Open Scene Launches Three-Year Maitland Art Center Residency With Vi Fiae

Open Scene will launch the first major public program of its newly announced three-year residency at the Maitland Art Center with the sixth edition of FIAE, its International Performing Arts Festival, running October 12-18, 2026.

For one week, the Maitland Art Center campus will become a meeting point for artists, stories, languages and audiences from across the world, with contemporary theater, live cinema, immersive and visual art, workshops and new play development connecting Puerto Rico, France, Panama, Colombia, Spain, Iran and Central Florida.

Open Scene is a Latin-led nonprofit cultural organization based in Central Florida that connects Orlando audiences with contemporary artists and performing arts experiences from around the world.

VI FIAE is the first major festival presented as part of Open Scene's three-year residency with Art & History Museums of Maitland, establishing the Maitland Art Center as a recurring home for the organization's year-round cultural programming.

The festival combines donation-based programs, $20 workshops and Open Scene's Choose What You Pay model for its two major evening performances. Multilingual access in more than 25 languages will be available for applicable performances and conversations.

A WEEK OF WORK ACROSS FORMS AND BORDERS

The festival begins Monday, October 12 with Interlude, an immersive installation by Panamanian-Colombian artist Remedios, presented by State of the Art Collection and on view throughout the week. Built through textiles, color, texture and organic forms, the installation creates an environment shaped by memory, grief, pause and renewal. Interlude marks the work's U.S. premiere.

On Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00 p.m., the installation will become the setting for a live musical activation created in collaboration with Musiva. Interlude and its musical activation are donation-based, with a suggested donation of $10.

On Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m., Open Scene will present a staged reading of Viajeras by Spanish playwright Alba Celma, winner of the sixth edition of Open Scene's International Escena Abierta Playwriting Competition. The play braids the present-day story of Asha, a young Iranian film student living in Madrid, with the 1889 race around the world between journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. Through travel, ambition and displacement, Viajeras explores migration, identity, freedom of movement and the question of who has the right to tell a story. The reading will be performed in Spanish with multilingual access in more than 25 languages and is donation-based, with a suggested donation of $10.

Also on Thursday, French company Alcoléa & Cie will lead Cinema Magic Lab, with hands-on workshops at 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. The workshops invite participants into the world of Georges Méliès and the origins of cinematic special effects, exploring early visual tricks and experimenting with the ways music and sound can transform an image on screen. Workshops are $20 each and require no previous experience.

On Friday, October 16 at 6:30 p.m., Art & History Museums of Maitland will open Vilomah: Against the Natural Order, a solo exhibition by Iranian artist Soude Dadras. Dadras' multidisciplinary practice draws on memory, trauma, traditional handwork, found objects and healing rituals. The exhibition opening, included in the VI FIAE program as part of the festival's broader cultural landscape, will feature music, a food truck and a cash bar. Admission is free.

Earlier that day, Alcoléa & Cie will offer two sessions of Inside Live Cinema, at 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.The hands-on workshop takes audiences behind the visual effects, instruments and sound objects used in the company's live cinema concert Right in the Eye, offering an up-close look at the relationship between early film, live music and theatrical illusion. Workshops are $20 each.

GEORGES MÉLIÈS REIMAGINED AS LIVE CINEMA

On Saturday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m., Open Scene will present the Central Florida premiere of Right in the Eye by France's Alcoléa & Cie.  Twelve films by pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès are brought to life with an original score performed live by three musicians using more than 50 instruments and sound objects. Theremin, aquaphone, percussion, piano frame, everyday objects and live cinematic illusion transform some of cinema's earliest experiments into a contemporary performance at the intersection of film and concert. Admission is Choose What You Pay, beginning at $21.

CONTEMPORARY PUERTO RICAN THEATER CLOSES THE FESTIVAL

VI FIAE Will Close Sunday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m. with the Florida premiere of Blanco Temblor, produced by Teatro Público of Puerto Rico and written and directed by Carola García López.

At the center of the play is Marina del Mar, a Puerto Rican astrophysicist living with bipolar disorder who has survived a suicide attempt. Through humor, music, movement and a visceral physical language, Blanco Temblor explores psychiatric care, medication, stigma, grief, family bonds, love and the struggle to define oneself beyond a diagnosis. Rather than reducing its protagonist to a clinical condition, the work places her humanity, contradictions and relationships at the center of the story. The production arrives in Florida following presentations in Puerto Rico, Chicago and Los Angeles. Blanco Temblor will be performed in Spanish with multilingual access in more than 25 languages. Admission is Choose What You Pay, beginning at $21.

LANGUAGE AND ACCESS ARE PART OF THE EXPERIENCE

FIAE presents work in its original languages whenever possible and builds access around the art rather than asking the art to become linguistically neutral.

Applicable performances, readings and conversations offer real-time multilingual access in more than 25 languages, allowing audiences to follow and participate in the language most comfortable to them.

The festival also continues Open Scene's approach to economic accessibility through a combination of donation-based programming, affordable workshops and Choose What You Pay admission.

Every ticket level for Right in the Eye and Blanco Temblor provides the same General Admission experience. Higher contribution levels allow audience members who are able to give more to support Open Scene's ability to compensate professional artists while keeping admission accessible.

VI FIAE 2026 PROGRAM AT A GLANCE

October 12-18
Interlude
Remedios, Panama/Colombia
Immersive Installation · U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, October 14 · 7:00 p.m.
Interlude: Live Musical Activation
In collaboration with Musiva

Thursday, October 15 · 11:00 a.m. & 6:00 p.m.
Cinema Magic Lab
Alcoléa & Cie, France

Thursday, October 15 · 7:00 p.m.
Viajeras
Alba Celma, Spain
Staged Reading

Friday, October 16 · 11:00 a.m. & 6:00 p.m.
Inside Live Cinema
Alcoléa & Cie, France

Friday, October 16 · 6:30 p.m.
Vilomah: Against the Natural Order
Soude Dadras, Iran
Opening Reception

Saturday, October 17 · 7:00 p.m.
Right in the Eye
Alcoléa & Cie, France
Live Cinema Concert · Central Florida Premiere

Sunday, October 18 · 7:00 p.m.
Blanco Temblor
Teatro Público, Puerto Rico
Contemporary Theater · Florida Premiere