VILLA Connections in the United States
Now that we’ve rung in the new year, The Play Company is already gearing up for its next production, Villa.
Written by Guillermo Calderón, Villa centers around the decision over what to do with the remains of the Villa Grimaldi, a torture center active during the Pinochet regime in Chile. Directed by Calderón, Villa will premiere March 1, 2017 at The Wild Project.
While the premise of this play may seem like a narrow look into the lives of these specific Chileans, this play challenges the way in which we as a society choose to remember or memorialize tragedy. This is an ongoing conversation that continues to be debated in the U.S. as well, whether it be about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., or the 9/11 Memorial here in New York City. Choosing how to remember lives or places we have lost is the very heart of this play, and it is a topic that is stilled argued over today, exemplified in this article from the New York Times.
Following the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in June 2016, the city of Orlando has decided to purchase the land to create a memorial for the lives that were lost in that night. Citizens of Orlando will be able to decide what the land should be, which raises the question: Should it be anything? How should we choose to remember such a horrible act of violence? These decisions shape the ways in which we choose to remember atrocities that maybe some would rather forget. Is there a wrong way to remember extreme acts of violence? Is there a right way?
