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I am 108
"Ciento ocho. Till today it is a number of shame, a cursed number in Paraguay. But what is a cursed for us? A new tag for us?! Mi amor!!"
**Available for touring. Please contact lucianasfernandes0@gmail.com with your inquiry
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by Luis Bellassai Gauto
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Previewed as part of the Halifax Fringe at the Bus Stop Theatre in September 2024.
Presented by Stand Festival in November 2024, at the Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver.
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Director/Producer: Luciana Silvestre Fernandes
Costume Design: Diego Cavedon Dias
Sound Design/SM: Javier R. Sotres
Performers: Luis Belassai Gauto
Photography: Javier R. Sotres
"I am 108" was a real passion project, created with my dear friend and long time collaborator Luis Bellassai, and a team of (queer) latinx artists/friends who were eager to work on a project that was centred on so much of our shared history (from Mexico to Brazil).
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Firmly grounded in documentary history, Juanita Bang Bang pieces together the story of Bernardo Aranda Valdez’s murder and the fight for queer rights in Paraguay. Juanita embodies herself and historical characters on a journey filled with authenticity and lived experience on what is also a deeply personal moment for the author, a gay Paraguayan immigrant himself who came to Canada to live his full authentic self and struggles with his relationship with his queer community back home.
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"The show was very well directed by Luciana Silvestre Fernandes, and I was really riveted by this story and by the way that it was told, as sometimes I think here in Canada audiences can divorce drag from politics because it has become quite mainstream. But here Juanita doesn’t allow us to disengage from the context from whence she came. Her performance is an act not just of celebration and pride, but also of resistance, and remembrance.
Review by Amanda Campbell, TWIST.
Full review at: https://www.twisitheatreblog.com/?p=5259
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