FAE Lima 2024: everything you need to know about the largest theater festival in Peru

Behind each play there is a process of months, even years, where every aspect is polished: script, acting, scenery and more. In its 2024 edition, the Lima Performing Arts Festival (FAE) reaps the work of the last 12 months, which were invested in working on theater proposals and training stage creators, whether for this edition or those to come.

“The focus of the festival is not only to exhibit works, but also to bet, to accompany certain groups in their creation process. Because sometimes performing artists, in a hurry to meet a release date, and having budget difficulties aggravated by the pandemic; “There is not much time to give space to creation,” Fabiola Castro, executive director of FAE Lima, told El Comercio.

This year there will be twelve national playwrights in the main exhibition, the so-called FAE Presenta, works that premiered throughout the country in 2023 and that applied to be exhibited at the event. The festival will open “Life on other planets”, by Mariana de Althaus, a reflection on the state of Peruvian education since independence. There will also be two productions made outside of Lima, “Mamá Angélica” (Ayacucho), by Édgar Palomino Medina; and “Pachamama” (Cusco), by Miguel Marcelo Farfán Ávalos. These three works are free to enter.

The FAE will also present four works from foreign countries, “Scam or About Unslept Dreams” (Brazil), by João Muniz; “La Sapo” (Uruguay and Argentina), by Ignacio Tamagno; “Split” (Australia), by Lucy Guerin; and a surprise work (Spain). Castro highlighted the importance of knowing what is done in other parts of the world, considering the difficulty that the Peruvian public has in seeing works from other latitudes. Some of the international works were managed with the support of the Aid Fund for Ibero-American Performing Arts (Iberescena).

It is worth noting that the FAE seeks to internationalize its creators. In this framework, it invites international programmers to see the national works on display. There will also be a market, where groups will have the opportunity to make a “pitch”, their proposal with a view to performing at festivals abroad. But it’s not just about thinking abroad. “We also invite programmers from regions, from Trujillo, Arequipa, Cusco, so that the works can also revolve at the national level. That exchange is rich,” highlighted Fabiola Castro.

Finally, four works in progress will be exhibited, forged in the FAE Incuba program, which are set to have a final version in the future. These works are The Corner of the Dead, by Sebastián Rubio; AYACÁN, by Pável Paniagua; History of corruption in Peru, by Daniel Subauste; and In any drift, by Steven Buendía Damelines. All these works will be presented in the auditorium of the Scientific University of the South.

Additionally, Castro says that this year the FAE Forma program will continue, where theater creation workshops will be offered with the support of the Ministry of Culture. In addition to the aforementioned institutions, other sponsors of the event are the Británico, the Cultural Center of Spain in Lima, the PUCP Cultural Center, the Cultural Center of the University of Lima, the Cultural Center of the Universidad del Pacífico, the Gran National Theater, La Plaza Theater.

FACT

FAE Lima 2023. From February 29 to March 10. Tickets available at https://www.joinnus.com/organizer/faelima2024