE PRO DUC TIO N O N TH E O RIG INAL CR E ATIO N

MAGDA BIZARRO RITA MENDES CO - PRO DUCE RS

O ESPAÇO DO TEMPO MARIA MATOS TEATRO MUNICIPAL ORIGINAL CREATION BY MUNDO PERFEITO CREATED WITH THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF GOVERNO DE PORTUGAL | DGARTES

THIS PRODUCTION RUNS APPROXIMATELY 90 -120 MINUTES WITH NO INTERMISSION

CREATOR’S NOTE “The last thing to leave our dying lips may very well be a poem.” This is what essayist Joseph Brodsky wrote. Either this or something quite similar. I’m quoting from memory. Brodsky claims that the poem is born as a device to help us apprehend the world, simplifying the task of apprehending it. So rather than an end in itself, the poem would be a means or a tool to reach the goal of knowing a world by heart. Poetry would thus be the art of creating mnemonics.

In this show, I tell stories related to my grandmother, to Boris Pasternak or to Ray Bradbury. I quote literature professor George Steiner, who refers to the texts we keep in our memory as “the decoration for the house of our interior,” perhaps ignorant of the fact that in Portuguese, “decorating” is a synonym of “learning by heart.” This play is essentially the portrayal of a search for the ultimate book, the only one that my grandmother would keep inside her head once her eyes failed her. My journey continues, for such are the ways of memory.

A couple hundred spectators have already learned this sonnet by my side, on stage, in several languages, and I hesitate to believe that, even when the play’s tour is over, this journey will ever be over. Because I know that it is a journey in search of what might be my grandmother’s last words. And perhaps even my own last words.

TIAGO RODRIGUES

ARTISTIC DIRECTORS’ NOTES In the novel The Heart is An Involuntary Muscle (2004), Monique Proulx reminds us that literature is built with ideas and phrases borrowed, if not stolen, from others. In this story, her protagonist who is himself a novelist, seems to collect other’s truths, as if constructing a work of art was somehow an innately “inauthentic” enterprise. Proulx is surely right.

And yet, in the Tiago Rodrigues performance that you are seeing today, the act of learning by heart has a completely different purpose: this internationallyrenowned Portuguese artist reminds us that the feeling of strangeness associated with the theatre is closely linked to the feeling of familiarity one finds in someone else’s story. In other words, to reach our hearts, Rodrigues tells a story that is both his own and ours. This is not surprising since the most universal tales are always strangely familiar to us.

In so doing, Rodrigues puts emphasis on a second fact: the importance of empathy, which has become so terribly important in our time. Identification with another can inspire us to appropriate, to recall and to learn by heart.

This is what makes us human, living in a community within a larger society.

Tonight, guided by this master storyteller, we hope you can enjoy a fruitful visit to your own heart, an involuntary muscle delightfully full of feelings that invites only “authentic” experiences.

Enjoy the show!

BRENDAN HEALY Artistic Director, Canadian Stage JOËL BEDDOWS Artistic Director, Théâtre français de Toronto

TIAGO RODRIGUES

MAGDA BIZARRO

SARA CIPRIANO

TIAGO RODRIGUES Writer & Performer Since he started out as an actor 20 years ago, Tiago Rodrigues has always looked at theater as a human assembly. In 2003, he co-founded with Magda Bizarro the company Mundo Perfeito, with which he created and presented performances in more than 20 countries. He collaborated with a large number of theatre artists, gave theater lessons in several schools and wrote screenplays, articles, poetry and essays. His latest performances (By Heart, Bovary, The way she dies or Sopro) granted him international recognition and, in 2018, he was awarded with the XV Europe Prize Theatrical Realities. The theatre of Tiago Rodrigues is deeply rooted in the idea of writing for and with the actors, searching a poetical transformation of reality through theatrical tools. He is the Artistic Director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon since 2015.

MAGDA BIZARRO Set, Props & Costume Designer Magda Bizarro graduated in chemistry and was involved in scientific research, previously to her work in the arts. After collaborating with several Portuguese theatre collectives during the 90’s as an executive producer and stage photographer, Magda created the company Mundo Perfeito, alongside Tiago Rodrigues, in 2003, where she was involved as one of the main creative contributors in over 30 creations that the company has presented in several countries. Magda is now the artistic assistant in Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. Beside the development of artistic ideas for some of the performances, she has been working in the set, costumes, communication and dramaturgical development, establishing herself as a creative producer with an extremely versatile approach to contemporary creation. She has also been working as a producer with other artists, like the film director Tiago Guedes and the choreographer Rui Horta.

SARA CIPRIANO Stage Manager Sara completed the Theatre Production course at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema in Portugal. During her BA she had the opportunity to attend the Stage Manager course at Rose Bruford College in England for six months. In 2016, she started her career as a Stage Manager and a Theatre Producer. Between 2016 and the present year, she worked as a Stage Manager at the National Theatre D. Maria II and at The Days of Music Festival at CCB. In past year Sara not only worked as Theatre Producer at several independent projects but also joined Formiga AtĂłmica Theatre Company Production Team for a professional internship, managing the national tour of the show Montanha Rus.

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