BOTH PERFORMANCES ARE CURRENTLY SOLD OUT, BUT WE HAVE OPENED WAIT LISTS FOR EACH PERFORMANCE.

To be placed on the waitlist for the 5:30pm performance, please follow this link: https://forms.gle/ySBfoBiZ5cwkypSP8

To be placed on the waitlist for the 8pm performance, please follow this link: https://forms.gle/dSZMwTjodjs3e16a9

Realm of the Dead is a community-based art project conceived, written, and performed by Dr. Rogério Meireles Pinto, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. It is being presented as part of a2ru's 2022 National Conference, "Exploring Artistic Research."

Pinto takes the audience on a journey as he recounts how he was consumed by the loss of his sister, Marília, who died in a sudden accident at just three years old, and by his later molestation by his father. The installation includes dozens of vintage suitcases and trunks that have been intricately crafted into sculptures, evoking how Pinto grew up in poverty in Brazil, and how at 21 he arrived in the United States and lived in New York City for nearly a decade as an undocumented immigrant. Each piece of luggage in the Realm of the Dead reflects an aspect of Pinto’s multiple physical and spiritual journeys; together they also represent the cemetery where Marília is buried. The performance includes material on ethnicity, race, gender, class, and other identities. Grounded in Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, Realm of the Dead invites us to confront and to find creative ways to handle personal and social issues like grief, poverty, immigration, gender, sexual identity and sexual trauma.

Learn more at https://www.pintorealmdead.com/.

"Realm of the Dead" Performance