Borderlands Theater presents: THEY CALL ME A HERO

From: Marc Pinate [mailto:pinate39@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 2:17 PM
Subject: Immediate Release: Borderlands Theater presents: THEY CALL ME A HERO

"They Call Me A Hero"
Borderlands Theater begins 29th season with play about Tucson hero,
Daniel Hernandez. Last play as producing director for
Borderlands founder, Barclay Goldsmith.

(August 13, 2014) Tucson, AZ –  Borderlands Theater proudly continues its legacy of presenting compelling stories of the Southwest with the world premier of They Call Me A Hero, by Guillermo Reyes, based on Daniel Hernandez's memoir of the same title. Hernandez, credited with saving the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords during a 2011 shooting spree, was thrown into a whirlwind of publicity after he became a national hero. Reyes examines how, "as his private life becomes public, Daniel's family and upbringing in South Tucson provide the backbone that empowers him." They Call Me A Hero is an honest and touching story about the importance of caring for others.

Themes: Gun violence, Mental illness, Bilingual Ed, LGBT
Playwright, Guillermo Reyes (Deporting the Divas, Men On The Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, Chilean Holiday), examines the relationship between gun violence and mental illness with additional research, outside of Hernandez's memoir, into the life of gunman, Jared Lee Loughner. The play bears witness to how the elimination of bilingual education in Tucson shaped Daniel's political intellect. Most meaningful is the depiction of a young, gay, Latino role model who perseveres.

They Call Me A Hero is a quintessential Tucson story about a bi-cultural, intelligent, compassionate young man from humble beginnings who realized the value of helping others from an early age. His story encompasses familiar Tucson values: the importance of family, compassion, civic participation, and resilience. Daniel's journey of self realization is something that all Tucsonans - Democrat or Republican, gay or not, Latino or otherwise - can learn from.

Last play for Goldsmith
They Call Me A Hero marks founding producing director, Barclay Goldsmith's, final directorial work as the head of Borderlands Theater. Goldsmith will retire at the end of this year. Current director in residence, Marc David Pinate, will take over as producing director of the company. Though it will not be the end of Goldsmith's directorial exploits, it marks the end of an illustrious career in charge of the award-winning and nationally recognized theatre company he started twenty-nine years ago. "It is a very fine play to end my work as producing director at Borderlands," Goldsmith said.

Showtimes and Ticket Info
They Call Me A Hero runs September 25 through October 5. Performance times are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 P.M. with Sunday matinees at 2:00 P.M. Tickets $24 - $14 with group rates available.  Tickets may be purchased by phone at (520) 882-7406 or online at www.borderlandstheater.org. All performances take place at Zuzi Theatre, 738 N. 5th Avenue, Tucson.


Artist Biographies:

Guillermo Reyes (Playwright) has produced and published a variety of plays including the comedies, Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the historical drama, Madison, at Premiere Stages, winner of the New Play Award 2008, among other plays.   In 2010, he published a memoir with the University of Wisconsin Press, entitled Madre and I:  A Memoir of our Immigrant Lives, chronicling his immigration from Chile and growing up in the D.C. area and in Hollywood, CA.  He's a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Film, Dance and Theater.    Recently, in 2013, his play, Deporting the Divas was published in a new Cambria Series anthology, Gay Drama Now edited by John Clum, and another play, We Lost it at the Movies, was published by the Bilingual Review Press in the anthology, Vaqueeros, Calacasand Hollywood.

Barclay Goldsmith (Director) is the founder of Borderlands Theater. He has spent the better part of his theater life, teaching, developing and producing theater that speaks to the diverse voices of our border region. Through the Border Playwrights Program (1988), he has sought to have emerging (and established) playwrights produced here and in theaters throughout the country. In support of this mission, Goldsmith was a co-founder of the National New Play Network NNPN (1998), an organization that champions the development of new plays and new playwrights. Expanding Borderlands' mission to be truly a theater of PLACE here on the border, he established the U.S. Mexico Program which works extensively with Mexican artists, and theater companies in trans-national projects. Major milestones include: production and workshop of Electricidad by Luis Alfaro (1999), Winner Kennedy Center New Play and MAP Fund Awards, and subsequently produced at the Goodman Theater and Mark Taper Forum; and with the San Francisco Mime Troup developed and produced 13 Days: How the New Zapatistsa Shook the World (1999), which subsequently toured the U.S. with the National Performance Network.  Goldsmith's direction has won best directing nominations locally by the Tucson press (best direction award 2009) and from the Mexico City Critics Association for Cita a Ciegas/Blind Date by Argentine playwright, Mario Diament, and in 2005 he won the Arizona Arts Award (largest arts award in the state). He has been an artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center National MFA Program where he has also directed and was recently a guest director at the LARK Play Development Center, NY. He taught theater at Pima Community College from 1970-2001. He holds a BA in English/Theater from Stanford University and an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon.

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