En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy is a reassemblage of the Greek myth of Antigone in collaboration with a cast of non-professional actors who reside in Puerto Rico and in New York City’s Puerto Rican diasporic community. Developed through a multi-year process of collaborative theatrical rehearsal and experimental filmmaking, the work emerged through the cast’s revising, re-writing, and performing of the myth of Antigone inspired by their lived and inherited experiences of migration and belonging.Taking the form of a multi-channel film installation and a live performance series, En Parábola seeks to connect these communities after decades of geographical fragmentation, colonial erasure, dispossession, and cumulative environmental, economic, and political tragedies.

The first chapter of En Parábola is a multi-channel film that chronicles the New York City-based cast reimagining the myth of Antigone from their own perspectives. The film weaves together fictional and nonfictional narratives, layering documentation of the rehearsal process with behind-the-scenes footage and staged reenactments performed by the cast themselves.

Inspired by the original discourse of dramatic tragedy as a forum for communal catharsis, Parts I and II of En Parábola use theater and rehearsal as a platform through which to bring two casts together. Natalia and her collaborators deconstruct the Greek dramatic structure, using it as a creative device to explore the complexities of the Puerto Rican diasporic experience and the interconnected challenges faced by diverse migratory journeys. Together, they imagine a future for the play’s mythological characters wherein they survive the tragedy—a future that aligns with a Puerto Rican post-disaster imaginary in which new definitions of sovereignty and freedom are possible.

Through participatory efforts to reshape collective memory, En Parábola proposes theatrical rehearsal as a site of speculation and reunion, where Puerto Ricans can revise, unlearn, experiment, and build narratives, woven from their lived experiences. Re-envisioning sovereignty as an affective citizenship that exists beyond geographical boundaries, this project is fundamentally an invitation to exercise our right to imagination and the potentialities of fantasy and fiction.

The first chapter of En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy was presented at Amant in Brooklyn from March 14th-June 23rd 2024 as part of Rituals of Speaking, a film-led series exploring how artists represent the voices of others through collective storytelling. It was curated by Natalia Viera Salgado and comissioned by Amant with additional support from the Mellon Foundation and Princeton University.

The second chapter of En Parábola chronicles the reimagining of Antigone from the perspectives of both the Puerto Rico-based and the New York-based cast, and culminates in a live theatrical performance that reunites both casts to adapt their scripts to the stage. Building on the multi-year process of collaboration carried out between both territories, Part II will be presented at Abrons Art Center and MAC (Puerto Rico ) in 2026.

 

Credits
Director
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo
Co-Devised with
Erica Ballester, Emma Suárez-Báez, Nina Lucía Rodríguez, Raquel Rodríguez
Additional text and writing
Elisa Peebles
Chorus conducted by
Xenia Rubinos
Cinematography
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Mollie Moore, and Laura Sofía Pérez
Editing
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Laura Sofía Pérez
Producer
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, CAVAS Films, Xiaoyue Zhang
Assistant Director
Jorge Sánchez
Sound Design and Mixing
José Iván Lebrón Moreira
Color Correcting
Oswaldo Colón Ortíz
Sound Operator
Eduardo Calero, Maxime Robillard, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo
Additional Camera
Jenica Heintzelman, Carlos Ayala, Pablo Calderón Santiago, Xiaoyue Zhang
16 mm Developing & Digitization
CineLab; Negativland
Dramaturgy
Amandla Colón, Elisa Peebles, Mireya Lucio
Production Assistants
Verónica Mojica, Sean Morillo, Amandla Colón, Mario Ruben Carrión, Laura Isabel Tropi
Movement Advisor
Sophia Treanor
Performance Advisor
Kairiana Nuñez Santaliz
Design
Luis Vázquez O'neill
Chorus
Erica Ballester, Carina del Valle Schorske, Melinda González, Micaela González, Víctor González, Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda, Cristel Jusino, Liz Luyando, Sean Morillo, Camila Pérez, Kevin Emilio Pérez, Sofía Reeser del Río, G. Rosa Rey, José Antonio Rodríguez, Nina Lucia Rodríguez, Raquel Rodríguez, Rojo Robles, Estefanía Soto, Paulathena Stone, Emma Suárez-Báez, Nélida Tirado
Puerto Rico-based Cast
Angel Blanco, Francesca Carroll, Tashia Howard Arroyo, Marili Pizarro, Andrea Rovira, Janice Quevedo Santos, Víctor Torres