conversations in ten questions 70: Tiago Correia
Tiago Correia is the first guest of our conversations with international playwrights, whose plays will be translated into Turkish and staged readings will be performed at the festival, which creates a space for Turkish writers and directors to meet artists from abroad within the framework of Theatre Beyond Borders.
What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion?
[The Turkish version of this interview was published in unlimited.]
I think the essence of a good play is in its search for truth, whatever the kind of play. So, normally the essence of a good play is also the compromise that the artists - playwrights, directors, actors, set and light designers, costume designers, videographers, etc. - have with themselves, with each other and with theatre itself, in the search for something that is, by principle, impossible to get, and the strategies they find to allow that the readers/spectators be the last and essential part of that process. They must choose. A play is the result of innumerous choices. We must be aware of all the decisions we make. For me a good play is the one that elevates me from the ground and touches my unconsciousness, that puts me in conflict with something in a way I couldn’t expect, and also that inspires me and enlarges my imagination. Sometimes we don’t know why. It can happen with a theatre show but also with a theatre text.
Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?
Well, it changed me… but it depends on the perspective of the question. I totally believe that art is about revelation, enlightenment and transformation. That is the essence of our own creative process. We are always working on ourselves, in a continuous transformation, like in life, but in a concentrated way. But I'm not sure that an artwork can change people or society. What I believe is that people can change with the experience of an artwork, like they can change with important happenings in their lives. Do you understand the difference? Then, I think the first step for the transformation of the society is the introduction of the artistic education in schools, since the beginning of the development of a child. That’s the way to a less individual society, less apathy and hate, a way to become aware about the world and the other, a way to a better understanding of human nature, developing more empathy with others, a way of being plural, opening our senses to the world around us.
When you are working on a text, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?
When I’m writing a play, everything inspires me. That’s why I have to make choices about the things I do while I’m writing, because I know everything can influence me. Then, there is a lot of research during the process, because there are a lot of questions I need to answer that I didn’t experience. Sometimes I need to read hundreds of pages, just to be sure that that character can say that word. Other times, I’m just using the collection of pictures I keep inside of me. They are pictures of the world, they live inside me and I need to put them in motion until I get rid of them. I have to see and I have to listen. I need to be in that instant of time, and go slowly. I am the witness of something that only exists in my imagination. I cannot let it go. Then, the writing process is so strong – each new word I write, one after another, showing me a new reality - that somehow the play starts to have its own life, like water going down the mountain, finding its own way and somehow modifying the world until arriving at an end. It’s like an awakened dream that you try to control.
When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?
Sometimes the title is the idea that resumes the project itself and at the end it keeps like that, if somehow it has some ambiguity or contradiction in it. That’s what happened with “Tourism”. Other times I search for the title while I’m writing and looking for the essence of the play, which somehow can be revealed later in the process.
Are there any writer, artist or person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such a figure, who?
I think if I say a name it will be unfair and probably I will be wrong about myself. But there are some authors I knew better, because I directed their plays or acted in their plays and I always felt they were the ground where I started to build my universe - Peter Handke, Jean Luc Lagarce, Roland Barthes and, especially, Jon Fosse. But there are much more. Dostoievski, Tcheckov, Ibsen, Shakespeare… Also, film directors like Cassavetes or Wong Kar Wai… just to name some…
When you consider the current state of the world in every sense, what is the most important and urgent issue for you as an artist?
Freedom. Physical, mental, emotional, geographic, cultural, spiritual, economic and time freedom...
What are your main concerns when a play of yours is translated into another language?
I really like and respect translators, so my main concern is if they love the play or if they are doing it without relating to it. They are like a stranger lost in a city, walking on every street and every corner, in order to rewrite its maps. That 's beautiful. And they have a huge responsibility. I just have a little concern about form and structure. I write in column format, almost without punctuation and for me the form and structure of the text are also part of the meaning and they belong to my proposal for the complete understanding of the play.
Do you believe your works resonate more with your local culture/community or more universally?
Universally, I hope, even for those who live near me and share my culture.
Before getting a post-graduate degree in Dramaturgy and Scriptwriting, you graduated in Theatre - Acting. How did you get into the writing side of the performing arts? Does your acting training contribute to your playwriting?
When I studied to be an actor, I was always reading, writing and also composing and singing songs. I think this was very important. I have been composing and writing songs since I was thirteen years old. I think it was a natural process. I started to work professionally as an actor, but I started to direct other authors' plays very early and then, some years later, I started to write my own plays also. I never stopped acting or directing and somehow, nowadays I feel everything is connected and interrelated and I’m sure of this: because I am an actor and director, I am very concerned about what I don’t need to describe in the play, because I know what is the job of the actor and director, and a playwright really need to trust that, in order that the plays are interesting for them to work. When I did post graduation in Dramaturgy and Scriptwriting I was already a playwright. It was recently. The act of writing can be very lonely. So I wanted to study again, to put me in conflict with other ideas and systematize my methodologies. But essentially I wanted to be part of that movement - the creation of a certificated course for writers that didn’t exist in Portugal. It was an opportunity to create a unity of playwrights, in order to professionalize the profession and make it more valuable and respectful. Unfortunately, the course didn’t survive more than three years. There is no industry for playwrights or scriptwriters in Portugal.
Do you have any expectations from the Turkish directors who will be staging your play’s reading?
I would just love to watch it. I always learn with all the visions that other artists have about my plays.
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