ATC Announces Second Year Of American Mosaic With Welcome to Arroyo 4/19

American Theater Company (ATC) proudly announces the second year of American Mosaic, an arts outreach initiative that brings an American play into Chicago Public School ninth grade English classes each academic year. This year's program is currently underway in 6 CPS high schools, where more than 700 ninth grade students are studying and staging scenes from Kristoffer Diaz's, Welcome to Arroyo's. Welcome to Arroyo's premieres at ATC, 1909 W. Byron, on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:00PM.

Participating high schools include, Amundsen High School, Foreman High School, Kelvin Park High School, Clemente Community Academy High School, Roosevelt High School, and Wells Community Academy High School.

American Mosaic teams 25 ATC teaching artists with ninth grade CPS teachers to introduce students to both the literary and performance aspects of producing a play. Over the course of six weeks, students study the play, stage and design scenes, and rehearse the work in their own classrooms. This intensive, in-school groundwork culminates with all 6 high schools performing student versions of Welcome to Arroyo's on the set of ATC's professional production on Saturday, April 24; Saturday, May 1; and Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 10:00AM.
To complete American Mosaic, students attend ATC's production.

"ATC believes passionately in becoming a holistically diverse company, both in its artists and its audiences," says Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. "The best way to encourage our entire community to attend theater is by bringing relevant stories into classrooms, and I could not think of a more important play to introduce Latino and African American youth to theater than Arroyo's."

"Mosaic offers an intensive literature experience for high school youth," says ATC's Education Director Lynne Pace-Green. "We believe that this in-depth experience has long-term, life-impacting results. As Kelvin Park classroom teacher, Darren Tuggle put it, ‘My kids are more excited about this piece of theatre than they've been about anything in a long time.'"

With the support of a grant from The Boeing Company, the ATC production of Welcome to Arroyo's is currently rehearsing in Logan Square, where rehearsals are open-door, encouraging students to attend. The production's actors are also working with students on their own hip-hop and side-by-side, which the students will perform in Hip-hop Drop, a community "open mic" session on Monday, April 12 at 6:30PM at Kelvin Park High School Auditorium. Hip-hop Drop is free of charge and open to the public.

The American Mosaic outreach initiative was launched in January 2009 with the ATC/Congo Square repertory production of True West and Topdog/Underdog. American Mosaic is funded by grants from the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation and the Polk Bros. Foundation. The Latino Audiences Program is sponsored by The Boeing Charitable Trust.

About Welcome to Arroyo's
New York City. 2004. Two DJ narrators spin a hip-hop tale of two siblings' desire to transform their family-run bodega into New York City's next cultural sensation. On the heels of the Off-Broadway premiere of his critically-acclaimed play, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety, ATC premieres this hilarious and heartwarming celebration of the urban rhythms of life and love. Audiences can purchase beverages pre- and post-show at Martyr's, a neighboring music venue, and a rotation of guest DJ's will spin a post-show party after each performance.

Kristoffer Diaz (Playwright) made his Chicago debut in 2009 with The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, produced by Victory Gardens in association with Teatro Vista. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety makes its off-Broadway debut at Second Stage in April. Diaz's plays have been produced and developed by InterAct, Mixed Blood, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, the Summer Play Festival, the Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory. Kristoffer was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista, a recipient of both the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists), and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group.

About American Theater Company
American Theater Company is an ensemble of artists committed to producing new and classic American stories that ask the question, "What does it mean to be an American?"

American Theater Company is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and CityArts II. Additional valuable support is provided by the Alphawood Foundation, the Boeing Charitable Trust, the Bruce B. Boyd Foundation, the Elizabeth F. Chaney Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, the Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, the Polk Bros. Foundation, the MacArthur Fund at Prince Charitable Trust, and the Shubert Foundation.

To post a comment, you must register and login.