A new production invites audiences to experience the music —and life — of an acclaimed Venezuelan musical group by hearing their songs, learning their stories, and sharing their soup.
The show, "Viva La Parranda!," which stars Betsayda Machado and her musicians, La Parranda El Clavo, officially opens in Miami Beach Saturday. It's the latest offering from Miami New Drama, the theater company known for programming new work that reflects the diversity of greater Miami.
"'Viva La Parranda!' weaves together songs, stories, and sensory experiences to recreate life in El Clavo on the stage at the Colony Theatre," says Miami New Drama artistic director Michel Hausmann. The company, he adds, is "delighted to adapt our theater to fit them, rather than the other way around.
The performers hail from El Clavo, a Venezuelan town where Juan Souki, the show's director, discovered them several years ago, and brought them to global attention.
Over the last five years, they have appeared at numerous music festivals, and earned laudatory reviews, including one in the New York Times, which wrote of them "This was the kind of group that world-music fans have always been thrilled to discover: vital, accomplished, local, unplugged, deeply rooted."
Souki's connection with the group began about six years ago, when he was in Venezuela, and heard Machado sing.
"I was amazed by the sound of her voice. I thought it was really supernatural," he recalls.
She told him that she came from a village where "everyone made music." Souki asked if he could visit, and she agreed, but first, she told him, "I would have to bring two kilos of potatoes to put into a soup."
He arrived at Machado's mother's house, bearing the potatoes. "Suddenly, all these little kids arrived, each with little maracas, and I realized I had come on a day that was reserved for making music and eating soup."
Although located not far from Caracas, El Clavo is isolated, but is also famous for a musical tradition known as "parranda," a nearly extinct type of music characterized by calls and repeat singing and percussion.
"Parranda" is an Afro-Indigenous musical form played in Venezuela, as well as various Caribbean countries, including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Trinidad.
It originated during colonialism, when the local people were enslaved by the Spaniards and forced to toil in the cacao fields, says Souki.
"I had come from the perspective of someone with formal arts training, but I suddenly realized that this was where the best musicians in my country were, and I was in awe of them," Souki recalls. "They played for hours until a woman said, ‘hey, listen, the soup is ready.'"
Souki was surprised to learn that, although the group had been together for 30 years, and was locally known for playing at festivals, holidays, and funerals, they had not recorded a note.
Souki had worked in theater, but was not a music producer. But he realized the need to get the music recorded. "This became my passion project," he says.
He took reams of video of the group, then boiled it down into a three-minute compendium and sent it out to world music organizations. Almost immediately, they received their first invitation; it was from Lincoln Center.
"I was so excited but I realized we didn't have time. The group had no visas or passports; many of them had never even been in a plane. But this was a reality check for all of us. We realized how important this work was," he says.
Souki also wanted to make a documentary about the group, but he started telling Hausmann, who is an old friend, about them. Immediately, talk turned to a production for Miami New Drama instead.
But Souki says he had one stipulation — he wanted the members of the group to tell their stories in their own words.
The result, he says, is not a political play, but it does reflect the realities of life in Venezuela.
"You're going to hear raw real life stories, like the kid in town who was shot 200 times, or the man who was haunted by the day that the remains of his dead father were handed to him in a bag. But these are stories not told by political protestors. They are just people sharing their stories with you," he says.
The show is also an immersive experience, so an audience member might share a cup of coffee with a member of the group, or chop vegetables for the "sancocho," the traditional stew-like soup that cooks on stage throughout the show.
No matter what, audiences at "Viva La Parranda!, should expect to experience something different than anything else they've seen, says Souki.
"This is a giant opportunity to visit a community, like others in Venezuela, and share in the lives and stories of the people there," he adds.
"Viva La Parranda" is performed in Spanish with English supertitles. The show runs Friday, April 25 through May 19 at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Tickets may be purchased by calling (305) 674-1040 or online at www.colony.org
