Directing M.F.A. Mario El Caponi Mendoza believes part of his work, featuring sex between two men, was censored to avoid funding cuts.
By Tessa Solomon
The controversy surrounding the University of Iowa theater production Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That was Once her Heart (a rave fable) has gained a new layer as director Mario El Caponi Mendoza contends that an element of his production was censored to avoid cuts from higher administration to the Theater Department’s funding.
“I was always under the impression this place was progressive, especially the arts,” Mendoza said. “I didn’t know that I would be potentially endangering the funding of the department, which persuaded me to change the content. But I think this was played very manipulative.”
The conflict between Mendoza and the Theater Department began days before opening night. Based on the epidemic of femicide in the border town of Juarez, Mexico, the play’s content is thick with simulated sex, violence, and drug use. Though administrators granted approval for those elements, they nixed a projection intended for the pre-show, filmed by Mendoza, of two male sex workers having intercourse.
“There are moments [on stage] where rape happens,” Mendoza said. “Why is that more acceptable than two males loving each other?”
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Alan MacVey, the head of the Theater Department and director of the Division of Performing Arts, said this is not an issue of “censorship” or funding.
“The department has an extensive, detailed policy regarding nudity on stage,” he said. “Its procedures begin before casting, weeks in advance of opening, and continue through performances. Had [Mendoza] brought the film to the attention of the department early on, discussions could have taken place with the appropriate university administrators.”
Mendoza said the production stage manager, sent by MacVey, confronted him during a tech rehearsal.
“[The video] challenges gender binaries,” Mendoza said. “Millennials are already going in that direction, but it’s harder for baby boomers, who are set on a certain way.”
That it was two men, MacVey said, was not a factor; “Had it been heterosexual [sex], it would have been the same thing.”
Mendoza said the conflict has, in a way, split the Theater Department; many undergraduate students supposedly side with him while some professional staff may have boycotted the show in support of the administration. In the midst of this turmoil, Mendoza is considering abandoning his M.F.A. candidacy two months before he is set to earn his degree.
“Part of me wants to finish the semester, but another part says sometimes you need to just walk away from something that’s not making you grow anymore,” he said.
MacVey declined to comment on the possibility of Mendoza’s departure because of his lack of knowledge on the topic.
Iphigenia will finish its run Saturday evening. That may be the only thing keeping Mendoza at the UI.
“As long I have purpose here, and those actors, I am not going to leave,” Mendoza said. “But when that process ends, then what do I really have? Maybe it’s time to hit the road.”
