The 5th Annual TheaterLab at the 2018 Loisaida Festival: Bridging Resurgence
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Since 1987, the Loisaida Festival has been celebrated the Sunday before Memorial Day weekend in the Manhattan neighborhood known as the Lower East Side, the East Village, or Loisaida. This event is the largest community pride festival in the neighborhood and grows annually in size, excitement, and impact. It is presented in the Avenue C commercial corridor-renamed Loisaida Avenue since 1989.
The Loisaida Festival includes diverse manifestations of the Puerto Rican and Latino cultures expressed through music, cuisine and arts. Although it began as a community event to celebrate the culture, heritage and accomplishments of Loisaida’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic community, the event has created a multi-cultural spirit where people from all races and backgrounds descend from all parts on the city into this historic and eclectic neighborhood.
This year, we celebrate BRIDGING RESURGENCE and the histories and futures of eco-innovation, urbanism, and sustainability pioneered by the people of Loisaida and the diaspora.
Anchored at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden, the Loisaida Festival Theater Lab presents a wide variety of theatrical presentations ranging from well-established veteran companies, up-and-coming theater troupes to local youth productions in a green family-friendly outdoor environment. La Plaza Cultural serves as a wonderful outdoor venue and provides an alternative from the noise and crowd of the street with diverse performances for all tastes and ages.
Calle Joroba - Calle Joroba es un colectivo de clown teatral, teatro físico, circo y títeres creado por el mimo, teatrero y maestro Luis Oliva en el año 2014. La misión del colectivo es poder exponer a través de estas técnicas temas universales como lo son la creación, la escasez del agua, la contaminación del aire, entre más. Su repertorio de piezas incluyen “Am i Ea” (2015), la primera pieza que estrenó el colectivo en el Circo Fest En el 2015 y “Wata” (2016) también presentada en el Circo Fest, que luego estuvo de gira por diferentes escuelas en Puerto Rico.
Casa Cruz de la Luna - “The Marquis de Sade is Afraid of the Sea” (second movement) - A re-visitation of the 1918 legendary earthquake in the South West of Puerto Rico; bodies resurrected from the flood; agitation of the masses, and the peaceful violence of quotidian life meet in the staging of this text by Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya. Featuring: Alejandra Morales, Christopher Cancel, Laura Mercedes and Caridad del Valle.
Teatro 220 - Grupo de jóvenes actores latinos que por medio de la improvisación teatral, llevan comedia, música y entretenimiento para toda la familia. Nuestro fin es llevar alegría, risas e impactar a su audiencia con un mensaje refrescante y positivo. El grupo está compuesto por: Andrés López-Alicea, Gilberto Gabriel, Zuleinette Ralat y Venuz Delmar. Teatro 220, significa que somos ese conducto de 22O voltios de locura por el cual transmitimos alegría y carcajadas a nuestro público.
Mezcolanza: ¡Ay María! - Some neighbors who did not know each other before the hurricane joined after the catastrophe, to collect debris, share food and rely on their needs. These neighbors are the actors and actresses. Some of the people / characters represented in the piece are taken from the Puerto Rican reality, people / characters that we find in our neighborhoods, urbanizations or towns. We also parody public figures and politicians who through the media have been part of the hurricane experience. Cast: Mickey Negrón, Mariana Carbonell, José Eugenio Hernández, José Luis Guitierrez, Marisa Gómez. Directed by: Maritza Pérez Otero. THIS PRODUCTION HAS BEEN STAGED IN ALL 78 OF PUERTO RICO'S MUNICIPALITIES. IT IS THE NEW YORK PREMIERE!
Kairiana Núñez Santaliz: Chiquitita - In Chiquitita, Ms. Miller Parachute Woman is a character that moves between ridiculous and reality. Between the joke and the speeches that have us cornered in the dependency. She is a right-wing military officer. She is a recalcitrant Republican. She repeats neoliberal spiels as if there were critical ideas she owns. The fact is that many military were part of the so-called "Reconstruction" of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. They took over the streets along with the local police. The military returned, as they always return.
Karen Langevin: Fortune - An interactive whimsical game of chance that uses improvisational movement to foretell. FORTUNE winks at the futility of our desire to know the future through the unavoidable presence of the body.
Luna y Vecky - After having expanded their audience to more than 15 people, Luna and Vecky decide to make a little concert in The Theater Lab, Mezcolanza platform. Luna and Vecky studied music at Berkley and fuse their music with different musical genres and performance. They use their music to express their darker feelings. They have been in depression for more than 10 years.
Paulina Pagán: Bestias de paraíso 2 - El fuego y la jicotea* - In honor of my Caribbean grandmothers, especially Levina Wiltshire (1938-2014) In this piece my body becomes a river, a vessel, a bridge between my ancestors, our island ecology, Puerto Rican bomba, its violent history and the joy of dancing. *The jicotea (Trachemys stejnegeri stejnegeri) is the only native Puerto Rican freshwater turtle. The bomba song “El fuego y la jicotea,” composed by Christian Tonos, ignited this creative process.
Mickey Negrón: Carpeta - A look at the persecution process that the PR nationalist movement lived in the * 80s and the current solution.
Eduardo Alegría - Puerto Rican musician and singer-songwriter, developed in theater and experimental dance, improvisation, democracy and politicization of the body. This amalgam of disciplines informs his work. Part of training as an actor he did with the director Maritza Pérez Otero in the political theater. He is an observer of the country and of society. On this occasion he will sing accompanied by Desmar Guevara on the piano.
Loisaida Community Pageant - The artists used recyclable materials or what is “at hand,” and whatever can be salvaged from NYC curbsides. Adam and Daniel are the lead artists are dedicated to the mission of transforming the detritus of our lives and society into beautiful works. The materials these artists use will include cardboard boxes, scraps of wood and fabric, used latex paint, foam, broken bicycle inner tubes, old cd’s, paper mâché, and whatever other surprise garbage we can find to inspire creativity.
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© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963
