Tucked inside a red-brick townhouse on E. 140th Street in the South Bronx, sits the iD Studio Theater with a mission to “advance the artistic and social empowerment of immigrant communities through innovative work in the performing arts.” This year, iD celebrated its 25th anniversary by joining the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY and participating in Teatro Fest NYC for the first time — a nearly two-month showcase of multi-disciplinary performances performed, written, directed and produced by all-Hispanic creatives.
Their featured shows include “The Vagabond Hotel” which follows immigrant families chasing the American Dream in 1940s Harlem; “Arsenio,” a tribute to Arsenio Rodriguez, a prolific blind Cuban musician and composer of the 1950s; and the experimental, two-person play, “Petra.”
Written by the theater’s resident playwright Camilo Vergara, the play takes place across three floors, as the audience not only moves through the space, but also through Petra’s stages of life.
Scene one opens in a small living room with a small couch. The titular character, Petra (Sandie Luna,) enters first. She wears a black dress, black shoes and a stoic sadness on her face. Then enters her partner Diego (Jonathan Hare,) also in all black. Petra’s father has died. Yet, that doesn’t seem the reason for her sullenness.
This is her first time back home in a while because, as Diego puts it, every visit destroys her. As the two speak, they broach her father’s alcoholism and hint at his physical abuse, but never towards Petra. She decides she wants to move back to her hometown where she takes a position at a juvenile detention center. The job destroys her. As the couple exits, a recording of Petra reciting a soliloquy, laden with the sound of chaos and desperation, plays overhead:
“And then there are these boys coming to my desk, testing me, pushing me, wanting attention, kindness, a smile…like I’m supposed to entertain them. I can’t just tell them to back off. I have to stay open, available, even when I’m empty inside. They cross my boundaries and I don’t know how to protect myself.”
The room goes dark and the audience is asked to move out of the building and up to the second floor.
“This is a text written on commission for a show that I wanted to do using the whole house as the set,” said German Jaramillo, founder and artistic director of iD Studio Theater.
“[Petra and Diego] recall many elements of what her life was afterward on the second floor – and then on the third level, it’s already like the loft where she lives once she has managed to overcome all those problems.”
In scene two, Petra is in bed. Diego sits in a chair across from her and the audience is forced to stand in-the-round. Sharing the space with the actors in such close proximity breaks the “fourth wall” and amplifies the discomfort and awkwardness being shared by the characters as they navigate the aftermath of a very serious and traumatic event. In a bid to make Petra feel “better,” Diego offers her chocolate covered raisins, her favorite.
But Petra has a resentment for Diego and treats him curtly, with backhanded compliments.
“[My mother] doesn’t think you’re an idiot,” she tells him. “She thinks you’re a coward. Not to trust. But not an idiot.” “I always liked your mamushka,” responds Diego.
Nearly the entire play is delivered in poetic one-liners, each packed with heavy connotations. The dissonance in their conversations is a microcosmic of their relationship. Diego’s inability to understand Petra is apparent. He walks out with a luggage. She runs after him, also with a luggage. Everyone moves to the third floor.
Petra’s life-long battle with depression is the heartbeat of the play. Themes of not being listened to, the feeling of never being enough and craving to be accepted as she is and not for what she can be, repeat themselves throughout the script.
On the third floor, Petra cooks an egg dish, filling the air with the smell of onion. Diego sits on the couch. Petra seems empowered, but still angry. She’s dating someone new, she tells Diego. So is he, “kind of,” Diego tells her.
After partaking in a glass of wine and reminiscing through dance, Petra tells Diego his cab is downstairs. Diego walks out the door – again – and presumably for the last time.
“I was thinking about past lives, you know, like, previous relationships,” playwright Vergara told the Bronx Times. “When we are with that person, we are too in love, it’s too much fear and we don’t pay enough attention to them. And then time passes and then you say, ‘oh, that relationship with that person taught me that or made me evolve in that sense.’”
The play forces introspection and forgiveness of those who once graced our lives, but still live in our hearts. It highlights the simultaneous struggle and catharsis of letting go.
As the audience returns to the first floor, they are invited to indulge in complimentary wine and small bites alongside the actors and crew. Doing things differently while embracing community defines iD Studio Theater.
In addition to putting on innovative performances, they also provide a community building theater workshop where members of the neighborhood can train in stage acting for free and are sometimes cast in plays.
“I did play Dracula in middle school, but besides that, I’ve never been in a play or taken acting classes,” said Hare, who plays Diego. Although he has no formal actor training, he has sung opera for more than two decades and offers a free introductory lesson for anyone interested.
Despite its small capacity of no more than about two dozen audience members, the theater has produced more than 20 original plays while staying keen on the community that surrounds them since they moved into their Bronx location in 2016.
“I think that is the biggest takeaway, that people know that we exist and that our doors are open and that they’re always welcome and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe,” added Luna whom plays Petra and is also iD Studio’s executive director.
“Petra” runs through April 19. Those who cannot afford the $25 ticket can contact the theater directly for accessible pricing.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
