Nicolás Venegas’s 'Manual de Autoayuda' Comes to IATI Theater

• 'Manual de Autoayuda' (Self-Help Manual), a production by Chilean creator Nicolás Venegas, will be held for three performances at IATI Theater in New York.
• The 60-minute play uses autofiction, audiovisual media, and dark comedy to critique the self-help industry and the modern conception of happiness as a consumer good.

Production Details

• Dates: Thursday, August 13 (7:00 p.m.), Friday, August 14 (7:00 p.m.), and Saturday, August 15 (3:00 p.m.).
• Venue: IATI Theater, 64 E. 4th St., New York, NY.
• Tickets: $20 general admission.
• Language: Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

Production Context

• The play features the performer acting as a coach who encourages audience members to voluntarily share their own experiences with the search for happiness.
• Developed during a 2023 artistic residency at Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM), the piece has been presented in Chile and Argentina.
• It moves between the deeply personal and the political, questioning whether happiness can exist as a permanent state or if the effort to find it is simply another consumerist endeavor.