Os Confederados

$17.00

by Andy Boyd

Play, 3f 5m

In 1867, several thousand "refugees" from the former Confederacy landed the SS South America at the Brazilian town of Santa Barbara, soon thereafter renamed Americana. Here, in the western hemisphere's last slave society, they tried to recreate the world they had lost. Os Confederados begins with the story of these first pioneers as they arrive in Brazil, only to realize they have very different ideas about what legacies of Dixie are worth preserving.

From that opening, the play jumps one hundred and fifty years to 2017. Descendants of the original Confederados are holding their annual Festa, a celebration of...something? As the characters struggle to reconcile their Confederado identity with their Brazilian values, the same contradictions evident in the founding generation reassert themselves. After all, what does it mean to celebrate a past you don't really remember?

Os Confederados is a play about family, about history, and about memory. It's about race and gender and Brasilidade. It's about why we hold on and how we let go.

by Andy Boyd

Play, 3f 5m

In 1867, several thousand "refugees" from the former Confederacy landed the SS South America at the Brazilian town of Santa Barbara, soon thereafter renamed Americana. Here, in the western hemisphere's last slave society, they tried to recreate the world they had lost. Os Confederados begins with the story of these first pioneers as they arrive in Brazil, only to realize they have very different ideas about what legacies of Dixie are worth preserving.

From that opening, the play jumps one hundred and fifty years to 2017. Descendants of the original Confederados are holding their annual Festa, a celebration of...something? As the characters struggle to reconcile their Confederado identity with their Brazilian values, the same contradictions evident in the founding generation reassert themselves. After all, what does it mean to celebrate a past you don't really remember?

Os Confederados is a play about family, about history, and about memory. It's about race and gender and Brasilidade. It's about why we hold on and how we let go.

About the Author

Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. Her plays include Os Confederados (Columbia@Roundabout New Play Award winner), Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist (The Tank Core Production), Occupy Prescott (Theater in Asylum at Jalopy Theatre, published by NoPassport Press), and The Trade Federation, or, Let’s Explore Globalization Through the Star Wars Prequels (IRT and Otherworld Theatre, published by NoPassport Press). She is a member of the theatre band Friend of Friend, whose show Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone has been performed at University Settlement, The Brick, Joe’s Pub, and HERE Arts Center.