Et Alia Theater Presents Saudades, A New Play by and about Brazilian Immigrants

Press Release

New York, NYC (June, 1 2023)—Et Alia Theater presents Saudades, a new play by and about Brazilian Immigrants. It’s writer is Fernando Segall, and director Marina Zurita. Saudades performers are Ana Moioli, Julia Burnier, Dylan Jernet, Gonçalo Ruivo and Davon Howard.

Saudades‘s producer is Luísa Galatti. It’s Associate Director is Federica Borlenghi. The Scenic Design is by Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh. The poster design is by Marina Zurita and Raul Taunay. This project is a production of Et Alia Theater. It receives support from the Brooklyn Arts Fund, NYC Cultural Affairs. Also The Consulate General of Brazil in New York. and the Instituto Guimarães Rosa. It is partial development as part of LPAC’s Rough Draft festival in partnership with The Brick.

Saudades is a new play by Fernando Segall and directed by Marina Zurita about Laura (Ana Moioli),

Synopsis: A young Brazilian-American woman who embarks on a self-discovery trip to Brazil, searching for her long-lost mother, Luiza (Julia Burnier). Representing nuanced and varied perspectives of Brazilian immigrants in the US, Saudades brings this underrepresented community to the forefront and exposes some of its main emotional struggles – guilt, shame, discrimination, and nostalgia.

Upcoming shows:

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Fri, June 23 at 8 pm and Sat, June 24 at 7 pm
@ JACK
20 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
TICKETS

About The Play
Saudades tells the story of Laura (Ana Moioli), a young Brazilian-American woman who embarks on a self- discovery trip to Brazil, searching for her long-lost mother. After growing up believing her Brazilian mother had passed away when she was a child, Laura finally discovers her mother is alive – living in Brazil after leaving Laura’s father for another man – and decides to go after her.

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Divided between wanting to go through this journey by herself, but being immensely scared of it, she ends up making a friend on the plane who becomes a powerful ally – Pedro (Dylan Jernet), a Brazilian young man who goes to college in the US and has very negative views about his home country.

In a parallel storyline told through flashbacks, we meet Luiza (Julia Burnier), a young Brazilian woman who, while attending college in the US, got pregnant and ended up getting married to the father. After living in the US for 6 years in an unhappy marriage and feeling like she might not be fit to be a mother, the longing for her home country and a new love led her to leave her family behind and go back to Brazil.

Representing nuanced and varied perspectives of Brazilian immigrants in the US, Saudades brings this underrepresented community to the forefront and exposes some of its main emotional struggles – guilt, shame, discrimination, and nostalgia. ‘Saudades’ is an untranslatable Portuguese word which means ‘the love that remains after someone or something is gone’. As Brazilian artists living in New York, we might not always feel proud of our home country, a nation full of controversy, corruption, violence and inequality. Still, as proven by this play, the profound melancholic longing we feel for it can only be described as ‘saudades’.

Additional Details
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Ticket price: $20
Age suitability of the show: Appropriate for all ages 
Duration of the show: About 1h 30

About Et Alia Theater
Et Alia Theater is a NYC based theater company founded and led by international women. We bring together an unfamiliar combination of foreign and immigrant voices and offer them a space to explore their multicultural perspectives.

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