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Que bien les habrá ido a estos muchachos de la Compañía teatral Del Dragón que decidieron abrir nuevamente las puertas del teatro con la reconocida obra "Hamlet". Se presentarán los días jueves 04, viernes 05 y sabado 06 de junio, a las 7:30 p.m. Cine Teatro Fenix de Arequipa.

S/. 10.00 GENERAL
S/. 8.00 ESTUDIANTES.

¿No conoces al tal Hamlet?

HAMLET es una de la obras más reconocidas del escritor inglés William Shakespeare (1564/1616). En sí, la historia gira al alrededor del tema de la venganza que el joven príncipe de Dinamarca (Hamlet) es aconsejado hacer, incluso a pedido del difunto Rey que se aparece al protagonista acusando a su hermano Claudio como su asesino. En el camino Hamlet descubre verdades crueles respecto a su amada y adultera madre, quien después de conocer toda la verdad cae en un sin fin de sentimientos contrarios, llevando al protagonista casi a la locura por la eterna lucha entre el bien y el mal.

"Hamlet" tal vez no sea tan conocido como la famosa obra "Romeo y Julieta" (1595) pero sí es una obra intensa, llena de macabros hallazgos, donde se muestra complejamente la debilidad y el temor humano. En fín, si no te gusta leer, no te pierdas esta clase de obras universales llevada al teatro. Diré que el libro es algo difícil de leer, a pesar que "Hamlet" es considerada como la obra mejor estructurada de Shakespeare, algo extenso pero la historia del caos reinante y la manera de evocar las tragedias humanas es demás interesante.

Gracias a AQPcultural y al fotógrafo Julio Reaño Mesones

Zulma Roque ^__^

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"This collection of testimonials of early Xicanistas and their work in teatro is an important contribution to the preservation of the spirit and energy that made the Chicano Movement."

—Ana Castillo, author of The Guardians and So Far from God

"These memoirs are the personal, honest, and riveting testimonials of seventeen Chicanas who performed Chicana theater during the 1970s. These carnalas empowered themselves and thousands during the tumultuous years of the Movimiento by performing plays for working-class communities. From college campuses to the fields where campesinos toiled, estas mujeres had the courage to fight gender inequality. We need their courage today. And we need their stories for a new generation of Chicanas and for working women everywhere."

—Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima and Curse of the ChupaCabra

"'Órale, ya era tiempo.' Stories of 'the Movement' too often emphasize men's roles, ignoring the vital participation of women or relegating them to the sidelines. In Teatro Chicana, women are central to the ideas, emotions, strategies, writing, art, and music of the 1960s and 1970s when this country—and much of the world—rocked with revolutionary imagination and fervor. The Chicano Movement, like most social movements, also had many women warrior/leaders—this struggle was shaped and ignited by women, fed and nurtured by women, with many men at their sides. I was part of this—I knew first hand how feminine spirit, energy, and love embraced and impelled us. Seeing it again through the voices of the elder-teachers in this book, I'm reminded—no movement is complete without la mujer."

—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. and Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times


The 1970s and 1980s saw the awakening of social awareness and political activism in Mexican-American communities. In San Diego, a group of Chicana women participated in a political theatre group whose plays addressed social, gender, and political issues of the working class and the Chicano Movement. In this collective memoir, seventeen women who were a part of Teatro de las Chicanas (later known as Teatro Laboral and Teatro Raíces) come together to share why they joined the theatre and how it transformed their lives. Teatro Chicana tells the story of this troupe through chapters featuring the history and present-day story of each of the main actors and writers, as well as excerpts from the group's materials and seven of their original short scripts.




Edited by:

Laura E. Garcia is the editor of the Tribuno del Pueblo newspaper, a bilingual publication that gives voice to the poor and to those fighting unjust laws, such as those that make the undocumented immigrant an animal of prey. She lives in Chicago.

Sandra M. Gutierrez is a lifelong community activist who has advocated for immigrant rights, unionization, youth counseling, and cultural diversity. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Felicitas Nuñez was a co-founder of the Teatro de las Chicanas and continues to be a driving force behind the organization. She lives in Bermuda Dunes, California.

FILM IN THE PARK at Dusk

A program for the entire family, free of charge!

Elsa y Fred (Argentina/Spain)

Save $5 at any Friday performance! Use promo code "5off" to save $5 per ticket at any Friday performance July 12 through August 10. (Discount subject to availability. No exchanges or substitutions. Limit: 8 tickets per order.)

Call (312) 443-3800 or Groups of 10 or more call 877.4.GRP.TIX

Suggested for everyone age 8 and older

Esperanza Rising is the story of a wealthy Mexican girl whose privileged existence is shattered when tragedy strikes, and she and her mother must flee to California. Forced to work in a migrant labor camp, Esperanza must learn to rise above her difficult circumstances and discover what she's truly made of. Set in the turbulent 1930's, and based on the popular book by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising is a poetic tale of a young girl's triumph over adversity.

Henry Godinez

Director Henry Godinez, a Chicago Children's Theatre Artistic Associate, directed our Inaugural Production of A Year With Frog and Toad. Henry is the Resident Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre, where curates their biennial Latino Theatre Festival and directed six seasons of A Christmas Carol. He serves as Artistic Director of Northwestern University's Theatre and Interpretation Center, and is the co-founder and former Artistic Director of Teatro Vista.



POLINESIA: mujer policía que no entiende razones.

CAMARON: aparato enorme que saca fotos.

DECIMAL: pronunciar equivocadamente.

BECERRO: observar una loma o colina.

BERMUDAS: observa a las que no hablan..

TELEPATIA: aparato de TV para la hermana de mi mamá.

ANOMALO: hemorroides.

BENCENO: lo que los bebés miran con los ojos cuando toman leche.

CHINCHILLA: auchenchia de un lugar para chentarche.

DIADEMAS: veintinueve de febrero.

DILEMAS: hablale más.

DIOGENES: la embarazó.

ELECCION:
lo que expelimenta un oliental al vel una película polno.

ENDOSCOPIO: me preparo para todos los exámenes excepto por dos.

MANIFIESTA: juerga de cacahuates.

MEOLLO:
me escucho.

ONDEANDO: sinónimo de ondestoy.

TALENTO:
no está tan rápido.

NITRATO: frustración superada.

REPARTO: trillizos.

REPUBLICA: mujerzuela sumamente conocida..

SILLON: respuesta afirmativa de Yoko Ono a Lennon..

SORPRENDIDA: monja corrupta y muy dispuesta...

ZARAGOZA : bien por Sarita!!!!!!


Lisa Alvarado

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Michael Sedano

Teatro Chicana
A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays.
Edited by Laura E. Garcia, Sandra M. Gutierrez, and Felicitas Nuñez
Foreword by Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez
Austin: UTexas Press, 2008.
ISBN: 978-0-292-71743-5 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-292-71744-2 (paper)

When my daughter was five years old, she became an honorary member of Teatro A La Brava when she accompanied me to many a rehearsal as the teatro rehearsed a controversial but popular acto about a local injustice. My years with the teatro, and my daughter's involvement with us, remain among our warm memories of her childhood and my good fortune to be dad to one of the world's greatest kids.

Most likely my thirty-year old memories of that time color my reading of Garcia, Gutierrez, and Nuñez' well-edited memoir of a teatro group from the same era, the 1970s. Even if a reader has never been in a teatro, Teatro Chicana will be worthwhile reading to learn from its seventeen voices how membership in teatro contributes to a person's political, cultural, and individual growth.

There also are some beautiful stories. And sadness. The collection opens with an endearing essay by Delia Ravelo that captures most of the themes that emerge from the other speakers: a chicana is trapped in her culture's antifeminist mores. She rebels, adopting dysfunctional behaviors that place her future and happiness in jeopardy. She escapes into higher education where she discovers teatro, and as a result she blossoms politically, socially, personally, making lifelong friendships and has a lot of fun in the process.

Ravelo's joy at her teatro experience takes on a somber note as she winds her essay to a close. Early on, the reader is pulling for the abused child, sharing humorous events and artistic satisfaction. Then in the final paragraph she writes how her "earthly journey eventually will end and then my body will disappear and my brain will follow." The next essay, by Peggy Garcia, acknowledges Ravelo's leadership and inspirational friendship--as do most other writers--reveals that Delia Ravelo died before this book came to press.

Sic transit gloria mundi would be a good subtitle for the collection. From hardship to teatro to hardship becomes one of the themes that emerge. One of the ugliest hardships several writers acknowledge is sexual abuse by family members. Helplessness is not the only way the subject is discussed. Guadalupe Beltran found a way to defeat her exploiter, and helped another little girl do the same. Beltran's essay is one of the best organized pieces. She begins in blank verse with intense recollections that serve as previews of the expository prose paragraphs that follow. Similarly, Teresa Oyos composes her entire essay in the verse format for an interesting diversion from the prose of her fellow teatro memoirists.

The most comprehensive historical memoir is the final piece by Felicitas Nuñez. Nuñez' work was the heart of the three teatro groups that the writers joined. Initially it was Teatro de las Chicanas. The group segued to become Teatro Laboral as its themes matured with the maturation of el movimiento. The final incarnation as Teatro Raices comes in 1979 and winds down in 1983.

The most touching essay comes from Sandra M. Gutierrez, who composes a letter, a benediction really, as a tía addressing a high school girl about to enter her own college career. Gutierrez' essay suggests the importance of this collection as one part of a full circle. Just as Gutierrez and the other women left home to start their own careers as student actors, wives, mothers, divorcées, professionals, just as the teatro found successive cycles of new members as established members graduated out of the college milieu, so too can today's women find satisfaction, expressiveness, individual direction by finding their own teatro to nurture their spirits through that transition from girl to woman, from a past of imposed limitations to a future limited only by the bounds of a woman's imagination.

The final third of the volume presents actos and artifacts of the various teatros. Several writers extol the power and wonder of a countersexism acto called "Bronca" whose impact comes from a chant blending "cabron" to the title, as in Broncabronbroncabronbroncabron. The acto deliberately affronted menso machos of the movimiento whose insecurities and priggishness demanded that men take spotlight roles and women did the cooking. After such a big buildup, finding the acto itself is but an outline--the teatro worked a la brava through much of its career--is disappointing. But then, among the pleasures of chicana chicano teatro, and our actos, is the paradox of time and place; "you have to be there." That the compilers can present the outline, and a few more fully fleshed scripts, along with several pages of photographs, is tantalizing consolation that at least we can remember what was.

Gente! Here comes Independence Day, the United States' Fourth of July. Need I ask, "How many other countries have a fourth of July?"

See you next week.

mvs

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Report: Luis Alfaro's adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus El Rey. A staged reading performed at the Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, Califas.

Michael Sedano
The recently completed run of Oedipus El Rey’s four performances has been one of those only in Los Angeles classical theatre experiences made possible by the Getty Museum's Villa Theater Lab. Last year, it was Culture Clash’s uniquely staged Aristophanes The Birds. This year it has been Alfaro and earlier in February, Ellen McLaughlin’s one-woman original work, Penelope. Upcoming in April and May are Director Michael Hackett and actor Henry Goodman with Sophocles Philoktetes, followed by Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company in a new work, Icarus. At $7 a head, the Getty offers the best bargain in El Lay arts (add $8 for parking).

Alfaro’s done it again with Oedipus El Rey, turning in a remarkable treatment of other people’s material. A few years ago it was Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me, turning short fiction and poetry by the superb trio of Alma Cervantes, Sandra C. Muñoz, Marisela Norte into a devastatingly funny and moving masterpiece. Then it was Electricidad, borrowed from Sophocles, that, unlike Black Butterfly, made it to the Mark Taper main stage. Now Alfaro has adapted Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos moving it from plague-ridden Thebes to a modern-day California. Joined by director Jon Lawrence Rivera and a superb cast with first-among-equals Marlene Forte’s Jocasta, Oedipus El Rey will breathe new life into classical drama, and educate a new generation to the actual meaning of “oedipal”.

Evidently, such renewal is long overdue. Alfaro laughed at the audibly stunned college audience Friday night when Justin Huen’s Oedipus comes to his own realization that the man he killed on Highway 99 was his father, which means Oedipus’ wife is…gasp!! These young people must have been reeling at that point, as they thought back to their laughter following the torrid mating scene when Huen and Forte undress one another then spend three weeks cavorting in bed.

There is not much laughter in Sophocles’ play, but Alfaro injects a hugely hilarious Sphinx into the action. The Million Dollar Farmacia on Broadway is run by a three-headed critter straight out of rasquachi teatro with a strong affinity to the twin-headed beast from Men in Black 2. After solving the riddle, the old gals are out of business and the Pico-Union barrio returns to its old order. Here the overlay of ancient Thebes upon modern LA doesn’t work so well and is stretched too thin. Oedipus and Jocasta have the community’s respect. They behave like cold-hearted Don Corleones rather than the gangbangers in the news whose power derives from intimidation and extortion, not doing favors for community people while maintaining a kingly dignity and honor. And therein lies the major problem with this work-in-progress.

Turning stereotypes on their heads is part of the job description of a revolutionary poet, to affirm what would otherwise be vilified even within la cultura . And when a gifted poet is himself a pinto, his themes and images resonate with gut-wrenching authenticity. Which is why work of the late raúlrsalinas, “A Trip Through the Mindjail”, and Ricardo Sánchez, “Soledad”, should be included in any anthology of letras chicanas, along with such non-pinto pachuco poems as José Montoya’s “El Louie”, Tino Villanueva’s “Aquellos Vatos”, and J.L. Navarro’s “To A Dead Lowrider.” Powerful work that was necessary for its time.

But that was the 60s and 70s. Chicano culture has reached a kind of maturity today, and there’s less, if any, requirement to lionize our criminals. Pintos are not heroes, and they’re certainly not gods. Yet jail is where Luis Alfaro starts off his work-in-progress Oedipus el Rey, and pintos form his Chorus. It’s a strangely inappropriate starting point that Alfaro explains in the program like this: “the more versions (of Sophocles) I read, the deeper the themes of the play started to take root inside my head. I began to obsess about the notion of destiny. Well, of course, that little idea kept me awake for endless nights. Aren’t we all masters of our own destinies? That got me thinking about the sizable population that makes up our ever-expanding prison system.” Destiny? That got me thinking what about our kids who see the military as their only chance off the block?

Fortunately, Oedipus El Rey will change and grow. As Alfaro and director Jon Lawrence Rivera (pictured right,left respectively) noted during the post performance Talkback session on Saturday afternoon, Alfaro didn’t have much of anything finished even as the superb cast came together for the first rehearsal. Rivera, Alfaro, and presumably dramaturg Christopher Breyer (his name didn't come up in the Talkback), indulged the playwright’s stream of consciousness for this set of staged readings. I hope they’ll iron out the prison wrinkle in favor of something more appropriate both to Sophocles and for a contemporary audience. That noted, John H. Binkley’s spare set is beautiful and need not be changed in a finished production. Stainless steel cables hang from the ceiling suggesting the cages these men live in, and a handful of black chairs. Elizabeth Huffman’s costumes are a few red shawls, two shirts for Huen, two dresses for Forte, the other actors appear in their streetclothes. Dark glasses and cane for blind Tiresias (Winston J. Rocha) constitute the props.

I attended in the company of two high school girls. As we left the auditorium, I asked them how they reacted to the graphic profanity of the opening three minutes. “We hear worse than that in school every day,” they answered in unison, not that they enjoyed it. Their mother shrugged helplessly at that truth. Although the Getty forewarns, “This workshop contains adult themes and strong language”—it is Oedipus after all so adult themes definitely come with the territory. But strangely, only that opening dialog featured foul language. Worse, it was neither artful nor funny, neither authentic nor effective. I’d like to sit Alfaro down and pull his ear about that crap, encourage him to find what Villanueva said about his vatos, they were “uncouth but squared away”.

The cast includes gente you’ve seen and will continue seeing on television, movies, and regional theatre. Laius is Geno Silva, perfectly mature and powerful. Michael Manuel as a sappy Creon. Javi Mulero, Daniel Chacón, Bobby Plasencia play several roles but especially the three-headed hilarious Sphinx. Híjole, guys, don't change a thing, in fact, give us more!

That's the view from the coast this penultimate Tuesday of 2008's leap year February. Ordinarily, La Bloga runs Monday through Friday and many Sundays. RudyG's delayed Valentine on Saturday is a good reminder it's always good to check in on weekends, a ver que pasa. Remember, La Bloga welcomes and encourages guest columnists. Let us know in a comment or an email that you have something to share. If it fits, if it's finished, let La Bloga's readers share it with you. We love your comments, but La Bloga apologizes in advance if some spammer drops their piece of you-know-what on our pages. We'll delete it as soon as we notice it. Until next Tuesday, hay les wachamos.

mvs

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Last year I had a short conversation with one of my journalistic heroes, William T. Vollmann -- a novelist and reporter who always shot photographs to mix with his stories. 

For the next generation of Vollmann-inspired journalists, we must consider web video. We can electrify any online text with video, and anybody can shoot and edit the whole thing with their laptop. 

After you read some of Vollmann's work, go check out the brilliant link-packed post "Be a Multimedia McGuyver" at Journerdism.

Check it out at this link. It's packed with information and contacts to build your web video toolkit--including wild ideas like Make a cheap submersible webcam and Make a remote controlled camera from a cellphone.

Your web journalism will never be the same again... 

 

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Anybody can put video up on YouTube. Does that mean we doomed to watch America's Funniest Home Video one million times online, or will we see something new?

That's up to the people who tell stories. One of my favorite journalists, Vollmann T. Vollmann has always shot photographs to mix with his written stories, and those pictures haunt his books like The Atlas. For the next generation of Vollmann-inspired journalists, we must consider web video as just another freelance tool.

If you want to get excited, read this essay about professional-style video journalism. Following the advice of journalist Regina McCombs will take you light years beyond the average, annoying YouTube videos.

Check it out: 

"Cameras should be DV with firewire. If not, you’ll need additional hardware to capture video to your computer. There are plenty of good microphones available for under $100. A tripod is important because keeping shots steady is critical for Web encoded video. Every change in pixels makes the encoder work harder and makes your picture fuzzier. A list of audio and video equipment options at several price points is available here on Visual Edge's site." 

After you survive that introduction to web video, check out the Online Media God guide to see the whole buffet of multimedia options you can add to your work. Thanks, as always, to Journerdism.

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Private detective writers of the world unite!

There has never been a better time for hardboiled heroic narrators to guide us through our anxious world, and the 2007 Shamus Awards are celebrating the best private eye books of the year. Sarah Weinman has the roundup.

Ed Champion wrote a blow-by-blow account of the William T. Vollmann discussion last night, and Champion's essay included this ominous quote about the state of our anxious world:

"Vollmann stated that if he were to go to Iraq today, he would have to think about it. 'What good would it do? Would I have anything new to contribute?'"

Finally, Steve Bryant watches all the web videos so you don't have to. Today, he publishes an essential list of the six web videos that you should have watched. Do your YouTube homework!

Publishing Spotted collects the best of what's around on writing blogs on any given day. Feel free to send tips and suggestions to your fearless editor: jason [at] thepublishingspot.com.

 

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Where are we going? 

Last night I attended a conversation between one of my journalistic heroes, William T. Vollmann (a novelist/journalist who mixes vivid imagery with emotional close-ups of human suffering) and photographer Richard Drew (the photographer of the famous "falling man" picture from 9-11.

The event was hosted by the Whitney Museum, and they played a barrage of intense images on a movie screen during the discussion--a grim history of American photography. Afterwards, Vollmann asked Ed Champion, Marydell, Levi Asher, and I what we thought young, web-based journalists should do next.

I was a little speechless myself, but now I would say this--we should create web video content to go along with what we write.

Vollmann himself has always shot photographs to mix with his written stories, and those pictures haunt his books. For the next generation of Vollmann-inspired journalists, we must consider web video. We can electrify any online text with video, and anybody can shoot and edit the whole thing with their laptop. 

If you live in the Midwest, there's a great lecture series coming up about video storytelling coming up in Chicago. Video journalism educator Robb Montgomery has a simple goal: "Writers, editors, artists and designers will learn how to identify and develop the visual components of stories so people will actually read them in print, as well as how to take stories to new levels online."

If you don't live in the Midwest, check out the helpful Visual Editors website (which is run by Montgomery as well). It's packed with information and contacts to build your web video toolkit. 

 

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I read my first William T. Vollmann book while living in a drafty wooden shack in Guatemala. Vollmann's obsessive books were perfect for my monastic life in that house--I could spend entire evenings copying out his roller-coaster sentences and crazy logic.

Vollmann writes everything: gigantic historical novels, private detective books, and some of the most cutting-edge nonfiction you will ever read. We didn't read him in my literature classes, and we didn't read him in my journalism classes. When I saw Vollmann read about evil in New York City, I realized the academy doesn't know what to do with him. 

Luckily, we have more than an enough web-based community to study this man's work. Check out The Vollmann Club, there's enough reading material and essays there to start a relationship with one of the most under-read great writers of our day. He's worth the effort, and you'll find some great blogs in the process:

"The Vollmann Club is an online collaborative effort to read all of William T. Vollmann's books and place Mr. Vollmann's work into perspective. Participating sites include Black Market Kidneys, Conversational Reading, The Happy Booker, Rake's Progress, and Return of the Reluctant. The project began after several people saw Mr. Vollmann at book signings, got a bit excited, and realized that they needed to read more of his work."

Thanks to Ed Champion for the link.

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