Contact: Cathy Taylor For Immediate Release Cathy Taylor Public Relations, Inc. June 28, 2018 [email protected] 773-564-9564
Victory Gardens Theater and Chicago Latino Theater Alliance Co-Present Culture Clash: American Odyssey Featuring Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza
October 4 – 7, 2018
Chicago, IL– Victory Gardens Theater and Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) for Destinos: the 2nd International Latino Theater Festival present Culture Clash: American Odyssey. American Odyssey runs October 4 - 7, 2018 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.
Culture Clash: An American Odyssey is a character study of real people and true stories from the shadows, borders and badlands of America. For 35 years the dedicated performance trio has tirelessly scoured the jails, detention centers, churches, mosques and the streets to fully understand and dimensionalize the human drama and joy of those who exist in the margins of the mainstream. Culture Clash dives into gender, race and class with the skills of veteran ethnographers in a pulsating, living theater of our complex times.
Founded in 1984 in San Francisco's historic Mission District, Culture Clash is Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza.
Culture Clash explains, “American Odyssey examines the journey from satire to poetics, listening to our poets whose words sent us on explorations where we found ourselves on borders and jails, to the mean streets of the Mission, to the Lower East Side where the echoes of Chicano-Boricua tales of survival carried us through the night and changed our lives and taught us to be the dramatists you see on the stage.”
Victory Gardens Artistic Director Chay Yew comments, "We're excited to be working with Chicago Latino Theater Alliance to welcome my old friends—the legendary Culture Clash—and their production of American Odyssey to Chicago audiences. For 35 years, these remarkable artists have delighted our national audiences with stories of the Latinx community with their ingenious blend of laughter and light. It is the perfect and vital commentary to the times in which we currently live."
Myrna Salazar, CLATA Co-Founder and Executive Director adds, “Now more than ever, this partnership between Victory Gardens and CLATA is important in presenting the reality of Latinos in the U.S. What better way to do this than to bring to Chicago, Culture Clash, a group that is strongly rooted in their community, their culture, and their craft.
Culture Clash is celebrating its 34th anniversary, as a vital American theater company with works ranging from sketch comedy to drama, to adaptations of Aristophanes’ The Birds, Peace and Frogs (aka Sapo) to co-writing Frank Loesser's long lost musical Señor Discretion Himself, based on a story by the late Budd Schulberg to earning “Best Production of the Year” Ovation Award for their critically-acclaimed play, Chavez Ravine, which was remounted at the Kirk Douglas Theater. Even dabbling in opera, in collaboration with the Long Beach Opera, Culture Clash premiered a remixed, reimagined and refreshed adaptation of Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year.
Culture Clash’s work has been produced by the nation's leading theaters including the Mark Taper Forum, Lincoln Centre Theater, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Seattle Repertory and The Goodman Theatre, among others. They have toured and lectured at major universities and colleges including, Syracuse University, Yale University, Stanford University, UCLA and dozens of state colleges in California.
Culture Clash has three books of compilations: Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa and Oh Wild West: The California Plays”, with TCG Books. They just finished a successful run of the reimagined Bordertown Now at the Pasadena Playhouse.
FACT SHEET / Culture Clash: An American Odyssey
Title: Culture Clash: American Odyssey Co-presented by: Victory Gardens Theater and Chicago Latino Theater Alliance
Featuring: Culture Clash: Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza
Schedule: October 4, 5, 6 at 8pm October 6 and 7 at 2:30pm Student matinee: October 5 at 10am
Location: Victory Gardens Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood
Tickets: $25
Box Office: The Box Office is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. 773.871.3000; www.victorygardens.org.
2018-19 Major Season Sponsors: Janice Miller and Helen Zell
2018/19 Season Sponsors: Doris Conant; Marcelle McVay and Dennis Zacek; Jeffrey Rappin and Penny Brown; Jane M Saks, Nathan Cummings Foundation; and Bill and Orli Staley Foundation
Travel Sponsor: Southwest Airlines
About Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance was co-founded in 2016 by the three most prominent Latino cultural organizations: International Latino Cultural Center, the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, joined by co-founder veteran arts executive, Myrna Salazar. Through its mission, CLATA aims to preserve and promote Latino cultural heritage by fostering the best works of Latino artists and by presenting culturally savvy productions that will not only engage Latino communities but incite cross-cultural exchange amongst a diverse range of communities in Chicago. For additional information, http://www.clata.org/.
About Destinos: the 2nd Chicago International Theater Festival
Destinos: the 2nd Annual Chicago International Latino Theater Festival will run from September 20 - October 21, 2018. CLATA is joined by venue partners Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Victory Gardens Theater, as well as, Aguijón Theater, The Miracle Center, National Mexican Museum of Art and UrbanTheater Company.
The newest iteration of Destinos will feature three World Premieres, three U.S. Premieres, and two Midwest Premieres with companies hailing from Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Local theater companies to be featured: Aguijón Theater, Teatro Vista, UrbanTheater Company, and Water People Theater. For more festival information, visit www.clata.org or follow CLATA on social media by the handle @latinotheater.
The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) is supported by: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Field Foundation of Illinois, The Joyce Foundation, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Allstate Insurance, ComEd, Southwest, and Choose Chicago. Venue Partners: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, NMMA, The Miracle Center Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Victory Gardens Theater.
About Victory Gardens Theater Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Managing Director Erica Daniels, Victory Gardens is dedicated to artistic excellence while creating a vital, contemporary American Theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through productions of challenging new plays and musicals. Victory Gardens Theater is committed to the development, production and support of new plays that has been the mission of the theater since its founding, set forth by Dennis Začek, Marcelle McVay, and the original founders of Victory Gardens Theater.
Victory Gardens Theater is a leader in developing and producing new theater work and cultivating an inclusive Chicago theater community. Victory Gardens’ core strengths are nurturing and producing dynamic and inspiring new plays, reflecting the diversity of our city’s and nation’s culture through engaging diverse communities, and in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, bringing art and culture to our city’s active student population.
Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Biograph Theater includes the Začek-McVay Theater, a state-of-the-art 259-seat mainstage and the 109-seat studio theater on the second floor, named the Richard Christiansen Theater.
Victory Gardens Ensemble Playwrights include Luis Alfaro, Philip Dawkins, Marcus Gardley, Ike Holter, Samuel D. Hunter, Naomi Iizuka, Tanya Saracho and Laura Schellhardt. Each playwright has a seven- year residency at Victory Gardens Theater.
For more information about Victory Gardens, visit www.victorygardens.org. Follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/victorygardens, Twitter @VictoryGardens and Instagram at instagram.com/victorygardenstheater/
Victory Gardens Theater receives major funding from The Wallace Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The REAM Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Allstate Insurance, Alphawood Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The William and Orli Staley Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, The National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by: Abbot Downing & Wells Fargo, Alliance Bernstein, The Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Edgerton Foundation, Exelon, The Field Foundation of Illinois, The Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois Tool Works, Italian Village Restaurants, JCCC Foundation, Mayer Brown LLP, The McVay Foundation, LLP, The Prince Charitable Trusts, The Saints, Charles & M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Southwest Airlines, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Whole Foods Market, and Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association. # # #