 This is the extent of what I can talk about. These are the jerseys of every stadium he's gone to. His bucket list is to go to every stadium in the United States. Take it down. Good afternoon. Evening. Afternoon. We're going to go ahead and get started. Jessica, I hope you can hear that feedback. Okay. Everybody, welcome to our first plenary. We are still missing a panelist. Hopefully he'll be joining us shortly. I wanted to take just a quick moment, one to point out one logistical thing and then also to talk a little bit about why we're all here today. So I've been getting a lot of questions. Where is my room number? What's next? What's happening? With the exception of Georgina Escobar's session which already happened where there was a room change and like we get it, I'm so sorry. Everything is in the program. Yeah? I, one hand, it's in the syllabus. 100% promise. It's all first, you know, look here and if you're still confused then come find one of us. Actually then go find somebody else and then come find one of us. I'm the fourth step, okay? Just because it's going to make everybody's lives a lot easier. It's all here. No drama, okay? Great. So I wanted to get for just a moment to sort of go why are we here? You know, what is this thing? So back in 2016, the Latinx... Well, were we Latinx theater commons? Yes we were. We had just become Latinx theater commons. Maybe. We had just finished a cycle of our first programming. We had done an event in Boston, in Los Angeles, in Chicago. We had done two regional events in Dallas and in Seattle and we were like, what's next? And so we started taking proposals for new projects, okay? One of those proposals came from Roxanne Schroder-Arce. Now, Roxanne was not a steering committee member of the LTC at that time. She was a friend of the LTC, as many of you are. She came to convenings. She was on social media. She was writing for Cafe Onda, which was our journal at the time on HowlRound. But she wasn't on the steering committee, but she had this idea and this passion and this space and these resources and all this stuff, right? So, yes. Okay, I can speed it up now. My vamping's over. And she put forth this project as an option for the steering committee. People put in proposals. We met in Seattle over three arduous days and decided what we were going to do and this project clearly rose to the top, okay? From there, the steering committee sort of mobilized. We started thinking about dates. We started thinking about planning, sort of going backwards in the day of forming a host committee. Emily came on as a co-champion and we brought in Teatro Vivo and things started rolling from there. But I just want to tell that story because sometimes when you go to these events it's very easy to be like, oh, it was just this big power that decided they wanted to do this thing. No. It was Roxanne who was like, this thing should happen. That Latinx theater comments should be the ones that helped do it. And I'm just going to tell you that and I'm going to give you a budget. And then she joined the steering committee because obviously in order to make the thing happen she has to be in the room, right? That's how our events happen. Sometimes it's a little bit more formula. Sometimes it's more organic. That's why we're all here today because a pitch came in in April 2016 for a cool project like this. And here we are. Speaking of Roxanne, I'm going to hand it over to her to start us off and introduce our amazing panelists for our first plenary. Thank you. Amazing indeed. Wow. Just look at it. This is really quite an honor and I am so, so grateful to be with all of you and to be here with you. And I cannot wait to hear what you have to say. I have been following all of your work for such a long time and it's so great to have you here. So, just want to introduce the panelists to tell you a little bit about them. We are focusing this panel on the roots of Latinx and Latin American TYA, Theatre for Young Audiences. We're going to do some discussion about what is that and more importantly why do you all do this work and what has been your experience and how do we do it better? How do we do more? How do we make it happen? And these folks are the folks who know. So, first of all we have next to me the amazing Jose Casas who is a playwright. We know his work. We love his work. Assistant professor and he leads the minor in playwriting in the Department of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan and also Cici or Jose will be talking about his new anthology, Palavres de Cielo here at the festival. So, we are so, so excited about that. Oscar Franco is a play through 12 teacher here in Austin and he has focused on the arts as a tool to support culturally responsive teaching and community centered learning with right here in Austin and he just got back from New York and we're like, come back! And he did. Oscar's also on the board of Teatro Vivo and then of course we have our amazing, I don't know if you've all met him but Marco Novello is my dear friend is an artisan of words and a chronicler of possible words and he teaches at that's pretty good. I didn't write it. And he teaches at Andaluc University in Mexico and flew in last night so thank you for being here. Miriam Gonzalez if you don't know Miriam's work you should Miriam's a playwright from Washington DC and Miriam is a tahana at heart so welcome back to Texas. Miriam is from Corpus Christi and we are just so happy to have you here and I am in love with your play as you know the smartest girl in the world and others so thank you and we're going to hear Miriam's play Oyame the Beautiful Tomorrow, yes. And next to Miriam Jose Cruz Gonzalez, the legend a playwright from the U.S. teaches theater at Cal State University Los Angeles, yes. Next to our Jose is the awesome Diana Guisado. Diana is a Mexican artist who studies here in the department of theater and dance with an emphasis on performance and we are just so happy and you're seeing Diana she's in both of the readings of new plays so thank you Diana. How's the sound? Awesome. Okay so here we go. So we wanted to start with a question and there's going to be some opportunity for you all to ask these amazing artist, teachers, scholars questions as well but first a little bit about why you do the work that you do so we're starting there like what inspires you what experiences have you had that have said do this work do work for young people in the U.S., in Latin America what inspires you to do that what makes you do the work that you do and Diana we're going to start with you please so what experiences have you had what has made you stay in this work and you know that if you want to speak in Spanish it's fine and it's not perfect. First of all it's just an honor to be here with these amazing people I feel like I don't belong here but you do belong here. I'm originally from Mexico and I have always loved to create theater and then I moved four years ago because my parents decided to and I realized that it was possible for me to study theater to keep doing this work but of course as years went by I realized the lack of representation the lack of stories that showed other experiences other bodies other people that I was living with and I do this because I believe that art can change people art can connect us and bring empathy and just hopefully create a better world and I notice that TYA is so important because if you inspire that in the children then you can raise human beings that can create a world that has more humanity and that's what I want to keep doing this work to represent to unite to find something else in this world that is just so crazy how do we bring more love and I think art is a way to do so so we can go down the line or if one of you wants to answer that question we don't all have to answer the question so Jose? I think about the first time I ever saw I think a piece of theater I think I was maybe a kindergartener and we were sitting down in the grass out here in our elementary school my brother ends up walking out and he's green and he was performing and I knew nothing about that my brother was in a play and that he was green and I was just so fascinated by him being green so that's my only memory of theater as a child that it wouldn't be actually until I was in college I was introduced to the Chicano Theater by Jorge Huerta Dr. Huerta at UC San Diego and so I was a student of him and learned about the theater movement and once I discovered that I was like okay I want to work with Teatro Campesino I want to work with Teatro Esperanza and that was my goal but it wouldn't be that route that I would end up going to I'd actually go to regional theater company South Coast Repertory and then we started a program called the Hispanic Playwrights Project and that program was dedicated to developing plays by Latino writers here in the United States and it lasted for 19 years I was really proud that program lasted 19 years but while there one of the things I started to do was to work in the communities teaching theater to young people and I remember when we first started a colleague of mine, Lori Woolery was there, a young artist at that time learning her craft and we ended up having 200 children show up and I said okay we've got two hours to do this I said so this is how we're going to do it we broke it down, she reminded me about this about a week ago and she says I've never taught before I said you know more than they do so get in there and you know it opened up a door for me seeing what I was doing with the adults in theater trying to open that door for our Latinx artists but realizing that there was nothing there for young people and so that then took me on that journey of going wow this would be, we've got to do something about that and that's how I sort of entered the field and began to understand the field of TYA Who's eager to talk? That's just your story of how you first experience reminded me of growing up in corpus in the 70's there was no theater for young audiences for us and so really my first experience was on my grandmother's knee watching novellas and just being so excited by the drama the slamming doors and all the kissing you know it was just like it was it was a fraud and then my grandmother's house was right across the street from this huge driving so there was a huge the huge screen was right there and we would sit on the driveway I remember we'd eat these pomegranates from the tree that would fall into the driveway and we'd just crack them open and eat and we couldn't hear anything we could see a cantin flash it was all Spanish because it was in the barrio and it was all Spanish movies and we would put words in my brother and my neighbor because we couldn't hear the movies so I was naturally loved theater my whole life and was always very dramatic and full of imagination that's what I loved but when I went into college and in graduate school and through high school and I started reflecting back on my childhood I realized there was never any sort of education for us on who we were as a people in corpus Christi even though we're a majority minority city we weren't in the curriculum on television I didn't see myself anywhere and so I come from a very political family my dad was a state rep here in Texas for a while and so we were always thinking about inequalities and what we had to do to fight for representation and as I got older I realized that where it all can kind of hit home is an education where we can democratize and equalize and so I went into education and I really I focused my dissertation on the dearth of material and curriculum for latinos and literature I just didn't see anything and I wanted to understand how could we fill that gap and I wanted to see where teachers what teachers were doing to address and celebrate diversity and how were they embracing diversity in the classroom and how were they making it higher order thinking and how were you bringing in complexities and I was really I was just very interested in that so from there I went through a lot of my life and I went to Washington I was an educator but then I got I crossed my worlds crossed with Karen Zacarias in DC and she gave me the same thing where I was in the theater, I was a teacher and I was in between things and I said God I love your theater young playwrights theater she started in DC and I said you're a teacher right and I said I love theater and I've only written plays with kids in the classroom she was like baptism by fire get in there all they need is someone that's going to listen to them they want someone that makes them feel they belong these kids they just need someone to listen to them and so I taught with them as a teaching artist for six years and I started writing myself and I was asked to write some plays and it just started went from there and I was just actually very lucky to run into incredible mentors like Karen Zacarias Jose Cruz Gonzalez Jenny Mullinger and David Tsar Child's Play and Dwayne Hartford and I just got into this world and I was just very, very lucky and also Kennedy Center just really been so supportive and just I realized the importance of mentors and gracious people who give their time and that we all have to lift each other up and connect each other and I think that's why this is so exciting here because this is important work that we do and it's time that we're heard and that we're seeing so it's exciting okay well I guess everything started when I was a little kid my parents took us to a theater show for kids in Mexico and it was the first time I went to the theater and I sat on the chair lights went off the curtain went up and suddenly something magical happened because there was a forest behind that curtain magical creatures started popping all over the place and I went just like that and it was just so emotional I don't know if the company was any good at all really but the impression that makes that little kid was so strong that carry on until today I guess so when I started acting at the university I had the chance to go to hospitals to perform for kids that were with cancer and terminal disease and seeing their faces and how they light up with this magic that's theater just hooked me into theater for children so I've been doing this for the last 30 years almost so I think is the opportunity to get in touch with another soul and change his life or her life even though it can last just days before they die it's a very strong opportunity to make a very strong impression in somebody that's clear of predigest and stuff like that so I guess is the best theater in the world I think that sticks out to me the most is really like as a teacher education in school has been what moves me and it has been schedules and all that stuff it's exciting for some reason and I realize that as I was going through public education as I then started going into when I went here to UT I started to see a separation between myself and my family a separation between my parents who did not go beyond high school and they had an education in Mexico and from their perspective it wasn't what they had hoped for so they were always hoping for more and I was able to live out that dream of graduating from high school and then coming in to the university and now working as a teacher but there was always a separation from what became my academic self and the roots that I came from and the roots that were in my own home and in high school when I started to do I started to be involved in the arts and music and theater and that was the key and that was the door that opened they couldn't help me academically they couldn't help me then a permission slip that was in English something as simple as that and the arts and theater and music were the things that they could understand whether they knew the language or not they could see on stage what was going on and understand the story and understand without that barrier of Spanish or English and they were able to see that and to be able to have my family be a part of that be a part of my life in that way and then when I came to UT I took a one of my first classes my first semester was Latino TYA that was taught by Raf San and that completely changed my life and it changed I think the trajectory of what I even had for myself and through that my parents I've been able to see that I've done and I've been able to have those conversations with them more about what goes on in my life and now that's what I hope to do also as a teacher to not have my students wait until they're in high school or college to be able to share with their families a part of their life but be able to have that at the elementary school level and be able to have their families go to events and be proud of the culture and the experience of just being in that space with an open heart and open mind and to be able to have that from the very beginning so my sort of going into it started from then and hopefully continues into that and that kind of work I didn't grow up exactly I didn't grow up knowing theater didn't care about theater got to college didn't care about theater but somehow magically and accidentally I discovered theater in college and the second I did that I said to myself oh shit what did I just do and I actually reached out to a bunch of Latino directors and writers just to like for consejos I didn't know what I was doing and I reached out to a lot of people and only three responded and one of them the one who took me under their wing the most is Jose Cruz Gonzalez so now he's stuck with me forever and so I discovered theater and I'm like okay now I'm a writer and I went to Arizona State for my graduate degree in playwriting and so if you all know Arizona State has one of the best programs in theater for young audiences and so a lot of the students were my friends and they said you need to write for youth and I'm like fuck you honestly I'm being honest I'm not gonna write for kids I'm a real writer that wasn't my thought and they nagged me to the point where I'll try it and so my thesis play was a hip-hop spoken word play which literally was my first one and I see one of the actors who was in that play right here Ricky Orisa and so it was cool and then I'm like okay I did it I'm gonna go be a real writer again but I kept getting commission and people kept asking me to write for youth and then I slowly started to drink the Kool-Aid and realized that you know when I love writing for this group and every time I wrote for this group I thought of my nephews my nieces or my friends kids and then I realized that there was an extra added sense of responsibility for writing for this group that I embraced and to me not only is TOA an important theater I think it's the most important theater and has so many strings attached to it whether it's you know putting up stories of building audiences whatever and I really embraced that and then getting into Latino theater for young audiences a lot of my work everything I do is based on diversity whether it's me teaching or writing or advocating and because I hate having that feeling of being the only one in my room and I know when my students come to me in tears that's exactly what they're feeling so it was my just not just being an educated writer but being an advocate for the stories that are underrepresented you know and I have way too many degrees in a lot of student loans and never once have I ever taken a class about a different cultures theater in theater in the theater departments I've been in that's a lot of there's like a lot of years and that's not acceptable at all so it was my goal and has been my goal to continue to just do this work just because it's so important and everyone's stories deserve a space and I also though with that kind of work it's also not only celebrating but also calling people out calling the system out because you know when we talk about TYA diversity we're worse than adult theaters that should tell you something right there and that has to change so one of the things you know when I talk about diversity I'm like I'm tired of allies I don't acknowledge allies anymore that's cool that you're with us but we need accomplices that's what we need because we need to change this because if we're going to advocate for kids the people who create the art and facilitate the art should look like that as well so okay shake it shake it okay thank you and we have plenty of Kool-Aid so drink and drink and drink so think about that I want to talk a little bit about some of the process we came across we went through to come here and to think about what is the purpose because there are so many different definitions and ideas and what is TYA and does that include youth and what does that mean and what is Latinx TYA and then okay we're doing this festival of the Americas and what does that mean okay so it's Latin American TYA but what does that mean too right and how does that how do we think of Latinx and Latin American coming together and how are those both two things that are totally different and also similar in some ways so so Emily and Abigail and I had lots of discussions and then the steering committee and then of course we had a committee that was the selection committee of the five pieces and then also a programming committee so a lot of thinking went into this and a lot of thinking my brain was going a lot so one of those pieces is thinking about what is the intervention what are we trying to do here and for a while and Cece and Jose we've been working on in some of the TYA world thinking about how do we diversify what is happening there how do we think about having more theater of color for young people and specifically Latinx theater for young people and we very consciously thought about this space as being a space where we want to think about our teatros our Latino theater companies thinking about doing more work for young people because what we see happening throughout the US and I'm eager to hear more about what's happening in Mexico and then of course we have little representation of other Latin American on this panel we have certainly at the festival we do they're in rehearsal right now but we the idea is also that a lot of our TYA our Latinx TYA is being done in historically white theater companies and so while okay that's those companies need to be thinking about diversity and representation sometimes those companies are checking boxes to be really honest we know that and some of those companies are doing something because they really believe in it and they really want to change and they want to move forward and great that's awesome too so we want all of that to happen and we feel like our intervention here though is really thinking about our teatros and how are we putting theater forward for young people and that's happening that our teatros throughout the country are doing more theater for young people but some are saying we don't know how or is it even viable are people going to come how do we sell this work how do we make it happen how do we even engage with schools and young people we don't know how to do that so some of what we want to do is discuss how are we going to do that and Emily is going to lead a panel that's going to talk a little more about that but just along those lines you define the work where are you seeing it where do you wish you you see more and what are some of the obstacles that you're coming up against and some of the spaces where you're just being you're just on fire and it's like this is happening let's make more of this and these are the avenues where we we've been able to and these are the avenues where you have to really push who would like to talk about that I'll jump in oh thank you for that that's really great to help frame it for us I think for me the thing is I've had the great fortune of being involved in festivals and I think that's really important for our writers having those opportunities to be at the Kennedy Center at right now at NYU any of these programs they're really important for our artists to get further developed and then of course people come to those festivals to see the work and then those opportunities happen for those artists to perhaps go on and work with those institutions and I have to say that what happened to me with Child's Play and David Tsar many years ago and so we've had that ongoing relationship since 1997 but I want to focus on Teatro del Pueblo which is a small Latino theater company Latinx company in Minneapolis, Minnesota and it's run by Alberto Justiano and Alberto reached out to me many many years ago and said I want to do a play here for young audiences and we want to commission you and Alberto is a small little company and he has to raise those resources to pay a commission playwright and every time I've gone back that's what Al does and he brings that theater to his community and I think that he is a really wonderful model to look at in terms of I'm going to bring you work here to my community and he said to me I want women in science can you write something about that and that's what Curious is about and I'm still waiting for Al to raise that money he said you know you can go and get it done someplace else and I said no I'd like to do it with you because you committed to me and I'm going to commit to you and so that I would say is a wonderful example of a company that sees the big picture but also understands the field and I think that's important thank you I didn't mention we're going to see Jose's work on Saturday of course which is was commissioned by Child's Play no? when was that? we did that in 2006 it premiered there and so it's had a life over those years and it actually is a wonderful example of an outsider telling Child's Play a librarian Tim was his name but he came knowing this book The Masa in the Library that had been written by Pat Mora and it was an illustrated book David asked me would you take a look at it and I sort of flipped through it really quickly bought the book and I was like okay I know that story but I said to David let me take a look at it a little bit more so thank God we went to the archive here today at this university the Latinx 100 year please go take a look at it if you have it I went to the Comunicida Archive at UC Riverside as he was the first Chicano to be a chancellor of a major university of California and so his materials were there what a resource to go in there and to see this man's life his materials there and to then suddenly realize there's a bigger story here and so I went back to David and said yes I think we can tell the story it's here and so you know it was a wonderful emerging I'll be interested to see what you think after you know I haven't seen it in years see does it still hold up my question to you show and I'll just stay on that for just a second because when we say it's not a life right the playwrights here are all going you know that that means what does that what does that mean from us in the library ladies since 2006 do you have any how many like I want to know I'll research this sometime but or someone else because we need to document this work but how many young people any idea I guess Jenny might know but I've sort of approximated maybe a couple hundred thousand maybe more of two hundred three shake your maraca shake your maraca Jenny Millinger said half a million young people have seen Tomas in the library ladies since 2006 the question and somehow you know took something from that so what about more the definitions where's the work being done how is it being done where are the spaces where the doors open where are the spaces where there's friction how do we how do what's how's it happening how's it happening for you how's it happening I struggle with it personally because you know I keep getting published and stuff but no one keeps doing the place and so and the work I've done where I really have found communities are community based theaters not TYA theaters Rising Youth Theater which is here I'm a resident artist with Spinny Dot which takes an international model of TYA as their mission statement so for me that's a little bitter I don't know I don't want to sound bitter but that's where my work and that's where the experiences I'm having as a playwright are more satisfied or satisfied because they go into communities and ask what's wrong and then you build off of that rather than looking for a title or something like that and they really don't think of those conventions or how is this going to sell you know it's just that's that's working this community so that's where I feel the strongest tie right now in terms of overall I think it's still we still need to get there all right thank you well I would like to talk a little bit about my experience and I'm talking about my experience because it's very hard to talk about the theater of our country for just one point of view and I used to be president of Mexico from 2000 to till 2011 and I faced a country without the knowledge of a movement a world movement that is theater for children and young people and in that 11 years I fought all day long every year to organize something but companies in Mexico I guess and theater is just a reflection of the reality of a whole country everybody is very individualist they don't see theater for children and young people as a movement and they don't believe I guess we don't have the culture of getting together of fighting as a group so it was very hard just trying to get information about how many groups in the country were doing theater for children and young people it was hard at the end of the time I was president we couldn't find out we were a few years around 400, 500 groups around the whole country developed one day and finished the other so it was hard and also I think it's policy the cultural institutions are doing now that's fighting against this kind of theater independent theater diverse theater because they try to put everybody in a box they make you do a project putting all you need to do a staging a play and for every 100 people that apply just maybe 10 people that sponsored so what you learn as independent group is that you can't do theater if they don't fund you so it's kind of weird I think they're missing the point instead of fomentar promote the creation and diverse creation they just funding very specific kind of work it's just one line of creation and making these groups think they're not able to create to be diverse so it's to be an independent theater for children and new people here now in Mexico are very aggressive I guess for example I did a show on October and they pay me that show until December and you never know when they're gonna pay it's weird how can you do a show when you don't know if they're gonna pay you and when they're gonna pay so it's hard so I think something's got to change there when I left Ascitesch somebody else got to be president but now I think there's no more president in Ascitesch Mexico so there's no because nobody wants to work for free Roxanne was there a couple of times and many people went for a colloquium organized because I tried to work in the universities to make people understand people that are studying theater that TYA it's a big issue all over the world nobody believes that so it was a big struggle that I fought in the universities and until today there's only out of 27 universities in the country that teach theater acting or something like that that have a course in theater for children that's amazing any courses any courses or a full program no just one course so it's it's a we have a lot of work to do there I guess so Marco just to dig in a little further so when you talk about diversity are you talking about diversity in form or are you talking about diversity of representation of culture language race, ethnicity within all of the people of Mexico because people don't believe that but Mexico is a very racist country very classist country and like let's say before theater is just a reflection of the reality of a country in Mexico we have a big issue with inequality there's a very small group of people with a lot of money and there's a very large amount of people with nothing and that happens also in theater you have some groups that have all the funds and you see the same names having the awards and stuff and a large amount of actors and groups that can't even stage a play so it's a big issue the diversity of all of the countries and I know I have the benefit of seeing some of your work and I know you have what you're going to see also you have indigenous themes in much of your work what about in other plays in Diana having seen a lot of Mexican work as well perhaps you want to speak about some of the work that you experienced or participated in as well and different themes different interpretations on these stages for young people and what that means in Mexico well first time I teach my my first work based on Aztec mythology it's called Mixtlan it's about the travel of a god Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent to the underworld and people told me you're talking about death for TYA are you crazy? so they didn't want to surprise me I mainly wanted to be a playwright when I start at the university but I had to direct and produce an act because nobody wanted to stitch the place so but now they're a little more common but back in the 80s 90s when I started that it was weird for everybody they said why you look to the past we have to look forward to the future but I think as I wrote in the article that mythology goes very deep in your social unconsciousness and talks about us very deeply and asks and answers questions that have been there for centuries or more so you just have to context that virtual breath use the distanciamiento alienation alienation put some distance so you can look at the reality from a different point of view and find different things if you're so close you can't look at it so trying to write things from the past gives you that ability to have a distance and think a little bit more I guess from your perspective anything too it's just very interesting and also it's just not fair to see when you live in Mexico you just go through all of it and don't stop to think about it because you don't have the resources or the knowledge or all this literature that can teach you that there are other things out there and that some things are just not fair and when I was there all the things that my school produced or the things that I used to watch with my parents in Mexico City and American stories white stories I remember the first play I saw was this play of Tom Sawyer for example and that was in Mexico, yes and that's like theater for youth and then in my school we always produced like Judy and the Beast and then I remember doing like they did the play and the yep and the main character she was a very talented actress and but her hair was brown and people got angry at the producers for having a girl who was not blonde in the main role so and these things are so complex we try to explain to people but since we don't have that culture and that exposure to other type of work people don't understand and so you have to go out come here, see meet all of these artists to realize there's something wrong and I do want to go back to Mexico and change something and show there are different ways and also of course men are in charge of many things there's a lot of racism and it's just it is very very complex thank you okay so we're going to shift gears a little bit just to this idea of what what if you're doing the work is it viable so CC mentioned who's doing the work it's not being produced but I'm going to turn to you Oscar and ask about like as a teacher I know we didn't have a lot of time to bring these young people but the schools jumped at it so what is it, is it viable who's responding to the work as a teacher what is the need out there and then also can you get funds, can you get your children, your youth to get them to the theater or how does that work yeah and I think this is something that every year that I have always and I always have to think about every year including this one where I'll be bringing in some of my students for tomorrow and have to think about okay bus how are we going to get funds for this bus you know and finding what are the resources and how can I show that bringing students to this event, to this experience does relate to everything else that these other funds or that this thing is for there's a particular moment that comes to mind that I worked in elementary school here in Austin and obviously a lot of the work that I wanted to bring to them was Latin that's based and for a lot of families that had never happened and I remember that there was a student that I had who had a lot of different needs, a lot of different things and constantly struggled in school he was the first one out of the blue to me at first like to jump in and to say I want to be a part of that play I want to be a part of this thing and I saw a huge shift in that when the production actually happened he along with his parents who had never really shown up to his school for anything including like mandatory things showed up they showed up, they showed up with the the cousins that came from out of town they showed up with the abuelitos they showed up, they filled our tiny space that was not a theater but they showed up and they filled the space that had brought in the most people but not just the most people but the most people for students who parents didn't really show up for things and that told me a lot there that when the opportunities when we put the opportunities there people will show up when the opportunities there people will say oh great and the things that they told me anything for the school and that was their first again sort of like back to my own what brought me to theater like the entryway into it there was a show that I was also trying to do at my school and I with being blessed with working with that revival and being at the Mexican American Culture Center I had thought okay well maybe this could be an opportunity to have my students perform at the MAC maybe there's something that we can do there and I reached out to John and Rupert and kind of threw a little thing there and ended up not happening because I realized that that was also going to be a struggle for our families to get downtown where parking is a struggle where really trying to figure out and trying to manage a place that they've never been to was going to be a struggle and I think those are places to explore to be able to produce theater and bring families to places they've never been but I first realized I have to focus on the places that they are and when it doesn't exist in the places that they have access to that's where I have to start I have to start there, I have to start in a place that I feel comfortable with in a place that they already know how to get to our school and so we did it in this small space that wasn't a theater because our parents knew where that was and they had access to that and again they showed up and I had we had kids and families that had to sit up at the front super close to the actors and these were young actors who was their first time doing theater and they were like, they're in my spot like how do I go around them and I said just very carefully and they did it and they managed to get through the people and get through the small little brothers and sisters that they had so I feel like from that I learned that when you think about accessibility for families families show up and if families show up there's really no excuse why you wouldn't do the work because like it's happening I constantly think of every year I think it's like the dramatic publication every year they release the most produced plays and every year I'm heartbroken that it's the same place that have been done since 1950 something or another it's constantly the same ones when, to C.C.'s point earlier the work is out there the work is being published everything is out there and it's just how do we bring that into the spaces right from the very beginning right from the elementary school level to really start where our schools can be with our families and the families will show up they have and they will and the young people who spoke this morning were talking about how they're doing theater and they're speaking in Spanish in the theater and in school they're speaking in English and those two youth and most of the program for theater youth I know are not participating in theater they speak their own reasons why and perhaps ask them and along those same lines Abigail sometimes you need to tell us the story of the young person who walked in to see Sene Sienta today and said but that's Cinderella you might even love this because Cinderella well you tell the story sometimes you tell it at the end okay we're all on the edge of our seats Abigail to tell us so thank you okay so Miriam along the same lines so where have you found and you mentioned some spaces where people are supporting the work and encouraging you and of course we all are grateful to Jose I know he's a mentor to many people in this room where are those spaces where have you felt the love and where are you like dar dar dar to be very articulate yeah I'm living in Washington D.C. right now and from this personally where I've worked and who I've been in touch with I've been very supported again through Karen Zacharias sort of introduced me to all of this and got me connected to the Kennedy Center the computer doing a wonderful program they had there for new playwrights boot camp that really was incredible it was two weeks and so that was a wonderful place and right now in Child's Play have been incredibly supportive and connected me with really wonderful artists, Ricky and everyone there associated at Child's Play in D.C. they came to right now and I was connected with Janet Stanford and they became very interested in working with me and then with the Central American Refugee a lot of unaccompanied minors were arriving in the D.C. area it was about three or four years ago and the response was pretty ugly all over the country and D.C. as well there were some ugly things happening and she came to me and wanted to commission me to write this play but also to create a program where we would bring in unaccompanied minors to Imagination Stage and we developed OMA which is still going strong at Imagination Stage but also I would say that's where I've found support and I think I really do believe it's been personal connections and networking with people in places and spaces like this that's where I've really been able to just today at the Rising New Theater Workshop and listening to the different stories I was just really moved and reminded again about how many stories there out there that need to be heard and how valid and important those stories are and that is the American story and for some reason they've always been here, we're here and it's not been it's just not been allowed to be elevated to the stage and we know why we know why but anyway so that's where I found my support, I also Young Playwrights Theater in Washington DC I taught there I was on the board there but again I think organizations like Rising New Theater, Young Playwrights Theater Albany Park Theater the Detroit Mosaic Theater these are the places where I really feel the seeds are being planted to bring youth into theater but also to make them our future leaders in theater to get them onto boards to get them into the theater administrative staffs I think that's where the landscape will finally change once we start getting these folks and that to me is the very exciting part about YPT and Rising News and all of the other places it's just critical and the more we cultivate that the more we make connections with these folks, the more we have convenings like this we'll start to see more work, we'll start to see more connections and hopefully start building more bridges and unleashing all of these great stories out there and great talent so I think it's about this I think this is why it's so great I think the how around Latinx is so critical I would like to say though that I know we're focusing on theatres but I do feel like the larger theaters out there like the Imagination Stage and Child's Play and Seattle and that they I would love to see them coming to things like this just to hear what we have to say, what's needed how to open doors, how to get us to the table and rising youth I love the latter where you talked about are we there to check a box, are we there to be a part of the decision making and to start sort of changing the narrative of Latinx theater, American theater and changing that narrative, shifting the way we think about T-Way so I think yeah, digging a little bit in there changing the narrative changing the narrative right, what's the narrative what do you want to do? I think the new narrative is that what is Latino, what is American to me what American is is a blending and combination and intersections of everything I mean there's so many, right now I mean we're 18% of the population by 2036 would be the largest ethnic population and we're also mixing so much, there's so much inter-ethnic racial mixing it's everything and that's what's so cool that the new narrative, the new story of who we are as Americans is that we own it now we know some people want to make America great again and what that means but we know the America is what we've always been defining and I think the new narrative of what Latin T-Way, Latinx theater is that, it's part and parcel of who we are and it's not marginalizing us, it's not separate, it's everything I think that's the shift that needs to happen and I think there's some really cool work being done, I'm on CTFA with CC and Jenny at Children's Theater Foundation of America, we're really trying to dig deep and Robin's here, she's on some and we're really trying to dig deep and look at institutional racism in these organizations and really understand it and do the hard work and change the narrative and try to see how can we support theaters that are really doing good EDI equity diversity initiatives and doing the work and asking the hard questions and reflecting and figuring out how do we change so that we can do some fundamental institutional systemic work and that's what we're trying to do wow, thank you okay, well we got a phone in call so tuning in to us and Karen Zacarias in DC, we'd like to know and it's a great question so I cannot ignore it but really important right, we have, and speaking of some of our TYA companies throughout the country and and please speak about this in Mexico but we have such a need for adaptation, the book, right, will it sell and I know, right, Esperanza rising I remember people were like, well it's not a title that people know, but then we learned, oh it is right, well we fought to, you know, to fight that was a fight, but anyhow so what do we do about the idea of adaptation how do we get companies to do original work and also I mean, right, we have folks here who've done adaptations and what do you think about that what has that been like, is that a great joy, is it painful, what is that for you for our playwrights but also in your own work and why is that such a thing for our young people, it's continued, it's been a long time where the title, right, the book title and the adaptation and I think I got the question right, yeah, how do we get TYA to embrace original Latinx stories when there is no book behind it I don't know I mean, you know I think adaptations are good, I mean I think what they, one purpose they serve is to build bridges and so I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with adaptations, I think it's for the artistic directors to I think it sometimes boils down to just economics and then, you know, and it's hard to raise a fee, I mean to survive in theater, so I understand why there's that hesitancy to not go with original titles but I think it's, you know, when like Miriam talks about, you know, when you create that community that is empowered and can say something we'll see that change but I think it's going to be a while just because we play such an important role, you know, and it's like well, if we can't, you know, do this play then we won't do any plays or we'll go under and so, like I said, I don't know, you know, I'm not in that space to say this is what we need to do, I just think it's taking artistic directors tasking to be brave in all honesty, you know Anyone else want to stab in that and then we're going to open it up and then we'll have questions out there some and I've been really selfish about asking all my questions Okay, anyone else want to talk on that? No CeCe's I Don't Know was the final answer Okay, we have a question over here and then over there as well You have an answer We are all wanting to know that Let's get away from the book adaptation and the original Latinx stories in our companies in our theaters So the answer over there is Why not? Just do it Just do it Just do it Yes We have to be subversive and people, producers need to be smarter Okay Sani Sienta Okay Thank you So moving to a next question Olga Oh We are full of controversy, love it Olga is talking about theater milagro, go ahead I'm doing this for the live streaming Go ahead They can't hear Okay Yes, thank you Did we get any of that on No, okay, so just very briefly Teatro Milagro doing work since 1980, a lot of social issues human sex trafficking and many many many other than Dia de los Muertos all kinds of family work to market it in a different way Thank you Olga, that was awesome Questions A lot of people want to answer that the question is about what's missing in the Latinx TYA canon, specific communities that are not being represented I think it's out there just finding it and letting people know that it's there like I said with my book and hopefully doing another volume the hardest part was finding those stories that we knew they were out there and I think how do we as a community how do we promote each other's work is out there because it is out there but it's sometimes it's just hard to find and I don't think it's missing I just think, okay, please let us know that it's out there so that we can publish it, can't produce it we can't share it with each other for me that's the biggest thing is trying to get the awareness out as a community so we know those stories out there I think for me it's about access and mentorship we have we have to mentor we have to teach what we've been taught and if we weren't taught that I hope we can learn to teach the artists are going to show up they're going to show up it's just being able to have that access of people who have the foresight to see talent to nurture talent and then let them rip what they need to find their voice because it takes a while to find your voice and mentorship is important because most of the time they don't have people who have gone through this they're the first man, if you will, you know that film you know Armstrong landing on the moon, right we need a lot of those types of folks you're good you need to believe in yourself and I see your talent I see your vision, I see your heart but it's also about a craft and they need that support to develop their craft Oscar? I think I was going back a little bit to that same point that the work is out there I know that without the review we do a new play festival every year and there's a lot of work that comes our way that there's a lot of resources there's only so much you can do but the work is all out there and we see it and we see all literally from all kinds of topics and all kinds of just experiences I'll say then of experiences from non-binary Latinx stories to I think this was maybe two years ago we came across a story of it was a but it was from the perspective of a deaf community and a deaf family and that was a little bit harder to sort of find resources for that in the sense that when it hasn't been produced it's like who do we know that has all this or what actors do we know in the city that are deaf actors that we can help all put together and sometimes that works out sometimes they don't but now that we know let's say that playwright we know that particular play we need to be able to find a way to share that and say you know what we couldn't do that here but how can I take your work how can I take this and share it with people and say here's something if you're able to help and fund maybe this project or you have the artists that are able to do that like here's the work instead of like oh we couldn't do it and then just kind of leave it there the work is out there and it's all about that and about finding those resources to work with people so easily through technology across the world other folks want to dig into that I just it also makes me think a lot about the leadership in different organizations and even theater companies so who is in the board of directors and taking a look of okay who are we are we representing the stories of the people we want like the stories we're representing and just also I feel like there needs to be more groups of younger people who get together produce work do things share stories I think that's something I would like to okay thank you so then just to to dig a little more into what you asked because I think you asked about some specific communities indigenous Latinx communities if you will Afro-Latinx communities so in this work that is available so I hear that it's there it's just not being done is that what I'm hearing I think just today on the first day of the conference and all the different workshops I've been at I've heard so many different stories and what's needed all of those stories are things that could be written about I mean just everything we heard today that you shared someone else there's another story I was like we as a people are very very diverse we're not homogenous do you speak Spanish or not speak Spanish are you a third generation versus a first generation are you the indigenous questions colorism questions people with physical challenges the deaf community and other physical challenges there's so much there's a never ending supply of stories there's just never they'll never end so it's a matter like Jose said of trying to get these stories on the page seeing talent harnessing that talent and getting someone to help you say go Karen once told me shut up go write a play shut up and go write your play once the stories on the page is there a certain kind of Latinx story that our folks who are producing work in the US want to produce is that a thing is there a certain kind of Latinx story that our theater companies in the US want to do or no I really have that question and then I'll open up it again we have like time for one more question after that I'm on a journey right now with I've never saw it as an adult play it's playing in regional theaters but it's been a family play all along in my mind and to watch new audiences come into traditional regional theaters with their families is such a beautiful thing to sit in a house of 600 people and suddenly hear giggles with a grown up play and everybody's enjoying it from the little people to the grandparents and I think that that's a place I feel where we can do more work our audiences are hungry for the work and we just have to find those right pieces that can be emerged because it's a different sort of animal and I would say on top of that it is family I think of this T-L-A's family and all of that generation my parents they're hungry for this stuff they've never had it so being able to fill across generations it's a need that is universal in our population and I think because we do it is about humanity and the humanness of us all is just for everyone to understand that this is these are American plays they're universal and also I think that we're thinking about theater for children for young people but look at us we're old guys and we still have a heart of a child so like children with some experience that's it but we're all children okay I got the English from Abigail Vega so the great, the most beautiful thing is that these folks are not going anywhere because they have, you know, we won't let them but also a quality that every person here shares is the incredible generosity of spirit and willingness to mentor and talk about their story so can I say that if you have more questions which I'm sure you do please, please ask they, you know, obviously their hearts are open and I appreciate so much hearing from all of you this collective wisdom experience and passion so thank you, thank you, thank you so much