OSF To Host Celebration Of Latinx Play Project With Panel Discussion

To celebrate the culmination of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Latinx Play Project (LxPP), OSF will host a panel discussion featuring five veteran Latinx playwrights as they discuss the joys and challenges of working in professional theatre today, finding artistic home, and making work that speaks to the times we are in. The discussion will take place on Sunday, September 29 at 10 a.m. at Carpenter Hall and also be livestreamed by Howlround.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Please contact the OSF Box Office at (800) 219-8161 for reservations or visit the website at https://www.osfashland.org/en/ticketing/2019/september.aspx.

The panel, Working From Home / Trabajando Desde Casa: Five Migrant Artists Talk About Working & Writing in America & Ashland, features Luis Alfaro (Mojada, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner), Richard Montoya (American Night), Mildred Ruiz-Sapp (Party People, UniSon), Octavio Solis (Mother Road, Don Quixote, El Paso Blue), and Karen Zacarías (The Copper Children, Destiny of Desire) and is moderated by Dr. Tiffany Ana López (Production Dramaturg, Mojoda and Mother Road).

OSF's LxPP was founded in 2014 in response to a lack of play development programs in the American theatre dedicated to furthering and showcasing plays by Latinx writers. Led by OSF's Associate Artistic Director, Christopher Acebo, and OSF's former Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence for six years from 2013-2019, Luis Alfaro, the program was inspired by previous Latinx theatre movements in the U.S. to focus deeply on mentorship.

OSF's LxPP convened as series of original projects occurring every two years that included play readings, panels, cafecitos, variety shows, etc., and was open to the public. As part of OSF's BLACK SWAN Lab, LxPP workshops highlighted emerging Latinx writers work, created a residency for a cohort of playwrights, and also paired them with a mentor Latinx writer. LxPP also featured workshop/s and or reading/s of work by Latinx writers, including Octavio Solis (Mother Road), Carmen Aguirre (The Refugee Hotel), Sandra Delgado, Lily Padilla, Mónica Sanchez, Nancy Garcia Loza, Mariana Carreño-King, Diana Burbano, Israel López Reyes, Janine Salinas Schoenberg, and Matthew Paul Olmos.

OSF's LxPP has been the only play development program at a major U.S. regional theatre that has paired veteran and emerging Latinx storytellers, while focusing on both the work and the artist. The goals have been to develop and present new plays by Latinx writers; provide a forum for artists, producers and audiences to discuss and advance Latinx theatre; deepen partnerships with Latinx communities locally and in Oregon; and to sustain and deepen the momentum of OSF's commitment to inclusion.

In recent years, LxPP work was also made possible through generous grants from Time Warner Foundation.

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