Take a Trip to the Tropicana with ‘Carmen: To Havana & Back’ (Q&A)

by Kathryn Yu
Kathryn Yu
•
February 20, 2019
•
5 min read

An interview with Kaitana Magno of Variety Life Productions

As Artistic Director of The Box in NYC and London and Assistant Director of NYC’s Queen of the Night, Kaitana Magno is no stranger to the immersive world. She’s also Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Variety Life Productions who are bringing their immersive version of Bizet’s Carmen back to Public Arts on the Lower East Side after staging it last fall.

Participants will be transported back in time to 1950s Havana, Cuba in a nightclub environment filled with music and dance; our reviewer Edward Mylechreest called it “a risky and risqué new production which is deliciously hedonistic.”

We spoke to Kaitana over email as the show prepares to return.

No Proscenium (NP): Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background in the immersive arts?

Kaitana Magno (KM): My parents are both professional dancers, so I grew up in studios and on stages. I trained and performed in classical ballet, it’s the world I was raised in, so it’s a very normal thing for me to create: to view things theatrically and musically, perhaps a little magically and to have the freedom of thinking to explore new things. After all, that’s what rehearsals are for, to try things until they work!

As Artistic Director of The Box in NYC and London for several years, I curated a variety of high profile immersive events for the company worldwide, along with full scale theatrical productions and short vignettes. I was brought on to collaborate and associate-direct Queen Of The Night when they revamped their show, so I got to workshop a lot of ideas and was able to figure out what I liked and didn’t like.

Entering the immersive arts was a logical step in my development as an artist. The genre provides a platform to continually experiment with new things and challenge the way that entertainment and stories are presented. There is no formula or rule book and that forces me to be in a higher state of creativity more often. It uses every aspect of what I already know and enables me to stretch, grow and go farther.

NP: What, in a nutshell, is Carmen: To Havana & Back?

KM: It’s a unique experience; a blend of drama, dance, and live music in a simulated nightlife setting. It’s an immersive production with a theatrical cabaret embedded into the plot line that envelops the audience with an iconic story in real time.

NP: Why did you want to create an immersive adaptation of Carmen?

KM: My partner and I were shooting a documentary about a brilliant artist named Max Pollak and his very unique work. This brought us to visit Cuba to capture part of his story and we were absolutely blown away by the experience. The music, the dance, the people, and really every aspect of the culture. So, we had wrapped up and spent a night or two there to kind of just wander around and we ended up at the Gran Teatro de La Habana. We saw a production of Carmen, the ballet, and I guess, that really was the spark. I grew up knowing the story and listening to its music, of course, but I think that night and given the circumstances that I was going through in my real life, I just related to the idea of being trapped — specifically by incredibly possessive and controlling men in positions of power — and so it started to cook.

I wanted to take the story and set it in an environment that I understood intimately, use that as the canvas, and then illuminate the world behind the curtain. Having a deep history in dance and blending it with my experience in immersive theatre was only natural.

NP: How are music and dance incorporated into the experience?

KM: Well, I guess you’ll have to come see the show to find out won’t you?

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Max Pollak, Chelsea Ainsworth, Jessica Castro, Desiree Godsell, Adesola Osakelumi, Doron Perk, Angelica Beliard, Miguel Aparacio, Christian Galvis, Elvis Collado, Isabel Freiberger, Delaney Love, Andrew Avila, Carina Avila, Jose Mitaynes, Ariacne Trujillo, and Anier Alonso are our choreographers, cast and musicians and they are the essence of the show, its backbone, its breath, its heartbeat… These incredible artists have come together to make something truly special.

NP: How is the audience incorporated into the work? What kinds of choices can the participants make?

KM: Well, since the goal of an immersive experience is to place the audience into the world of the performers and venue, whomever or whatever they choose to follow will dictate and influence their experience. Whether they chose to observe from a more traditional viewpoint or to follow the dancers, we have provided opportunities. There is a lot to see, do, and process.

NP: How are you designing around audience agency, consent, and safety?

KM: For this particular venue, the architecture is quite small and open, so in that respect it is very safe for audiences and performers alike and everyone has full reign to go pretty much wherever they want at any time. As for consent, our approach to this has been extremely non-invasive and the only thing that anyone would need to be afraid of is whether or not they want to dance.

NP: What’s the audience response been like so far to Carmen: To Havana & Back?

KM: Essentially, people were truly and simply moved. The caliber of the performers and their commitment to the whole two-and-a-half hour journey is so powerful. It’s a really wonderful thing to witness and be surrounded by.

NP: Who is the ideal audience member for this show?

KM: It hits on so many different levels, I really think that there is something in it for everyone. Certainly to anyone that loves live music, dance, and theatre but it lends itself to a much broader audience. It’s a really unique thing that is happening.

NP: What do you hope participants take away from the experience?

KM: First and foremost…be entertained! But I also want people to feel like they’ve collectively been through something extraordinary and have essentially been allowed to change in some way.

For everyone it is going to be different experience, but that’s why we do this, no? To challenge people to face their imagination and explore their humanity.