Adventure Theatre MTC Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month With Sunday Storytime

In celebration of Hispanic American Heritage Month, Adventure Theatre MTC will discuss developing new plays for Young Audiences with Playwright Alvaro Saar Rios and Director and Playwright Elena Valesco. This special bilingual Storytime will be presented in both Spanish and English.

Executive Team, Leon Seemann, Margo Brenner Collins, and Chil Kong appreciate the opportunity to celebrate the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements in Theatre for Young Audiences. Says Kong, "Both Rios and Valesco are incredibly talented, and their contributions are on the forefront of great storytelling for young audiences. I'm honored they are sharing an insight into their talents with ATMTC."

Sunday's Bilingual Storytime premieres free on Facebook September 20, 2020 at 2pm. For more information or to donate, visit www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org or call 301-634-2270.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Alvaro Saar Rios' plays have been performed in Chicago, New York City, Hawaii, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. Rios has received commissions from various organizations, including Kennedy Center, Chicago Children's Theatre, The Alley Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. His award-winning play Luchadora! is published by Dramatic Publishing Inc. He is also the co-founder of The Royal Mexican Players, a national touring performance troupe. Mr. Rios holds an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Northwestern University. Alvaro lives in Chicago and teaches playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a Playwright-In-Residence at Milwaukee's First Stage.

Elena Velasco (she/her/ella) is a freelance theater artist whose 27 year career has encompassed many aspects of production. A member of SAG, AFTRA, and AEA, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Theatre Alliance, Discovery Theatre, Imagination Stage, Signature Theatre STAGES, and in several films, commercials, and TV shows. She has worked as a director and choreographer throughout the Washington D.C area, including GALA Hispanic Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Source Theater, Discovery Theater, Mead Theatre Lab, Capital Fringe and Helen Hayes recommended productions at Synetic Theater, which also featured her playwriting and music compositions in their family theater. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at Bowie State University and has served as a teaching artist in residencies and outreach programs throughout the D.C. metro area, partnering with such organizations as Imagination Stage, Synetic Theater Studio, Theater Lab of DC, Interact Story Theater, Smithsonian, the Hirschhorn Museum, the National Zoo, and in public and private schools. As Director of Outreach for Educational Theatre Company, she developed over a dozen original student musicals and for 10 years served as director for their adult performing company, Shakespeare in the Schools. She is the Artistic Director of Convergence Theatre, a performance collective focused on evolving theatrical language to invite discourse on issues of social justice. Additionally, she is an affiliated artist for Óyeme, Imagination Stage's collaborative project that responds to the surge of refugee children fleeing violence in Central America who have arrived in the DC area.

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