2009 De Colors Festival of New Works

April 24 & 25, 2009Bread & Circus, 299 Augusta Ave. (in Kensington Market)

April 24, 2009- 8pm

The Intruder by Amaranta Leyva
Directed by Guillermo Verdecchia
Dramaturged by Stephen Colella

Lizardboy by Victor Gomez
Directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones
Dramaturged by Erica Kopyto

April 25, 2009- 8pm

My Secret Romeo by Michelle Amaya-Torres
Directed by Bea Pizano
Dramaturged by Erica Kopyto

Coyote by Emma Ari Beltran & Catherine Hernandez
Directed by Nina Lee-Aquino
Dramaturged by Stephen Colella

Tickets $12, $10 for Students & Seniors
Call (416) 428-7638 for information.www.alamedatheatre.com

I always envisioned a place where Latin Canadian theatre artists, especially the writers, could be free to explore their voices,” says Marilo Nuñez, Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Company. The result? A new works festival for Latin Canadian playwrights that is all about planting seeds – and watching them bloom. In full colour for the festival’s second year is a lineup of new works that is guaranteed to incite discussion, debate and inspire.

Here’s the festival’s lineup:

WHAT? The Intruder
WHAT ABOUT? What am I? Or who? What distinguishes one person from the next, and what unites the many faces of a person in a single identity? Catalina, a Mexican girl whose parents have recently divorced is trying to answer these questions for herself. Her quest will be aggravated by the abrupt entry of her mother’s new boyfriend into her life. The man she calls “The Intruder” fled his home country of Argentina with a fake passport to escape its murderous military dictatorship. Catalina doesn’t know about The Intruder’s past but suspects that he is not quite who he says he is. As she launches her own investigation to find out what dark secrets are hidden behind this man’s soothing presence, she will explore the limits between good and evil, the power of social conformity, and the puzzles of identity.
WHO?Amaranta Leyva was born in Mexico in 1973. She is puppeteer and playwright. Puppet theatre has been her means of expression, in particular, writing for children’s audiences. In her own words: “to explore a child’s world allows me to find my most hidden, profound and intense emotions of being human.” She has been a member of the Mexican Puppetry Company, Marionetas de la Esquina, since 1989. Her work has been largely viewed in Mexico and abroad. Among those include: Dibújame una vaca (featured at the Kenedy Center in Washington DC), Mía and El Vestido, which was awarded the National Award of Theatre for Children in Mexico. Her books have been published and they are part of the National Program of Reading in Mexico.

WHAT? My Secret Romeo
WHAT ABOUT?Welcome to suburban Winnipeg. Six years after the Rwandan genocide, a middle-class man is obsessed with Romeo Dallaire. When he finds his compulsively clean wife with her working-class lover, a secret begins to emerge, and the couple grapples with what it means to be a survivor.
WHO?Michelle Amaya-Torres is a parent and educator living in Winnipeg. She teaches English as an Additional Language to adult students. When she was younger, she lived for a period of time in England, Colombia, Guyana, the United States and Nunavut. Now she is interested in bringing experiences -- experiences that are not uncommon in the rest of the world -- back home to Canada. "My Secret Romeo" is Michelle's first play, written after her young cousin was tortured and killed in Colombia. She hopes people will reflect on why death is not prevented, as well as consider the impact of violent death on those who survive.

WHAT? Coyote
WHAT ABOUT?“’The moon! The moon! Look at the moon!’ We all wanted to say, but couldn’t. It was a howl caught on the inside of our cheeks, the same howl that made us want to cry for water, water, water please.” Inspired by poet Emma Beltrán’s crossing of the border into the United States as a child, Coyote tells the story of five Mexicans whose clandestine journey into the north is hindered when their guide, the “coyote” goes missing.
WHO? Emma Beltrán is a poet from Mexico. Since 1994, she has been involved in the struggle of indigenous peoples facilitating poetry and popular theatre workshops for women and children throughout Mexico. Beltrán was a founding member of the first community radio station in Mexico’s history during the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1999. This work caused her to be subject to political charges, kidnapping and torture, by the Mexican National Army (March 2001). Exiled in Canada since May 2002, Beltran was an award-winning artist selected for Artscape’s Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency Program in 2005. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. She is a member of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Network and was a Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor during the spring of 2006. Beltrán had recently finalized her participation at the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre for the Arts, from which she was granted a full-scholarship. Emma worked as a Writer-Consultant for the TAXI-Project with PEN Canada and ARCfest and is a member of freeDimensional, an international human rights and arts organization that engages in a particular style of networking that builds on existing resources in the art, media and entertainment sectors in order to engage and financially underwrite direct actions necessary to help culture workers-in-distress and use their stories to illustrate critical, contemporary issues.Catherine Hernandez is a writer and theatre practitioner. Her first play, Singkil, was produced by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company in association with Factory Theatre and garnered seven DORA nominations including Best New Play, Independent Division. Singkil is part of the Scarborough Stories anthology of works which tell the tales of Toronto's dodgier east side. She has worked in one capacity or another with Carlos Bulosan Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and numerous others. Her new plays Kilt Pins and Future Folk (with the Sulong Theatre Collective) are in development at Theatre Passe Muraille where Catherine is the 08/09 playwright in residence.

WHAT? Lizardboy
WHAT ABOUT? Lizardboy, the “trouble-making” rascal from the barrio – the neighborhood… is escaping from another furious neighbour who, once again, has come to beat him up. From his secret hiding place he unravels the story of an “up-side-down” family from the emerging Colombian middle class of the early 1980’s. The spotlight shines on the characters, colours, contradictions –la vida of a country in the middle of a landslide, seen through the eyes of a mischievous nine-year-old boy. The only times Lizardboy finds freedom is when he fights, climbs walls, talks tirelessly, and creates adventures out of chaos.
WHO? Victor Gomez is an award winning actor, writer and filmmaker from Colombia, where he studied Theatre, Journalism and Communications. He appeared as Pedro in the Rubicon Theatre (California), and Manitoba Theatre Centres’ international co-production of The Night Of The Iguana. North American TV and Film includes: Get Rich Or Die Trying, (Paramount Pictures/Jim Sheridan); Ambition, (ABC); Missing; Bliss-Tango (CBC/Showcase), G-Spot (TMN/W Network/ Movie Central), The Letter (Nepantla Films), Carino (Ryerson University), Brothers (Canadian Film Centre), and Ricardo Against Ricardo, his short adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III, which won best Canadian Experimental Film at the Alucine Film Festival. Other credits back in Colombia include: The Lovers (Leonardus Theatre); The Revolution (Iberoamerican Theatre); Blood Wedding (Irrespeto Teatro); Angelus (Teatro Patria); I Rise In Flame, Cried the Phoenix; The Floating Light Bulb; The Party (Chamber Theatre Estudio); and more than a dozen leading roles in TV and Film.