The number of Colombians who attend to theater plays is low. That’s why we’ve wrote four short plays for WhatsApp to be performed anywhere by any Colombian, giving them the chance to get closer to theater, and becoming a main character beside four professional actors, and been part of the festival and the audio and radio campaign.

Each one of these plays was written specifically to release the user’s emotions and let them enjoy been someone else for a few minutes.

Please review the supporting material.

Theater in Colombia is in a critical condition. The Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogotá, one of the most important in the world, ceased operations in 2018. In the last decade, a lot of theaters have closed, and less than 10% of Colombians attended a theater performance in the last year. On the other hand, WhatsApp is the most popular social network in Colombia, with 92.4% of users, more than TikTok and Instagram.

The chatbot sent T&C and the four short plays selection for the users to choose. Then, the chatbot sent introduction and explanation videos. The interaction begins when the chat sent the actor’s audio with a short script for the user to act. After that, the user sent the audio with his or her performance. And so on. At the end, every user had to improvise the last part, turning every performance a unique play. And the chatbot delivered the full play into a single audio with a customized poster.

WhatsActs plays:

TWINS

TIME TRIAL

NEW YEAR IN APRIL

WATER BILL

The following is one of 3264 WhatsAct plays:

TIME TRIAL SCRIPT

INTRO: Festival Internacional de Teatro de Manizales presents:

Time trial

CYCLIST (ACTOR): Hey! What’s it’s going on, are you blind? Where did you learn to drive?

DRIVER (USER): Your mother taught me.

CYCLIST (ACTOR): Don’t you see that I have the way, and I’m going on a bicycle?

DRIVER (USER): The highway is for the cars. Use the bikeway.

CYCLIST (ACTOR): Come out and make me, old man.

DRIVER (USER): (Cough) Old man? Take a look of yourself in a mirror, Mother fucker. You Shouldn’t go in a bicycle, but in a wheelchair.

CYCLIST (ACTOR): And you shouldn’t go in a van, but in a hearse. Don’t you gonna come out? Or you shit yourself in the diapers.

DRIVER (USER): (Cough harder) At least I have diapers. Not like you, that have a colostomy bag, and no teeth (cough), have no teeth (cough).

CYCLIST (ACTOR): (Cough and laugh) Senile. Senile old guy (cough). Come out and I will give you a lesson with my cane.

DRIVER (USER): (Cough) Speak louder, fucker.

CYCLIST (ACTOR): What?

DRIVER (USER): (Cough) The mummy needs an ambulance? (Laugh with trouble)

CYCLIST (ACTOR): (Hard breathing) What do you said? (Hard breathing) Where I am?

DRIVER (USER): (Laugh with trouble) I always, I always imagined my last day like this. (Cough) But at least you are like a mummy, old fucker (laugh). See you up there (cough) or maybe, down there (cough). You know, I never wanted to live. Today is the best day of my life. Why? Because I’m leaving this dimension today. And from the other place, I’m gonna drop all those cyclist motherfuckers like you. (Cough). Cyclist piece of shit. (Cough with trouble) (Dies).

OUTRO: Time Trial, starred by Fabio Rubiano and someone who wanted to do catharsis by acting through WhatsApp.

WhatsActs. Created by Festival Internacional de Teatro de Manizales. From October 20 to 28.

If this is how two minutes of acting feels, imagine the entire theatre play season.

Buy your tickets at Tuboleta.com

Colombia has experienced a concerning trend in cultural consumption, with theater attendance declining by 8.5 points between 2010 and 2020. Against this backdrop, the objective of our campaign was to reverse this trend and achieve a 6% growth in attendance compared to 2022.

The festival saw significant growth across various metrics:

- Website visits increased by 22,029, with 60% attributed to SEO on Google.

- Instagram recorded 8,113 visits, reaching 57,470 individuals and generating 11,899 interactions with the content.

- Paying ticket sales surged by 67.4%, resulting in an additional 15,017 tickets compared to 2022. This brought the total attendance to 22,425 individuals.