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Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) and Teatro Público de Cleveland (TPC) have announced updated plans for the 2019/2020 Season Spanish Language production. CPT and TPC will present Marisol, by José Rivera, translated by Aurora Lauzardo y Waldemar Burgos, and directed by Julia Rosa Sosa. The play will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles and will run March 5 - 21 in CPT's historic Gordon Square Theatre.

About Marisol
Visited by her Guardian Angel, Marisol Perez learns there is a war in heaven, a revolution to supplant the old and senile God who is turning the cosmos to chaos. Alone, without her protector, Marisol begins a nightmare journey into an apocalyptic world where angels have turned in their wings for machine guns, the moon has not been seen in months, and food has been turned to salt. José Rivera's Obie-Award-winning play is a primal, fantastical, and often humorous contemporary classic inspiring us to wake up and change the world around us. Performed in Spanish with English subtitles. Regional Premiere of Spanish Production.

Ticket and Show Information
Marisol previews March 5. Press Night is Friday, March 6 and the show runs through March 21. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 7:30pm. Performances take place in CPT's historic Gordon Square Theatre located at 6415 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102, in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District.

Tickets are $15-35. Students/Seniors receive $5 off on Friday and Saturday nights. Preview, Thursdays, and Mondays are $15, and Fridays and Saturdays are $35.

PURCHASE TICKETS at www.cptonline.org or call the CPT Box Office at 216.631.2727 ext. 501. Group discounts are available-call the Box Office to inquire. (Reserve early! - CPT never charges any ticket fees, ever.)

The Gordon Square Theatre is ADA compliant featuring a ramped entrance and an all gender, wheelchair accessible restroom.
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Latino Theatre Projects (LTP) and Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna, in association with Theatre Off Jackson, will present the Pacific Northwest premiere of Brainpeople by prize-winning Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera. Brainpeople will be directed by LTP's Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna. The production will be presented Thursday-Saturday evenings, October 11 through November 3, 2018 at 8:00 pm. Performances will be bilingual in English with some Spanish phrases. General admission is $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Seniors and students are $20.

A mixture of comedy and chaos ensues when one of the guests, who suffers Dissociative Identity Disorder, brings along her crew of "brainpeople" and the other, a nervous, intelligent Armenian woman, reveals the source of her distrust of all people. The meal turns into an evening of brutal honesty and terrifying introspection. Originally commissioned by South Coast Repertory, Brainpeople received its premiere February 2, 2008 at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. Subsequent productions in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, and internationally have received glowing reviews for its intense exploration of the broken lives of the three women.

The first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award, for "The Motorcycle Diaries," José Rivera is also the author of 26 full-length plays including the Obie Award winning Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced at The Public Theatre, New York. Other plays include Cloud Tectonics (Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre), School of the Americas (Public Theatre), The Maids (INTAR),

Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre), and Sueño (Manhattan Class Company). Screenplays include "On the Road," "The 33." "Trade," and "Letters to Juliet." For television he co-created and produced the NBC series "Eerie, Indiana," and has written pilots for HBO and Showtime. Awards include a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, a Whiting Foundation Award, and New York Council for the Arts grant.

Rivera has mentored the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in Utah, Jordan, and India and leads the New York-based Writer's Group. Stage Director Fernando Luna is the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Latino Theatre Projects. He directed its productions of Mariela in the Desert, Mujeres de Arena/Women of Sand, and Ay, Carmela!. Fernando graduated from Freehold Theatre's Ensemble Training Intensive and holds a Masters degree in Public Affairs from The Evergreen State College.

In 2016, he was selected to participate in the prestigious Chicago Directors Lab, and earlier this year, he participated in a week-long workshop in developing original performance pieces with Teatro Linea de Sombra from Mexico. He has appeared with Latino Theatre Projects in Anna in the Tropics, Death and the Maiden, and Beauty of the Father. He appeared in the feature film Nothing Against Life and the internationally acclaimed short film Pearl. He has also directed performances at the Moore Theater and Benaroya Hall.

The cast of LTP's production of Brainpeople includes Gregory Award nominated actors Sofía Raquel Sánchez (Mayannah) and Alyssa Norling (Rosemary), joined by Vero Lecocq (Ani).
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Latino Theatre Projects (LTP) and Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna, in association with Theatre Off Jackson, will present the Pacific Northwest premiere of Brainpeople by prize-winning Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera. Brainpeople will be directed by LTP's Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna. The production will be presented Thursday-Saturday evenings, October 11 through November 3, 2018 at 8:00 pm. Performances will be bilingual in English with some Spanish phrases. General admission is $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Seniors and students are $20.

Links:

www.latinotheatreprojects.org

www.theatreoffjackson.org

https://www.facebook.com/Latino-Theatre-Projects-346266545430336/


A mixture of comedy and chaos ensues when one of the guests, who suffers Dissociative Identity Disorder, brings along her crew of "brainpeople" and the other, a nervous, intelligent Armenian woman, reveals the source of her distrust of all people. The meal turns into an evening of brutal honesty and terrifying introspection. Originally commissioned by South Coast Repertory, Brainpeople received its premiere February 2, 2008 at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. Subsequent productions in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, and internationally have received glowing reviews for its intense exploration of the broken lives of the three women.

The first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award, for "The Motorcycle Diaries," José Rivera is also the author of 26 full-length plays including the Obie Award winning Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced at The Public Theatre, New York. Other plays include Cloud Tectonics (Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre), School of the Americas (Public Theatre), The Maids (INTAR),

Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre), and Sueño (Manhattan Class Company). Screenplays include "On the Road," "The 33." "Trade," and "Letters to Juliet." For television he co-created and produced the NBC series "Eerie, Indiana," and has written pilots for HBO and Showtime. Awards include a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, a Whiting Foundation Award, and New York Council for the Arts grant.

Rivera has mentored the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in Utah, Jordan, and India and leads the New York-based Writer's Group. Stage Director Fernando Luna is the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Latino Theatre Projects. He directed its productions of Mariela in the Desert, Mujeres de Arena/Women of Sand, and Ay, Carmela!. Fernando graduated from Freehold Theatre's Ensemble Training Intensive and holds a Masters degree in Public Affairs from The Evergreen State College.

In 2016, he was selected to participate in the prestigious Chicago Directors Lab, and earlier this year, he participated in a week-long workshop in developing original performance pieces with Teatro Linea de Sombra from Mexico. He has appeared with Latino Theatre Projects in Anna in the Tropics, Death and the Maiden, and Beauty of the Father. He appeared in the feature film Nothing Against Life and the internationally acclaimed short film Pearl. He has also directed performances at the Moore Theater and Benaroya Hall.

The cast of LTP's production of Brainpeople includes Gregory Award nominated actors Sofía Raquel Sánchez (Mayannah) and Alyssa Norling (Rosemary), joined by Vero Lecocq (Ani).
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[personal profile] froodle
Beginning on Thursday, October 11, 2018, Latino Theatre Projects (LTP) and Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna, in association with Theatre Off Jackson, will present the Pacific Northwest premiere of Brainpeople by prize-winning Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera. Brainpeople will be directed by Seattle’s LTP’s Producing Artistic Director Fernando Luna.

The production will be presented Thursday-Saturday evenings, October 11 through November 3, 2018 at 8:00 pm. Performance will be bilingual in English with some Spanish phrases. General admission is $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Seniors and students are $20.

Details

What: Brainpeople by José Rivera

When: Thursday-Saturday evenings, October 11 through November 3 at 8:00 pm

Where: Theatre Off Jackson, 409 7th Ave S in the International District/Chinatown

Who: Latino Theatre Projects in association with Theatre Off Jackson

Directed by Fernando Luna; Written by José Rivera

Tickets: General admission–$25 in advance, $30 at the door; Seniors/students–$20.

Tickets will go on sale through Brown Paper Tickets in September 2018.

Links:

www.latinotheatreprojects.org

www.theatreoffjackson.org

https://www.facebook.com/Latino-Theatre-Projects-346266545430336/

Brainpeople, written by José Rivera, is a deeply psychological story of three women and the life events that haunt them. A wealthy Puerto Rican woman who is still obsessively grieving the parents she lost at age eight sends her armored limousine out into a violent, dystopian Los Angeles to pick up two complete strangers and bring them back to her home for an exotic feast and deep conversation. A mixture of comedy and chaos ensues when one of the guests, who suffers Dissociative Identity Disorder, brings along her crew of “brainpeople” and the other, a nervous, intelligent Armenian woman, reveals the source of her distrust of all people. The meal turns into an evening of brutal honesty and terrifying introspection.

Originally commissioned by South Coast Repertory, Brainpeople received its premiere February 2, 2008 at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. Subsequent productions in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, and internationally have received glowing reviews for its intense exploration of the broken lives of the three women.

The first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award, for “The Motorcycle Diaries,” José Rivera is also the author of 26 full-length plays including the Obie Award winning Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced at the Public Theatre, New York. Other plays include Cloud Tectonics (Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre), School of the Americas (Public Theatre), The Maids (INTAR), Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre), and Sueño (Manhattan Class Company). Screenplays include “On the Road,” “The 33.” “Trade,” and “Letters to Juliet.” For television, he co-created and produced the NBC series “Eerie, Indiana,” and has written pilots for HBO and Showtime. Awards include a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, a Whiting Foundation Award, and New York Council for the Arts grant. Rivera has mentored the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in Utah, Jordan, and India and leads the New York-based Writer’s Group.
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God seems to have either gone Missing in Action or senile. This has compelled the angels in heaven to revolt—seriously and actually—and the havoc wreaked on Earth because of that, erupts in Marisol, Jose Rivera’s dystopic 1992 epic drama. Ricardo Vazquez has directed an enthralling production of this absurdist work of magical realism for Theatre Coup d’Etat.

The protagonist named Marisol is akin to an Everywoman figure, like the Everyman figure that looms in medieval morality drama. A wanderer in a fallen world, Marisol, a young Puerto Rican woman, seems to exist by the skin of her teeth in late 20th century New York City amidst the ruins of the apocalypse. The superb Sabrina Diehl plays the one character in this living nightmare who has some shred of sanity left as chaos, hunger, and cruelty ensue and pervade.

The horrors depicted are as psychological as they are physical: a man giving birth to a stillborn baby, an unhinged arsonist on the loose, being falsely and fanatically accused of being a Nazi even though you’re not one. Rivera demonstrates brilliantly how dark irrational thoughts can ricochet into creating a dark horrific reality.

What makes Marisol, the play, a prime challenge to pull off theatrically is the sheer psychic enormity of the negativity it portrays. How does one not overwhelm the audience to the point that its deeper meanings are swallowed up? How does a director certify that it won’t play at one general sustained level only? Indeed, there are multiple dimensions of evil in Rivera’s bleak vision.

Ingeniously, Vazquez has risen to that challenge with a cast that astonishes, every one. Each scene in this particular production is piercingly focused and specific in intent. This is remarkable because the script is written at unusually high emotional pitch. Therefore, the trick is to not let the intensity and the language get smothered in themselves while playing the scenes to the full throttle velocity a successful staging of Marisol demands.

As you would imagine, all performances soar with the masterful Diehl navigating the turbulent narrative. Craig James Hostetler is utterly visceral in a great performance as the fittingly named Lenny, a dependent emasculated young man ruled by both threatening behaviors as well as pathetically submissive ones. He is stunningly matched with a marvelously cunning Kelly Nelson as the controllingly cruel white collar June, his bitter sister and Marisol’s fellow very close friend. Yet another notable portrayal by Nelson, one of the Twin Cities’ finest young actresses.

The excellent Nikhil Pandey exudes paranoid volatility as Man With Golf Club and Scar Tissue (yes, that is the character name). Pedro Juan Fonseca is an intimidating powerhouse as Man With Ice Cream whose menacing presence is truly unsettling. A sterling example of what seems to be a smaller throwaway role, played to the hilt. At points when Fonseca struts across the space he is downright frightening!

Over it all is a disturbingly commanding performance by Dana Lee Thompson as the Angel who seems to be influencing some of the hellishness at some hidden insidious level. AnaSofia Villanueva rounds out this spectacular cast with a splendid turn as Woman in Furs.

The spare minimalist setting in an actual chapel at SpringHouse Ministry is peppered with black trash bags, cardboard signage and crime scene tape—stark signifiers of a culture in the last gasp of decline. Simple but profound costumes by Chelsea Wren Hanvey and lighting by Mark Kieffer punctuate the grim atmosphere with strong understatement. Forest Godfrey’s evocative sound design further reinforces the spectral realm of this wrenching Marisol.
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5C students performed Jose Rivera’s play “Marisol” at Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre on March 1-4, garnering positive reviews from audience members.

The main character, Marisol, played by Anais Gonzalez Nyberg PO ’20, is a Puerto Rican woman living in New York during the 1990s. Magical realism — an artistic genre that portrays a realistic story but incorporates surrealism — is an important element of this play.

In the play, Marisol dreams that a guardian angel, played by Aliyah Muhammad PO ’19, visits to tell her that the angels are going to war with a senile “God” because the world is dying. Marisol does not want the angel to leave her side and has to come to terms with the troublesome reality of the world around her.

Gonzalez Nyberg reflected on the duality between the realistic and imaginative elements of the play. While at times the story seemed fantastic, she said it portrayed a more extreme version of our current society.

“I think it’s relatable in that, right now, so many things are going on politically and environmentally, which makes it feel like the world is falling apart,” Gonzalez Nyberg said. “I think that’s what’s happening in the play because it’s just Jose Rivera bringing in all these different things like how credit unions were ruining people’s lives at the time, these issues about women never feeling safe, and faith in the sense of what are people putting their faith into. Is it actually God or institutions or money?”

Audience member Alexa Sanchez SC ’21 agreed on this point.

“It was a really good show,” Sanchez said. “I thought it was complex in a good way and an interesting visual experience. There were a lot of newspapers that were really interesting. There was an advertisement on the wall that changed throughout the show, which was cool.”

Gonzalez Nyberg added that even if the play conveyed a magical mood to the audience, the events that occured still felt real to the characters.

“It is also knowing that our characters exist in a world where they believe everything that’s going on around them, like Marisol, [who] believes everything that’s happening to her,” Gonzalez Nyberg said. “It is the worst day of her life, and that is very true for her.”

Annarose Hunt SC ’21, who played a homeless person in “Marisol,” spoke highly of Gonzalez Nyberg and Muhammad as both actresses and cast-members.

“My favorite part of the show was the angel scene because Aliyah and Anais are so good, and everything they do I want them to do more of it. They’re both so talented,” Hunt said. “Getting to know people and having this be my debut in Pomona theater was really great.”

Muhammad agreed this role was a particularly impactful one to perform.

“To be able to play a strong, protective, yet vulnerable woman was challenging and thrilling,” Muhammad said. “I loved being able to create that maternal connection with the character Marisol within seconds of the Angel stepping foot on solid ground.”
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If there were one word to describe the 2018-19 season at Trinity Repertory Company, it would be “epic,” both literally and figuratively.

It starts with the choices Artistic Director Curt Columbus lays out with an air of glee. He’s digging deep into the list he wants to stage at Trinity — as deep as the show (“Macbeth”) that inspired him at age 12 to pursue theater as a career — yet he carefully selected adaptations that make even the most onerous and intimidating of classics (Homer anyone?) feel modern, relevant and, yes, quite epic.

“Part of what’s been happening here is that [Executive Director] Tom [Parrish] encourages me to run after the epic work I love, which is invigorating,” Columbus says. “You’ll find other theaters will produce one epic per season, and we’re doing six.”

The undertaking, he concedes, is made easier by the availability of adaptations that are more accessible to modern audiences and feel applicable given the general sense of angst in society.

“The key is figuring out how a play reflects the world today without being caught in a contemporary retelling,” Columbus says.

The year wraps with Jose Rivera’s “Marisol.” A fantastical, apocalyptic tale of a woman’s attempt to find hope in the ruins of New York City as God and angels war around her, the piece reflects Rivera’s gift for “beautiful storytelling” and the company’s ongoing commitment to working with the Latino community, Columbus says.

“This season as a whole demonstrates our commitment to increasing opportunities for women and people of color in the storytelling process,” he notes.

Season subscriptions are now available at Trinity, 201 Washington St., Providence. For more information, go to www.trinityrep.com or call (401) 351-4242.

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