I am now an Artistic Associate with Teatro Americano. I think I may be their first one?

I'll be directing/developing two projects with them over the coming year. The first is already in progress: Meet Juan(it0) Doe is a piece their youth ensemble has been creating under the direction of Ricardo Gamboa (who is also the Artistic Director of TA) since last summer. I'll be coming on as a co-director/developer. Meet Juan(ito) Doe is a look at what it means to be a Mexican-American youth in Chicago, and takes on a whole range of topics: work papers, graffiti, family, hip hop, sexuality, police brutality and so much more. I met with some of the youth ensemble yesterday to talk about their vision for the piece, what they want to change, add, include, keep, etc, and they blew me away with their passion and dedication for the work.

The second piece is an as-yet-untitled look at immigration and anti-immigration in the Midwest. (hmmm... possibly we'll call it... Restaurant Spanish! But one of the advantages of starting fresh is that I can wait and see where things are going before locking in a title) Teatro Americano has been looking to expand their work with adults, and to do a full production/run, and so Ricky invited me to create a show. We start workshops in August, and field trips to my "beloved" Carpentersville soon after!

Ricky and I have been discussing options for awhile, but Teatro Americano is a program of Latinos Progresando (an organization that runs a bunch of amazing programs designed to serve and advocate for immigrants), so we had to get approval from the Executive Director, Luis Gutierrez. We met yesterday to talk about the organization, what I wanted to do, how it all worked, funding and budgets, options, etc. I left feeling energized and optimistic and excited.

One of the questions Luis asked me was: why here? Here's why: I have a personal commitment to creating original work, to working in collaboration, to using performance as a means of building community, to projects that have race and immigration at their center, and to the belief that performance should do more than entertain. And Latinos Progresando/Teatro Americano has been doing that kind of work for five years. I love the idea of creating performance that is already tapped in to community service and advocacy, and of exploring the potential for performance to help build those projects. Plus, it helps that Ricardo Gamboa is one of my very favourite friends and collaborators.

I have another project coming down the hatch! Details in mid-July when everything is official!

Labels: Coya Paz, Latinos Prograsando, Meet Juan(ito) Doe, Restaurant Spanish, Ricardo Gamboa, Teatro Americano