Eduardo Pavez Goye on the Record.
By Manuel Ortiz
Eduardo Pavez Goye is a Chilean NYC based multifaceted artist, or as he states in his Youtube channel, “I write scripts, direct plays, sing in a band and shoot film”. He has over twenty staged plays in Chile, Mexico, Argentina, USA, and Germany. He is also a six times in a row winner of the National Dramatic Writing Contest in Chile (2004-2014). Outside of the theater world he has written over 500 scripts for TV, movies and webseries,; and directed and edited multiple music videos (Mowat, Tenemos Explosivos, Me Llamo Sebastián, Bronko Yotte, David Gaffney, Erik Penny).
Recently he directed one of his own plays, (and also performed on it) at the summer season at The Tank, a small, black box theater in Manhattan, that operates as a non-profit arts presenter and producer that serves emerging artists.
Where do you come from?
I’m an artist from Santiago, Chile. I left Chile in 2013 and have been living in Germany, and the UK. Then I moved to New York in 2018, when I got accepted at Columbia’s PhD program in Theater and Performance. It’s a seven year program, so I’ve been using some of that time to stage plays and meet fellow creatives.
One of these plays is “Record”. Originally written in Spanish and produced for a Chilean audience, the play was first adapted and produced in English in 2021 through a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. The City Artist Corps Grants was a $25 million recovery initiative designed to help artists who were both hard hit by the pandemic and who may have been left out of other local and federal funding opportunities (i.e. Immigrant artists).
Why did you choose "Record" among your plays, to translate it and stage it here?
I chose “Record” because it’s a very small play (only three performers, with just a few simple objects on stage) and because it’s a play that I figured would work with here: it’s a play anchored in drama and realism, so the audiences are already familiar with the codes.
Record tells the story of Valerie and Eric, a young political power couple whose day is derailed when a stranger picks up their son from school. When the stranger returns the son to their home, the three spend a tense and at times surreal evening together, where the truth about their history is revealed. The actors Ilan Kaplan and Rose Kanj play the power couple. Eduardo plays the stranger.
What was the difference between the creative process you had in Chile and the creative process you had in New York, with the same play?
So many! I staged this play in Chile back in 2010. At that time, I only wanted to write and direct. I was not interested in performing at all. In this version, I wanted to do it mainly because I felt the need to perform again. The sociopolitical implications of the play are different. Having me playing a character with a clear latino accent and a traumatic experience as an immigrant adds a layer of political commentary to the play that was different in the Chilean version. The issues of class are mixed with race and culture in here.
What were the challenges you faced directing your own play and also performing in it?
Directing a play from the inside entails a whole new set of difficulties. I need to be performing and aware of other people’s performances at the same time. It was very demanding. Also, we all have blind spots, so I had to ask a friend to see a run and give me notes on things I might be missing. I wish I had an assistant director during the process.
Which other Chilean artist working in the States should be featured in La Revista?
There are so many! My good friend and amazing artist Rodrigo Recabarren would be my pick. He’s a jazz drummer living in NY. I made a documentary about him in 2012 called “El Parque de los Prospectos”, which made it to the final selection of the In-Edit Festival 2012. We have been working on different political projects, and he’s a very interesting performer.
