 "Photo: Freddie Martinez / The Pan American")
Love for technology. That’s what “technophilia” means. After a few scenes where men are aroused by televisions, computers, and electrical outlets to the point where they kiss them, and in some cases a little bit more, the audience had no question they were about to witness a love for technology never seen before. Maybe a love that goes beyond a mere fetish, an affair between men and technology.
“This girl, Jenny, has her ex-boyfriend living with her, but there’s a rumor going around that he’s in a sex cult and the sex cult is that they love technology,” said 22-year-old stage manager Dulce Navar, an alum of The University of Texas-Pan American. “Is he in it? Who’s in it? Who’s not? Everything else goes from there. We can’t say too much because it’s only an hour long.”
With all seats filled, and some people watching from the entrance hall, “Technophilia” went underway in the Copper Center’s Blackbox at South Texas College last weekend.
There was an air of expectancy before the play. The audience entered the room and waited, not knowing what to anticipate inside the black room where the play would take place. Black walls, black curtains, black above and black below, where the stage waited for the show to start. A stage that would’ve been like any other stage had it not been for several metal frames that surrounded it.
“We expect mixed reactions, especially because of the way we handled the scenery, the production design and the performances,” declared Roberto Collado, the director of the play and also a UTPA alum. “I think I’ll be getting some abrupt reactions.”
Collado explained that “Technophilia” was written by a local author who wants to remain anonymous; it was financed by the director’s brother and produced with the support from UTPA, where the group rehearsed, and STC, where the first three shows were held.
“It was written by someone that works here at the university and offered us his help,” Collado said. “Pan Am has been kind enough to lend us their space, and since we know people at STC, we’ve worked with them doing shows. We were able to schedule some shows and rehearsals over there.”
The other performances of “Technophilia” will take place at Ambiente in McAllen on Friday, July 16 at 9 p.m. A final performance is scheduled for Saturday, July 17 at Cine El Rey in McAllen at 9 p.m.
“Technophilia” is a production of the Nepantla Arts Collective, a group of artists from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s a collective of different disciplines and arts, such as painting, photography, cinematography, and theater among others, intended to provide a vast array of possibilities in art.
“The actors that we auditioned and cast are not part of the collective, but we’re working with them, and it’s a really good ensemble,” Collado explained.
Nepantla, a word in Nahautl that means “in between,” is very commonly used by people doing sociological border studies. Collado explained that the collective was named Nepantla because it represents them as people that reside on the border of two countries, living between two worlds.
“We’re trying it out because we believe in it. We’re saying something that is really worth listening to, that is really worth analyzing, that has some social content,” Collado said. “That’s the main thing, I think that all the people that formed the Nepantla Arts Collective are in a spiritual journey and we’re serious about what we do and believe in what we do.”
Collado thinks that the main purpose of theatre should be to create some sort of confusion, using emotions and ideas that people can’t quite put their finger on, that can’t be described.
“The most beautiful things in life are not tangible most of the time,” he said. “You can’t quite describe them or name them or arrange them in a way that you could store them so you could see again. They’re more intuitive in nature; they come from a deeper place. That’s what we want to create with this play, we might have people walking out of it because it’s outrageous at some points, we might have people laughing their asses off, we might have people disturbed by it or affected by it.”
The play indeed awakened a wide array of emotions. The faces of the audience went from sheer confusion to explosions of laughter and amazement.
“The thing I liked the most is how abrasive it was. You really had to know where you were, not just as an audience member, but you had to know what you were looking at,” said Marcos Martinez, a 21-year-old from San Carlos. “It made me think more than the usual play does, which is what I kind of enjoyed.”
Some people felt the play represented another side of theatre that people should know other than Shakespeare.
“It’s something so different, people need to just come and see it so they could get a feel on how different theatre could be at the same time,” said 25-year-old Patty Moreno of Pharr. “I think if people were to see this, they could see theatre can be a little bit more fun, a little bit more risky, and a little bit more controversial.”
Once finished with Technophilia, the collective’s first project, the team will keep itself busy with new projects.
“We’re going to be in pre-production for another play by a French author,” Collado revealed. “That would probably be our next theater project. We’re also going to be shooting some short films.”
The play ended just the way it started, leaving a trace of confusion where people had to put themselves together to know what to do next not sure if it was over or just a change of scene.
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