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:

WATER BILL SCRIPT 001

INTRO: Festival Internacional de Teatro de Manizales presenta:

EL RECIBO DEL AGUA

DAUGHTER (USER): Mom, I need to tell you something.

MOTHER (ACTRESS): What happened? Don’t scare me.

DAUGHTER (USER):I’ve been thinking about what we talked. I decided…

MOTHER (ACTRESS): My love, I forgot to tell you. I figured out why we didn’t have water service. Well, I was paying the water bill of our neighbor next door.

DAUGHTER (USER): Mom!

MOTHER (ACTRESS): That’s what the water service girl told me. The company made a mistake, and they delivered our bill to the neighbor, and theirs to us.

DAUGHTER (USER): Mom, it’s about the pregnancy!

MOTHER (ACTRESS): So, I’m going to talk to the neighbor about the issue, I think his name is José. And this is how he answered me!

DAUGHTER (USER): I’m not having it.

MOTHER (ACTRESS): Wait for this! That miserable said that it was my fault that I didn’t read well the numbers of the bill. Can you believe it? And that miserable knew, and didn’t pay, and didn’t told us. Shameless. But I solved it, I speak with the water service, and they said that the service will be restored today. And cut it down to him. Feels like justice.

DAUGHTER (USER):Listen to me! I’m gonna have an abortion.

MOTHER (ACTRESS): Look. Think about it, yes? Julian wants to have the baby and he loves you.

DAUGHTER (USER): But I don’t want to. I’m not ready for it.

MOTHER (ACTRESS): Look, having you was a blessing.

DAUGHTER (USER): But mom, you said that it will be fine whatever I choose. You never listen to me. You are always in your things. The water bill, who cares about the water bill. If it comes, if it not. Which blessing I am to you, if you ignore me, and we just had a stupid conversation, because you only care about the water bill. Who cares. And the neighbor, what’s going on with him? Listen to me for once in your live, please!

OUTRO: Water Bill, starred by Sharon Pacheco 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.