July 23-25 2015 2 a Note from Lisa Portes
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A commons by and for people who make performance. #LTCCarnaval July 23-25 2015 2 A NOTE FROM Lisa Portes I cut my teeth at the Hispanic Playwrights Project (HPP) at South Coast Rep. Founded by José Cruz González in the early 1980s, this annual festival of new Latina/o plays served as a nexus for the Latina/o theatremaking community and a hotbed of talent for those artistic directors and literary managers looking for new Latina/o work. Later, Juliette Carrillo became Artistic Director and with her keen sense of language and theatricality brought in some of the most exciting writers in the country—not simply the most exciting Latina/o writers, but the most exciting writers period. Karen Zacarías was the first playwright with whom I had the honor of working. Over the next five years at HPP I met and fell in love with the work of Luis Alfaro, Cusi Cram, José Rivera, Nilo Cruz, Anne García-Romero, Elaine Romero, Rogelio Martinez, Caridad Svich, Alejandro Morales, and many more. Add to that illustrious list the Latina/o directors, actors, and dramaturgs that came together under the California sun, the number of works The Latina/o featured, the conversations had over how many drinks, the sheer vibrancy created by the Theatre Commons gathering of all of these theatremakers invested in new Latina/o work and you’d have a operates as a collaborative sense of the tremendous momentum created by HPP. initiative with HowlRound, a commons by and for people In 2003 South Coast Rep decided to end the program. With the loss of HPP—along with the Latino Theatre Initiative at Mark Taper Forum shortly thereafter—the Latina/o who make performance, theatremaking community lost its national center. While exciting work continued housed at Emerson College. regionally in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, New York, and HowlRound, through Miami, the energy that came from an annual national gathering of artists and producers Emerson College, acts as to discover and celebrate new Latina/o work dissipated. When I read the news that HPP fiscal sponsor for the LTC, had been shuttered, my first thought was “we have to get it back.” and provides infrastructure and mentorship to support In a poetic turn of events, that same Karen Zacarías, with the support of HowlRound at Arena Stage, called together a small group of Latina/o theatremakers in May, 2012 in our growth. In our actions, Washington, DC. Out of that gathering, the Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC) was born the LTC espouses the and with it the means to re-establish a national hub. Through the use of technology philosophical methods of and by marshalling the resources of its membership, the LTC has been able to create a HowlRound, and works to movable center, a tightly interwoven network of passionate Latina/o theatremakers that promote a commons-based collaborate online and come together live to advocate for Latina/o theatre as central approach to update the to the American theatre. In the three years since that game-changing DC meeting, the narrative of the American LTC has held two national convenings, launched an online platform, co-produced 2014 Los Angeles Theatre Center Encuentro: A National Latina/o Theatre Festival, and now theatre through advocacy, welcomes you to Carnaval 2015, a new play festival modeled precisely on HPP. We got artmaking, convening, it back! With the help of The Theatre School at DePaul University, ALTA Chicago, Teatro and scholarship. Vista, Victory Gardens, Goodman Theatre, and our generous funders we are pushing it forward: seeding the field with new work that tells the stories of the fastest growing demographic in the nation and fueling the momentum of a movement. Welcome! We are so glad you could join us. Lisa Portes Chair, LTC Carnaval 2015 Head of MFA Directing, The Theatre School at DePaul University 1 A NOTE FROM Polly Carl As I write this program note I’m acutely aware of earth shattering world events of past weeks that reflect our progress and our problems as a country. In a moment when pain and hope overwhelm us—the racist murders of nine black citizens and the historic marriage equality Supreme Court decision earned after years of activism—we wonder about the role of art and theatre in the struggle for justice and social change, we wonder if our work in the theatre is truly the work of the front lines, where the world gets better because the stories we imagine for the stage matter. In this summer where history moves backward and forward, we come together to celebrate the work of Latina/o theatre artists, we come together as the mission of the Latino Theatre Commons states, to update the narrative of the American theatre, a narrative that has for too long relished its exclusivity. Eight Latino/a theatremakers met in Washington, DC, in May 2012 with a vision to make real change. They envisioned four things, huge goals that they thought would impact the way the American theatre was doing business, to evolve the story of America in 2012 HowlRound, located and beyond. They imagined a large convening in Boston of Latino/a theatremakers from all over the US where they would build community and create the infrastructure for a in the Office of the Arts at movement. They imagined a month-long Encuentro of Latino/a work in Los Angeles that Emerson College, designs would culminate with another convening of Latino/a artists. They imagined an online and develops online journal called Café Onda where they would publish regularly and report on the progress communication platforms of their movement. And they imagined this weekend, a Carnaval at The Theatre School and in-person gatherings at DePaul University in Chicago where new plays would be read and shared with the that promote access, field, and yes, more conversation where artists of every ethnicity would come together in participation, organizational the spirit of promoting new stories for the stage. collaboration, field-wide And we’re here together to say, job well done! Everything those eight artists imagined has research, and new teaching now become real, and in the process a movement of Latino/a theatremakers is shifting practices to illuminate the the balance in our field toward a theatre that is more inclusive, and one that looks more breadth, diversity, and like the world we live in. We’re also here to talk together about what’s next, as we know we impact of a commons-based have much more distance to travel to create an equitable American theatre. approach to performance practice. HowlRound’s partnership with the LTC is also a reflection of what we imagined when we started HowlRound a little more than four years ago. We hoped the notion of commons- based movements, a frame that demands inclusion by its very structure, would become For more information, visit a basis for change in our field. We imagined a place where anyone could participate, HowlRound.com. where those who felt excluded and unheard could occupy space in full voice. The LTC has taken the commons-based model and run with it, and HowlRound is honored to be its primary collaborator, its institutional infrastructure, and its mentor for commons-based practice in this work. This is a summer I will never forget. So much has happened, dreams shattered and realized. I’m grateful to pause here, in this historic moment as the LTC rolls forward, making a difference and making change. Polly Carl Director of HowlRound 2 THURSDAY 11:30 AM FULLERTON STAGE the living’life of the daughter mira by Matthew Paul Olmos DIRECTED BY Carlos Murillo This play was developed, in part, by the Lark Play Development Center and Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group. It received the 2015 National Latino Playwriting Award from Arizona Theatre Company. CAST Premature at 32 weeks, baby Mira looks to her delivery nurse Maya as a mother figure. While fighting to remain alive, her teenage mother and uncompromising family clash LAZARO Wesley Toledo over who is fit to raise the baby while Mira’s father Lazaro struggles to keep a promise he made to his daughter nine months earlier on a mysterious beach. LUNA/MIRA Andrea Morales MATTHEW PAUL OLMOS is a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency MAYA recipient, New Dramatists Resident Playwright, Princess Grace Awardee in Playwriting, Charín Alvarez* Ensemble Studio Theatre lifetime member, and was named by Sam Shepard as the inaugural recipient of the La MaMa e.t.c.’s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Award. LUPE Isabel Quintero He’s been a Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artist, Dramatists Guild Fellow, two-time INTAR Theatre H.P.R.L. playwright, New York Theatre Workshop fellow, Primary Stages EFREN Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer, terraNOVA Collective playwright, Rising Circle Miguel Nunez Collective playwright, and a two-time Resident Artist at Mabou Mines/Suite, mentored *Appearing courtesy of by Ruth Maleczech. His work is produced nationally and in México, and is published by Actors’ Equity Association NoPassport Press and Samuel French. For more of Matthew’s work, go to matthewpaulolmos.com or visit newplayexchange.org or samuelfrench.com. CARLOS MURILLO is a Chicago-based playwright and director. His book The Javier To produce this play, contact: Plays, a trilogy that includes Diagram of a Paper Airplane, A Thick Description of Harry The Gersh Agency Leah Hamos Smith, and Your Name Will Follow You Home will be released this fall, published by 53rd [email protected] State Press. His plays have been seen throughout the US and Europe.