photo by Chelsea Yang-Smith of Mera Reyes and Arturo Balanza Araya - set and lighting design by Andy Moro, regalia artist Rubén Sánchez
THE STRATEGY OF WAR
Directed & Choreographed by Javier Vilalta
Created & Performed by Master Storyteller Mera Reyes
Downstage World Premiere Production
September 19 - 29 | Motel Theatre, Arts Commons
Embark on a journey through realms of Aztec mythology, where storytelling and oral tradition intertwine to create a mesmerizing experience. The Strategy Of War emerges as a concept for a solo performance, accompanied by the rhythmic pulse of live percussion. This captivating show is the culmination of extensive archaeological and anthropological research, aimed at gathering Aztec creation myths, restoring their original essence, and weaving them into a seamless narrative.
THE PERFORMANCE IS APPROXIMATELY 65 MINUTES
Many thanks to everyone who joined us for this world premiere production!
photo by Chelsea Yang-Smith of Mera Reyes and Arturo Balanza Araya - set and lighting design by Andy Moro, regalia artist Rubén Sánchez
CREATIVE TEAM
Created & Performed by Master Storyteller - Mera Reyes
Director & Choreographer - Javier Vilalta
Original Music Composed & Performed by - Arturo Balanza Araya
Set & Lighting Designer - Andy Moro
Regalia Artist - Rubén Sánchez
Stage Manager - Claire Bolton
Production Manager - Adam Kostiuk
Quetzalcoatl Mask Artist - José Rafael Flores
Xolotl Mask Artist - Whitney Huget-Penner
Set Builder - Riley Miljan and Techart Custom Creation Ltd.
Head Set Decoration and Paint - Chloe Diochnos
Crew - Blythe Bohomos, Evelina Groll, Chris Mossiman, Emily Gillard
Xilam Indigenous Martial Arts Consultant - Mayra Armijo*
“The Creation of Color” was inspired in a version by Rosa Maria Durand Master Storyteller
*Mayra was also involved in the original research of this project
Mera Reyes was born in the glorious Mexico City previously Tenochtitlan . She is a Therapeutic Storyteller who has shared her performances and led workshops for more than 20 years in countries like Spain, French Polynesia, EUA , England and Peru where her audiences experience moving and surprising journeys through her loving craft and singing voice. Her performances and workshops encourage participants to understand storytelling as a performing art through chromatic language, play, masks, dance, song, spontaneous creations and contact with the listener.
She trained as a professional storyteller at Emerson College (U.K, Sussex) and as a Therapeutic Storyteller in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) at Merriam Hill Centre under the instruction of Nancy Mellon. Mera is also a Body Psychotherapist with a thesis on anxiety management . She has performed in collaboration with The High Performance Rodeo , The Arts Commons Education Program as facilitator, The Calgary Shakespeare Company, Canadian Mental Health Association and as Workshop leader for the Education Program at Mount Royal University.
She is doing the groundwork to open The School of Storytelling in Alberta and The Alberta Storytelling festival. She is also a professional skipper and the mother of Heyoan Xiuhcoatl (Thunderbolt).
Mera believes storytelling reinforces the importance of listening to one another and is a path for human development, inclusion, reconciliation , healing and understanding.
For Downstage: Lighting The Way, Climate Change Theatre Action.
Javier is a Mexican-Canadian visual performance creator, stage director, movement coach, and translator. He resides in Calgary, where he attended the University of Calgary’s Fine Arts department.
As a stage director and movement choreographer, he has collaborated with companies such as Vertigo Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Sage Theatre, Downstage, Lunchbox Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, CYPT, Jupiter Theatre, Chromatic Theatre, Inside Out Theatre, and StoryBook.
In 2005 he co-founded, along with Black artist Norma Lewis, the visual performance ensemble 8ROJO. With this group, he has devised five interdisciplinary creations; with which he has travelled around Canada and as far afield as Mexico, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Taiwan, UK, and Iceland. With 8ROJO, he was awarded the ‘Innovation in Performance’ award at the 2016 STOFF Festival in Stockholm, Sweden; and he was a finalist for a 2021 Off West End Award in London, UK for Outstanding Production.
He has translated the texts ‘100 Love Poems and a Song of Despair’ by Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca’s ‘Rural Trilogy’. He translated and adapted the Mexican modern opera Anjou: The Musical Horror Tale for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.
Since 2010, he has assessed and developed educational sessions based on body mechanics, movement for the stage and visuals in motion; which he has shared with artists around the world.
Drummer and percussionist / Composer and Arranger / Voice actor and Radio Host
In his early beginnings as a drummer enthusiast child, Arturo began to show interest in music and rhythm through private lessons for about seven years. He got involved in Santiago’s school and high school music scene. Learning and applying different techniques, genres and styles like jazz fusion, rock, metal, latin jazz, bossa nova, among others.
He also participated in many bands and started to be requested as a session musician, as well as entering the label FrameBeat, with producer Andres Carreño. He’s passionate about music in all aspects and lives applying rhythm wherever he can, therefore it didn’t take long for him to start composing and doing arrangements, as well as teaching lessons with his vision on paradiddles and linear grooves.
At the same time, he developed an interest in communications and visual entertainment. Arturo studied radio/tv host and voice acting. He started his own online radio station and participated in local music radios giving space to growing artists to show their music. Also, he did voices for independent video games.
Percussions began after he met the folklorist Delia Valdebenito. She invited him to play, compose and arrange percussion in her project. With Andrés Carreño they began to travel with this project along Chile, Argentina, Peru, and with and arts government fund that they got, they recorded and EP in Mexico, at Studio 01.
Currently, after moving to Banff, Canada, Arturo won a prize at the Tommy’s battle of Bands 2023 and he is ready to get back to a big city and begin a new music journey.
Andy Moro is a mixed-blood multi-disciplinary artist and an accomplished theatre designer. Moro co-directs the Indigenous Activism Arts organization ARTICLE 11, named for the 11th Article of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with partner Tara Beagan. Reckoning, a play about the effects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was a collaborative effort by Beagan and Moro, and is credited to ARTICLE 11. Other A11 projects include an extensive tour of Beagan’s Deer Woman, designed and directed by Moro, to New Zealand, Australia, and the Edinburgh Festival. Moro is a multi-award winner and nominee and has twice been named among Toronto’s NOW magazine’s Top-10 theatre artists.
Rubén Sánchez is a Mexico City artist from the Tacuba neighborhood, 'the place of flowers', rich in cultural tradition. It is also the birthplace of the Aztec dance group 'Tlacopan', of which he has been a proud member since the age of 7. He has also worked with master tailor, Laurencio Izalde 'El Pichi', for 6 years and whom with he learned to create costumes for Aztec dance; a craft he now pursues independently. Rubén is forever grateful for this beautiful tradition.
Claire Bolton is thrilled to be joining the Downstage team! She is a graduate of the University of Calgary’s Drama department (BFA ’09), and has made her career as a stage manager, performer, producer, and educator. Upon graduating she was granted an internship with Quest Theatre, and has remained a part of the company as a member of their Artist in Residency Program and Summer Camp Coordinator. Along with being a member of these programs Claire is a teacher (and the Calgary Manager) for Puddle of Mud Productions, a member of Calgary Opera’s Let’s Create An Opera Program, and Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theatre. Past Stage Management credits include: The Antyssey (Quest Theatre), Stage One Festival (Lunchbox Theatre), Bombay Black (Alberta Theatre Projects), The Importance of Being Earnest (ASM) (Theatre Calgary), Ministry of Grace; O’kosi; Time Stands Still; 509 (ASM) (Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society), Heist (ASM) (Vertigo Theatre).
Adam Kostiuk is an emerging artist in the Calgary community, working as a production manager, stage manager, console operator, labour, and as an award winning lighting designer. Despite working in this creative field, Adam would say his passions lay more with supporting people than with theatre; theatre mainly being a means to help people bring important, personal, and engaging stories to life. In the same breath, Adam could not be more thrilled to help bring the 2022/23 season to life at Downstage as they seek to accomplish the same. Adam graduated from the University of Calgary in 2019 with degrees in Urban Studies and Drama, building a design portfolio that includes the lighting design award winning *antigone lives at the U of C in 2019, Mary Poppins at Keyano College in 2022, and assisting the lighting design for the Betty award winning Clue at Vertigo in 2022
Big thanks to your season sponsors Eighty Eight Brewing