Shows from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America arrive in São Paulo.

The MITsp - International Theater Showcase of São Paulo is holding its ninth edition from March 1st to 10th, 2024. The program features nine international productions, one national premiere, ten performances in MITbr - Plataforma Brasil, and a diverse range of workshops, debates, and talks throughout the ten days of the event. The opening takes place at Teatro Paulo Autran, at Sesc Pinheiros, with the show Broken Chord, conceived by South African artists Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi.

Featured Artist of MITbr, Wilemara Barros, in the show Preta Rainha - Photo: Luciano Gomes

In 2024, MITsp is presented by Redecard, Sabesp, and the Municipal Government of São Paulo, through the Municipal Secretariat of Culture. The showcase is co-organized by Sesi, the French Consulate, the French Institute, the Korean Cultural Center in Brazil, and the Goethe Institute; and co-sponsored by IBT – Brazilian Institute of Theater. The event is produced by Olhares Cultural, ECUM Central de Production, Itaú Cultural, Sesc SP, and the Ministry of Culture – Federal Government.

Antonio Araujo, artistic director, and Guilherme Marques, general director, founders of the showcase, maintain the initial idea of presenting in all axes (Showcase of Performances, Educational Actions, Critical Perspectives, and MITbr - Plataforma Brasil) a selection of works and activities whose theatrical research and/or themes bring provocations about our time. Currently, the institutional direction is carried out by the actor and cultural manager Rafael Steinhauser.

Broken Chord - Photo by Thomas Muller

In this edition, MITsp privileges artists, groups, and researchers from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. “The showcase has always included artists from these locations, who bring new theatricalities and ways of imagining the scene, such as the use of music and the representation of rituals on stage. However, in 2024, we wanted to expand such presences. In this sense, the curation intensified the decolonial perspective already present in previous editions,” says Araujo.

For the directors, the discussions that traverse the works present new perspectives on issues such as memory, racism, transphobia, identity, knowledge, colonialism, among others. For the first time, dance and performance take a prominent place in the selected works, combined with theater and music.

Since the first edition in 2014, MITsp has already presented 158 performances between national and international productions, from 46 countries, in more than 400 sessions, to an audience of approximately 170 thousand people. The Educational Actions and Critical Perspectives have gathered over the years more than 200 guests in workshops, seminars, debates, among other activities.

You can check the complete program of the ninth MITsp - International Theater Showcase of São Paulo at mitsp.org.