Paola en Italia x La MaMa Umbria

Katherine De La Cruz
Jun 20
2 min read

Updated: Aug 13

My first experience at an international residency was incredible. I was invited to join the cast of maura nguyễn donohue's piece SKY meets SEA which is set to premiere this fall as part of the Creatures festival at La MaMa.

The work is deeply meaningful, heartfelt and features fantastical lore from Vietnam and Ireland that breaks the boundaries of time, linearity and memoir. It's truly a treat and in many moments I found myself deeply moved while being the best version of a snake I could be that day.

Aside from maura's work, I had the pleasure of jumping into other projects for the Creatures Festival, serving as cast or fresh set of eyes. In Italy, I began the infancy of my singing voice. Something I am carefully cultivating this summer and maybe will continue to for the rest of my life.

Being in La MaMa Umbria felt like the ideal situation for an artist. Waking up and jumping into rehearsals, making things up, trying, failing and putting our all into experimentation.

Some thing will never leave me:

Eating the best tomatoes and mozzarella in the world.

Paying our respects to Ellen Stewart at her final resting place.

Serenading the blazing Umbrian sun.

Not pictured:

The sweet nightly aroma of thousands of sleeping olive trees.

Moonlit walks up dirt roads accompanied by a firefly rave.

The sheer ecstatic energy of a room full of artists.

Photo dump of Rome and Spoleto:

I had a few hours in Rome and Spoleto to myself. On my first day in the country, I roamed the narrow streets of Rome and took in the architecture. I guess my liberal arts education paid off when all the nerdy art history knowledge flooded back in.

The Colosseum was, well, the fucking Colosseum. Enough said.