Teatro Vivo presents the Austin Latino Theatre Festival 2016

Teatro Vivo presents the sixth annual Austin Latino New Play Festival (ALNPF) in collaboration with ScriptWorks February 25-27 at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. The festival includes three evenings and one afternoon of staged readings of new Latino plays. General admission tickets for the festival are a donation-based or “pay what you wish.” A $40 reserved seat festival pass is available for those attending all three days or reserved seats may be purchased for $15 for each play. Furthermore, Teatro Vivo is offering a limited number of complimentary “social media” seats at the back of the theatre for those interested in live tweeting and posting to social media during the festival. Visit teatrovivo.org for information. ALNPF is a theatre event that brings playwrights and audience members together in conversation surrounding new workshop productions that bring insight into the Latino experience. After each reading, the playwright participates in a talkback sessions with the audience. New this year is the addition of two theatre for youth pieces to be shown the evening of Thursday Feb 25 and the afternoon of Saturday February 27, 2016. The productions have Latino roots and explore cross-cultural themes and modern dilemmas that surprise, challenge, engage, and push the dramatic envelope for audience members accustomed to one-way conversations at the theater.

Thursday, Feb 25 (8 p.m.): My Dad is a Pterodactyl by Andrew Valdez (Theatre for Youth piece)

Directed by Emily Aguilar Thomas

Synopsis: Renee’s father, an Air Force pilot, has recently died in the Iraq War, but is very much alive in his daughter’s mind through her imaginary pet Pterodactyl. Ana, Renee’s mother, has not informed Renee of her father’s death, but when Renee sneaks off to the local museum to visit the Pterodactyl exhibit and find her father, Ana must confront the truth and inform her daughter. Together, they learn to cope with their loss.

Playwright: Andrew A. Valdez is an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. His most recent written works include The Rainbow Connection, which debuted at the Cohen New Works Festival, and Basilica, which was presented by Teatro Vivo.

Friday, Feb 26 (8 p.m.): Más Cara by Krysta Gonzales

Directed by Rudy Ramirez

Synopsis: A visceral text and movement conjuring of Latina archetypes and the women who embody them – past,
present, and future.

Playwright: Krysta Gonzales is an actor/dancer/performance artist/writer originally from El Paso and Dallas. She earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Experimental Theatre Wing and is currently an active member of the Vortex Repertory Company and the Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo). She was most recently onstage as Dunia in Teatro Vivo’s production of El Nogalar and her first play, Robin Hood: An Elegy, a devised collaboration with GenEnCo, premiered at the Vortex in August 2015.
Inspired by the power of theater to both educate and entertain, Teatro Vivo produces and promotes Latino-based theater that provides a window into the Latino community and makes theater accessible to all audiences, especially those under-served in the arts.

Saturday, Feb 27 (3 p.m.): Primas by Roxanne Schroeder-Arce (Theatre for Youth piece)

Directed by Oscar Franco

Synopsis: Two teenaged Latina cousins, Araceli and Julie, have come to the US at different points in their young lives. Both girls work through the struggles of living on the hyphen known by many Mexican Americans, including their language, traditions, nationality, and identity. The play asks various questions including the following: What does having a quinceañera mean to Mexican American girls given varied connections to their roots? How can anyone retrace their roots and remember and re-establish who they are? How might these primas influence one another to live on the hyphen with more courage, consciousness and grace?

Playwright: Roxanne Schroeder-Arce is a scholar, artist and pedagogue. She has taught theatre education in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Texas at Austin since 2010, and before that she taught at Emerson College and Fresno State. Roxanne’s research interests include culturally responsive theatre education and Latino/a theatre for and with youth. She has published articles in journals such as Youth Theatre Journal, International Journal for Education and the Arts, Theatre Topics and Gestos. Roxanne’s bilingual plays Señora Tortuga, Legend of the Poinsettia, Sangre de un Ángel and Mariachi Girl are published by Dramatic Publishing and have been produced by various theatres and schools throughout the U.S. Roxanne also taught high school in Texas for several years and served as Artistic Director of Teatro Humanidad in Austin. As well as her playwriting, she is
also a director and performer.

Saturday, Feb 27 (8 p.m.): Mamacita and the Negrito by Emilio Rodriguez

Directed by Estevan “Chuy” Zarate

Synopsis: When the street-savvy, intellectual Lorena runs into the irresistibly charming, barrio boy Ricky, romance and passion ignite almost instantly leading to one life-changing gift and a seemingly split-second decision. Nearly 20 years later that baby boy is on a mission to find closure in the “woman with red lips and a Spanish name” who never said goodbye loud enough for him to hear it. Issues of colorism, culture, and identity overlap in this poetic piece about love and the ability to live fully “like if tomorrow were right now.”

Playwright: Emilio Rodriguez is a theatre artist nomad currently residing in Detroit. He is a graduate of UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts which makes him a proud “Anteater.” His most recent play, “Swimming While Drowning” was part of the Latino Theatre Commons’ Carnaval of New Work in Chicago and the Activate Midwest Festival at WMU (under the previous title “Spin”). That play led to a residency with UMS (2014-2015), a residency with Djerassi, an upcoming Mitten Lab Residency and an upcoming commission with Milagro Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Emilio currently teaches theatre with such companies as Matrix, Living Arts, and the Wharton.