For Immediate Release February 6, 2012
Alexandra Meda, Executive Director
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Teatro Luna brings to a NEW stage an aggressively re-imagined
CROSSED: Immigrant = Mexican?
The World Premiere
as the official inaugural production in their new venue:
LUNA CENTRAL: AN ARTS CENTER FOR NEW AND DIVERSE WORK
Playing Feb 2 – Mar 18
CHICAGO, IL (February 6, 2012) – Chicago’s All Latina Theatre Company makes an ambitious move that lays down some serious pavement towards the goal of becoming a leading Latino Cultural Institution in the United States by launching a Lakeview venue for live performance, music, galleries, screenings, events/fundraisers, and late-night presentations including varied comedy/improv/cabaret offerings year round in addition to their own dynamic programming. The inaugural production that will baptize the old LIVE BAIT THEATER as the ladies’ new space– LUNA CENTRAL: An Arts Center for New & Diverse Work– will be the World-Premiere version of their recently work-shopped CROSSED. The workshop version which played for three weeks at the Viaduct Theatre launched an ambitious season entirely dedicated to discussing the various immigration, race, and U.S. border-related wars currently unfolding in the United States. CROSSED:Immigrant = Mexican? boldly states to Chicago audiences that: issues of Race cannot be removed from conversations of Immigration! CROSSED: Immigrant = Mexican? plays February 2 – March 18 at Luna Central, 3914 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60613. Directed by Founding Ensemble Member and Luna’s Director of Artistic Development Miranda Gonzalez, featuring both company members and CROSSED workshop cast members. Tickets are on sale at www.teatroluna.org for $20. Preview, Student, Senior, and Group Rates range between $12-$15.
CROSSED, Teatro Luna’s eighth original play devised in an ensemble setting, seeks to explode (yes, explode!) stereotype and poetically navigate what it means to be an immigrant in the United States in an era some have ironically dubbed “post-racial.” Jumping in an out of monologues, scenes and sketches set unknown terminals into “real talk” conversations with the voices of real people from the street, the Lunáticas use the devise of a “gameshow” to compare immigration in the United States to a game of chance. Join five diverse performers as they share both their own autobiographical stories, as well as accounts collected from interviews, news reports, and the Lunáticas own experiences while traveling South in spring 2011–ranging from topics like: one woman’s story of immigrating to America with her 4 kids to escape an abusive husband, to the painful mystery of a cousin who went missing on the same day as 400 others in Mexico, to a sexy burlesque in an Airport security checkpoint that highlights the invasive process of “security”. CROSSED calls upon Teatro Luna’s most notable hallmark: using wit, humor and quirky poignancy to tackle the taboo, the uncomfortable, and some beautiful and ugly truths about living in America as an immigrant today.
CROSSED is presented in English with a sprinkle of Spanish.
“I feel so lucky to be able to present the World Premiere version of CROSSED in our new home, Luna Central”, says Director and Developer Miranda Gonzalez. “ It is a blessing as an artist to be able to create work in a company and through a process that allows both the play and artist to grow and improve through various iterations of any one piece– not all Theatre companies allow room for that kind of growth and artistic play, we’re very lucky here”.
“This is certainly an exciting time for us here at Teatro Luna– new space, new show, new talent…being able to bring the World Premiere production to life of CROSSED is something we didn’t know if we could accomplish a few weeks ago, in all honesty. This play has had quite a journey from the time it was first launched as an entirely different concept as a co-production with Bailiwick Chicago, to the workshop at the DCA, to our 3 week workshop at The Viaduct which we opened for press and the general public”, says Executive Director Alexandra Meda.
Meda goes on to say, “sometimes its hard for people to understand that we have a very open and public development process of our work and so the idea of us having such a public workshop process seems questionable, but the life of a devised Luna play needs the public– it needs that time to develop and be shared with audiences. It’s the only way we know to get it to the final “draft”. It’s certainly more expensive for the company to produce this way– but it is essential to our artists who range from very inexperienced to life-long practitioners to have that safe space for development. It isn’t always going to be a critically successful workshop but that is exactly why we produce these workshops– to get that difficult feedback. It helps the play, it helps the actors, but most of all, it helps the developers/writers and director”! “This has been a great experience personally and professionally for me”, adds Gonzalez. “For the first time I got to edit and write without being scared because I had so much more clarity on what voices were missing and what we really wanted to say with this play after the workshop production. It made sense to me all over again why Teatro Luna has the history with big workshop productions that it does, even if that tradition tapered off near the last few shows directed by our ex-co-artistic directors”.
According to Meda, “I think that habit of publicly work-shopping devised work is integral at this stage of our history at Teatro Luna primarily because we are rebuilding our ensemble and artistic associate body. We’re definitely on a learning curve, and we see that as a positive thing. We have a lot of emerging artists in the company right now, and the more and more we produce the better and better our work will get. It is our mission to provide endless opportunities for artists to experiment. We remain forever committed to that. The hits will come. This one just might mark the return of some of our famed hilarity.
The Bottom Line? We feel lucky that we have such great supporters and fans that they stick with us throughout our development process. Now, this was a quick turn-around, quicker than we would have probably liked, but we believe the topics covered in this production need prolonged attention from our audiences, and as long as we are answering our mission: which is to enact social change through our work, then I think we are on the right path.
WHAT: CROSSED: Immigrant=Mexican? World Premiere, Developed and Presented by Teatro Luna, Chicago’s All-Latina Theatre Company
WHERE: LUNA CENTRAL, 3914 N. Clark St. Chicago IL, 60613
WHEN: Previews: February 2, 3, 4, and 8 2012 at 7:30 pm
Opening: Thursday February 9, 2012
Runs: Feb 9 – Mar 18, Thurs – Sat at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 6:00 pm with some 3:00 pm matinees.
WHO: Directed by: Miranda Gonzalez, Director of Artistic Development for Teatro Luna and Founding Ensemble Member; Created by: El Teatro Luna
Featuring: Sydney Charles (CROSSED Workshop Production Cast Member), TL Artistic Associate Kristiana Colón (Crossed Workshop Production Cast Member), Jazmin Corona, Paula Ramirez (Crossed Workshop Production Cast Member), & Abigail Vega (Crossed Workshop Production Cast Member).
Writing Team: Developer: Miranda Gonzalez. Writers: Liza Ann Acosta (Ensemble Member) Kristiana Colón (AA), Christina Igaraividez (AA), TL Artistic Associate Gaby Ortiz, and Yolanda Nieves. Additional writing contributions by the cast and the Workshop Cast.
Production Team: Producer: Alex Meda for Teatro Luna; Set Design: Dan Matthews; Costume Design: TL Artistic Associate Christine Pascual; Lighting Design: TL Artistic Associate Mac Vaughey, Composition & Sound Design: Steven Yaussi, with some original workshop music by William Kurk; Stage Management: Patricia Radford.
HOW MUCH?: PREVIEWS: $12.00. GENERAL: $20. $15.00 Student and Senior Tickets. $15 Group Sales 12+ and $12 Student Group Tickets(See website for ticket specials.)
Related posts:
- ‘A Day Without a Mexican’ screening at All Saints
- Greg Harris: Anti-immigrant bills are political point scoring (video)
- Williams to address job seekers
- Property Tax Appeal workshop
