Storytellers in Cartel Country at Borderlands Theater

Borderlands Theater presents the rolling world premiere of Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country by Richard Montoya (American Night, Water & Power) of the acclaimed Chicano performance troupe Culture Clash (Bowl of Beans, Chavez Ravine.) Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country traces in reverse the devastating headlines of a Mexican boy shot by US Border Patrol across the border fence. San Francisco theater artist, Sean San Jose, co-founder ofCampo Santo, directs. Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country begins with previews September 7th, Opening gala September 9th, and closes September 25th.

Richard Montoya and ensemble members from San Francisco's Campo Santo collaborate with Borderlands artists to unpack the story of a Nogales boy, shot in the back 15 times by a US Border patrol agent. Interviews with family members, Tohono O'odham community, gun enthusiasts, street kids, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio himself mix with multiple video projections, visual art installations, and ample humor to go beyond the headlines to explore this real life tragicomic theater of the border.

California artists Montoya, San Jose, and filmographer Joan Osato traveled to Phoenix and on through to Nogales, Mexico to immerse themselves in the border region. The play is the product of conversations with the people they met as they traversed the border landscape.

Tucson may recognize a few locals as characters in the play like former TPAC executive director Roberto Bedoya, and Kat Rodriguez from the Colibri Center for Human Rights. The play is a journey into border culture, grappling with the flux of immigration and migration. Tensions rise under anti-immigration sentiments responsible for the militarization of the border. The play is a meditation of place, crossing over, crossing borders, bullets crossing and lives crossing.

The play's innovative approach to tackling a complicated subject gives the audience a deeper and unique perspective into the characters and situations presented. Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country is crafted in the style of more than 30 years of Culture Clash work, where plays as performance pieces are created from going into places and following many threads of a central issue. Complimenting this method is Campo Santo's interdisciplinary aesthetics, which are uncommon for Tucson. Artistic director of San Francisco's acclaimed Campo Santo Theatre, Sean San Jose interprets Montoya's interview-based script style through a distinctly Bay Area, "hybrid performance" aesthetic, which San Jose pioneered over the last decade - a place-keeping/multimedia/interdisciplinary theatricality developed through working with non-traditional theatre collaborators like hip hop artists, installation artists, print makers, videographers, puppeteers, and multimedia artists. The end result is a "post-dramatic" theatre experience that is part performance art, documentary theatre, spoken word, and gallery exhibition.

The process that informs Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country is ethnographic in nature: interviewing, investigating, outreaching, being in a place and regenerating stories and art from these authentic experiences. Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country is told in full focus of poetic text, clinical language, film/video, song, dance, spoken word, dreams and nightmare escapes.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was shot seven times in the back with a total of fifteen shots fired by one border patrol agent. According to initial border patrol reports, he was involved in marijuana smuggling and threw rocks at agents. Border patrol may use force to protect in cases where rocks are being thrown and agents fear for their lives. Later it was reported that Jose Antonio was simply walking along the fence. Mexico's Foreign Ministry, said the initial report "creates serious, new doubts about the use of lethal force by U.S. Border Patrol agents," a sentiment echoed by both the Mexican government and society as stated in this Chicago Tribune article.

In October 2012, the LA Times reported that Border Patrol has killed fifteen civilians since 2010.

At least three of them were Mexican nationals killed in incidents involving rock throwing, according to the Daily Beast. This however is the first time a border patrol agent has been indicted, according an NPR article. Jose Antonio's case can set a new precedent for cross border shootings, on whether the US constitution applies extraterritorially as stated in this New York Times article.

The same New York Times article details the facts regarding Jose Antonio's case and the militarization of the border that breeds a culture of silence and cover-ups at the Department of Homeland Security. An independent study found that 60 percent of Customs and Border Protection officers were unfit for duty. Former Internal Affairs director, Tomsheck attributes this to the massive hiring done to meet the demand of the militarization of the border. Most of this hiring bypassed protocol. Tomsheck notes a pervasive border patrol culture that likens itself to the Marine Corps, where common law enforcement practice is pre-empted by the no surrender attitude of martial law.

MORE ON THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Richard Montoya is a founding member of the historic performance trio known as Culture Clash. With over 30 years of creating politically urgent works for the national stage Montoya now turns his sights on the Arizona landscape and Nogales region. A solo playwright of several plays and film maker Montoya's work excavates the Latino reality and non-realities of life in the US. Poetic, lyrical, satirical and comic his plays have been produced by Arizona Theater Company, Yale Rep, Campo Santo, Goodman Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage among many others. Montoya is honored to make his writer/performer Borderlands debut with Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country. He dedicates his performance to the memory of all those whose crosses dot the highways in Southern Arizona and the Southwest. Montoya's films include Water & Power, The Other Barrio and Carlos in Wonderland documentary about the birth of Chicano Art. A Sundance Institute Fellow and proud father of Mountain Montoya age 6!

MORE ON THE DIRECTOR:

Sean San Jose is a Director, Writer, Performer and Co-Founder of Campo Santo. For 15 years Sean San José was the Program Director of the Performance Program at Intersection for the Arts, where he produced and oversaw more than 100 premiere productions of theatre, dance and interdisciplinary performances, working with resident companies the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, the Living Word Project and Felonious among the more than 500 artists with whom he collaborated. San José was the Creator and Project Director of Alma Delfina Group- Teatro Contra el SIDA (1994-2002) and Pieces of the Quilt, a collection of more than 50 short plays including original works by Rhodessa Jones, Danny Hoch, Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Maria Irene Fornes, David Henry Hwang, Craig Lucas, Tony Kushner, Herbert Siguenza, Migdalia Cruz and many more confronting AIDS. San José's recent achievements include: multiple MAP Fund Awards, including a current one (2014-15) for a creation of this new work, Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country, with Richard Montoya and Joan Osato; commission of new piece for Monstress by American Conservatory Theatre, which San José co-directed as the opening piece in A.C.T.'s 2015/16 Season at the new Strand Theatre; a recent Headland Artist Residency (Summer 2014); a recent (2014-15) Creative Work Fund recipient with Cutting Ball Theatre for work on and the premiere of his new play with them, Superheroes (premiered November, 2014, published in Theatre Forum 2016); and he teaches regularly at the University of California at Berkeley, where he completed his second Guest Artist Residency and directed Culture Clash's Chavez Ravine, performed at the Zellerbach Playhouse working with more than 30 students.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AND TICKET INFORMATION

Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Theater, 330 S Scott Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701. Tickets: $6-$26 with various discounts.

9/7 - 7:30 pm Preview (HALF OFF All tickets $7$12!)

9/8- 7:30 pm Preview (HALF OFF All tickets $7/$12!)

9/9- 7:30 pm Opening Night Celebration: With light refreshments plus meet and greet the actors and director. ($26/$14)

9/10 - 7:30 pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/11 - 2 pm Matinee ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/14 - 7:30 pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/15 - 7:30 pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/16 - 7:30 pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/17 - 7:30 pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/18 - 2 pm Matinee ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/21 - 7:30pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/22 - 7:30pm ($($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/23 - 7:30pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/24 - 7:30pm ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

9/25- 2 pm Matinee ($14/$19.50/$23.50)

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS: Please contact Borderlands Theater Box Office at (520) 882-7406 or purchase in person at 4O W. BROADWAY, TUCSON 85701. You may also purchase tickets online at: www.borderlandstheater.org

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