Brown/Trinity Rep Announce March Thesis Show AN ACORN

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program proudly presents its March thesis show, directed by Mauricio Salgado (Brown/Trinity Rep MFA '18). The play, An Acorn, by Caridad Svich, deals with humanity's response to a crisis and how memory, grief, and finding each other can save us all. The play begins performances March 1, 2018 at 7:30 pm, and will close on March 11, 2018 at 2:00 pm at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St., Downtown Providence. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com.

In An Acorn, there has been a crisis. It's far-reaching, and as so often happens in these moments, anxieties rise and our resolve is tested. For some, life must now be compartmentalized. For others, vitriol and spite are all they can see. And for one, memory becomes important. Memory, and the discovery of an acorn on the floor on a fateful day. Following these memories and this acorn to a forest this person finds what everyone truly craves in a crisis-hope. A poetic play designed to capture our tumultuous era, An Acorn brings us from grief to survival.

Mauricio Salgado, the director, was drawn to the play for its observations on how humans handle traumatic and shocking events. "Where do we find hope in the midst of depression? When we are drowning in anxiety? This is a question I wrestle with everyday in light of the ongoing environmental catastrophe, the risk of nuclear war, mass incarceration, economic crisis, mass deportation, structural sexism, the killing of black and brown folks. Sometimes I face it head on, sometimes I compartmentalize it, sometimes I run away from it." The play's characters, most of which Mauricio and the cast are defining, given the poetic nature of the script, act much in that way at the start, but slowly find ways to cope. "As I fumble about, trying to keep from giving up to indifference, I hear a voice, or I feel a hand on my shoulder, or I smell something that reminds me of love and I am surprised. That's what I'm after with An Acorn-I'm in search of that kind of surprise. A surprise that will help us release and begin to heal."

Mauricio Salgado is a first generation US artist pursuing justice and healing through a decolonial framework. Directing credits include Displaced: A Response to Qurban (Boston Conservatory), Unpacking Home and Sorry (La Guardia Performing Arts Center), Landscape of a Journey (Santa Clara University), One for the Road by Harold Pinter (Edinborough Just Festival), Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimke, Mud by Maria Irene Fornes, and The Winter's Tale (Brown/Trinity). Mauricio is currently co-producing Remember2019, a series of residencies for cultural workers in South Phillips County to reckon with the history of the mass lynching that took place in 1919 and its current effects on the community.

With over nine years of experience planning and building arts education programs for diverse communities, Mauricio Salgado served as the Director of Programming for Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP), a nonprofit that provides arts education and empowerment programs for underserved youth. As a founding member of ASTEP, Mauricio recruited and trained volunteers to serve in ASTEP's domestic and international programs and managed and evaluated partnerships while researching and developing new programs. Originally from Miami, Florida, Mauricio graduated with a BFA from The Juilliard School. As an actor, he appeared in Love's Labour's Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, The Cenci at Ohio Theatre, La Llorona/The Crying Woman at the Beckett Theatre, John Jezurun's Philoctetes at the Kaaitheater [Brussels], and the premiere of Marco Ramirez' Mermaids, Monsters and the World Painted Purple at the Kennedy Center. In March of 2009, he was presented with the prestigious Martin E Segal Award in recognition of his work with ASTEP.

Performances for An Acorn run March 1 - March 11, 2018 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Providence, RI. General admission is $15 with a discounted price of $10 for seniors and $7 for students. Tickets are on sale now online at www.TrinityRep.com, by calling (401) 351-4242 or at Trinity Rep's box office at 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provide a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League university and Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University's Department of Theater and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists.

An Acorn

By Caridad Svich

March 1 - March 11, 2018

Director: Mauricio Salgado (Brown/Trinity Rep '18)

Cast: Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Class of 2018 Actors:

• Shenyse LeAnna Harris
• Marcel Mascaro
• Jayne McLendon
• Billy Hutto
• Octavia Chavez-Richmond
• John Noble Barrack
• Oriana Lada

Performances:

• Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 pm
• Friday, March 2 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, March 3 at 2:00 pm
• Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, March 4 at 2:00 pm
• Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 pm
• Friday, March 9 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, March 10 at 2:00 pm
• Saturday, March 10 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 pm

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