The Guadalquivir River has transformed into a symbol of breaking down borders, and citizen collectives, organized by the TNT Atalaya Center, gathered in Seville to create a series of days of shows and community events titled «Río sin fronteras» (River Without Borders). The Social Theatre Macro Event, one of the largest ever held in Spain, is part of the international project Caravan Next, funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe Program.
More than 50 citizen collectives with 600 participants and 2,500 spectators. Among the citizen groups that took part in the initiative were the Roma women of Vacie, the Centro de Artes Escénicas de la Rinconada, the socio-cultural promotion association «Solidaridad NIJA La Bachillera», the Movement for the Development of Africa, the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático, the TNT actors and some associations working with migrants.
Six days that saw the city as the protagonist, and which began on “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity”, when groups from Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru were involved in a musical and dance caravan. An alternative, different celebration of the day of the discovery of America. «The participation of the people was exciting and to see what possibilities for meeting theatre offers», said Ricardo Iniesta, director of TNT Atalaya.
«As TNT Atalaya we had already participated in an international project, Caravan Artists on the Road, which consisted of traveling theatre performances that traveled on a van, The Caravan. We crossed a large part of Europe and it was incredible. Now we needed a Macro Event like this to finally emphasize that we must stop erecting borders. This was our goal and from here comes the title of the week of theatrical events».
Collectives and citizen groups present
Theatre with disadvantaged groups, migrants, homeless women, Roma women of Vacie, women with cancer who manage to tell their illness with humor and irony, and the Remo club, which created an exciting performance on the river staging a shipwreck in the Mediterranean and the consequent rescue action. The second day saw the March for Refugees cross the city following the course of the Guadalquivir. At the head of the procession, the Mother Courage [Brecht] cart of Atalaya. At one point everyone lay down on the ground to remember the thousands of migrants who died in the Mediterranean and the thousands that Spain rejects every year. The public responded in an unexpected way.
Before the grand closing of the Macro Event with a choir of more than 100 voices singing The Song of the People from Les Misérables (public, professional actors from Atalaya, the collectives and project partners, such as the Odin Theatret of Denmark, Brama Theatre of Poland and SCT Centre), the audience was able to attend a show that has now become a classic. «Fuenteovejuna», staged by a group of Roma women living in the Sevillian Roma camp El Vacie, directed by Pepa Gamboa.
