What exactly is Hotel Project?
ANA: Hotel Project is an international theatrical collaboration that brings together Directors and Playwrights from different countries and theatre traditions to conceive and write  plays inspired by and conceived specifically for a hotel and performed for one spectator at a time. For the artists creating it is a very intense, exciting and yes...accelerated collaborative process. 


TAMILLA:  It is  initiated and completed in the course of 14 working days usually. This Hotel project is happening in 14 non consecutive days, however, because we are doing two projects virtually at the same time! Nuts! So for the audience its a really unique theatrical engagement -- a play just for them alone. For the creating artists its a way to make intense international exchange anywhere in the world. 

ANA: In the first 5 days creative teams meet at the hotel to conceive and write the plays. The next 6 days an acting ensemble joins the team to rehearse the plays inside of the hotel rooms. Then Performances are given for days 12 - 14. 

TAMILA: We can do only about 60 performances in that time- for 60 spectators total. 

It's a real  intense collaboration inside of a very precise structure. We spent a lot of time working out the model. Even with such precision, we think...we  hope that it is artistically liberating. 

ANA: The concept of Hotel Project came to me after completing the work for The Blind Trip. This was also a show for one audience member at a time.  The joke was that that producing in New York City is so hard that we should just make a play in a hotel room. It would cost less than renting a whole venue. And if we made the play for just one audience member at a time, we would always be guaranteed to be sold out.   

Okay, so where will you be doing Hotel Project here? 
ANA: We are really lucky to be partnering with two fantastic hotels: The Washington Jefferson Hotel in Midtown NYC and the Summit Grand Hotel in Summit NJ. 

TAMILLA: Summit Grand Hotel came to us from The Internationalists Artistic Director, Doug Howe, who grew up in Summit and had his prom there. But he'll say more about this himself in later a blog post...so stay tuned.  

Why only one spectator at a time, why not 2,3 or 400? 
TAMILLA: We all know how to be audience MEMBERS. But what happens if we take away the role of the spectator as an AUDIENCE MEMBER.

ANA: The way one person is  alone is very different from the way one person behaves  in a group or as a member of an audience. Hotel Project takes away this MEMBERSHIP and the autonomy that comes with being part of a group called Audience. 

TAMILLA: In the hotel rooms no other person is watching you watch the play and certain behavior is not required. In fact, from the spectator, there is no obligation at all. He or she can look at what he wants. Go where he or she wants. 

ANA: He is invisible. But the theatrical event is happening all around him and because of him. At some moment, out on the street or in the hotel corridor as he passes strangers, he may even wonder if this scene too was planned and rehearsed.  

Why Hotel Rooms? Why not a theatre with a set that looks like a hotel room?  
TAMILLA: Hotel rooms already contains the histories and energies of scores of guest. People never get to observe another guest in his hotel room. What if you could? The team of generative artists are asked to create a highly theatrical exploration in a real setting without altering the environment. No lighting or sound, no special effects beyond what the room itself contains.  You use what's there to create the theatrical event that tells the story or gives the experience of previous occupants. And a spectator observes, unseen and unacknowledged. 

ANA: He is like a fly on the wall. Not ignored but really with a kind of super power of invisibility.

We asked him for the names of the most exciting playwrights emerging  out of Spain and without hesitation  he named Beatriz Cabur. So we are estatic to have her join us for this. 
ANA: And actually  Matias Umpierrez came also as a  high recommendation from Iñigo Ramirez de Haro. So we are really thankful to him for both recommendations and sponsorships he's made possible. Matias is a playwright and director from Argentina, joining us as a playwright for the NYC Hotel collaboration. 

TAMILLA: And for both NJ and NYC  are frequent Internationalists collaborators - Peca Stefan, Romanian playwright and Alfonso Cárcamo, Mexican playwright and director. 
 Alfonso is one of the original collaborators for Hotel Project, Querétaro and helped us complete the development of the current collaborative model.  He was both playwright and Actor in the pilot in Mexico. Here he is doing different double duty as Playwright for NJ and as a Director for NYC. 

ANA: Both Peca and Alfonso have been affiliated with the Internationalists almost since the company was founded. 

TAMIILLA: one of Peca's  plays was the first public play presented by the Internationalists. Presented in London and NYC.

ANA: He is my oldest collaborator and I'm looking forward to sharing him with the other artists coming together for Hotel Project. 

We also want to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute for their general support of the project.

What's next for Hotel Project?
Ana: We start here in January, but are looking for other cities and other artists and collaborators all the time. We will go back to Mexico sometime this summer for instance for another hotel in another city there, San Miguel Allende.  So, If you are curious about this in your city, give us a call! We'd love to come to you, too.