For its 2023-24 season, titled "Bodies Made of Stories," Cara Mía Theatre is bringing Dallas audiences five unique productions dedicated to celebrate and uplift diverse voices through transformative Latinx theater.
“What is the battleground for planetary and individual health? I believe it is the stories we tell ourselves,” says David Lozano, executive artistic director of Cara Mía Theatre. “Are we living out stories of division and oppression, or are we celebrating our diversity and unity? Our 2023-24 season, 'Bodies Made of Stories,' aims to uplift the vast diversity of our Latinx experiences in our communities.”
The season begins on September 29 with its annual Latinidades: A Festival of New Works series showcasing We Have Iré, a bilingual, musical play from Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater from the Bronx, New York, and Paul S. Flores from San Francisco. Written by Flores and directed by Rosalba Rolón, We Have Iré is about the triumphant journeys of artists from Cuba’s countryside to the U.S. and back. It runs September 29-October 1, 2023.
The second production of the festival is the launch of Cara Mía Theatre’s national touring production of resident playwright Virginia Grise’s manifesto Your Healing is Killing Me, October 5-October 8, 2023. In it, Grise urges communities to sharpen their tools for self-defense. Her escape hatches to freedom exist everywhere we are willing to see them, from the treatments and consejos of curanderas, abortion doctors, Marxist artists, and bougie dermatologists. The play is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fund.
The Latinidades festival series ends on a hilarious note with Barrio Daze, a one-man Latino comedy show written and performed by Adrian Villegas that tells the story of a fateful Election Day in the barrio. The communities under attack strike back against a rabidly conservative politician in the heated Senatorial race. At the frontline is the hood's very own Chicano schoolteacher's inspiring grass-roots campaign. Shows run from October 12-15, 2023.
After the new year, the season continues with a co-production with Soul Rep Theatre and Mulato Teatro from Mexico February 17-March 5, 2024, with the world premiere of the English translation of Jamie Chabuad’s Yanga.
Inspired by the real-life story of Gaspar Yanga, Yanga tells the story of an enslaved African prince who led a rebellion in what is now Veracruz, Mexico, and successfully negotiated an independent territory with the Crown of Spain. Newly translated to English for the first time, Yanga sheds light on the history of the Afro-Mexican experience and is also a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fund.
The project is a part of CMT’s and SRTC’s Cafe/Negro Arts Series, a series of collaborations between the two companies that began in 1998 to bring Black and Brown voices together on Dallas stages.
The season concludes with Diosa, a new play inspired by Coatlicue, the mother of all Aztec Gods, in collaboration with Manifesto Poetico: International Laboratory of Theatre Research and Productions.
Featuring live music and physical theater, Diosa explores a world that reflects our ancient feminine archetype, a return to co-existence with Mother Nature, and a future inspired by our collective Dream. Performances run April 6-22, 2024.
For more information about Cara Mía Theatre's upcoming season, call 214-516-07056 or visit https://caramiatheatre.org/.
