“El Recorrido” (“The Pathway” in Spanish) is an immersive theater experience that takes participants through different stages of the lives of people in the LGBTQ+ community,
The Concept
“El Recorrido de la diversidad” or simply “El Recorrido” is an immersive theater experience that takes bystanders through “the pathway” of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
The participants are given a character fact sheet and instructed to go through the different “stations”. Each station is particular to a character and corresponds to a specific experience proper of a Queer person’s journey or “pathway.”
Some of the characters include a Trans youth dealing with their school not respecting their transition, a Gay couple going through the hoops of trying to get a Civil Union and a Bisexual woman who only gets to explore her sexuality later in life.
The result is not only an immersive theater experience, but an exercise in empathy.
The Santiago Experiment
In 2016, within the context of the 100enundía Festival, “Fundación Iguales” (the equivalent of “The Human Rights Campaign” in Chile) sought to reshape “El Recorrido” for the reality in Santiago. In order to achieve this, Chris was tasked with adapting and directing the project.
In just a few weeks, “Fundación Iguales” volunteers were trained to play the different characters at each station that the participants had to go through. The improvisational nature of the piece made this process particularly challenging. The production was under Iguales commissioner Rocío Caces.
Results
The piece took place in the iconic Parque Forestal , where dozens of participants put themselves in the place of members of the LGBTQ+ community during the four hours of runtime.
The Santiago experiment was considered a huge success and triggered the imitation of “El Recorrido” in different cities in the country and made it a yearly tradition in Santiago.
Chris Browne Valenzuela 