Miracle Theatre Group Presents VIVA DON JUAN, 10/28-11/14

From Oct. 28 through Nov. 14, Miracle Theatre Group is pleased to display an exhibit of ofrendas (altars) created by local Latino artists in celebration of Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). The exhibit, curated by Pepe Moscoso of FusionArte is free and open to the public one hour prior to each performance of Miracle Theatre Group's original, bilingual production ¡Viva Don Juan! plus 12 noon-2pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
 
"Day of the Dead reaches into the ancient history of Mexico, when the spirits of dead relatives are allowed to return to the mortal world to visit loved ones," says Moscoso, who is the host of a Spanish-language radio program on KBOO and a visual artist himself. "The spirits are greeted with offerings of food and things that the person enjoyed in life. These are laid out on a Day of the Dead altar, and it is believed that the spirits consume the essence and the aroma of the foods that are offered."
 
In addition to the altar traditionally created by Miracle Theatre Group's staff in the theatre lobby, this new exhibit will feature four themed altars:
 

Also on display will be Day of the Dead-themed paintings created by Jaime Sanchez Nava, and photography by Benjamin Ortega.
 
ABOUT THE DAY OF THE DEAD HOLIDAY (from an article by Ricardo J. Salvador)
This is an ancient festivity that has been much transformed through the years, but which was intended in pre-Hispanic Mexico to celebrate children and the dead.  Hence, the best way to describe this Mexican holiday is to say that it is a time when Mexican families remember their dead, and the continuity of life.
 
Two important things to know about the Mexican Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos) are: It is a holiday with a complex history, and therefore its observance varies quite a bit by region and by degree of urbanization. It is not a morbid occasion, but rather a festive time.
 
The original celebration can be traced to many Mesoamerican native traditions, such as the festivities held during the Aztec month of Miccailhuitontli, ritually presided by the "Lady of the Dead" (Mictecacihuatl), and dedicated to children and the dead. In the Aztec calendar, this ritual fell roughly at the end of the Gregorian month of July and the beginning of August, but in the post-conquest era it was moved by Spanish priests so that it coincided with the Christian holiday of All Saints Day (in Spanish: "Día de Todos Santos.") This was a vain effort to transform the observance from a profane to a Christian celebration. The result is that Mexicans now celebrate the day of the dead during the first two days of November, rather than at the beginning of summer. But remember the dead they still do, and the modern festivity is characterized by the traditional Mexican blend of ancient aboriginal and introduced Christian features.
 
Generalizing broadly, the holiday's activities consist of families (1) welcoming their dead back into their homes, and (2) visiting the graves of their close kin. At the cemetery, family members engage in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting out and enjoying a picnic, and interacting socially with other family and community members who gather there. In both cases, celebrants believe that the souls of the dead return and are all around them. Families remember the departed by telling stories about them. The meals prepared for these picnics are sumptuous, usually featuring meat dishes in spicy sauces, chocolate beverages, cookies, sugary confections in a variety of animal or skull shapes, and a special egg-batter bread ("pan de muerto," or bread of the dead). Gravesites and family altars are profusely decorated with flowers (primarily large, bright flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums), and adorned with religious amulets and with offerings of food, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. Because of this warm social environment, the colorful setting, and the abundance of food, drink and good company, this commemoration of the dead has pleasant overtones for the observers, in spite of the open fatalism exhibited by all participants, whose festive interaction with both the living and the dead in an important social ritual is a way of recognizing the cycle of life and death that is human existence.
 
In homes, observant families create an altar and decorate it with items that they believe are beautiful and attractive to the souls of their departed ones.  Such items include offerings of flowers and food, but also things that will remind the living of the departed (such as their photographs, a diploma, or an article of clothing), and the things that the dead prized and enjoyed while they lived.  This is done to entice the dead and assure that their souls actually return to take part in the remembrance.
 
In very traditional settings, typically found only in native communities, the path from the street to the altar is actually strewn with petals to guide the returning soul to its altar and the bosom of the family. The traditional observance calls for departed children to be remembered during the first day of the festivity (the Day of the Little Angels, El día de los Angelitos), and for adults to be remembered on the second day. Traditionally, this is accompanied by a feast during the early morning hours of November the 2nd, the Day of the Dead proper, though modern urban Mexican families usually observe the Day of the Dead with only a special family supper featuring the bread of the dead. In southern Mexico, for example in the city of Puebla, it is good luck to be the one who bites into the plastic toy skeleton hidden by the baker in each rounded loaf. Friends and family members give one another gifts consisting of sugar skeletons or other items with a death motif, and the gift is more prized if the skull or skeleton is embossed with one's own name.
 
Another variation found in the state of Oaxaca is for the bread to be molded into the shape of a body or burial wrap, and for a face to be embedded on one end of the loaf.  During the days leading up to and following the festivity, some bakeries in heavily aboriginal communities cease producing the wide range of breads that they typically sell so that they can focus on satisfying the demand for bread of the dead.
 
The Day of the Dead can range from being a very important cultural event, with defined social and economic responsibilities for participants (exhibiting the socially equalizing behavior that social anthropologists would call redistributive feasting, e.g. on the island of Janitzio in Michoacan state), to being a religious observance featuring actual worship of the dead (e.g., as in Cuilapan, Oaxaca, an ancient capital of the Zapotec people, who venerated their ancestors and whose descendants do so to this day, an example of many traditional practices that Spanish priests pretend not to notice), to simply being a uniquely Mexican holiday characterized by special foods and confections (the case in all large Mexican cities.) In general, the more urban the setting within Mexico the less religious and cultural importance is retained by observants, while the more rural and Indian the locality the greater the religious and economic import of the holiday. Because of this, this observance is usually of greater social importance in southern Mexico than in the northern part of the country.
 
Every fall, the dead are commemorated in a lively show of dance, music and theatre in Portland's longest-running Day of the Dead celebration. This year's story is set in the late 1800s, just prior to the Mexican Revolution, when the working people stood up to the rich landowners and demanded their fair share. In the zócalo, or town square, a troupe of poor actors has arrived to present its annual street theatre production of Don Juan Tenorio (a play that has since become a Día de los muertos tradition in Mexico and one of the most produced plays in Spain). But amidst the actors' preparations enters the spirit of Don Juan himself, quite upset that no one has remembered him on this special day. How will he enjoy the pleasures of life again if no one has built him an ofrenda (altar) filled with his favorite things? The world's most devilish romantic blames the play for presenting him in such an unfavorable light, and he begins to intervene with the show, plotting to change the ending! In the end, will Don Juan discover a new perspective on life, love and second chances?
 
Miracle Theatre Group's 2010-2011 season is funded in part by Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Regional Arts & Culture Council and Work for Art, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Kinsman Foundation, Collins Foundation, James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, Juan Young Trust, Shubert Foundation, U.S. Bank/U.S. Bancorp Foundation, El Hispanic News and El Centinela.
 
The restaurant sponsor for the opening night of ¡Viva Don Juan! is La Bamba.
 
The Miracle Theatre Group has been dedicated to bringing the vibrancy of Latino theatre to the Northwest community and beyond for more than 25 years. In addition to its national tours, Miracle provides a home for Spanish and Latin American 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 Miracle Theatre Group, visit www.milagro.org or call 503-236-7253.
 

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