 I'll never get a 16LTC of what am I calling this Pacific Northwest Regional Convening But to really say that without the sharing and the generosity of this community, that it wouldn't have been able to have this event. So first and foremost, the School of Drama at the University of Washington. Before I introduce the mics, I wanted to do two quick reminders. One is to turn your phone on by the way you are. This is sort of a performance we're about to do, so don't interrupt it. However, we encourage Facebook, Twitter, maybe not Facebook Live, but like other stuff. So you can use hashtag LTC Seattle. Hashtag capiondra when you're posting. Feel free to do that. Take photos. These guys are all professionals. It's fine to get lighting. It's wonderful. So I'm glad you met here in your journey. Not only from the things you learned tonight, there's going to be some really awesome things to talk about. But as we move through the weekend, please do that. Without further ado, I'd like to start us off with presenting two of our amazing host community members, Roy Araus and Rose Gano. Good evening. What a pleasure it is to have all of you here with us gathered on behalf of the Seattle Host Committee. Welcome to our city. Bienvenidos a nuestra ciudad. We're from the Pacific Northwest. We're going to be involved in the national conversation about Latino theater and about rowing and the pipeline and everything that is happening with it. We're very excited about that. So thank you for including us in that conversation. Yeah, let's see what else. We started planning this about eight months ago, and Rose Gano brought me on board originally. She asked me if I wanted to do this. What is there? And from there, we reached out to people, see who wanted to help us put this together. And an amazing group of people came together. We had meetings twice a week. And it seems like that was just yesterday. And look at us. Here we are. Everybody's here. And it's happening. So this is truly exciting. We have a jam-packed schedule for you that you all have in two different portions. Serious Committee and the one in your program. There's a lot of work. There's some fun. So hopefully it'll show you that Seattle has got some fun stuff going on as well. So take advantage of that. And Rose? Bienvenidos. And first of all, happy Latino Theater Day in Seattle. We're so happy it coincided. Not by jam. So thank you for those of you who have flown and driven and taken the bus and come here tonight. I wanted to shift the tone a little bit. The Latino Theater Commons was formed in this way. Look at the circle around you. Isn't this a beautiful theater? This means everybody in this space is together. Everybody's voice is equal. So right now I'm facing north. So I just wanted to invite you. You can stand or sit to just face north for a second. And honor our ancestors and our storytellers. And to the east. That's a random question. The ancestors and storytellers that have come before us to the east. Ancestors and storytellers that have come before us to the west. I'd like to honor Chief Seattle, Chief Sel, and his tribe, the Duwamish. The whole reason that this city is here. I hope. Thank you. Have a seat. So to open up this amazing convening, we'll be here in this space for the next three days talking about things that are really important to us in our community. I wanted to introduce two people that are going to start us off with an amazing poem. First is Jorge Viches, poeta y pintor, nacido en la ciudad de México, Nendefe. It's Jorge Viches, a poet and painter, born in the Distrito Federal de Mexico City. And I also want to honor José Carrillo. We'll be reading the poem with him. José Carrillo is a Mexican, Aztec American son of the sun. Musician, actor, poet, born in Durango, Mexico in 1932, grew up in San Francisco, bachelors in theater, San Francisco State University. His resume lists over 60 years of performances of an actor in live theater, Woodwinds player in Latin Jazz band, writing and performing poetry. He moved from San Francisco to Seattle in 1987, very lucky for us, to be with his two daughters, Lia Denise, and later, his granddaughters, Alicia and Una, Beyes Miedas. And I just wanted to add to José's long list of credits that he is the longest- continuous practitioner of theater here in the Northwest, as far as we know, because I don't know anyone else before. And I don't say that lightly. I think we really are here about honoring our longevity, our ancestors. It's not that we just arrived a few years ago. I think it's really important the space that he has preserved and held for us. He's been in the struggle in the lucha all these years, and I'm especially thrilled that it can be here tonight on the Latino Theater. After many years in the trenches, Contando Nuestras Historias, one of the founders of Seattle Theater in the 90s, José Carrillo. Come on. Two layers for our life. One, two layers for our life. This is a little occasion poem. It's short. It stands from the end of the great poem by Octavio Paz, in which he says, We must sleep with open eyes. We must dream with our hands. We must dream the dreams of a river seeking its course, of the sun dreaming its worlds. We must dream the dreams of a river seeking its course, of the sun dreaming its worlds. We must dream aloud. We must sing to the song with what? Roots, trunk, branches, birds, stars. We must sing to the dream and genders in the sleeper's flank, the red weed here of resurrection. Welcome, our wonderful host here at the University of Washington. He was the artistic director at New York's New Dramatists for 18 years, for 18 seasons. He is a strong advocate of new works and of upcoming playwrights. He has been with the University of Washington now for two years. Ladies and gentlemen, the executive director, Todd Linden. Happy you are all here. I was, you know, one thing about moving to a new place and a really new world, a different world, is first of all, you have in-the-round theaters, which are no-speakers' dream. Secondly, it's just... Oh, God, you work as idols. Okay, thank you. They don't call them vomitorums, for example. So, one of the things that is so great about this moment is, I miss so much about my old life in New York, and there are many people here who are part of that old life. So, it's really wonderful, and many people here are part of the new one. So, it's kind of a double blessing. So, thank you for being here. I have a few things to say and then introduce our next guest. But first, I pulled this off my wall, because I have this stack of pictures on my wall that includes Ibsim, this great photograph of Ibsim, and August Wilson, and this photograph of someone you will recognize in reality, is a picture taken by Susan Yohan for Irene's signature season in New York. We have to figure out a place to put it, but for now, I'll just put it here where some people... So, just a few things. First of all, welcome to Seattle. It's a beautiful... If you haven't noticed, it's really a beautiful place. Get out a little bit this weekend. See the mountains, they're all around us. The water, the trees, this campus is gorgeous. Just take breaks and go for a walk. And then move here. That's really lovely. This is about creating critical mass for the Latino Theater in Seattle. I guess that's really true about this. We have a new president at this university who would be here if she could and is really happy that this is happening. And it's not just the rarity that we have a woman president at a large state university, but we have a Cuban-born out lesbian woman president. So this is a project that's truly near and dear to her heart, and I just wanted to communicate that. We're also here because of accidental and purposeful connections. Susan Fink, who made a connection with Rose Kano, who's longed to everybody knows Rose. And Chris Goodson, who's part of the host committee, who's one of our PhD students, who's been working his ass off for the last, however many months with everybody. There you are. And the host committee, so thank you to everybody for doing this all and to the awesome Abigail Vega from Poland. So a few things. So I'm going to move to another one. So, as you heard, I was at New Dramatists in New York for 18 years, and the first day that I got there before I even had started the job, I walked into the room that would be my office because I wanted to see what my office would be like, and there was an empty space with a desk, and on the desk was an ashtray with a cigar butt in it. And the cigar butt belonged to Eduardo Machado. I'll play right, some of you may know. And he was defining that space as his. Even though I was coming to it, and those who know Eduardo know that this is actually true. But it was a space that was, for me, my life and the place, New Dramatists, was actually defined in a large way by Latino and Latina playwright. And I just want to read a list of the writers who were there for seven years each who have shaped my life, and some of them are in this room, and Garcia Romero, Carlos Murillo, Rogelio Martinez, Naomi Azucca, Luis Alfaro, Michael John Garces, Andrea Tom, Christopher Diaz, Alejandro Morales, Milo Cruz, Roger Dirling, Sylvia Gonzalez S, who should be here. She's from Mexico. Jorge Ignacio Cortinez, Chiara Hudes, Eddie Sanchez, Octavio Solis, Matthew Paul Olmos, and then there were other people like Irene who were alumni of the place who were very important and instrumental. And so I bring them into this room with me because they've taught me a bit about the theater. A thing about the space that we are in, this far away, this is forget that camera, forget that. This is the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theater. And the School of Drama is 75 years old this year. This theater is 75 years old. It was built in 1940 out of the WPA. And what's amazing about this building, I knew about this building before I knew about this university, because it is the oldest permanent in-the-round theater in America. And it was the theater that helped inspire Margot Jones in Dallas, Nina Banks in Houston, and Zelda Fitchhander in Washington, D.C. to build their arena stages. That is this building that we are in here now. And it used to be down by the water and some deal was cut with the biology department and they cut the building in three pieces and trucked it up to this part of the building. But this is the same building and it's from the WPA and that's why I think it's important to know that and part of the thing about this in-the-round, you know, this thing, this scheme is that we are all equal in it and it's a town hall. So the last thing I want to say is related to that because this is a community space and I think a lot about the WPA when I think about it and I think about the Federal Theater Project. And I believe that what we are engaged in is a third great era in the making of a national theater. And the first part was that Federal Theater Project that lasted for four years, that was pioneered by Hallie Flanagan, that was meant to employ artists across the country, all kinds of artists doing all kinds of work and to build an audience for theater, an audience of millions. And that lasted for four years and then was killed by the same fuckers who are now running for president. They're all part of an ancestry that is not the Duwamish ancestry. The second great era is that one in the 60s and 50s and 60s that grew out of this arena space that is the regional theater movement and there was a particular key moment, now I'm going to be a history geek for a minute, there is a key moment in the early 60s when theater communications group funded by the Fort Foundation decided to take out of its mission community and university theaters and focus on 13 professional theaters of a particular side. And now you can feel the energy at TCC for the last 20 years trying to get back to that energy. And now we're in another era that I believe began five years ago with the founding of Hallie, which is the era of the commons and what's confusing and different about the commons is that there's nobody to point to to say it's their fault when things go wrong. There's nobody who's in charge except for us. And so everything that happens here happens because we make it happen and everything that happens across the country happens because we make it happen. And so that is, as I understand it, our charge for this weekend. It's been the charge of the Latino-Latino theater commons for the last three years since you gathered first in Boston and then in LA and Chicago and Dallas and now, thankfully, here. And this is what we're here to do. There's nobody to point to to say that this theater, this national theater is inhospitable to any of us. We are the ones to point to. So that's our charge, I think. Good luck to us all. And as Lynn Manuel Miranda writes, history has its eyes. So now the moment you've been waiting for, which is the reason of the population, I want to introduce one of the great arts advocates, as I understand it in this area, especially for Latino and Latina arts and culture, Miguel Guillen, is the grants to, grants to organizations program manager for the Washington State Arts Commission. He's spent several years, several years, managing arts programs for the private sector and providing support to community-based arts organizations. He is an artist himself. He supports small arts groups, community-based projects, individual artists across the state. He is also the volunteer executive director of an organization that seeks to raise the profile of Latino artists working in Seattle and surrounding districts. Please welcome Miguel Guillen. Thanks, everybody. It's an honor to be here representing the Washington State Arts Commission. It's an honor to be here reading the city of Seattle and for the mayor of Mayor Murray this proclamation. I can't follow up that wonderful talk very well, so I'm just going to go ahead and launch right into this proclamation because I'm eager to read it to you because I know you're eager to hear it. City of Seattle proclamation. Whereas the city of Seattle has long been home to people of all cultures and national origins and draw the immense strength from the diversity of its citizenry and whereas the Latino-Latina community plays a significant role in our city, which is known throughout the world for its great diversity, technology, industries, intellectual and talent, intellectual vitality and talent, and whereas the University of Washington School of Drama is celebrating the 75th anniversary of their nationally recognized theater training program and has chosen to partner with the Latino-Latina Theater Commons LTC to host the 2016 LTC Pacific Northwest Regional Community in the historic Glen Hughes Penthouse Theater and whereas the Pacific Northwest has long celebrated a vibrant culture of grassroots theater, arts and activism generated by the Latino-Latina community which has led to progressive social changes and whereas throughout its history the LTC has brought Latino-Latina artists and allies together to build towards a national movement of Latino and Latina theaters in cities and regions across the country including Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas and whereas the City of Seattle is pleased to host the national participants of the 2016 LTC Pacific Northwest Regional Convening and I encourage Seattle's residents and visitors to support and celebrate this partnership. Now reading from Mayor Murray now therefore I, Edward D. Murray, Mayor of Seattle do hereby proclaim April 15, 2016 to be Latino-Latina Theater Day. And I'm Chris Goodson. And the words that Todd said and I'm really struck by the idea that history is all around us and I think that's what we're here to celebrate. This weekend is in a momentous occasion and we recognize this weekend the incredible history and growth of Latino theater here in the Pacific Northwest. Younger companies like S.A. Teatro, where's Rose? And Latino theater projects, Fernando, have joined long-standing companies such as Indagro. We started researching Latino theater here in the Pacific Northwest. We were struck by the sheer number of artists and companies and productions that have come through here over the years including the residency and work of the incomparable Maria Irene Fornes. In the next hour, we're going to present a brief overview of the legacy of Latino theater here in the Pacific Northwest as well as present short readings from five Fornes's plays as a tribute to the work that she did here. Unfortunately, it's impossible to recognize all of the artists that have come here through the years but we felt it was important to recognize and honor the collective multi-generational efforts of artists in this region. Now I'm going to work the bounds. The Pacific Northwest has a long and rich history of Latino and indigenous peoples. The Latino community represents the largest non-caucasian population in the entire Pacific Northwest. Here in Seattle, the demographic has increased more than 30% in the last six years. And in King County alone, more than 100,000 residents speak Spanish. In 1970, one of the first guerrilla-style theater groups started here in Seattle. The actual vertical. Formed right here at the University of Washington was influenced by the Farm Workers Movement of the 1960s and 70s that had reached Washington's Yakima Valley. Visits to Seattle by Cesar Chavez and Theatro Campesino had a major impact on the group and Theatro del Piojo developed many of their own actos, depicting power struggles both on the fields and off. In 1960, the United States took the leadership role and he became one of the most influential Latino artists here in the Pacific Northwest in that time. Los Piojos performed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah in campos, community halls, picket lines, prisons, and universities. And they also hosted the first stop in the Themas Festival in 1975. Now, before I turn this over to Chris, I want to touch upon the name Theatro del Piojo. The name Theater of the Lice refers to the degrading process experienced by Chicano children when their teachers would search their hair for lice before classroom lessons would even begin. Now, the group chose this symbol as a base upon which to build something better. From a negative image of the past, something positive will arrive. From whatever bad things are spoken against them, they will use those words and create something good. The two cherry trees outside the old New City Theater building on Seattle's Capitol Hill and Coyote de Fornes on her 100th birthday in May 1991 with both Irene and her mother present at the dedication. John Jose Carrillo, our actor and poet, played the flute on that occasion 25 years ago. Although it was written at the time that the bronze plaques would serve as permanent reminders to the Puget Sound community afford as a special interest in and unique influence of theater in this area, the plaques are now gone. In fact, the old theater once a funeral home is destined to be demolished later this year and it is uncertain whether or not Carmen's trees will be preserved. Now, in that building between 1888 and 1993 Fornes conducted four writing workshops with over 50 local writers and directed her plays, Fethel and her friends, Mud and Enter the Night. Now, maybe we're stating at this point that one of the goals of the Commons is to, quote, transform the narrative of American theater. Now, the artists who have directed tonight's scenes chose to present exclusively the work of Irene Fornes not only because of her commitment to the development of Latina and Latino writers but also because of their own personal connection to her work over the years in our region. Now, while it's outside the scope of this event to transform the narrative of Irene Fornes, what we are perhaps attempting to do tonight is fill in certain gaps in her legacy as an artist. For instance, although Fornes made numerous trips to Seattle in premiering one of her final works here scant records of the personal history of this appear in the handful of books on Fornes and when her work does appear in the record, it is often little more than a footnote here and sometimes those footnotes are inaccurate. Kai Gottberg, an award-winning playwright NEA Fellow and now Chair of the Performing Arts Department attended all of Fornes' workshops at New City as well as three in Padua Hills becoming close friends with the playwright and often visiting her in New York. Kai played the role of Emma in Fornes' production of feku in 1989 and after a separation of the play from the play of 27 years she recently directed it at Seattle University. When I asked her about Irene's legacy in the Pacific Northwest Gottberg, who like Fornes also moved away from the isolating nature of being a visual artist so passionately about Fornes' teaching method which she continues with her own students today. She said Irene had found this really beautiful way of making writing less lonely and being in the mix with other people and letting their ideas infect and influence your own work. Irene was such a champion of a period of intent of a period of vision that you just felt like of course that's what I want to do of course that's what I want to be and in a world that is so focused on the commercial and the theater world that is so focused on what's my next job and how much money am I going to get and does anybody know my name it was refreshing and exciting to be around someone like her obviously so focused on the transcendental nature of being a creator. The beauty of Irene always was you need to stop thinking you know how the world is organized because that is death in the theater. Here to present Act 2, Scene 1 from Febu and her friends are the performers Maggie Carino-Adams and Angela Laises they have been directed by Roy Araus. Roy Trista Febu and Emma bring boxes of potatoes carrots, beets winter squash and other vegetables from a wood cellar and put them in a small wagon. Betel wears a hat and gardening gloves. You think about genitals all the time? Genitals? No I don't think about genitals all the time. I do and it drives me crazy each person I see in the street anywhere at all I keep thinking they're genitals but they don't like the position that they're in I think it's odd that everyone has them don't you? No I think it'd be odder if we didn't have them I mean people act as if they don't have genitals How do people with genitals act? I mean how can business men and women stand in a room and discuss business without even one reference to their genitals I mean everybody has them they just pretend like they don't I see you mean we should do this all the time No I don't need that, think of it Am I right? Yes I think you're right Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma That's my name Well you see it's generally believed that you go to heaven if you're good and if you're bad you go to hell that is correct however in heaven they don't judge what you think they don't they have a divine registry of sexual performance in that registry they mark down sexual activity in your life if your faith is not entirely in it if you just perform as an obligation and you don't feel the most profound devotion from your spirit your heart and flesh is not religiously delivered to it you're condemned they put you down in the blacklist and you don't go to heaven heaven is popular with divine lovers and in hell you're the dead that's probably true I knew you'd feel that way Oh I do I do you see on earth we are judged by public acts and sex is a private act the partner cannot be said to be the public since both partners are engaged so naturally it stands to reason that it's angels who judge our sexual life naturally I don't want to give into it if I do I'm afraid I will never recover it's not physical and it's not sorrow it's very strange I'm on and I can't describe it it's very frightening normally there's a lubricant not in the body a spiritual lubricant and without it life is a nightmare and everything is distorted a black cat started coming into my kitchen he's awfully mangled and big he's missing an eye and his skin is diseased at first I was repelled by him but then I thought this is a monster who was sent to me and I must feed him and I fed him and shat all over my kitchen foul diarrhea everywhere he still comes and I still feed him I'm afraid of him how about the money made how about a game of croquet fine not from the stars do I my judgment pluck and yet me thinks I have astronomy but not to tell good or evil luck of plagues and dirts or seasons quality nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell pointing to each fender rain and wind or say with princes if it shall go well I oft predict that I in heaven find but from thine eyes my knowledge I derive and constant stars in them I read such art as beauty truth whether thrive if from myself to store that would convert or else of thee this I prognosticate thy end is truce and beauty is doom and date strictly a latino institution it would be impossible to speak about the movement in Seattle without mentioning the group theater co-founded by Rabin Sierra and others in 1978 of their debut production short eyes by Miguel Pinheiro critics remarked the production was very and powerful a play that was impossible to forget with a tough and memorable bunch of performers and with that the group began for the next 20 years they produce regional and world premieres of plays by Lisa Loomer Jorge Huerta, Miltre Sanchez Scott Jose Rivera, Diana Diana Rodriguez and many others at their original location just a few blocks west of here at the university's ethnic cultural center local audiences saw for the first time plays like Marisol real women have curves roosters, vocone not to mention the great number of latino and latino actors and directors some of whom are here tonight but with that said we also shouldn't mischaracterize the nature, the vision, or the people who made up Seattle's group theater in their effort to educate the general public as to the basic compatibility of all ethnic groups the company also produced work by Derek Walcott Apple Feudard Kanda Pingchong Enshizaki Shange Maxine Gorky, Talvin Wilkes and Eugenia Chan and if that list doesn't sound radically diverse enough they also did you can't take it with you as their artistic director Tim Bond wrote the group's multi-ethnic effort to challenge audiences to see their own lives reflected in the plays of another culture was always going to be an uphill climb in Seattle there are some people who just don't want us around he wrote that's why we started our own thing emerging from the group's world premiere of Jose Cruz Gonzales' Harvest Moon was the independent Teatro Latino described by Olga Sanchez as a grassroots organization of Latino artists that produced work on a project by project basis the company produced not only plays but original ritualistic performances that incorporated archetypes and poetry a practice that ultimately led to Seattle's Via de los Muertos annual celebration perhaps the crowning achievement of Teatro Latino however it was the creation of the bilingual children's show with Draco's leaners in pictures it was a tour to regional libraries and where hundreds of school children saw their first glimpse of theatricalized tales from Latin America community engaged efforts like this were in the words of Jose Camillo made to tear down the temple that run the commercialized theater when Ruben Sierra passed away at the age of 51 in 1998 the very same year the group shut its doors the Seattle Times run an obituary in addition to praising the visionary actor, director, professor and mentor the article had concluded that the multicultural practices that Sierra and the group theater began had become quote so common that its specialty was no longer needed one we're here to a particular exception of this assessment writing after reading his obituary I just had to respond Mr. Sierra's practices had become so common that the group's specialty was no longer needed it may be common elsewhere but here in Seattle the group's demise has left a gaping cultural gap in our artistic scene to what extent the cultural gap left by the group's demise still has yet to be filled is hopefully part of the many conversations that will begin at this convene Mudwood's Mudwood's first produced in 1983 at the Padula Hills Playwrights Festival in California and then it was produced here in Seattle by New City Theater in 1990 and again last year in 2015 the play follows the lives of the overworked May for companion Lloyd and the literate Henry and their dysfunctional love triangle as May struggles to educate herself and escape the mud of her world and die clean Mud bears its themes of poverty class divisions emotional and sexual domination and the violence that these can inflict upon a person's soul Many critics tend to focus on the despair found in the play but Fornes actually claims that mud is the opposite of the play's hope at the beginning of the play an example of what is possible Fornes received an Ovia Award for writing and directing Mud one of the nine that she received throughout her career and when she first started working on Mud Marie and Marie didn't even know where the setting would be she arrived in California for rehearsals and the play hadn't even been written so for the auditions she decided that she would just write a little good scene so that way the actors thought that there was a play behind it the next day she went to a local flea market and she saw an axe and a pitchfork and she immediately knew that the play should be set in the country she saw Lloyd working the land and May standing at her ironing board the play had revealed itself to her Rhodes Kano, Artistic Director of Essek Diatro remained in 1984 when she came here to workshop a play at the Seattle Rep Rose wanted a Spanish translation of Mud because she thought the play's themes would fit the contemporary reality present in the class divisions in Urban and Rural Lima, Peru in 1990 Rose translated Mud into Bottle for the first Young Directors Festival in Lima she kept a pure translation and only changed one word axe to machete for those of you who know the Puerto Rican history, yes, that is very significant the play was remounted in 1991 with the support of the cultural arm of the U.S. Embassy in Peru and Rose and her own writing for Rose and her own writing Mud along with Forna's other plays signified the connection between North and South and Bottle was the exchange between the two hemispheres and now performers Fernando Cavallo, Sophie Franco and Marco Bolli will present a scene from Bottle, directed and translated by Rose Kano I don't want to give you medicine until you go I'm not going They want you to do an analysis They can't give you medicine until they know what you have They said that it could be something bad They didn't say They gave me that book What did you say? I can't read it I tried but I can't I got Henry to read it It's out Why can't you read it? It's very difficult So much time studying and you can't read it I tried to read it and it's very difficult That's why I got Henry to read it It's very difficult for me It's advanced and I'm not advanced yet I'm intermediate But I can't read it I would have liked you to read it Me too I would have liked to read it Come on Henry Sit down Come on Henry I'll give it to you I was drinking He's sick What does he have? What does he have? He's sick Remember Robby? What happened to Robby? What happened to him? He died He died Aha Why did he die? Alcohol Why did he drink? He drank because he was the owner of alcohol And because he was the owner of alcohol Because there was a pharmacy And because that led to a man drinking Because he kept alcohol in the pharmacy There are two things Alcohol and nothing to do So what happens? You must even die So what happens? You must die You must die You must die So Do you have alcohol? You drink it Do you have money to buy alcohol? You buy it You don't have money, you don't buy it Do you have alcohol Mario? He doesn't have money to buy it If today you had money you would have a drunk I wouldn't If you're not drunk You're not drunk, it's because you're poor This is the book Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis and treatment Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis Diagnosis un diccionario especial uno que tiene términos médicos, términos técnicos seguramente diccionario de día todo tipo de términos sintípicos desde términos de construcción a ingeniería hasta términos sintípicos con física a diccionario así parece un chavo el ojo es un chavo es un chavo y tu color esta mal no es tu lengua el hoy su lengua esta blaca y su aliento no es mal que tienes yo quiero que vaya al doctor pero no va porque no vas al doctor el hoy no quiero ir se va a quedar capudriéndose no me voy a pudrir yo te bien quería contigo tú me dijiste que no podía ir él quería ir con un machete él es un animal no vas a la clínica con un machete no puedes hacer eso no lo hice nunca fui si, apesta se está pudriéndose tú no vas a ir nada ponte a acabar tu tumba mientras fueras el hoy porque yo no te lo voy a hacer ya le dije que encuentra un sitio y cabe se necesita una persona fuerte para acabar tan hondo yo no lo puedo hacer ni lo haría si pudiera quieres van Henry tenemos mantequilla si gracias quieres comer tenemos sopa si gracias quédate entonces todavía no me he empezado si vale no there was no grand mission only the driving thought of how can we stay working in theater because this is what we want to do this led to the husband and wife team to produce their first show relatively speaking now as Jose remembers we for some unknown reason quickly got a reputation as guerrilla producers and in a community with only a handful of established theater companies Jose and Danielle became actively sought after and Miracle Theater was formed out of necessity in 1985 now the company initially produced cheeky melodramas Eastern European avant-garde productions and Greek classics but in 1988 a homesick Jose suggested to Danielle that they move back to Texas however after a summer visit to Texas that proved to be brutally hot I guess I know leaving Jose no wonder well if I can't go back home there then maybe I can bring home here so thanks to the cool and yes rainy Pacific Northwest weather Jose and Danielle remained in Oregon and reached out to Latino artists dancers, musicians and actors in an effort to assemble an artistic community now by 1992 the soul of Miracle or Milagro Theater was distinctly Latino and when Olga Sanchez joined as artistic director in 2003 key initiatives were implemented efforts were made to seek out the large population of Spanish-speaking Portland people and by slowly introducing all Spanish language events such as poetry readings and music festivals audience spaces were developed and actors were trained who were fluent in Spanish eventually full-length plays were produced once a year for Spanish-speaking audiences Milagro saw these productions as one more way of breaking down cultural barriers and as a way to make an inviting space for all members of the Latino community as Jose describes Milagro is not just a theater it's a family now Oregon is also home to a significant ally of Latino theater the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is Christopher Siebel here? yeah! I didn't see you Alma Seth is an active producer of Latino, Asian and African-American works and it limits a diverse and inclusive theater initiative under the leadership of artistic director Bill Rush in the last ten years the company has produced five Latino-penned world premieres and four to five non-world premieres and recently implemented the Latino Play Project as a way of cultivating Latino playwrights in showcasing the plays with leadership positions built by Christopher, Luis El Fado and many others, OSF works towards having ethnic diversity represented not just on stage but at the administrative level which is crucial this results in thoughtful conversations about some of today's hot topics season selection and casting practices as Christopher says the OSF just subscribes to a matrix of casting philosophies specifically based for each show color-conscious casting practices not colored blind and racially open casting practices are thoughtfully considered as a result, when Latino actors are hired the actors are cast across the entire season avoiding the all too common practice of pigeon-holing Latino artists on average five to twelve Latino actors are cast in multiple shows for each season OSF and Milagro have both succeeded as long-standing theater organizations that continually earn the trust of Latina and Latino artists and audiences by valuing the art that comes from the community and providing a collaborative space for it to be showcased the only time that John Kazanje and the artistic director of Seattle's New City Theater ever said no to Irene Fornes is when the playwright wanted to cut a hole in the ceiling of this theater for the world premiere for 1993 play Enter the Night and it's honoring this wish meant that he would not only have to cut apart the whiting grid but also demolish a section of the asbestos-layered ceiling Kazanje felt that a first time no was indeed in order after all as per his policy to give invited artists quote-unquote total creative freedom Fornes had already cut a ten foot by ten foot hole in the theater floor so the actors could ascend from the basement during the action although Irene was displeased with John this aesthetic compromise was the only conflict the company ever really had during their many collaborations with the playwright an artist to whom visual and pictorial aesthetics often meant more than anything not only was their long relationship extremely fruitful the more remarkable fact may be that if it hadn't been for the work of Fornes there may not have been a new city theater at all in Seattle Mary Ewald featured here for those of you who can see and John Kazanje first came out from New York because Mary had been cast as Julia in the Northwest premiere and her friends in 1981 a role she would later play under Fornes's direction Mary consequently looked at Seattle's Intamon theater John had the opportunity to take over a space that would become New City and the couple stayed in Seattle where they had over the course of 35 years hosted the likes of Richard Forman Len Jenkins, Kristen Cosmus Steven Jesse Bernstein Susan Laurie Parts and countless other playwrights this award-winning artistic duo are unfortunately unable to be here tonight but I think they have a rather legitimate excuse at Seattle's oldest experimental theater they are currently producing The Tempest with Mary Ewald now well into her 60s alternating nightly the roles of Prospero and Caliban while that's another legacy that has yet to be written I will simply tell you what Mary told me about her experience working with Irene as an actor she learned to just quote, strip it away strip it away, strip it away but how much are you willing to just strip it away trust the words, trust the exterior vision and choreography that Irene has layered upon it she awakened to trust in my own instincts without having to over rationalize everything she works from such a deeply instinctual and subconscious place of her own that if you can kind of let her material wash over you and not try to control in any rational way kind of trust the writing where it's going to take you you can leave yourself open to be surprised by what's happening to you on stage which is a wonderful thing as an actor to allow yourself to explore something in real time in front of an audience and not have to feel that everything is worked out in her review of the world premiere of Enterly Night which you're hearing which Fornes wrote with Mary E. Moll one great speculated on how much of the power of the production was due to Fornes' direction quote, certainly a great deal would be missing without the stylized choreography of the mind seems and given the sparseness of the dialogue the direction of the play's elusive visual language seems crucial while the final structure of the play remains dreamlike and open-ended as a succession of haunting moments rather than a aggressive march that possesses considerable cumulative power here to present a scene from Enterly Night of Veronica Nunez, Amalia Alarcon Morris, and Roberto Astorna they have come up from Portland, Oregon and have been directed by Melva Ores Howard, thanks with you all right, I suppose the same what do you mean I'm not well what's wrong I pretend I'm well no one has told me that I'm well but I ask as if I am as if I've been told by the doctor that I'm well and I can go ahead and do whatever I want though I haven't been told that if I stop taking my heart medicine I'll die Paula, yes I keep doing the work on the farm and I keep saying it's not going to harm me I keep saying it but there's a voice inside that tells me keep doing what you're doing you're going to die the next shovel you push through the earth could kill you this is good for me if I carry a sack of feed this has got to be good for me I can't just stand there and let everything I've worked for go to waste sit and let the animals lie let them starve and die I can't do that I can't just let my meadows go to waste I can't sit there and watch the weeds take over and do nothing that's not the way I am I'd rather die I don't want to be different from the way I am I don't want to be a different person just to stay alive if the person I am dies then I die it's a Russian roulette says the voice every time we climb a ladder or pick up a bag of feed or a bucket of manure it can be collapsed they wanted to fuck me and they did they fucked me until I was blue in the face one first and then another and another and they came back they couldn't get enough and I wanted all they had they didn't use condoms nothing didn't they Jack? on the raw I told them I was HIV positive why do you think you are? didn't even care why did you say that Jack? I did I handed them condoms Jack and they didn't take them they said they had more pleasure without them did they know what a condom is? I was bleeding like a faucet and they fucked me and fucked me and it hurt like the devil and I screamed I screamed until I was blue because I couldn't scream anymore and they kept fucking me one after the other did you think you giving them AIDS? and I never had so much pleasure in my life I handed them condoms and they didn't care and I never been so happy in my life one big cock after the other I screamed like a goat in this latter house I just got it it's a virus it happened when I got fucked by someone when you get a hold do you wonder who gave it to you? no one gave it to me I got it maybe I got it when I got the best fuck in my life and then maybe I got it when I got a lousy fuck so what? don't touch me you don't have AIDS don't touch me why does he say he has AIDS? I'm contentious Jack you don't have AIDS I don't want to give you AIDS why does he say that? stop it Jack stop it I have AIDS you don't have AIDS and if you did you would never do it I am contentious Jack you would never do that I have AIDS Jack you have to protect yourself I have AIDS you don't have AIDS you don't have AIDS you are not HIV positive why do you think you have AIDS? have AIDS you don't I have seen your test you are not you are not this is a book that explores Irene's legacy within the work of contemporary and Latina playwrights and Garcia Romero has identified what she turns into thank you for your wonderful book this foreigners frame a way of understanding these new Latina works through a framework that examines cultural multiplicity supernatural invention aesthetic experimentation and the complexity of Latina identity all elements gifted to us by the work of Irene now as we take these last few moments to consider the regional movement as it is today let's take that frame and touch on the work of Rose Conner many of you know Rose of course as the artistic director of Seattle's Essay Teatro but Rose herself is also a playwright and I would suggest that her play Don Quixote Homeless in Seattle would meet the criteria for the Fornes frame and you can correct me on all of this the play is Rose's examination of her experiences as a cultural interpreter with homeless individuals who navigate the complex system of health care in the city of Seattle not in any way an essentialized look at Latino culture but one that through a reinterpretation of Cervantes' multi-generic structure seeks to illuminate the realities of homelessness as it really is in our city today and this was tinged with the supernatural as the main character of hallucinations originating in what appeared to be chronic and evaliation which eventually deteriorated into a nightmare of state where reality and delirium blend and after this the exploration of cultural multiplicity through characters who also embody real-life figures from the indigenous Didadot and Duwamish communities and the most powerful moment in this process according to company member Meg Savlo occurred in the play's initial workshops conducted with audiences at Seattle's tent city for the homeless the talk back after the performance one community member stood up and said to the cast gracias por hacernos sentir que somos desiguales thank you for making us feel that we are visible the equally as significant in our city now is the Latino Theater Project founded in 2011 by Fernando Luna and Robert Harkins this group is focused on the creation of what they term teatro útil or useful theater engaging in a wide variety of community-centered projects at both the artistic and educational level and this vision is critical to the contemporary moment and there may be an echo of the form as flowing here in the philosophy of Fernando Luna who writes although progress has remained improving the visibility of Latinos in the arts this community is still woefully underrepresented and this is especially true in theater what we are missing are positive portrayals of Latinos as they actually live their lives and the richness of contemporary Latino culture to that end the primary purpose of Latino Theater Project is to produce plays from Latin America and the Caribbean presenting diverse cultural worlds that allow theater audiences to more fully understand the Latino and Latino experience in the 21st century and we also believe in doing plays where women are empowered protagonist figures in the stories we are telling from Cuba was commissioned in 1999-2000 at the signature theater in New York City this is from a stage reading that was done at UC Berkeley last year in my research I actually couldn't find any evidence of a full length production done here in the Pacific Northwest I'm looking around for confirmation and if your theater did do when I apologized I'll buy you a drink afterwards this special playing rocks from Irene's personal experiences as a Cuban American immigrant the play follows its protagonist Fran a young Cuban dancer living in New York who regularly exchanges letters with her brother Luis who remains in Havana through their circumstances Irene examines the impact of both Fran and Luis' separate lives on their family and on each other when letters from Cuba premiered the New York Times described it as quietly beautiful Sally Porterfield explains the appeal of Fornes' work in observing that the universe of Fornes' artistic imagination seems to be formed by a distillation of universal experience when we meet these archetypal characters and situations within the strange and exotic world of her drama it becomes an eerily unexpected and moving encounter now as a result Fornes herself has been described as one of the best kept secrets of American theater aha although for us it's no secret to us how special her story telling is I think Fornes actually best summarized her own work and its impact when she explained one is inspired by seeing other people inspired by seeing other people working seeing people looking at a painting and you say I'm just going to walk by what is it that these people are interested in and I'm not and that's when you start to look and you begin to notice the details the painter has made and you begin to pay attention as we gather theater artists from near and far we wanted to honor Maria Irene Fornes and the time she spent here in Seattle and like the painting that she talked about to notice and celebrate the details of the work performed by Latina and Latino artists here in the Pacific Northwest and to recognize their contributions is part of a much larger canvas now performer Irwin Galan will present a scene from letters from Cuba directed by Fernando Luna How does one write a poem? I've been writing poetry I've been saying words in my head to see if words, spirits would come and join with other words that were there if they would do that then maybe they would come in and form a poem I think that's how poems get written I don't think we write them I mean poems are difficult we can do easy things but difficult ones they come to us by themselves it's just that to learn to listen to them is difficult we have to learn to listen and let them come in easy as if the words would come out by themselves because they want to make a poem because they desire to make a poem as if the words had desires and they wanted to join with other words to express something of beauty of longing of love Hey, do you remember when you visited us and you brought us all kinds of food dry food that was very good when you added water and food in the can and you apologized because you said look, food in the can is not as good as fresh food but it's that I can't eat fresh food and we didn't but we don't like to have anything and you thought we were being well educated because that was what you brought but no, really we liked you know, it had a flavor like an American flavor like a can and when we ate we felt that we were in the United States and we spoke English and we said hey, how are you? oh, thank you eh, what is your name? you speak Spanish? but it was also good because the cans we used them to drink water or drinks to warm up the water and also to save food and we put it in the refrigerator and we also took other cans and we made holes and we used it as pots to grow plants we grew beans to coffee not much, because you know but we were very, very good and other cans without holes we used them in the ceiling to collect water when it rained because you know, mommy likes to wash her hair with rainwater and then I kept another one in my room and I played it like this when we played music together and we also had a garden can and we gave her a candle and when the light came out you know we thank you for the light and when you left it was worth it because it was the electricity every night and we apologize and you told us no, there is no problem but you see the light of truth and we looked and we realized that you were right it would be very nice and we would look very elegant you told us that if you illuminate the luxury restaurants in Nueva York in Paris too and that encouraged us and then we said yes, yes we asked you for a drink in Paris and in Nueva York yes well, anyway I thank you very much but when we are alone in the house we end up because we are eating in the darkness and thinking that in the rich places where electricity comes turn off the lights turn off the lights welcome the first version of her play the Danny of Padua Hills in 1982 and like many of her works was built upon a found object this time a 78 RPM record that she found in a thrift store which turned out to be a Hungarian language lesson for English speakers and of course what she called the recording's tender little scenes made their way into the play and that's all I'm going to say about because after all Maria Irene Forna is always extremely skeptical of academic criticism about said this to say that a work of art is meaningful is to imply that the work is endowed with intelligence that it is illuminated but if we must inquire what the meaning of a work of art is it becomes evident that the work has failed us a true work of art is a magic thing to comprehend magic we must be in a state of innocence of perjury if there is wisdom in the work it will come to us and here again in Soseka we are interpreting the waiter from the den thank you Chris one of Forna's kind of usual techniques for developing character is the monologue and sometimes people just monologue to teach to lecture and for a lot of other reasons sometimes not even explicable as in this case this scene here is a Budapest in around the 1980s during the waning years of communism there are a lot of shortages in the community not too much food and the scene is in a neighborhood restaurant which is barely making it they don't have anything on the menu and nothing in the kitchen but these two people a couple from America come in looking for an inexpensive meal they have whatever is offered and then they pay up and just as they're about to leave the waiter inexplicably stands up and delivers a monologue and the two other characters just kind of freeze and watch him and this is the way he goes he gets paid off and says ah, thank you we're concerned with quality that which is lasting craftsmanship a thing of quality always ends up being heavy we have preferred quality to anything else we wish for things that last but we tire of them we are buried under the stones of buildings iron grates, heavy shoes woolen garments, heavy sheets foods that smell potent like the caves in the black forest hands that cut knead, saw, and measure and chisel and sweat into everything we see pots that are too heavy to use shoes that delay our walk sheets that make our sleep are slumber Americans sleep light and wake up briskly you create life each day here the little trousers the boy wears to school are waiting for him at the store before he's born and we are dark Americans are bright you crave mobility the car you move from city to city so as not to grow stale you don't stay too long in a place a person who lives too long in the same place is suspect someone who's held back fiction is a stone polished mobility you're alert you get in and out of cars limberly oh that's your grace our grace is weighty not yours you worship the long leg and loose hip joint how else to jump in and out of cars you dress light you travel light your light on your feet your light hearted and a light heart is a pump that brings you to motion you aim to a light to throw the load overboard a light the flight you are responsible that's not a burden you're responsible to things that move forward you're responsible to the young not so much to the old the old do not move forward yeah you'll find a way for the old to move forward have them join you in the thrust solving a problem is not a burden for you a problem solved is the lifting of a burden Egyptians lifted heavy stones to build monuments you lift them to get rid of heavy stones get rid of them obstacles you're efficient you simplify life paperwork you form a shorter so is your period of obligation work your hours are shorter and you have more time to sit on the lawn in your cotton trousers thank you I have a few remarks I give you and Garcia Ramero a remarkable evening thank you actors thank you for Ness who was my teacher who talked so many of us about the power of the theater the power of language the power of character the power of what is possible in the theater I should have said a few words tonight as you called I know it's been a long day I had a wonderful evening this evening for me the words that jumped out at me tonight what happened teaching us how to reach staying alive seeing how much we've learned from you and we wish for things that last I want to just read a couple of short parts of my my new book that was mentioned just in that I reflect upon I mean its legacy and tonight we were told by the wonderful Todd London somewhere there he is that this historic theater is one of the first in this nation and this school is now 75 years old as of next month in Latina Latino theater commons is 5 years old 5 years old we are at the beginning of a 75 and hopefully longer legacy Irene Fornes turns 86 this spring so I offer these reflections for all of us and to her after graduation from graduate school I briefly worked for Fornes as a typhoon it's true one afternoon we were sitting in Greenwich Village and we ran into playwright Nilo Cruz her former student how Fornes's presence elicited joyful reverence from this acclaimed writer who would become several years later the first Latina swindler Pulitzer Prize in drama while I watched her graciously reconnect with Cruz I was reminded of Fornes's stature and influence afterwards we discussed my discouragement over a workshop production of one of my plays Fornes asked me yes I replied my main character needs to express a deeper level of honesty for the end of her journey in act 2 she affirmed good then you did your job as we left the cafe she could see my skirt had lifted she then pronounced we should have a parade celebrating celebrating playwrights playwrights unite and we marched down 7th Avenue arm in arm now I'll just close with this one reflection if the Fornes frame is the frame of a door we have one door here, one here, one here one here and many metaphorical doors all around us we continue to walk through the artistic, the actical and professional portals of Fornes and all these Latina and Latino theater artists in this room and her students and all playwrights have opened for us their remarkable plays as they raise awareness of the vibrant and diverse field of Latina and Latino theater may we continue to have a remarkable weekend together adelante si se puede