A collective creation by Yuyachkani

Concept and Direction: Miguel Rubio Zapata
On stage: Augusto Casafranca, Ana Correa, Raúl Durand, Rebeca Ralli, Teresa Ralli, Juan Guerrero, Julián Vargas, Junior Béjar, Gabriella Paredes Rodríguez, Jorge Baldeón, Milagros Felipe Obando, Ricardo Delgado, Silvia Tomotaki, Alejandro Siles Vallejos.
Assistant Director: Milagros Felipe Obando
Production: Socorro Naveda
Technical Coordination: Alejandro Siles

Graduation Speech is the result of a scenic exploration laboratory that brings together the Yuyachkani Group and interdisciplinary artists from the visual arts, theater and performance art. This 14-month process evolved into an open creation lab through collaborative sessions with other national and Latin American performance artists, as well as performances for high school audiences. The piece proposes a convergence of theatricality, visual arts, found objects poetics, and various performance behaviors, all coming together in an exploration of the boundaries of stage writing — where the audience experience is central.

The result is a vision of the country that reveals the long list of promises that have not been kept since the independence and freedom were achieved in 1821. In Graduation Speech, Yuyachkani suggests some political proposal that views the country from its place in the world, through an ephemeral and intense act of coexistence aimed at reflecting on our shared memory.

Historical representations and allegories shape Graduation Speech, revisiting myths and figures from republican history, as well as well-known and recent episodes from our national past.

Promotion Speech premiered in May 2017, at the Casa de Yuyachkani, Lima – Peru

The play has been performed on multiple occasions at the Casa de Yuyachkani, as well as in the following venues:
– Pacific Standard Time Festival: Live Art LA/LA, Los Angeles, California, organized by REDCAT – Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (2018)
– Mirada, Ibero-American Festival of Performing Arts, Santos, São Paulo – Brazil, September 2024