Staff Writer
Los Angeles — The Latino Theater Company announces their Fall 2020 Virtual Season. Over the next five months, the company will stream a combination of archival footage of past, fully-staged hit productions; live streamed, “sneak-peek” readings of plays set for on-stage production in 2021; live online conversations with company members and live readings of new plays selected for the company’s annual Unmasking New Works playreading series.
Now in its 34th year, LTC has operated The Los Angeles Theatre since 2006. All events are scheduled, on the respective dates listed below, to take place at 7 p.m. PST. All events are free and will be available for viewing at www.thelatc.org/.
Opening on Tuesday, Aug. 18 with with a production of Premeditation, a dark romantic comedy written by resident company playwright Evelina Fernández and directed by LTC artistic director José Luis Valenzuela. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, but how many end in murder?
Aug. 25 – Streaming of production of Solitude, also written by Fernández and directed by Valenzuela. Inspired by a collection of essays on Mexican thought and identity by Octavio Paz, Solitude explores love, death, destiny and family through a contemporary lens, accompanied by live music from cellist Semyon Kobialka.
Aug. 28th – A sneak-peek reading of August 29, exactly 50 years ago, when Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar was killed while covering a large Chicano-led anti-war demonstration in East L.A. A university professor is writing a book on the life of Salazar. As she writes, those days from the late 1960s and early 1970s come to life, helping her recall the past and challenging her to renew her activism. Written and first produced in 1990 by members of the Latino Theater Company, then known as the Latino Theater Lab, August 29 was initially announced to open this month at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and is now scheduled to receive a fully staged production in 2021.
September will bring archival video of La Olla. Fernández and Valenzuela team up again for La Olla, adapted from the Roman comedy The Pot of Gold by Plautus and inspired by the Rumberas films of the golden age of Mexican Cinema. Also, Playwright’s Alfredo Ramos‘ The Last Angry Brown Hat by has four former members of the Brown Berets, a 1960s militant Chicano civil rights group, who get together after the funeral of a pal. Together, they confront the dichotomy between their youthful anger and radicalism, and their current, more conformist lives.
This is a Man’s World, a semi-autobiographical coming of age story written and performed by LTC founding company member Sal Lopez, is scheduled for Sept. 8 and a sneak-peek reading of SHE, a new coming-of-age drama by Los Angeles-based emerging playwright Marlow Wyatt on Friday, Sept. 11. ike August 29, the on-stage world premiere of SHE has been postponed until next year.
La Victima created by El Teatro De La Esperanza, a story infused with humor, music and dance, with the background of history of Mexican-US immigration from the intimate perspective of two families. Watch archival footage of the 2010 revival featuring the late Lupe Ontiveros (Selena, Desperate Housewives), who was one of LTC’s founding company members, on Sept. 15.
On Sept. 18, catch a sneak-peek reading of the newest play by Evelina Fernández: Sleep with the Angels. Molly is separated from her husband and in desperate need of a childcare provider. Then she discovers Juana standing at her doorstep. Soon, Molly and her kids are swept up into Juana’s magical and charming ways. But, who is Juana, really.
Sept. 22 brings archival video footage of last season’s Home, writer/performer Nancy Ma’s coming-of-age tale about growing up sandwiched between two cultures. Join Ma and director Geoffrey Rivas for an online conversation on Sept. 23.
A sneak-peek reading of Just Like Us by Karen Zacariás is set for Sept. 25, with the online conversation preceding it on Sept. 24. Based on Helen Thorpe’s bestselling book of the same name, this documentary-style play follows four Latina teenage girls, two of whom are documented and two who are not, through young adulthood. The previously announced Los Angeles premiere will now take place at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 2021.
Archival footage of Fernández’s Los Angeles Times “Critic’s Choice” The Mother of Henry will stream on Sept. 29. Travel back to the working class melting pot of East LA of the 1960s where five diverse employees in the returns department at the iconic Boyle Heights Sears form a tight bond as they cope with upheaval in their personal lives, their community and the rapidly changing world around them during the course of one tumultuous and historic year – 1968.
The Unmasking New Works play reading series will stream from Oct. 1st – Nov. 20th, every Friday, with a preceding on-line conversation set for the Thursday prior to each reading. Plays to be read will be selected and the final schedule will be announced in September.
In October, the LTC will stream Evelina Fernández’s epic A Mexican Trilogy. Part 1, Faith, will stream on Oct. 6; Part 2, Hope will stream on Oct. 13; and Part 3, Charity, will stream on Oct. 20. Travel with the Morales family through decades of the Mexican-American experience.
Archival footage of Dementia, written by Fernández will stream on Oct. 27. The play tackles topics taboo in the Latino community, including homosexuality, AIDS, teen pregnancy and euthanasia.
Closing out the season on Friday, Dec. 11will be archival video of Latino Theater Company’s signature holiday pageant, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin. Join the tens of thousands who have become transfixed by the story of Juan Diego, a simple peasant to whom the Virgin Mary appeared on four occasions in the mountains of Tepeyac near Mexico City in 1531. A Los Angeles Times “Critic’s Choice,” the production has been featured by The New York Times, American Theatre, Univision, Telemundo and Fox News among many others.
All Fall 2020 Virtual Season events are free and will be available for viewing at www.thelatc.org/.