Saudades at Consulate General of Brazil in New York

The Co-Artistic Director of Et Alia Theater, an international women 's theater company based in NYC, in affiliation with the Consulate General of Brazil in New York invite you to the staged reading of Saudades, a new play by and about Brazilian immigrants in the United States, accompanied by some of the best of Brazilian music.

Attendance to the event is free! However, it is a way to raise funds and make the upcoming full-production of this piece come true. Your presence and your donations would be much appreciated. Join us for this big celebration of the Brazilian culture and people, with the staged reading and a cocktail reception afterwards!

***Doors open at 6 pm | Reading starts at 7 pm***

ABOUT THE PLAY:

Saudades tells the story of Laura, 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. 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, 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, 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'.

Written by Fernando Segall

Directed by Marina Zurita

Stage Managed by Ester Vianna

Performed by Ana Moioli, Julia Burnier, Dylan Jernet, Gonçalo Ruivo and Davon Howard

Music by Gustavo Antoniacomi (cello) and Luca Kevorkian (violin)

Poster design by Marina Zurita and Raul Taunay