LA NEGRA | Photo: Marina Montesanti
Written and performed by Raquel Almazan
Directed by Mei Ann Teo
Ofrenda Installation Art by Mincho Vega
Excerpt presentation of LA NEGRA: As the Day of the Dead approaches, Drug Cartel Queen LA NEGRA takes a ritualistic journey from child prostitute to Patron Saint of Mexican outcasts—La Santa Muerte. Her top drug pusher and lover Siete, a Gringo tourist painter, and hundreds of street children inhabit her world as it moves towards light and peace. The citizens of Tijuana, police officers, and skull figures of the night force her to face her relentless darkness. These light and dark symbolic forces within her battle for the future of Mexico itself.
A multi-interdisciplinary theater production that integrates text, media, Butoh-based movement, and Day of the Dead altars, where the audience moves through the complexities of Mexico’s crisis and a vision of hope and prosperity.
Part of the LATIN IS AMERICA play cycle. Produced by Almazan’s La Lucha Arts. Starring Raquel Almazan, Alicia Ceron, Yadira De La Riva, Nicolle Marquez, Bobby Plasencia*, and Dana Watkins*.
*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
Artist Bios:
Raquel Almazan (Writer/Performer) is an interdisciplinary artist, facilitator, activist, and creator of social justice arts programs. M.F.A. – Playwriting, Columbia University. Select plays: La Paloma Prisoner (NYTW April, 2020, workshops: The Signature Theatre, La Mama, The Lark, INTAR, Labyrinth, and WPI -Stockholm), Does That Feel Good to you My Lark? (Reading- Bushwick Starr, New Georges), LA NEGRA (Readings -Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center, Iati), CAFÉ (Workshop:Columbia University, The Kennedy Center), Cross//Roads: Re-framing the Immigrant Narrative (La Micro Theatre), La Migra Taco Truck (Off-Broadway Theatre Row), Porning the Planet (Dixon Place). Recipient of residencies with Eugene O’Neill Center Playwrights Conference and The Playwrights' Center. Recipient of Kennedy Center’s Latinidad Award, the Kate Neal Kinley Playwriting Fellowship, the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Playwriting Prize, and the NALAC grant. Artistic Director of La Lucha Arts, dedicated to producing her new works.
Mei Ann Teo (Director, she/they) is a theatre/film maker who works at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice to shift culture towards justice and compassion. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, she collaborates across genres, including multi-form performance, music theatre, and intermedial participatory work. Recent and current work includes: the world premiere and 25-city tour in China of Dim Sum Warriors by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo (composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun); Diana Oh’s Clairvoyance at ART Oberon; Jillian Walker’s Songs of Speculation at JACK; SKiNFoLK: An American Show at SPARK Festival and MTF; Nia Witherspoon’s Dark Girl Chronicles at BAX, JACK, and Playwrights Realm; Double Yolk Moon with Bex Kwan and Sophia Mak at BRIC; and Madeleine Sayer’s Where We Belong at the Globe in London. Mei Ann is the Producing Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, a Resident Company of Playwrights Horizons.
Mincho Vega (Installation artist, Illustrator, Altar Maker) is a visual artist of Salvadoran descent, based out of Brooklyn. Father. Husband. Teacher. Co-founder of Trust Your Struggle, an artist collective focusing on activism and arts education. His work has toured Mexico and Central America where he created murals with local artists and communities. His ofrendas (altars for the ancestors) buildings and installations have been portals for healing and ancestral meditation; each year they are built with community members and artists. He has been a panelist at Harlem School of the Arts, Trinity College, Virginia Tech University, University of the Arts in Boston, and the Casa de Artesana Women’s Center in Guatemala City. Benjamin has also painted murals for Sprite, Google, and Discovery Channel. Recipient of the Dr. Judith Temple Scholarship Fund (Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts).
Venue Information:
The intimate, flexible studio space within BRIC House is dedicated to emerging and mid-career artists, with an audience capacity of 50-75 for rehearsals and performances in a workshop setting.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org