Roundabout Theatre Company & Pregones/PRTT's THE REFOCUS PROJECT Season Two Now Streaming

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that the second season of The Refocus Project, its multi-year project to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon, is now available to stream online for free, through Sunday, October 16. This year's readings, for which Roundabout partnered with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT), featured plays by Latinx playwrights, including Sarita by María Irene Fornés, directed by Rebecca Aparicio; The Oxcart by René Marqués, directed by Cristina Angeles; and El Corrido De California by Fausto Avendaño, directed by Galia Backal.

In addition, direct from The Refocus Project, Season 2, Pregones/PRTT's production of The Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat begins live performances on Thursday, October 6 at Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (304 W 47th St). More information is available at pregonesprtt.org.

Audiences can access The Refocus Project here.

The Refocus Project launched in 2021 in association with Black Theatre United, spotlighting twentieth-century Black plays and their playwrights: Angelina Weld Grimké, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Childress and Samm-Art Williams.

SARITA

By María Irene Fornés
Directed by Rebecca Aparicio

Following a betrayal by her crush Julio, 13-year-old Sarita Fernandez quickly learns how fickle love can be. Her teenage years are marked by men coming and going from her life, an early pregnancy, and a volatile love affair with Julio that continues into adulthood. Eventually, Sarita's attempts to find personal agency in these relationships manifest in brutal ways, with far-reaching consequences for herself and her loved ones.

THE OXCART

By René Marqués
Directed by Cristina Angeles

In 1950s Puerto Rico, matriarch Doña Gabriela and her children await the fateful oxcart that will take them from their mountain home to a new life in San Juan. Young Chaguito despairs to leave behind his favorite rooster and daughter Juanita dreads saying goodbye to those she loves, while eldest son Luis dreams of limitless horizons and the mechanized industries of the future.

EL CORRIDO DE CALIFORNIA

By Fausto Avendaño
Directed by Galia Backal

California, 1846. Don Gerónimo Segura, a Mexican rancher and mayor of the village of Santa Bárbara, welcomes his son Rafael home after five years of military service in Mexico City. Rafael, however, comes bearing news-the United States, the neighboring country his father so deeply admires, has begun a hostile takeover of California. In the ensuing conflict, Don Gerónimo and the citizens of Santa Bárbara are forced to choose between their honor and keeping themselves and their loved ones safe.

HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS ON A LATIN BEAT

Book, Lyrics, and Directed by Rosalba Rolón
Compositions by Desmar Guevara, James Reese Europe, and Rafael Hernández
Arrangements by Desmar Guevara

The Harlem Hellfighters' extraordinary valor and musicianship made the 369th Infantry the most celebrated regiment of the First World War era. A motley and multicolor crew, they tumble on stage with a marvelous ruckus of ragtime jazz, military bugle calls, and Latin rhythm trailing behind them. Among them are legends James Reese Europe and Rafael Hernández-two musical giants of the 20th century-always eager to relive the adventures that brought them together in the fabled summer of 1917.

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater

(aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble and multidiscipline arts presenter operating with venues in the South Bronx and Manhattan's theater district. Its mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences. Pregones Theater was founded in 1979 when a group of artists led by Rosalba Rolón set out to create and tour new works in the style of Caribbean and Latin American colectivos or performing ensembles. Spurred by stage and film icon Miriam Colón, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater was founded in 1967 as one of the first bilingual theater companies in all the U.S. Following merger in 2014, Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater plays a decisive role in empowering diverse artists and audiences to claim their place at the front of the American theater.

Rosalba Rolón

Artistic Director of Pregones/PRTT, is an accomplished actor, director, and dramaturg specializing in the adaptation of literary and non-literary texts for stage performance with live music. Distinctions include United States Artists Fellowship, Ford Foundation Visionaries Fellowship, Doris Duke Artist Award, and Creative Capital Award (with Paul Flores and Yosvany Terry). Rolón's numerous theater credits include We Have IRÉ with Paul Flores, Betsy!with Roadside Theater, Dancing In My Cockroach Killers with Magdalena Gómez, The Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat based on the Puerto Rican presence in the all-Black 369th Regiment of the US Army, El bolero fue mi ruina adapted from a story by Manuel Ramos Otero, Quíntuples by Luis Rafael Sánchez, and many others. She is a member of The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards Nominating Committee.

Roundabout Theatre Company

celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills that mission by producing familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals; discovering and supporting talented playwrights; reducing the barriers that can inhibit theatergoing; collaborating with a diverse team of artists; building educational experiences; and archiving over five decades of production history.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays and musicals on its five stages: Broadway's American Airlines Theatre, Studio 54 and Stephen Sondheim Theatre, and Off-Broadway's Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre.

Roundabout's current and upcoming productions include: 1776 by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone, directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus; You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz, directed by Sam Pinkleton; the bandaged place by Harrison David Rivers, directed by David Mendizábal; The Wanderers by Anna Ziegler, directed by Barry Edelstein; and Primary Trust by Eboni Booth, directed by Knud Adams.

For more information visit www.roundabouttheatre.org

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