Glass Half Full Theatre To Remount YAMEL CUCUY In Austin

Glass Half Full Theatre will remount Yamel Cucuy, for a limited engagement October 11-19, 2024 at Austin’s Ground Floor Theatre. 

Originally presented during the 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. Created for adult audiences. Teens welcome.

Glass Half Full Theatre’s 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 Austin, Glass Half Full is accompanied by Proyecto Teatro, who will be attending Encuentro with Cabarex 2: RevoLUZiones.

Set to an original score of indigenous percussion and folkloric guitar, Yamel Cucuy blends sophisticated puppetry with live actors and 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 Eliot Hayes; lighting design by Rachel Atkinson; puppetry & scenic design by Caroline Reck, Indigo Rael, and Connor Hopkins; media design by Indigo Rael; costume design by Annie Ulrich; stage management by Zac Crofford; and production management by Khristián Méndez Aguirre.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

YAMEL CUCUY | October 11–19, 2024

Yamel Cucuy
On the day the ghosts of immigration become real, Yamel sets on a journey to the heart of her fears.
by Glass Half Full Theatre
directed by Caroline Reck
original score by Paul Piñon

October 11–19, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. | No performance October 14 or 15
Ground Floor Theatre | 979 Springdale Rd, Unit 122 | Austin, TX 78702
Tickets are $25-45 and are on a sliding scale.

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:
Single tickets are on sale now for Yamel Cucuy and start at $25. Tickets are on a sliding scale and are available online HERE, at glasshalffulltheatre.com or by calling 512-761-8266.

Photo credit: Ulises Garcia 

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