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LA LUNA NUEVA, BROKEN PROMISES, SUPER ANA! and More Set for Milagro's 32nd Season
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 18, 2015
Milagro announces its 32nd season, featuring a lively lineup of cultural events and groundbreaking new works. From September 2015 to May 2016, Milagro will push artistic and geographical boundaries in its mission to provide extraordinary Latino experiences in Portland and beyond. Producing three world premieres, hosting a multicultural festival for children, and recruiting Latino guest artists from all corners of the U.S., these plans are only the beginning.
Artistic Director Olga Sanchez notes, "Our 32nd season heralds a new era for Milagro; we're thrilled to create work in collaboration with great Latino artists from all over the country who will challenge us to forge our most compelling work to date."
Milagro's kaleidoscopic season launches in September with La Luna Nueva, Portland's premier celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. For the first time, this vibrant and educational festival will be geared toward children with interactive workshops and performances looking beyond the Hispanic lens to include different cultures. Families can learn and play together while enjoying live music, dance, and theatre from Mexico to Ghana, Ecuador to the Pacific Northwest.
Then, in October, Milagro welcomes New York City-based artist Rebecca Martinez, writer and director of La Muerte Baila, a festive, original production in the otherworldly spirit of Día de los Muertos. Dark, irreverent, and filled with lyrical, folkloric dance, La Muerte Baila will be a fun and fresh twist on Portland's annual Day of the Dead celebration.
In January, Milagro premieres Broken Promises, an eye-opening new work written by Olga Sanchez that sheds light on the sex trafficking industry luring young, immigrant women in Portland. Directed by Milagro veteran theatre artist Francisco Garcia, newly returned from Los Angeles, and presented in partnership with OYE, Portland's Latino sexual health coalition, Broken Promises will premiere at Milagro and follow with an educational tour to U.S. cities and universities.
In light of transforming Cuban-U.S. relations, Milagro aptly presents Contigo Pan y Cebolla in February, one of Cuba's most popular and thought-provoking comedies about family life in Havana at the dawn of the revolution. Produced in Spanish for the first time outside of Miami and Cuba, Contigo Pan y Cebolla will be directed by Miami-based Cuban artistic director Yvonne López Arenal and presented in Spanish with English supertitles.
And in May, Milagro presents the world premiere of Into the Beautiful North, based on the best-selling novel by Luis Alberto Urrea, written by playwright Karen Zacarías, recipient of the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices Award and National Latino Playwriting Award, among other honors. Interwoven with nostalgic elements of classic cinema, Into the Beautiful North is the story of a Nayeli and her band of young Mexicans on a quest to rescue her village from narco-traficantes.
The season is filled with special events, including the touring children's productions of Sueños de Fútbol and Super Ana!, performing at libraries, schools and community centers in the Portland metropolitan region and throughout Oregon; Milagro's annual community Christmas celebration, Posada Milagro; and the one-night cabaret of bilingual performance, Mujeres, in celebration of 2016 International Women's Day.
Milagro is also delighted to welcome our colleagues, friends and resident companies: Well Arts and the Jewish Theatre Collaborative, who share with us the passion for bringing communities together through transcendent and universal stories.
Milagro's 2015-2016 season includes:
La Luna Nueva Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
September 18 - 26, 2014
Milagro's multidisciplinary festival celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with live music, dance and theatre, focusing on children and family-friendly entertainment. Joyfully committed to collaboration and diversity, La Luna Nueva's line-up will feature Latino and non-Latino cultural performances of live music, dance, theatre, fun workshops, and more all geared for kids and families.
World Premiere | Bilingual
A last dance to remember forever
An original, bilingual celebration of the Day of the Dead,
Created & irected by Rebecca Martinez
October 15 - November 8, 2015
Día de los Muertos is a time of joyous reunion! When a disenchanted muertito refuses to return to the realm of the living, La Muerte must stop her own grumbling and set things right! Dancing through a landscape of bruised egos, the two set off on a comical journey through the realms of grief and remembrance. A colorful and bittersweet story of self-reflection and forgiveness, interwoven with irreverence and beautifully lyrical baile folklorico. Broken Promises
World Premiere | Bilingual
Some stories have to be told
By Olga Sanchez | Directed by Francisco Garcia
January 14 - 23, 2016
Based on local true stories of teen girls who have made their way from gangs into prostitution, Broken Promises sheds light, hope and reflection on the disturbing sex trafficking industry affecting many young, immigrant women in the Pacific Northwest. Presented in partnership with OYE, the Latino sexual health coalition, to provide meaningful resources for the community in need.Contigo Pan y Cebolla
Presented in Spanish with supertitles in English
By Héctor Quintero | Directed by Yvonne López Arenal
Through thick and thin forever!
February 11 - March 5, 2016
A tragicomedy set in Havana during the second half of the 1950s, just before the Cuban revolution takes hold. When an optimistic, materialistic matriarch battles to create the appearance of wealth in front of her neighbors, she only succeeds in creating chaos for the whole family and risking what's most important! Into the Beautiful North
World premiere commissioned by Karen Zacarías,
based on the novel by Luis Alberto Urrea
Directed by Olga Sanchez
An idealistic and adventurous heroine's quest
April 28 - May 21, 2016
Inspired by the classic film The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli, a young woman living in a small Mexican village and her companions venture across the border determined to bring back seven good men to protect their village from the invasion of narco-traficantes and the risk of extinction.Sueños de Fútbol
Touring schools and the community
By Ajai Terrazas Tripathi | Directed by Alida Holguín Gunn
Touring through May 2016
In this brisk bilingual escapade, filled with endearing characters and Mayan legends, Candelaria "Candi" dreams of trying out for the Fútbol team. She wants to play soccer but lacks confidence, so she plays video games instead. Suddenly a giant, runaway Hamburguesa pops out of the TV and into her living room! Candi follows it through the flat-screen and into her video game, embarking on a great adventure in la Tierra de los Sueños. Super Ana!
Touring to elementary schools | Sponsored by Metro
By Olga Sanchez | Directed by Jeffrey Levy
Touring through May 2017
Ana is a shy young girl whose friend, Liliana, disparages her for not being fashionable, American, or possessing the latest technology. At night Ana dreams of an insatiable consumer monster that attacks her old family things and spits them out, half-eaten. She becomes Super Ana, battling the monster by giving it a swift but mighty lesson in history. The kids soon recognize that they share an old-country perspective: it's good for the planet to be thoughtful about what they accumulate. Their culture will help save the planet!
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturdays, and 2:00 p.m. Sundays at the Milagro Theatre (525 S.E. Stark St., Portland). Individual ticket prices are $18-$30, which include a variety of discounts for students, seniors, veterans and groups of 15 or more; previews; as well as advance cash purchases. Flex pass subscription tickets available for sale May18th, ranging from $78 - $102. Flex pass tickets, single tickets and group reservations are available by calling 503-236-7253. For more information, visit www.milagro.org.
Milagro has been dedicated to bringing the vibrancy of Latino theatre to the Northwest community and beyond for more than 31 seasons. In addition to its national tours, Milagro provides a home for Spanish and Latino arts and culture at El Centro Milagro, where it enriches the local community with a variety of community outreach projects and educational programs designed to share the diversity of Latino culture. For more information about the Milagro, visit www.milagro.org or call 503-236-7253.
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