A note from the Company
The more you rehearse, the worse it gets
Since its genesis, MEXA debates the distances and proximities between the street and the museum, life and art, politics and aesthetics. These abysses and the possibilities of building connections are, in themselves, our material of interest and creation. In the collective’s presentations, there is always a dispute between the script and the unpredictable. Between the previous demands and the urgencies of the present. The more you rehearse, the worse it gets is an attempt to build a work collectively within an established time frame. The performance happens in two parts. In the first part, the group raises the themes of interest, the embryos of the scene and decides how to organize the presentation. Then, the collective presents what they have decided to keep as a work.
The performance was to be presented at the exhibition Stories of Dance, at MASP, in 2020. With the outbreak of the pandemic, it was registered as a desire in the exhibition catalogue that did not come to pass. In 2021, MEXA presented the work in video at the Panorama Raft Festival.
Now, we are presenting it once more in the Transform Festival context.
We hope you enjoy.
MEXA x
‘The more you rehearse, the worse it gets’ is a Panorama Festival initiative. Residency commissioned by Transform and supported by Leeds 2023.
MEXA Team
Directed by MEXA
Dramaturgy João Turchi
Performers Aivan, Anita Silvia, Alessandro Lins dos Anjos, Barbara Britto, Daniela Pinheiro, Luiza Brunah, Lu Mugayar, Patricia Borges, Tatiane Dell Campobello
Direction Assistant Lucas Heymanns
Lighting and set design Luzco
Sound Victor Almeida
Video direction and editing Laysa Elias
Captation Osmar Zampieri
Costumes Alex Cassimiro
Beauty Alma Negrot
Acknowledgements Casa do Povo, Carlos Rodrigues, Marilia Loureiro, Marcela Amaral, Mari Ferrucci, Olivia Ardui
Transform Team
Creative Director Amy Letman
Producer Ali Ford
Producer (Creative People) Lily Lavorato
Assistant Producer Jay Millard
Trainee Producer Patrick McGeady
Company Administrator Rosie Hay
Production Manager Hannah Blamire
Project Manager Tshayi Hercules
Marketing & Communications Jack Lynch & Suzanne Wynne
Press Bread and Butter PR
Design Rabbit Hole
MEXA BIOGRAPHY
Based in Brazil, MEXA was formed in 2015 as an activist initiative, following episodes of violence in homeless shelters in São Paulo. Since its genesis, the collective explores and debates the distances and proximities between the street and the museum, life and art, politics and aesthetics.
www.grupomexa.com.br
Instagram: @ogrupoMEXA
TRANSFORM BIOGRAPHY
Transform is an engine room for powerful performance. We create exhilarating international festivals and work year-round to catalyse future-gazing artists and creatives to reimagine what theatre can be. Presented as an extended festival from Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022, Transform 21-22 will invite audiences from across Leeds and beyond to connect with bold, brave, vivid and socially-conscious performance by powerful artists from across the globe.
www.transformfestival.org
Twitter: @transform_leeds
Instagram: @transform_leeds
Facebook: Facebook/transformleeds