Documents Perform 2

Can public policy become performance? Can performance become public policy?

The Setting: A blank stage with a giant screen. Projected onto the screen in English and Spanish is “Beyond the Build: A New Canadian Strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean”, a policy framework for economic partnership in the hemisphere. Joining from localities across the Americas, an online ensemble of “hacktors” made up of artists, cultural leaders, and policymakers will collectively “hack” and rewrite its recommendations in real time. Every edit, debate, and negotiation unfolds before a live audience, transforming a static policy document into a new blueprint for transborder cultural exchange and co-production in the Americas. The destination is unknown until the final word is written.

Building on the first iteration of Documents Perform in 2024, the project stages a live drafting process that treats policy not as a static instrument of governance, but as a performative act shaped by negotiation, power, translation, and imagination.

September 25, 2026 at 7:30 PM
September 26, 2026 at 7:30 PM

We presented the first version Documents Perform at RUTAS 2024 and it was a complete success. Editing a document live and on-line with artists, academics and activists from across the Americas was surprisingly moving, funny and inspiring. And it was a call to action. Natalie, Katiana and Richard are outspoken risk-takers and innovators that invite us to active collaborations in creating policies that are written by artists for artists.

Beatriz Pizano, Aluna Theatre Artistic Director

About the artist

Natalie Álvarez

Natalie Álvarez is an award-winning artist-scholar whose work in contemporary performance explores cultural difference, performance and human rights in the Americas, and the civic impacts of the arts. She leads major SSHRC-funded research initiatives and used theatre to develop scenario-based de-escalation training. Recent performance collaborations with the New York City Players’ Incoming Theatre Division include La Casa de Bernarda Alba, Documents Perform | Documentos Actúan, Galicia, and Childful.

Richard Maxwell

Richard Maxwell is an artist and the artistic director of New York City Players since its inception in 1999. He has received the Guggenheim Fellowship and The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, as well as two Obie awards, a Creative Capital grant, a Spalding Gray Award and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant. Mr. Maxwell’s work has been commissioned by ICA London, Barbican Centre, Festival D’Automne, Kunsten Festival, Vienna Festival, and presented in the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial.

Katiana Gonçales Rangel

Katiana Gonçales Rangel is a performer, director and educator from Brazil based in NYC. Recent works include Blasted (2026), Nannies of NYC (2025), Ama The Diver (2024), Graceland (2022) and The Vessel (2021). Main collaborators are Jim Fletcher, Richard Maxwell, Katie Brook, Jasmine Pisapia, Rodrigo Pavon and Lori Goldston. Katiana has been a member of New York City Players since 2013 and the director of the Incoming Theater Division since 2020.