Glass Half Full Theatre Brings Award-Winning Yamel Cucuy To Encuentro 2024
Playing October 26 through November 8 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center.
By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 16, 2024
Award-winning Austin-based theater company Glass Half Full Theatre will make their Los Angeles debut with the acclaimed drama Yamel Cucuy at Encuentro 2024, playing October 26 through November 8 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Tickets can be purchased directly HERE.
Originally presented during Glass Half Full Theatre's 2022-23 season, Yamel Cucuy captured the imaginations and hearts of audiences and critics, closing out its previous run with several sold out performances, and garnering 12 B. Iden Payne Awards (out of 17 nominations), including Best Production of a Drama. Known nationally for co-running the only Puppet Slam in the state of Texas with Trouble Puppet Theater Company, Glass Half Full Theatre recently toured its award-winning production Cenicienta to 27 states, to include prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center.
Yamel Cucuy is among 19 shows, from a nation-wide pool, selected to attend the Encuentro Festival at the Los Angeles Theater Center this October. Organized by the Latino Theater Company, the 2024 Encuentro is a celebration of Latiné theater in the United States, bringing together companies from across the nation to share their work, devise new pieces, host and attend panel discussions and more. Representing Texas and Austin, Glass Half Full is accompanied by Proyecto Teatro, who will be presenting Cabarex 2: RevoLUZiones at Encuentro.
Set to an original score of indigenous percussion and folkloric guitar, Yamel Cucuy blends sophisticated puppetry with live actors. It draws upon frightening folk tales and modern horror movies to create a terrifying psychological landscape of legal and spiritual pitfalls.
The story of a girl on the precipice of adulthood, the play follows a young girl named Yamel as she faces the physical and metaphysical violence of borders. Living under the constant fear of deportation, Yamel's imagination is haunted by both the specter of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agents and the stories of Cucuys she grew up hearing in Mexico.
Yamel Cucuy features Gricelda Silva, Gustavo Martinez, Diana Guizado, Minerva Villa, Verónica Pomata, Victor Santos, Jen Brown and Connor Hopkins.
Directed by Caroline Reck, with original score by Paul Pinon additional Production Team includes dramaturgy by James Montaño and Alexis Arredondo; sound design by K. Eliot Haynes; lighting design by Rachel Atkinson; puppetry & scenic design by Caroline Reck, Indigo Rael, and Connor Hopkins; media design by Indigo Rael and K. Eliot Haynes; costume design by Annie Ulrich; stage management by Zac Crofford; and production management by Khristián Méndez Aguirre.
Encuentro 2024: We Are Here – Presente! marks the tenth anniversary of Latino Theater Company's first National Encuentro in 2014. Since then, the company has produced an Encuentro every three years: in 2017, Encuentro de Las Américas brought 13 companies from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Peru and Colombia to Los Angeles, and 2021's Re-Encuentro saw 16 Latiné companies in digital residence at The LATC during the height of the pandemic. The Latino Theater Company is dedicated to providing a world-class arts center for those pursuing artistic excellence; a laboratory where both tradition and innovation are honored and honed; and a place where the convergence of people, cultures and ideas contribute to the future. Now in its 39th year, LTC has operated The Los Angeles Theatre Center, a facility of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and a landmark building in Downtown's Historic Core, since 2006.
The Los Angeles Theatre Center is located at 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. Parking is available for $8 with box office validation at Los Angeles Garage Associate Parking structure, 545 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90013 (between 5th and 6th Streets, just behind the theater).
More information on Yamel Cucuy at Encuentro 2024 can be found HERE.
YAMEL CUCUY | October 26–November 8, 2024 at Encuentro 2024
Yamel Cucuy
Haunted by folkloric sprits & ICE agents, a Latina girl journeys beyond life to save her people.
by Glass Half Full Theatre
directed by Caroline Reck
original score by Paul Piñon
Saturday, October 26 at 4:00 PM
Sunday, October 27 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, November 2 at 5:00 PM
Sunday, November 3 at 4:00 PM
Thursday, November 7 at 8:00 PM
Friday, November 8 at 8:00 PM
Set to a score of indigenous percussion and folkloric guitar, the production features a blend of shadow puppetry with three-dimensional rod and wearable puppets alongside human actors. This play calls into question the lengths that an administration will go to keep its citizens “safe” from “outsiders” and at what human cost. The safety of our borders imposed by immigration authorities is juxtaposed with the Latinx tradition of keeping children “safe” by relying on the threat of nightmare spirits that represent what could happen if they risk breaking the rules in a dangerous world. These folkloric stories protected Yamel as a child, and she relies on their power now to keep her safe in a world where she is seen as dangerous, as a threat to national security. Our performance seeks to ask and answer the question: in the context of immigration and border protection, who is in danger and from whom?
Age Recommendation: Created for adult audiences. Teens welcome.
Ticketing Information:
Tickets to Encuentro 2024: We Are Here – Presente! range from $10 to $48 for a single show. Packages are $80 for two shows; $180 for six shows; and $380 to see all 19 performances. Tickets can be purchased at HERE.
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