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ProArts Series celebrates the written word

Presented by ProArts Collective and Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center at Mexican American Cultural Center

February 9-February 11, 2012

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Readers Theater: ProArts Series celebrates the written word along with a staged reading of Cherrie Moraga's "Digging up the Dirt"

Pro Arts Collective along with its partners Austin Community College's Department of Arts and Humanities, the Emma S.  Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, University of Texas' Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and Teatro Vivo present a staged reading of Cherrie Moraga's "Digging up the Dirt".
 
On Saturday, February 11 at 2:00pm Austin based playwright and director Amparo Garcia Crow will direct an all-star cast in a staged reading of Cherrie Moraga's "Digging up the Dirt".

The story takes place, as Moraga writes, "Inside the poet's head, somewhere in the fragmented Chicano nation of Aztlán."  Here, as in most Moraga plays, the playwright uses the imagined landscape of the Southwest to poignantly explore Chicana lives.  And, as in most Moraga plays, such depictions give all of us pause regardless of race or gender or sexuality.  This is especially the case in "Digging up the Dirt" where the plot thematically interweaves two murder stories. One is the tale of "Sirena Cantante's" murderer, "Zanzibar," serving a life sentence, while engaging in lesbian romances and being mercilessly visited by the probing "Poet."  The second is an intimate account of the murder of "Amada," a Chicana lesbian killed by the hand of her own son. 

Cherríe L. Moraga is playwright, poet, and essayist whose plays and publications have received national recognition, including a TCG Theatre Artist Residency Grant in 1996, the NEA's Theatre Playwrights' Fellowship in 1993, and two Fund for New American Plays Awards. Moraga is the co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, which won the Before Columbus American Book Award in 1986. For over ten years, Moraga has served as an Artist in Residence in the Department of Drama at Stanford University and currently also shares a joint appointment with Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity.  
 
The presentation of "Digging up the Dirt" is a part of its on-going partnership between Austin Community College's Department of Arts and Humanities and ProArts.  Over the last several years the collaborations have provided Austin audiences with seldom produced plays and readings by important contemporary black writers such as Percival Everett and Camille Dungy. Producing the reading of Moraga's play affords us the opportunity to hear the stories of our neighbors and to join in conversation with those communities that are close to ours, says Lisa Byrd Executive Director of ProArts Collective. Moraga's stories are stories that relate to all feminists, lesbians and women who hold space for their consciousness and that of their community. Everyone should hear these stories. Teatro Vivo jumped at the opportunity to participate says Joann Reyes, Teatro Vivo's Executive Director. We have always wanted to produce one of Moraga's plays; they are so rich in its language.
 
The presentation of the staged reading is a part of a larger three day residency project sponsored by the University of Texas' Gender and Sexuality Center along with Queer People of Color and Allies.
 
Related Events:                                                                                                        
February 9, 2012, Creative Writing Workshop with Cherrie Moraga
 
February 10, 2012, Noon- 2PM First Annual Gloria Anzaldua Luncheon honoring feminists of color. Moraga will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon.
 
February 10, 2012 7PM, The Benson Library will host the opening reception for "A Chicana Codex of Changing Consciousness", an exhibit of work by Celia Herrera Rodriguez.