LOS ANGELES—Feb. 28, 2017—For Immediate Release—For the first time in About Productions’ history comes the debut of a full-length, student-written play, I: WITNESS, a story of courage and hope inspired by the lives of significant Chicano elders told through the voices of today’s youth.

Produced as part of the Chicano Legacy Project, which aims to enrich the public’s knowledge of the rich history of the ’60s and ’70s Chicano Movement and provide youth with a transformative educational experience, I: WITNESS is based on interviews with Chicano elders: poet Gloria Enedina Alvarez; muralist and visual artist Yreina Cervantez; poet Marisela Norte; and filmmaker and producer Jesús Treviño. In the play, these main characters are guided by The Jaguar, a spirit animal, as they search for purpose and gain the courage to stand and affect change.

Performed and designed by students from Pueblo de Los Angeles High School alongside professionals, I: WITNESS parallels the lives of veterans from the East Los Angeles Student Walkouts, Chicano Moratorium and seminal art movements with those of the youth of current-day East L.A.

What: Performance of I: WITNESS: A Chicano Legacy Project Play with Discussion to Follow
When: Friday, April 7 @ 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 8 @ 2 p.m.
Where: Plaza de la Raza’s Margo Albert Theatre, 3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles 90031
Tickets: General Admission ($10), Students with ID ($5), Kids 13 & under (Free)
Saturday Only: VIP with Reserved Seating and Reception ($50)

To purchase, visit www.aboutpd.org/tickets

To preview the play, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUziXqYI0iU

Said Juan Parada, Production Director and Lead Teaching Artist, "I look forward to witnessing the students’ transformation both on stage and off. This play has many parallels to their lives and the students at Pueblo High School are as resilient as the characters in our play. I am inspired by their willingness to take risks and step out onto that stage and do something that, perhaps no one, not even themselves, imagined they would do. That is something extraordinary and brilliant and I cannot wait to celebrate their work."

Added Theresa Chavez, Producing Artistic Director of About Productions, “The Chicano Legacy Project has inspired our students with its powerful history, its intergenerational dialogue, and its transformative artistic and academic process. They have inspired us with their willingness to engage in a new experience that challenges them to express themselves and represent their community’s history in a unique way. The Chicano Legacy Project brings them and our audiences a deeper understanding of what is possible when a community is inspired to speak for itself for both the collective good and individual empowerment.”

In addition to Chavez and Parada, other professionals joining the residency and production team include actress and teaching artist Marlene Beltran Cuauhtin; musician/composer and mentor Noah Harmon; and costume designer and mentor Abel Alvarado, with additional professional actors to be announced.

Since 2001, About Productions’ Young Theaterworks Program has worked to empower highest-risk youth in L.A. County with intensive residencies that help students improve literacy, communication and collaboration skills. By harnessing these abilities, students in the program receive higher grades in school, graduate high school at higher rates and, most importantly, are empowered to become stewards of their community’s history.

For the past six years, greatest-risk students from Monterey Continuation High School in East L.A. have interviewed significant Chicano elders and collaboratively created short plays based on their lives and stories. Four of these fourteen plays were chosen to form the basis of the script for I: WITNESS, which the Pueblo High students have developed over the past year.

ABOUT PRODUCTIONS
Now in its 28th year, About Productions creates original, interdisciplinary theaterworks and educational programs that provoke new perspectives on history, humanity and culture. The company is dedicated to generating new work through collaboration to create artistic and community dialogue.

Chicano Legacy Project events are co-sponsored by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and its programs are supported, in part, by the Eastside Arts Initiative, National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

 

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