Spanish theater artist and director Marco Magoa is bringing his refugee-centered production to the University of Idaho Aug. 25 in the Hartung Theatre.
“Mare Nostrum. Finis Somnia Vestra” (“Our Sea. The End of Your Dreams”), is a trilogy — written and directed by Magoa — that tells the story of a young man seeking asylum in Europe after his three-day open sea journey from Libya to Italy.
Magoa has presented the third part of the trilogy, “Mare Nostrum,” on three continents. On Aug. 25, he will perform an installment of the trilogy that provides glimpses into the struggles many refugees face when fleeing from their home countries.
“It’s a monologue,” said Marta Boris Tarre, the UI assistant professor of Spanish who asked Magoa to perform at the university. “He wrote the script and performs it at the end of the play — the last scene there will be five theater students who will play the roles of refugees.”
Magoa, who is also a social activist, has lived in Arab countries for several years. He was in Egypt during the 2011 Arab Spring, and he also spent time working in refugee camps in Iraq and Jordan, Boris Tarre said.
In addition to the performance, Magoa will give a presentation on his personal experience with the refugee crisis in the Middle East at 5 p.m. Aug. 24 in the Vandal Ballroom of the Bruce Pitman Center. Both the presentation and performance are free and open to the public. Performance tickets are available at BookPeople of Moscow and at the door an hour before curtain. Although tickets are free, seating is limited.
Boris Tarre knew she had to reach out to Magoa when she came across an article about him in the cultural section of a Spanish newspaper.
“I sent him an email, and a year later I received it,” Boris Tarre said. “That year, I was going a study abroad in Madrid, where he lives. We set up to meet for a coffee, and one thing led to another and I started putting things together.”
While Boris Tarre first reached out to Magoa about visiting the university, she said these events would not be possible without the collaborative efforts between the Modern Languages and Cultures Department, the Theatre Arts Department, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Martin Institute and International Studies program.
Bill Smith, director of the Martin Institute, said most Americans are only exposed to news reports about the refugee crisis. Listening to and seeing Magoa’s representation of the social turmoil in the Middle East, he said, might help those who attend the event develop a new perspective on the situation.
“I believe, for people to truly care and be motivated to perhaps take action, they have to see other people as people and understand what they’re going through and be exposed to that on a different level instead of just seeing it on the news,” Smith said. “What Marco does is bring it back to a person-to-person relationship.”
In addition, Boris Tarre said Magoa will discuss how the younger generations of Arabs are working to change the sociopolitical environment. Although the challenges faced by youth in the Middle East are different than the challenges facing young American students, Boris Tarre said she believes UI students can relate to the idea of striving for social change by combining old traditions with the new.
“He’s also going to talk about how the young generation of Arabs is trying to combine tradition with modernity to change things,” Boris Tarre said. “I think that’s going to be interesting because the audience, our students, are young people. They might relate to that idea of doing something to change society.”
Although the sociopolitical turmoil in the Middle East is a politically charged topic, Boris Tarre said Magoa’s presentation and performance are not aimed at criticizing any governmental or political stance. Rather, she said, they are about providing others with a different perspective of the refugee crisis.
“This event is not supposed to be a criticism to governments or countries, it’s supposed to give students a perspective from someone who has been there with refugees,” Boris Tarre said. “They can form their own opinion about it and ask questions. He’s not here to criticize, he’s here to start a conversation.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]