Pandiani’s “That Rebel That” deals with the affects of love

Alfredo Aparicio/Staff Writer

Alendra and Javier have been together for six years, but now they’ve grown up; how much will they have to compromise to give life to their love?

The question of compromise is at the heart of “That Rebel That,” one of the new productions to debut in Miami Micro Theatre’s September, For Love, which will deal with love and how it affects couples in different ways.

“The title comes from Alendra’s desire to be a rebel and Javier’s inability to express himself to her. It’s as if every time she acts he thinks in his head, ‘that rebel that,’” explained Tatiana Pandiani, a senior B.F.A. performance major.

Pandiani began work on the script a year and half ago before she even knew about Micro Theatre. After showing it to her friends, they all commented on the script’s weaknesses, prompting Pandiani to put it away until her playwriting class during the summer, where she presented the play again with similar results.

“They picked up on the same things my friends had picked up on the first time I showed them,” said Pandiani. “I worked on it again before I decided that it needs to be set up. My writing wasn’t strong enough by itself, but I’m already feeling everything fall into place.”

The decision to stage the play came from Pandiani’s time at the City Wrights Miami convention organized by City Theatre where she had a session with award-winning playwright, Christopher Durang as well as other professional and mid-level playwrights.

When looking for a director, Pandiani immediately thought of Victoria Collado, an alumnus of the University, because of her unique and powerful statement as a director and as an actor.

“She has taken my script to another level; the ingredients were there but she’s mixing them in a different way. I wrote it and am acting in it, so it’s been interesting to see, during rehearsals, how the vision I had and Vicki’s process are uniting,” said Pandiani.

Pandiani have also been hard at work, building up the personal histories of the characters to build their backgrounds and determine why this day in their lives is so important. The biggest change to the script, however, has been the addition of movement to the characters.

“The original script was very stoic; they were just sitting down discussing ideas but Vicki has added a lot of physical movement,” Pandiani said.

“I wrote it because it’s very controversial. These two people are in their twenties, very close, so we’re exploring that dynamic. They are discussing ideas and challenging each other but now they communicate physically as well as intellectually. I think it adds on to the play.”

Gui Agustini, who will play Javier, has brought his knowledge of television acting to the production.

“Micro Theatre is a small space and the audience is very close, so I think it resembles television in that way,” explained Pandiani.

“It’s about the details and close ups, with the audience being the camera picture framing everything.”

The production will also provide shows in English as well as Spanish to reach as many people as possible.

“We realized that there’s an older generation of Spanish speaking people that go to the theatre so we’re hoping it makes the play more accessible while gaining more exposure,” Pandiani said.

Pandiani hopes the play will not only be enjoyed, but expose regular theatergoers to another form of theatre.

“It’s a different way to do and approach theatre. It’s quick, lively and because it’s 15 minutes it’s like sampling from many different food groups and no one gets bored,” said Pandiani.

Pandiani also hopes the play will encourage people to get out there, write and start honing their craft.

“There’s this idea that if you’re an artist you have to wait to be discovered but I don’t think that’s true. You can’t wait for people to be interested, you have to do it now.”

“That Rebel That” will run from Sept. 13 to Oct. 14, every Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Koubek Center at 2705 SW 3rd St.

Tickets will be sold at the box office for $5, cash only.

alfredo.aparicio@fiusm.com

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