Las Facultades

World Premiere – 2010
Written by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya
Directed by Jorge B. Merced
Performed in English and Spanish with supertitles

CAST
Varín Ayala, Rosal Colón, Sol Crespo, Koko De Jesus (2010), Modesto Lacen (2009), Orlando Ríos, Carlos Valencia

TEAM
Production Design Concept Jorge B. Merced
Digital Scenery and Lighting Design Jessica Moya
Digital Avatar Sequence Milton Ramírez Malavé
Translations Aravind E. Adyanthaya

ABOUT
A queer exploration of violence, religion, cyberculture and family. The Faculties traces the criminal quotidian life of a Puerto Rican family, as it becomes invaded by supernatural powers . Winner of the Casa del Teatro Playwriting Award (Dominican Republic) and of Pregones Theater’s 2008 Asuncion Queer Playwrights Project.

SCENE SYNOPSIS

1. Mentalism- The members of the family at the table try to read each others’ minds and desires.
2. Audition– Brian Kevin hears his parents at night. He thinks about rebellion and leaving home.
3. Astrality– The Grandfather (Abuelo) and La Nena (his Granddaughter) project themselves in cyberspace. They meet. They share the same Avatar.
4. Contagion– Paco (the Husband) goes to an antique shop to buy a talisman that would allow him to change sex in order to satisfy his wife.
5. Somnambulism– La Nena reads terrible news from the pa­per and sings her grandfather to sleep.
6. Magnetism– Brian Kevin and the Family’s Server (Servi­dor) play a game of domination.
7. Illusionism– Madga talks about the illusions of her life while her husband moves to her words.
8. Vampirism– Paco has used the ex-voto to castrate himself. The family sees it as a miracle. We learn it is part of Servidor’s plans to control the household.
9. Pyrokinesis– The grandfather goes to the local tax-collecting agency and burns all its docu­ments, liberating the country.
10. Levitation– The grandfather and the children watch the parents levitating in the park.
11. Posession– The characters get inside the bodies of each other. The server’s plan to turn the family into homunculi is revealed. The server tries to possess the Abuelo, but Abuelo burns him to ashes. Finally the family possesses La Nena. She exits to marry Abuelo.
12. Precognition– La Nena tells Abuelo how she has killed all her family in their sleep. She sings him to sleep.
13. Necromancy– A meeting between Brian Kevin and La Nena. They watch the pictures of their family, now dead. La Nena tells Brian Kevin she has killed him too. He asserts he has escaped.
14. Clairvoyance- In a white room, Brian Kevin and the Serv­er meet. They drink coffee as they get ready to serve a new family or, maybe, just take a stroll and look at houses.