"Conversation with an Apple" at UT-Austin, April 10

Friday, April 10

6:30pm

Free; donations to support 4th Annual Cultural Studies in Education Conference welcome

University of Texas at Austin

George I. Sánchez Building (SZB)

Al-Kiva Room

Parking available in the Brazos Garage (BRG)

210 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.

Followed by a Social Hour 8pm-9:30pm at El Mercado, Fiesta Room
1702 Lavaca St.

In this original one-act solo play, the protagonist, a new fifth-grade teacher, struggles to keep hope alive. The audience witnesses the protagonist, Ms. Eden, as she teaches and shares stories from her first years of teaching, which coincide with the first years of the Obama presidency. She shares stories of her relationships with her students in a historically underserved school, and of her students' relationships to President Barack Obama. As Ms. Eden is forced to come to terms with the stubborn persistence of racial inequities in the classroom and in the nation, she questions if and how change is possible.

This play is fictional, but is informed by playwright Natalie Goodnow’s experiences as a teaching artist in central Texas schools, and by research and dialogue with stakeholders in education. Goodnow is a nationally recognized theatre artist from Austin, Texas who creates and directs activist performance for stages, streets, and classrooms. This performance is one component of her M.F.A. thesis project, "Conversation with an Apple: Play Development as Movement-Building Against Mass Incarceration."  Natalie is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.

This performance is taking place as part of the 4th Annual Cultural Studies in Education Conference taking place April 10-11 at the University of Texas at Austin. This conference seeks to explore how liberatory teaching and learning practices mobilize communities to work together for social justice.  Registration available here.  More information available on this Facebook event page too.

Eagle Woman Poems: a 12-hour performance meditation

Saturday, August 11

8:00 am to 8:00 pm

Drop in for as little or as long as you like

Reception at 8:00 pm

Austin, TX

Exact address will be mailed to guests after RSVP

$5 suggested donation

at the door or at event web page

RSVP and/or donate here:

http://makinggoodnow.pingg.com/EagleWomanPoems

Eagle Woman lives in a landfill. It is her job to make sense of the mess. This is what women do. It is what words do. These are the poetics of sifting through the filth.

But is an eagle capable of such a task?

This performance art event will consist of an eagle's attempts at poetry in time and space.

Based on Goodnow's collaboration with the Generic Ensemble Company in July 2010: "Eagle Woman Poems: an in-progress showing," and on "Eagle Woman Poems: an installation/performance" at Co-Lab Project Space in July 2011.

This project is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com. 

 

 

"Guapa" by Caridad Svich at the Austin Latino New Play Festival, April 7!

Teatro Vivo (in collaboration with ScriptWorks) presents
The Second Annual Austin Latino New Play Festival
April 5-7 at 8pm
Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St.

These staged readings are workshop-style presentations with lively readings using props and movement on stage. After each workshop, the playwright, director and actors will participate in moderated talkback sessions with the audience.

Admission is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Reservations can be made early at http://www.teatrovivo.org.

Thursday, April 5 (8 p.m.): Rosalia by Arthur Bryan Marroquin
Rosalia, based on Arthur Bryan Marroquin’s mother, exhibits her struggle to find herself as she grows up in a poverty stricken household in Autlan, Jalisco, Mexico. As she and her cousin, Emilia, help their families by maintaining jobs, Rosalia longs for more. In her decision to marry a man from America she is forced to lead a new life. This play tells the true story of an inspirational woman, a devoted daughter, wife and mother who overcame many hardships to find a new and better life for her family.

Arthur Bryan Marroquin is currently pursuing a BA in Acting from the University of Texas at Austin. He was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley in Weslaco, Texas. He has been performing since elementary school and has spent most of his time in the theatre on stage. Most recently, he was in UT’s production of Bacha Bazi, and is in their next production, Love’s Labour’s Lost. Rosalia is Marroquin’s first full-length production based on his own family’s history.

Friday, April 6 (8 p.m.): Cura by Raul Garza
Cura explores what happens when faith is tested to its limits. In a small Texas bordertown, a humble, defeated woman of faith, Amparo, encounters both spiritual hope and crisis in a young man who may or may not be the legendary Curandero/Saint, El Niño Fidencio.

Raul Garza’s first full-length play, Fantasmaville, received the 2007 National Latino Playwriting Award. As a writer for Austin’s Latino Comedy Project, Raul contributed to numerous stage and touring shows. When not writing plays, Raul teaches yoga, fills up on pop culture and serves as co-founder and creative director of TKO Advertising. He received his degree in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin. Raul is an adjunct professor of Communications at St. Edward’s University, teaching integrated campaigns courses.

Saturday, April 7 (8 p.m.): Guapa by Caridad Svich
Guapa takes place in a small Texas town, caught in the long history of class struggle/racism, where we find Roly, a single mother, and her makeshift family. Taken in by the family is a young woman named simply Guapa (Beautiful), who dreams of playing women's soccer. This is a story about a working class family trying to make ends meet with magical dreams of sports, graffiti, birds in flight, indigenous history, trauma, recovery, and the viable possibilities of a better life. Workshop production directed by Natalie Goodnow!

Caridad Svich is a highly-awarded US Latina playwright, translator, songwriter, lyricist and editor. Svich was awarded the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende. Her theatre pieces and songs, written in English and Spanish, have been presented across the US and abroad at diverse venues including Denver Center Theatre, Teatro Mexico (Quito, Ecuador), and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, founder of NoPassport theater alliance & press, associate editor of Routledge/UK's Contemporary Theatre Review, contributing editor of TheatreForum, and Drama Editor for Asymptote international translation magazine. Svich is astutely entered in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino History.

"Mud Offerings" at UT, March 31!

 I'll be performing "Mud Offerings" at the Feminist Action Project Conference!

7:00 pm
Doors Open 6:45pm
The Utopia Theater in the School of Social Work
The University of Texas
Austin, TX

And keynote performer Sharon Bridgforth will be performing at 8!

Performances free and open to the public!
More information here: http://feministactionproject.blogspot.com/

This activist, student-driven conference is in its second year at the University of Texas at Austin.  The vision for this conference is to create a space where this generation of feminists can meet, network, and workshop ideas for feminist activism. The Feminist Action Project includes lectures and panels about different kinds of activism, workshops to help attendees plan sustainable activist projects, and networking sessions. The project is open to all levels of students (high school, undergraduate, graduate), feminists, and feminist allies.

"Mud Offerings" at Southwestern University, April 3 (my alma mater!)

Teatro Vivo Auditions!

Check it out!  I'll be directing Guapa by Caridad Svich!

Teatro Vivo announces

The Austin Latino New Play Festival 2012 * April 5 – 7, 2012

Actor Auditions for the Festival: February 15 and 16, 2012 6pm - 9pm

Audition Location: Community Engagement Center 

1009 E. 11th Austin 78702 

The Auditions!
February 15 and 16 6pm - 9pm at Community Engagement Center 1009 E. 11th Austin 78702

Parts are available for men and women ages 18-80+. Knowledge of Spanish for some roles is a plus but not required. Actors should prepare a comedic and a dramatic monologue. Each monologue should be 1- 2 min. in length

Auditions are by appointment only.
Email JoAnn at joannreyes@yahoo.com or call 512 413-6791.
Upon request a preview script of each production can be emailed prior the audition.

The Festival!
April 5 -7 8pm at The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center

Teatro Vivo in conjunction with the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center and ScriptWorks will present the Austin Latino New Play Festival April 5 – 7, 2012. This second annual festival will showcase staged readings of three new plays (one per evening).

The plays selected this year from submissions are Guapa by Caridad Svich, Cura by Raul Garza and Rosalia by Arthur Marroquin

The Rehearsal!
Saturday March 24, 12 noon – 4pm,
Monday – Thursday March 26 – March 29, 6–9 pm
Monday – Wednesday April 2 – 4, 6 – 9 pm

Other Important Info for Actors!
The Austin Latino New Play Festival will take place at the MACC. Each play will be presented in a workshop production format. This format is much more active and rehearsed than a regular play reading. The three separate casts of each production will have a 2-week rehearsal period with a director and work in conjunction with the playwright and dramaturg to develop the workshop production. There is a $100 stipend for actors selected. Actors selected for this project will be considered for Teatro Vivo’s future main stage productions.

60-in-60

WHEN: February 22, 2012 8:00 pm 

WHERE: ND @501 Studios (501 I-35, entrance on Brushy between 5th and 6th street)

It's back. 60 performances in 60 minutes.

Get your Fusebox motor running at this special event to benefit the 2012 Fusebox Festival. 60 of Austins finest performers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, thinkers, and community leaders (including Natalie Goodnow!) will line up to perform sixty solo pieces in 60 minutes.

This rip roaring event is crucial for funding our festival. We would love to have you join us. Be among the first to hear the festival line-up, get festival guides, and purchase discounted passes. Our hosts for this raucous event are none other than Jason Newman and Westen Borghesi.

More awesomeness:
Raffle to win a trip to Portland, OR with Ron Berry for TBA 2012
Silent auction curated by the masterful fellas from Rubber Repertory
Food/Drink specials, prize drawings, and other surprises
60-in-60 includes admission to after-party with surprise guest performance

Doors open at 7pm, VIP event begins at 6:30pm.

Be a Digestible Feats VIP:
Digestible Feats VIPs will receive a special, intimate, pre-party experience featuring 60 single serving appetizers and 60 single serving beverages curated by the Fusebox Digestible Feats Staff, and a presentation by Matt & Josh from Rubber Rep detailing the exciting adventures up for bid int eh silent Auction. There are 3,600 possible food/beverage pairings and you cannot eat/drink the same thing twice. Capacity is limited to only 20 VIPs.

BUY EVENT & RAFFLE TICKETS ONLINE HERE