Teatro Vivo in collaboration with ScriptWorks, unites playwrights and audience members in conversation surrounding new works of Latino theatre. After each performance, the playwright participates in a talkback session with the audience. The ALNPF features four new plays by playwrights from throughout the U.S.
We are so excited to be sharing these shows with you online along with talkbacks with our playwrights & dramaturgs each night! Each day we’ll feature a new play reading on our website and a talkback with each playwright at 8 p.m or 3pm. Each recorded performance will only be available from 12pm CST until the post-show discussion time. Stay tuned for daily announcements for each play! Click on the links below to access performances and Zoom discussion links.
May 14, 2020
Take Care by Ryan Oliveira
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Nosotros aqui at Teatro Vivo, in partnership with ScriptWorks, hope that you are all doing well. In keeping with tradition, we are back for our Austin New Latinx Play Festival! This year, we’ll be going digital. You’ll be able to enjoy these shows right from the comfort of your home. Our festival is May 14 – 16! Stay tuned for more.
Teatro Vivo is proud to present the award winning production of (Un)Documents by Jesus I. Valles at the Mexican American Cultural Center this February! Comprised of poems, journal entries, and immigration paperwork, (Un)Documents is a struggle to tell and an attempt to figure out what’s worth telling. It is an attempt to ask questions about how we talk about citizenship, documentation, its absence, and what, if anything, comes from telling. Mostly, “it’s a story about me and my brothers and some papers.”
(Un)Documents is a multiple B. Iden Payne Award winner for Outstanding Actor in a Drama (Jesus I. Valles), Outstanding Director of a Drama (Rudy Ramirez), and Outstanding Original Script. It is also an Austin Critics Table Award recipient for Excellence in Direction (Rudy Ramirez) and in was named one of Robert Faires’s Top10 Theatrical Treasurers of 2018 in the Austin Chronicle.
AUSTIN, Texas – Teatro Vivo is pleased to announce the 2020 Austin Latinx New Play Festival presented in collaboration with ScriptWorks, to run May 14 to May 16, 2020.
Take Care by Ryan Oliveira
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Diablos, angelitos, y pastores – valgame! It must be December! Teatro Vivo is proud to present La Pastorela 2019, adapted and directed by Teatro Vivo founder Rupert Reyes. A tradition since the 16th century, La Pastorela is an annual Yuletide play that has been performed all over Mexico and Latinoamerica. Passed from generation to generation, La Pastorela tells the story of shepherds as they embark on a journey and encounter angels and demons who will test their strength and faith along their pilgrimage. La Pastorela has been an Austin tradition for more than 40 years, and we can’t wait to share this marvelous cultural celebration with you and your whole family!
In a world fraught with conflict where cruelty is louder than kindness, La Pastorela reminds us what is possible with community, heart, and a little singing. Join us in celebrating the spirit of the season with this Austin community tradition December 12th through the 22nd. Clemencia Zapata returns as music director for this production, and we could not be more thrilled. We’ll also be hosting a special “pay-what-you-wish” preview night and a Friday night opening reception.
This year La Pastorela takes a closer look at the refugees that seek the promise of a better life with humor and warmth. We’ll be inviting organizations like Casa Marianela, RAICES, Jolt, and other community partners! Join us!
La Pastorela 2019 is written and directed by Rupert Reyes.
AFTERSHOCK/LA RÉPLICA is a world premiere stage-play that explores new dimensions of Latinx military service.
The Latinx soldiers and citizens in this play expect military service to reinforce their identity and ideas about family, patriotism, and even sexuality, but the military is often a place that mixes up the moral compass, and one’s sense of self, and invents a new identity.
Here in 2019, white nationalists are trying to jam Latinos into second-class citizenship, and art that tells our story is the surest way to crush their lies beneath our feet. Latino military service has always been a way for us to prove our status both as providers for our families, and as protectors of our country. This November, we get the chance to honor the service and lives of our ancestors and families by looking at the messy, sexy details of what it means to be a Latinx U.S. soldier.
The script draws on first-person narratives, interviews, archival sources, Latinx poetry, veteran writings, rumors, legends, and some of the best ATX imaginations. Thinkery & Verse, Teatro Vivo, Canopy Theatre, and ArtSpark are proud to be a part of the inaugural Austin Veteran Arts Festival (AVA Fest) at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. The ‘MACC’ is Austin’s only theater venue located in the lightning hot Rainey Street district.
Presented by The VORTEX and Teatro Vivo
In her new bilingual play, Krysta Gonzales brings together archetypes of Latina womanhood to dance, bicker, share chisme, heal old wounds, and insist that being “too much” is what makes them just perfect. Our tias and madres blend with Coatlicue, Tonantzin (La Virgen of Guadalupe), and La Llorona.
Now based in Los Angeles, VORTEX Company member Krysta Gonzales has been working with The VORTEX since 2010, primarily as an actor and choreographer. Teatro Vivo nurtured the early development of Más Cara during the Austin Latino New Play Festival in 2016, and it was named as one of the Top 10 Unproduced Latinx Plays of 2017 by the 50 Playwrights Project, Over the past year, director Rudy Ramirez has workshopped the play with Avante Theatre Project in preparation for its debut production as the featured show of FuturX Festival 2019. Now, The VORTEX and Teatro Vivo partner to present the world premiere of Más Cara by Krysta Gonzales at The VORTEX for the first 3 weeks of November.
Florinda Bryant, Martinique Duchene-Phillips, Michael Galvan, Olivia Jimenez, Barbara Mojica, Eva McQuade, Lori Navarrete, and Malyssa Quiles.
Directed by Rudy Ramirez. Choreography by Mario Alberto Ramirez. Scenic Design by Alex Casillas. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony. Costume Design by Aaron Kubacak. Prop Design by Cortney DeAngelo. Sound Design by Johann Mahler. Stage Management by Tamara L. Farley. Teresa Cruz, Assistant Director. Jesus Valles, Community Outreach.
Photo Credit: Errich Petersen
Más Cara is funded and supported is funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company, Teatro Vivo, Bloomberg Philanthropies, a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
Thirteen-year old María is having trouble in school, so her Mom sends her to stay with her Coahuiltecan grandmother in Laredo. There, María is told the ancient story of young Yana Wana, who followed a revered deer to find water and save her people. Yana Wana’s story exposes and amazing and unknown ancestral connection to the bluebonnet that gives María a renewed sense of self and family pride. A beautiful and original play that illustrates the power of heritage and the value of one’s own story – especially one as ancient as the petroglyphs of Texas.
Public Performances:
Friday, October 4th 7PM (Austin, TX)
Saturday, October 5th 11AM; 2PM (Austin, TX)
Sunday, October 6th 11AM; 2PM (Austin, TX)
Friday, October 11th 7PM (Austin, TX)
Saturday, October 12th 11AM; 2PM (Austin, TX)
Wednesday, October 16th 7PM (San Marcos, TX)
Pricing:
Children under 12 year $5
Students 13 and older, veterans, elders $10
General Admission $15
Reserved Seating $20
Running time: approx. 50 min; no intermission
Free parking at the theatre. Please be sure to get a parking pass from the attendant on duty when you arrive at the theatre.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the San Marcos Arts Commission.
Teatro Vivo proudly presents Swimming While Drowning by Emilio Rodríguez, presented at the Emma S. Barrientos-Mexican American Cultural Center, directed by Alexis A. Arredondo.
Angelo and Mila are fifteen and homeless. Angelo is a dreamer, and Mila is a streetwise realist. But when they become roommates at a shelter for LGBTQ teens, they build a fragile bond that inspires them to reach for understanding and self-acceptance. Emilio Rodriguez’s poetic coming-of- age story celebrates the healing power of hope, and the beautiful mystery of being a teenager.
July 11-21, 2019
Emma S. Barrientos – Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River St, Austin, TX 78701
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
Emilio Rodríguez began his theatrical career at the age of 2, performing one-kid adaptations of The Wizard of Oz in his parents’ living room using a broom, a funnel and his mama’s high heels. Since then, his plays have been performed in Texas, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan, and Florida. Some of his career highlights include being part of the inaugural Carnaval Festival of Latinx Playwrights, being the inaugural Michigan playwright for the Mitten Lab, being the guest playwright for the Theatre Kalamazoo festival, and being part of the anthology Scenes for Latinx Actors: Voices of the New American Theatre. In 2018, Emilio was awarded the Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Foundation award for LGBT playwrights and the Kresge Artists in Detroit grant for playwriting. Earlier this year Emilio was invited to be a guest judge for the KCACTF Midwest Region playwrights. Of all his accomplishments, Emilio’s most memorable accolade is the time a cashier at Panera gave him a free meal because the cashier liked Emilio’s play Mamacita. Emilio was a featured playwright of Teatro Vivo’s 2016 Austin Latino New Play Festival.
This production is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.