September 12-25: LA LUNA NUEVA festival of Hispanic Arts & Culture
WHAT:Â LA LUNA NUEVA — A two-week festival of Hispanic arts and culture from around the world
WHEN:Â September 12-25, 2009 (see list individual events and artists below)
WHERE:Â Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark Street, Portland, Oregon 97214
ADMISSION:Â Admissions varies; many events are free; see details below. Purchase tickets from 503-236-7253, www.pdxtix.net/milagro or the PDX Ticket Network box office at the Hollywood Theatre daily 1-9 p.m.
Related: Portland EVENTSÂ LISTINGS
ABOUT "LA LUNA NUEVA" (The New Moon)
In September, Miracle Theatre Group is pleased to present "La Luna Nueva", a two-week festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Like the new moon emerging from the shadows, "La Luna Nueva" shines its light on new artists and new work across a variety of disciplines. Join us for passionate Spanish flamenco dance, jazzy Cuban filin music, bilingual poetry and songs from local authors and musicians, open mic nights and staged readings of plays under consideration for next season.
ABOUT THE LIVE MUSIC AND DANCE EVENTS
• Café la Puerta Sol: "A Night in Sevilla"
Two performances: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. • Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 • $20 • Bilingual
Welcome to Sevilla and a night of wondrous flamenco dance and music. The evening begins with Sevillanas, a traditional dance from Sevilla, and continues through more sophisticated forms of flamenco, with solos from both dancers and musicians, filling the room with the rhythm of palmas and the spirit of jaleo. Guest artists include Melinda Hedgecourth (dancer), Toshi Onizuka (cajón and guitar), Mark Ferguson (flamenco guitar), Lillie Last (dancer) and Laura Onizuka (dancer). [See artist bios below.]
• "Get the Feeling …" An Evening of Cuban Jazz with Jessie Marquez and Friends
Two performances: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. • Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 • $15 • Spanish
Jessie Marquez has sung in clubs, cabarets, theaters, street parties, and on television and radio throughout Cuba. Her soothing vocals are a mix of North American harmony and Latin emotion that embody the Cuban genre called filin (a play on the word “feeling”). An offshoot of the romantic bolero, filin draws from North American jazz, Brazilian bossa nova and the Cuban familiarity with the many shades of love and longing. For her appearance at Milagro, Jessie will be joined in concert by friends Clay Giberson (piano); Bobby Torres (percussion); Scott Steed (bass); and Charlie Doggett (drums). [See artist bios below.]
ABOUT THE POETRY AND STORYTELLING EVENTS
• "Legends of Mexico / Leyendas de México"
One performance: 7:30 p.m. • Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 • $5 ages 5-12; $10 ages 13+ • Bilingual
Mexico is well known for its legends, myths and tales from the Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs and Hucholes — legends of love, nature and every day life. In this family-friendly bilingual performance, Nuestro Canto (Gerardo Calderón and Nelda Reyes) fill the evening with the magic of masks, movement and dance, songs and traditional ancestral music of Mexico performed live on pre-Colombian instruments such as clay flutes, chaj-chas, teponaztle and huehuetl. For ages 5 and older. [See artist bios below.]
• "Crossings / Encrucijadas"
One performance: 7:30 p.m. • Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 • $10 • Bilingual
Poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez, with pre-Columbian instrumentalist Gerardo Calderón and writer/storyteller Lynn Darroch with Grammy-nominated guitarist Alfredo Muro, present Aztec-styled poetry and contemporary Mexican stories in a lively interplay with music. From the mythic voices of poet-kings in ancient Tenochtitlan to tales of encounters between modern-day Mexicans and North Americans — "Crossings" will transport audiences across history and culture on the wings of words and music. [See artist bios below.]
• Noche de los poetas (Poets Open Mic Night)
One evening: 7 p.m. • Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 • Free • Bilingual
Enjoy readings of poetry by Latino poets — both the canons of literary giants such as Pablo Neruda and Federico GarcÃa Lorca as well as original work by local Hispanic artists. Audiences are invited to also bring their own Latino poetry to share in English or Spanish.
ABOUT THE FREE PLAY READINGS
Each of the following staged readings is directed and performed by local theatre artists to be announced. Each reading is followed by an open conversation among artists and audiences.
• Lydia written by Octavio Solis
One performance • 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 • Free • Presented in English
One of the hottest new plays on the regional theater circuit, Lydia is an expertly crafted, shocking play of discovery, a lyrical and magical meditation on family and cultural identity. The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for a daughter who was tragically disabled three days before her quinceanera. The two women's mysterious and nearly miraculous bond threatens to expose long-buried secrets and destroy the troubled family. Mature themes.
• La conspiración vendida (Conspiracy Sold) written by Jorge Ibargüengoitia [subject to availability]
One performance • 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 • Free • Presented in Spanish
In this award-winning play commissioned in 1959, Mexican novelist and playwright Jorge Ibargüengoitia knocks history off its pedestal, parodying the events that precipitated the Mexican War of Independence, with an intention to demythologize the country's heroic insurgence through a unique tangle of adventures.
• Claudia Meets Fulano Colorado written by Portland playwright Joann FarÃas
One performance • 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 • Free • Presented in English
In the 1950s, the Mexican-American Mephistopheles Fulano Colorado tempts everyone in this small West Texas neighborhood with what they want but do not need: 10-year-old orphan girl Claudia, with a millionaire father in California; young wife Rosa and Tony with the money to cover Tony's gambling debts that threaten to consume their home; middle-aged José and Felicia the reasons to descend into abuse; and old Concha and Narciso the perspective to look dimly on their rich lives. In the end, he is run out of town, but only after everyone bands together to affirm and help one another.
• Boleros for the Disenchanted written by José Rivera
One performance • 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009 • Free • Presented in English
OBIE Award winner José Rivera (A.C.T.'s Brainpeople, Marisol), the Academy Award—nominated screenwriter of The Motorcycle Diaries, returns to his native Puerto Rico to explore the ineffable dreams of lovers. In one of his most personal works, passion and humor collide in an exuberant village in 1953, where Flora's search for true love follows an unexpected course. A bold, moving second act, set almost 40 years later in America, probes the darker mysteries of marriage. This brilliant new work reverberates with the gorgeous sounds of Latin love songs, or boleros.
• I Am Celso adapted from writings of New Mexican poet-artist Leo Romero by Rubén Sierra & Jorge Huerta
One performance • 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 24, 2009 • Free • Presented in English
Poet Leo Romero brought the magic of his regional culture to a national audience, not by merely describing traditions, but rather by evoking the complex and lyrical orality that lies so close to its collective soul. This one-man drama based on Romero's writings features the bittersweet reminiscences of Celso, an old philosopher of the barrio and local drunk who preaches "the holy gospel of the grape" and shares colorful tales of ecstasy, terror and adventure that range from a shocking desecration of a Sunday Mass to an encounter with La Llorona, the Southwestern Medea said to roam the mountains wailing for her lost children.
