Crossing Borders will include plays by Mando Alvarado; Brbara Colio, the first internationally-based writer to have a reading presented in the festival; and Christopher Oscar Pea and Tanya Saracho, both of whom have had plays read at past Crossing Borders festivals.
"This year's Crossing Borders plays invite us to look at what it means to be Latino in America," says Jerry Ruiz, the festival's curator. "At a time when our nation's demographics continue to shift, that question is as intriguing and important as ever. Each in their own way, these playwrights are redefiningand asking us to reconsiderwhat a Latino play can be. And in a larger sense, they are exploring what makes someone a Latino artist, and what kind of stories they can tell on the American stage."
A company of writers, directors, and actors will be in residence at Two River Theater throughout the four-day festival. The schedule of events is as follows. All readings will take place in Two River's Marion Huber Theater.
Thursday, August 15 from 5:30-7:30pm
OUTDOOR NEIGHBORHOOD PARTY ON THE TWO RIVER THEATER PLAZA
Two River Theater will kick off Crossing Borders with opportunities to meet the artists involved in the festival; live music; and food donated by local restaurants.
Thursday, August 15 at 7:30pm
SONG FOR THE DISAPPEARED
Written by Tanya Saracho
Directed by Jerry Ruiz
Tanya Saracho returns to Red Bank for the third year with a gripping new drama. Song for the Disappeared tells the story of a shattered family reunited for the first time in many years when the youngest son mysteriously disappears-presumably at the hands of the cartels that dominate the US/Mexico border.
Tanya Saracho was born in Mexico, spent her adolescence in South Texas and made her name as a playwright in Chicago's theater scene. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she writes for the television networks HBO and Lifetime. Her plays El Nogalar (a re-telling of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard) and Enfrascada were read in the first two Crossing Borders festivals.
Friday, August 16 at 7:30pm
TINY PEOPLE or it gets better
By Christopher Oscar Pea
Director Elena Araoz
Tiny People is a provocative and poetic remix of Chekhov's Three Sisters, focusing on a family living in Barstow, Californiaand longing to reclaim their former life in San Francisco. Transposing Chekhov's story to the mid-1990s, this thoughtful drama adroitly probes class, ethnic, and sexual-identity boundaries in turn-of-the-21st-century America.
Christopher Oscar Pea is a playwright from California, where he was the first of his immediate family to be born on American soil. Shortly before his birth, his parents emigrated from Honduras, Central America. He now splits his time between New York and Chicago. His play Icarus Burns was read in last year's Crossing Borders festival.
Saturday, August 17 at 3pm
[Note: this play will be read in Spanish on Sunday, August 18 at 5:30 pm]
ROPES
By Brbara Colio
Translated into English by Maria Alexandria Beech
Directed by Lisa Rothe
Three brothers rendezvous at an airport to meet the father who abandoned them as children and has now become the most famous tightrope walker of all time. Ropes (which will be read in both English and Spanish during this year's festival) is a beautiful and moving story about forgiveness, love, and loss, written by one of Latin America's leading contemporary playwrights.
Brbara Colio is a playwright who lives in Mexico City. In 2004, she became the first Mexican playwright to win Spain's Mara Teresa Len International Prize for female playwrights. Translator Maria Alexandria Beech is a playwright, bookwriter, and lyricist based in New York.
Immediately following the reading of Ropes, there will be a Q&A with Crossing Borders artists in the Marion Huber Theater.
Saturday, August 17 at 7:30 pm
PARACHUTE MEN
By Mando Alvarado
Directed by Jerry Ruiz
Eric, a young man who was once the golden boy of his family and is now tormented by his mother's death, has escaped his responsibilities at home by traveling to disaster areas around the globe, working to save the lives of strangers. When he returns home to discover that his stepfather wants to move on with his life and can no longer care for his unstable younger brother, he must learn how to take care of his own familyand himself.
Mando Alvarado is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. His plays Post No Bills and Basilica have been produced by the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in NYC. He was raised in Pharr, a small town on the Texas/Mexico Border, worked for several years as an actor and playwright based in NYC, and now makes his home in Los Angeles.
Sunday, August 18 at 5:30 pm
[Note: this play will be read in English on Saturday, August 17 at 3 pm]
ROPES
By Brbara Colio
Translated into English by Maria Alexandria Beech
Directed by Lisa Rothe
Please see above for additional information about this play.
Schedule subject to change; for additional information, visit TRTC.org .
Two River Theater's 20th Anniversary Season is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division within the Department of State and a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Chicago Community Trust, The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, New Tamarind Fund, The Columbus Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Monmouth University, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Durso Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Investors Bank, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Springpoint Senior Living Foundation at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor, and many other generous foundations, corporations and individuals.
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