From: Raul Andres Gonzalez [mailto:gzandy@email.arizona.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 1, 2016 9:12 AM
Subject: Ghosts of Lote Bravo Press Release
MAQUILADORA CULTURE AND CARTEL VIOLENCE EXPLORED IN
THE GHOSTS OF LOTE BRAVO
Borderlands Theater presents the National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere of Hilary Bettis' The Ghosts of Lote Bravo. Set in Ciudad Juarez, amidst the maquiladoras and sicarios (cartel assasins), a mother enlists La Santa Muerte -a dark saint and patron of the rejected - to find her missing daughter. Borderlands Theater founder Barclay Goldsmith directs. The Ghosts of Lote Bravo begins with previews on April 14th, opening gala is April 16th, and the show closes May 1st.
THE PLAY
In Juárez, Mexico, the most violent city in the world, Juanda's daughter goes missing from the sweatshop in which they both work. When the crooked policia refuse to help, Juanda's only hope is to ask the dark saint, La Santa Muerte, to guide her. In this riveting production, Juanda charges through dreams and visions and must risk everything if she ever hopes to see her daughter again.
Bettis first developed The Ghosts of Lote Bravo at Juilliard PlayLab and the 2014 MFA Playwrights' Workshop, hosted each summer by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and NNPN. It went on to a reading at the 2014 National Showcase of New Plays before securing a grant from the NNPN Collaboration Fund to support the script's translation into Spanish and a workshop in Mexico City in partnership with El Círculo Teatral. Borderlands Theater, in conjuction with NNPN is pleased to be working with American Theatre Wing on several episodes of its Working in the Theatre series, which will document the piece on its Roll across the country.
WE ARE IN THE NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK
In line with Borderlands' mission to develop and produce new plays, The Ghosts of Lote Bravo is part of an NNPN Rolling World Premiere. NNPN is the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. The Ghosts of Lote Bravo by Hilary Bettis is NNPN's 56th Rolling World Premiere. The play will receive three productions at NNPN Core Members Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ, April 14-May 1, 2016), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO, April 23-May 8, 2016), and Cleveland Public Theatre/Teatro Publico de Cleveland (OH, March 2017).
THEMES IN PLAY STILL RELEVANT TODAY AND SPREADING
We don't hear much talk any longer about Ciudad Juarez and its murderous history against young women, but the violence continues unabated. Worse, femicide, the murder of women for being women, is spreading to Mexico's southern neighbors.Homicide statistics for women in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are rapidly dwarfing those of Ciudad Juarez. A United Nations Development Program study shows that violence against women in El Salvador has grown 197 percent between 2000 and 2011, with Guatemala and Honduras following closely behind according to a HIP online article.
FEMICIDE: THE HUMAN TOLL OF NAFTA POLICIES
Articles in the media have connected international corporate trade agreements to the wave of femicides along the border. Since the rise of maquiladoras (large scale manufacturing plants) in the 1970's, American trade agreements such as NAFTA have contributed to the exploitation of poor women. Dr. Judith Rosenberg, who is the subject of an article in Women on the Border, reveals that the colonial relationship between the United States and Mexico enables structural exploitation of poor Mexican women in the border region. Ultimately she argues that women's bodies, physically abused by powerful men, symbolically represent the unequal transnational relationship between these two nations.
DRUG VIOLENCE/DRUG TRAFFICKING:
The Mexican government has been fighting a war with drug traffickers since December 2006. More than 60,000 people have been killed from 2006 to 2012 due to drug-related violence, according to Human Rights Watch. During that same six-year period, 26,121 people went missing in Mexico, though authorities don't have data about how many of the disappearances are connected with organized crime. Since December 1, 2012, when Enrique Peña Nieto assumed the presidency of Mexico, intentional homicide numbers have declined slightly, but the number of reported kidnappings continues to climb. There are approximated 6,700 licensed firearms dealers in the United States, along U.S.-Mexico border. There is only one legal firearms retailer in Mexico. Nearly 70% of guns recovered from Mexican criminal activity from 2007 to 2011, and traced by the U.S. government, originated from sales in the United States. Ninety percent of the cocaine that enters the U.S. transits through Mexico. Mexico is also a main supplier of marijuana and methamphetamines in the U.S. Mexico Drug War Facts taken from aCNN article.
LA SANTA MUERTE
A female folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite opposition by the Catholic Church, her cult arose from popular Mexican folk belief, a syncretism between indigenous Mesoamerican and Spanish Catholic beliefs and practices. Since the beginning of the 21st century, worship has become more public, especially in Mexico City after Enriqueta Romero initiated her famous Mexico City shrine in 2001. The number of believers in Santa Muerte has grown over the past ten to twenty years, to several million followers in Mexico, the United States, and parts of Central America. In the media, she is associated with drug cartels because an altar to her is often found at gangsters' homes during raids.
MORE ON THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Hilary Bettis writes plays, TV and movies. Awards, residencies, and commissions include: Blue Ink Playwriting Award Runner-Up, Audrey Residency at New Georges, The Lark's Playwrights Week, Writer-In-Residence at Cape Cod Theater Project, SPACE at Ryder Farm Residency, The Lark/NYSF at Vassar Residency, Alliance/Kendeda Runner-Up, DNA Series at La Jolla Playhouse, NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition Runner-Up, Crossing Borders Festival, NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Workshop, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2050 Fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop, Sloan/EST Commission, John N. Wall Fellowship Sewanee Writer's Conference, Blackburn Nomination, PoNY Nomination, Cherry Lane Mentor Project Nomination. She has had multiple plays on The Kilroys List and Honorable Mention List. Productions include: The Ghosts of Lote Bravo (NNPN Rolling World Premiere) at The Unicorn in Kansas City, Borderlands Theater in Tucson and Cleveland Public Theatre in Cleveland. American Girls Off-Broadway at 45th St. Theater, NYC and The Edge Theater in Denver. Publications include Smith & Kraus, McFarland & Company, Original Works (American Girls).
Film screenings include: Dominican Republic Global Film Festival, Mallorca Evolution in Spain, LA Shorts Fest (The Iron Warehouse) and Williamsburg Film Festival, IFS Festival (she won best actress), Nashville Film Festival finalist (B'Hurst).
Hilary sold her first piece of development entitled SPOON to Seeso and is currently writing the pilot. Alyssa Milano is attached to Executive Produce.
She is a member of SAG, AEA, Dramatists Guild, The Drama League, TCG, Playwrights' Center and Fractured Atlas. She is a member of EST, Project Y's writer group, a New Georges Affiliated Artist and NYTW Usual Suspect.
She is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship at The Juilliard School.
MORE ON THE DIRECTOR:
Barclay Goldsmith is the founder of Borderlands Theater (1986) which developed out of a community based theater collective: Teatro Libertad, a collective active during the 1970s civil rights movement. Before, Goldsmith lived and worked in Mexico and Argentina, where he directed U.S.-Host Country Bi-National Cultural Centers. He has spent the better part of his theater life, in addition to teaching, in developing and producing theater that speaks to the diverse voices of the region. Through the Border Playwrights Program (1988), he has sought to have emerging (and established) playwrights produced here and in theaters around the country. In support of this mission, Goldsmith was a co-founder of the National New Play Network (1998), an organization now consisting of over 90 member theaters that champions new plays and new playwrights. Expanding Borderlands' mission to be truly a theater of PLACE on the border, he established the U.S. Mexico Program, which works extensively with Mexican artists and theater companies in trans-national projects. Barclay was awarded the Lumie Artist Lifetime Achievement award in 2013. He retired from Producing Director of Borderlands Theater in November 2014.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AND TICKET INFORMATION
Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Theater, 330 S. Scott Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701. Tickets: $6-$26 with various discounts.
4/14 - 7:30 pm Preview (HALF OFF All tickets $6/$13!)
4/15 - 7:30 pm Preview (HALF OFF All tickets $6/$13!)
4/16 - 7:30 pm Opening Night Celebration: Light refreshments, plus meet and greet the actors and director. ($26/$12)
4/17 - 2 pm Matinee ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/20 - 7:30 pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/21 - 7:30 pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/22 - 7:30 pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/23 - 7:30 pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/24 - 2 pm Matinee ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/27 - 7:30 pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/28 - 7:30pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/29 - 7:30pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
4/30 - 7:30pm ($12/$18/$22.50)
5/1 - 2 pm Matinee ($12/$18/$22.50)
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS:
PLEASE CONTACT BORDERLANDS THEATER BOX OFFICE AT (520) 882-7406.
In person at 4O W. BROADWAY, TUCSON 85701.
ORDER TICKETS ONLINE: www.borderlandstheater.org
----------------
Tucson Theatre Announcements List
Subscription information at TucsonStage.com
No comments:
Post a Comment