SKYLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS THE NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK ROLLING WORLD PREMIERE OF THE MADRES BY STEPHANIE ALISON WALKER DIRECTED BY SARA GUERRERO STARRING: DENISE BLASOR, MARGARITA LAMAS, NATALIE LLERENA, ARIANNA ORTIZ, ALEXANDER PIMENTEL, GABRIEL ROMERO SET DESIGN: CHRISTOPHER SCOTT MURILLO LIGHTING DESIGNER: WESLEY CHARLES CHEW SOUND DESIGNER: CORINNE CARRILLO COSTUME DESIGN: JOJO SIU CASTING DIRECTOR: RAUL CLAYTON STAGGS PUBLICIST: JUDITH BORNE PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: ELISSA BARRETT, JOSH GERSHICK, KATE LUHR, MARCELO TUBERT PRODUCED BY: GARY GROSSMAN, TONY ABATEMARCO AND JONATHAN MUÑOZ-PROULX OPENING NIGHT MARCH 10, 2018 THE MADRES IS PRODUCED AT SKYLIGHT THEATRE COMPANY AS A PART OF A NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK ROLLING WORLD PREMIERE. OTHER PARTNERING THEATERS ARE TEATRO VISTA (CHICAGO, IL), MOXIE THEATRE (SAN DIEGO, CA), AND SHREWD PRODUCTIONS (AUSTIN, TX). FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.NNPN.ORG FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT …Give us this day our daily bread, the one that, yesterday you took away from us a Latin American’s Lord’s Prayer Mario Benedetti Excerpted from The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival by Alicia Partnoy The first time I visited my father in Argentina was during the height of the “Dirty War.” It was 1980, I was five and I remember seeing uniformed soldiers carrying rifles in the airport. I didn’t understand the significance then, but the images stayed with me. After college, when I was living and working in Buenos Aires and beginning to learn more about the “Dirty War” and the Desaparecidos (the Disappeared), I reflected back on those early childhood images. It was after marching with Las Madres one Thursday that I knew I had to write about them one day. THE MADRES is a story about the strength and resilience of women. It’s about brave women who refused to be silenced. When they chose to speak out, to stand up and march, they were called “crazy/ Las Locas” - as women who speak truth to power often are. No one believed their stories of their missing children. No one believed the govern- ment could or would do such a thing. No one wanted to believe them. This didn’t stop Las Madres from speaking out, demanding justice and showing up every Thursday to march right in front of the Casa Rosada (Argentina’s equivalent of our White House.) Las Madres - the original Women’s Marchers- were the first to resist the Argentine dictatorship. The timing of the world premiere of The Madres is remarkable because it seems people are finally listening to women. I pray that we never stop listening. There is so much we can learn from Las Madres and their brave act of resistance. Let us never forget, let us never be com- placent in the face of injustice, let us always be as brave as Las Madres. Ni olvido, ni perdón! Stephanie Alison Walker - Playwright THE MADRES CAST IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE JOSEFINA ACOSTA.......……… DENISE BLASOR*, MARGARITA LAMAS* PADRE JUAN.....……..….......................…………...... GABRIEL ROMERO CAROLINA ACOSTA.…..............................…………….. ARIANNA ORTIZ DIEGO THE SOLDIER…......…......................... ALEXANDER PIMENTEL DESAPARECIDA.........……........…….......................NATALIE LLERENA * Ms. Lamas will perform March 3 - April 1 and Ms. Blasor will perform April 6 - April 29 THE MADRES WILL BE PERFORMED WITH ONE, 10-MINUTE INTERMISSION. SETTING TIME: 1978 - DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE SO-CALLED “DIRTY WAR.” PLACE: A MODEST APARTMENT IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA WHO’S WHO CAST DENISE BLASOR (Josefina Acosta) In 1995 Denise became Artistic Director of LA Diversified & was a founding member of LAAFO, KOAN, ELAC & currently Associate Artistic Director of BFA. She has performed at Teatro Cervantino, Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Odyssey Theatre, Broad Stage, Fountain The- atre, Old Globe, Plaza de la Raza, Getty Museum, Casa 0101, Elephant Theatre, The Group at Strasberg, Stella Adler NY, South Coast Rep,Los Angeles Theatre Center etc. Films include COCO, Noriega: God’s Favorite, Death in Granada. Her film, Dentro De La Casa De Bernarda Alba was nominated by the Imagen Award Foundation as Best Short. MARGARITA LAMAS (Josefina Acosta) left Argentina in 1966 and spent the next 5 decades living between Canada and the U.S.. She attended Concordia University, graduating with a B.F.A. in Performing Arts. Margarita moved to Los Angeles in 1987. Although most of her acting career has been on the stages of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Margarita has also performed at the Odyssey Theatre, the NoHo Arts Centre, Teatro Sinergia, and with the Teatro de las Americas in Oxnard. NATALIE LLERENA (Desaparecida): is from Washington,D.C. She has trained with New York’s Atlantic Theatre Company, D.C.’s premiere physical theater, Synetic, Anthony Meindl, and the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. She is a company member with The Road Theatre, and is an active creator in the L.A. immersive theatre community. Recent film/theatre credits include: St. Jimmy (American Idiot), Lindsey Copeland’s Hedgehog, and production on Sean Baker’s The Florida Project. WHO’S WHO ARIANNA ORTIZ (Carolina Acosta) trained as a performer at the California Institute of the Arts. She has performed at The Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The BRAVA Theater Center in San Francisco, The Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, The Theater at Boston Court and San Diego Rep. She’s currently recurring on NBC’s This is Us. Select television credits include Parenthood, Jane the Virgin, Life in Pieces, BET’s Rebel, Comedy Central’s Review, and Shameless. ALEXANDER PIMENTEL (Diego the Soldier) was last seen at Skylight in the world premiere of The End Times. Most recently Alexander was cast in the lead role for a workshop of the new musical Havana Music Hall. Favorite past credits include: Gabe in Next to Normal, Hal in Henry IV, Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza, and Ronald in the world premiere of Cruel Intentions: The Musical. B.M. from Westminster Choir College. M.A. from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. www.alexpp.com GABRIEL ROMERO (Padre Juan) Born in Mexico, Gabriel holds a BFA in Stage Management from USC and was an Allen Lee Hughes Fellow at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Past credits include Los Beltrán on Telemundo, War of the Worlds with the LA Phil, Galileo and Crescent City with The Industry, an inter- national tour of The Ogreling with 24th Street Theatre, Seven Spots on the Sun (u/s) at Boston Court, and King of the Lighthouse at the Lee Strasberg Theatre. WHO’S WHO PRODUCTION TEAM STEPHANIE ALISON WALKER (Playwright) is the winner of the Ashland New Plays Festi- val, Blue Ink Award and the Generations Prize, as well as the runner-up for the Jane Cham- bers Award. She has been a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, ATCA’s Francesca Primus Prize, the CTG/Humanitas Playwriting Prize, the Saroyan/Paul Playwriting Prize for Human Rights and four-time Finalist for the Heideman Award. Her full- length plays include The Madres, The Abuelas, Friends With Guns, The Art of Disappearing, American Home, The Sister House, Three Fittings and The Box Jumper. Stephanie’s work has been produced and/ or developed at Los Angeles’ Skylight Theatre, Moving Arts, Antaeus Theatre Company, The Road Theatre, Inkwell Theatre, The Blank Theatre, San Diego Rep, 16th Street Theater in Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, Boulder Ensemble Theater Company, American Blues Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville and more. Stephanie’s short plays are anthologized by Smith & Kraus and have been produced all over the world. A resident of Los Angeles, Stephanie is a proud member of the Playwrights Union and Antaeus Playwrights Lab and is represented by the Robert A. Freedman Agency. She dedicates this play to the strong women who shaped her- Mom, Silvia and Wilma. SARA GUERRERO (Director) is a Southern California native. She’s the founding artistic director of the award-winning, Santa Ana-based Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble (breathoffire.org), and has been recognized as one of the “People to Watch” by American Theatre Magazine, and “Best [Artistic] Director” and “Person of Interest” by OC WEEKLY. A CalArts theatre graduate, Guerrero is a professional versatile theatre artist whose mission is to model, share and create theatre-making opportunities for and with her community. She holds an extensive list of work and credits with many major institutes, organizations, uni- versities, schools, and communities. Previously, she served as the community engagement director for SCR’s Dialogue/Diálogos Project (two -year community theatre -making project) and was producing associate to the project’s production, El Largo Camino de Hoy / The Long Road Today by José Cruz González. She supports herself as a teaching & theatre artist. GARY GROSSMAN (Producer) is the recipient of Stage Raw’s 2016 “Career Achievement Award.” He has produced over 300 stage plays, including more than 50 world premieres. Among his celebrated productions are Rotterdam (5 LADCC nominations), Church & State, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (Steinberg/National Theatre Critics Citation), El Grande CIRCUS de Coca-Cola, Wrong Man (3 Ovation Awards), Obama-ology, Pray To Ball (1 Ovation Award), Years to the Day, Hermetically Sealed, Bullrusher, Sexsting, Mad Women (LA Weekly Award), Romeo and Juliet directed by Milton Katselas (3 LADCC Awards), Dylan (3 LADCC Awards), AIDS/US Portraits In Courage, Influence, Open House, Dream Man, Balm In Gilead and Lord of The Underworlds, Home for Unwed Mothers. TONY ABATEMARCO (Producer) is Co-Artistic Director of Skylight Theatre Company. Tony directed Lord Of The Underworld’s Home For Unwed Mothers here as well as Julie Harris in Lucifer’s Child on Broadway and for A & E TV. In London’s West End he directed Robyn Peterson’s Catwalk Confidential. Other regional directing credits include the Pasadena Play- house, The Taper & Taper,Too, Santa Fe Stages, La MaMa ETC, and Theatre Grevin in Paris.