Santiago Guzmán ALTAR
Tuesday, September 27th | 7pm
Wednesday, September 28th | 7PM
Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage
Regular $20 / Students, Seniors, & Underwaged $10 / PWYC
ASL interpretation by Robert Azevedo
Santiago Guzmán (he/him/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. He is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions and the Artistic Associate for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.
Santiago’s work as a writer aims to put local, under-represented narratives and characters on the frontlines, whilst inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy of Newfoundland and Labrador from a diverse perspective.
Their work has been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals such as TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship’s Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC).
Most recently, Santiago’s play Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award of the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards & was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022.
Santiago’s work is very gay, very brown, and very real. Representation matters.
ALTAR
Santiago Guzmán’s ALTAR focuses on themes of cultural diversity, loss, familial relationships, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ relationships.
Eugenio is a queer young immigrant living in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. Less than a year has passed since his move from Mexico, but in that time, he experienced deep love and deeper heartbreak when his new boyfriend, Benjamin, inexplicably “ghosted” him. No, Benjamin isn’t dead; he just stopped calling and texting. And the thing is… Eugenio’s still not over it. Looking to the traditional Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (The Day of The Dead) and his father’s previous experience with paranormal activities, Eugenio decides to build an altar (a central part of the Día de Muertos ritual) in the hopes that he will be able to summon his boyfriend’s “ghost” to sort out the end of their relationship once and for all. Through the altar, Eugenio realizes that he has been something of a ghost himself to the loved ones he left behind in Mexico. Will setting up an altar be enough for Eugenio to forgive, forget, and love again? Or enough to help him heal the relationships with his friends and family far away?
A workshop production of ALTAR was presented in September of 2019 at the 4th Annual St. John’s Short Play Festival. It was produced by TODOS Productions, starring Santiago Guzmán, directed and dramaturged by Meghan Greeley, with initial dramaturgy by Robyn Huxter, and stage-managed by Azal Dosanjh.
ALTAR received its mainstage premiere from the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company, (Nicole Rousseau, Artistic Animateur and Laura Williams, Artistic Associate) in the fall of 2021 in St. John’s, at the historic LSPU Hall.
