Interview: Actor/Artistic Director Filipe Valle Costa Discusses Saudade Theatre

Filipe Valle Costa is the founder and co-artistic director of the Saudade Theatre, the first and only Portuguese theatre in Los Angeles to translate Portuguese playwrights into English. The company will soon open My Favorite Suicide on October 18. Based on my knowledge of theatre in Los Angeles, this is a milestone for our community. We desperately need to include theatre artists from all over the globe whose ideas will expand our intellectual horizons and build the best theatre possible.

Filipe, tell our readers about Saudade Theatre. Most importantly, as the first and only Portuguese theatre in the US, how has it made a difference for the Portuguese and our American culture?

FVC: Well, that is the key right there. Saudade Theatre is the first and only Portuguese theatre company in the US, and as such, it's our mission to develop original and thought-provoking work grounded in the Portuguese experience. I never wanted Saudade to be a "museum" theatre company. In other words, it is not our goal to grow a company that merely presents an American audience with a Portuguese story, or our history straight from the history books. As Portuguese immigrants having grown roots in the US, we are specifically interested in having a dialogue: we want to understand where the contemporary Portuguese consciousness meets the American equivalent. We are now based in Los Angeles, but started the work of Saudade Theatre in New York City five years ago - after having the simple realization that theatre bookstores did not carry any Portuguese playwrights translated to English. I felt a longing for my artistic and cultural roots, and craved the ability to share them. Saudade Theatre has been ground-breaking in presenting certain Portuguese plays in the US for the first time. Exploring Portuguese theatre has allowed us to open our minds to other possibilities and other forms of creating theatre. It's been an amazing ride to rediscover what theatre can be, and do.

Are all productions translated into English or in some is there a mix of Portuguese and English? Have you ever presented any show in Portuguese and translated into English on a screen above for audience view?

FVC: We are not limiting ourselves to any one way of producing works. For now, the majority of our work is grounded on the translation of Portuguese plays and playwrights, in direct response to the lack of such published works. This is the foundation. This is how we create the bridge between Portuguese and American theatre cultures.

However, we see many other possibilities in the future. We've considered bringing essential American works to Portugal; we've considered performing plays fully in Portuguese with subtitles; we have and will continue to reconsider our storytelling methods according to the specificity of each project and each step the company takes.

Tell us about the world premiere of My Favorite Suicide. What does it tell the story of and what is its message?

Talk about the collaborators and the writer/director's first directorial production in the US.

FVC: I feel personally fulfilled to be working with everyone on this project. Starting with Mickaël De Oliveira - his writing repertoire includes more than 20 plays, which have been produced internationally and translated into English, French, Spanish and Slovak. He's been working at The National Theatre and on Portugal's largest stages for years. Having him and his translator/dramaturg Maria Inês Marques in the US working with our theatre company is a unique opportunity for ourselves (as artistic directors), for actors, and also our production designers, to work with artists of great experience and perspective. And, with our goal to further Portuguese playwrights, Saudade Theatre set up a conference with UCLA's Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, where Mickaël will have the opportunity to present on his Ph.D. thesis regarding contemporary European theatre for students and department staff.

We're also incredibly grateful to be working with Drum & Lace once again this year. Drum & Lace is a composer & performer that writes & creates music for film, fashion & media. She composed original music for our West Coast Premiere of The Constitution, also written by Mickaël, last year. There's no limit to the wonderful things I can say about her. Her scoring of HBO's documentary "At The Heart of Gold" was absolutely gorgeous.

We have found a true diamond in the rough with our stage manager, Garrett Crouch. He's that for us and so much more. I cannot imagine producing anything without him. It's been a huge gift to share the stage with our actresses Liliana de Castro (Psi, HBO), Joy Brunson (This Is Us, NBC; Snowfall, FX), and of course, my co-artistic director, Diogo Martins (Saramago's Skylight.)

Tell us about incorporating American actors into casts and how that generates a fine sense of community.

FVC: Saudade Theatre is first and foremost a conversation between American and Portuguese artists, between our cultures & societies. A dialogue about what we might or might not have in common. Our work is always in relationship to where it exists, because the theatre depends on that. I guess we can say that we are not a Portuguese theatre company. We are a Portuguese American theatre company. We never wanted to be solely made up of Portuguese artists because for us, that would mean isolating ourselves rather than opening ourselves up to valuable collaborations. The bridge we are slowly building strongly depends on that.