RAICES – A PLAY READING SERIES OF VOCES LATINAS
Four Different Latino Playwrights, Full Casts Of Local Latino Actors…
Our Stories Shared With The Community.
For the first time Road Less Traveled Productions and RLTP Ensemble member Victoria Perez will join forces to bring a unique play-reading series to WNY. The RAICES series will consist of 4 plays written by Latino playwrights and dealing with the Latino experience.
“Some plays will be in English, some will be in Spanish, and most of them will be in Spanglish,” said Perez, who is the artistic director of the series. “Spanglish is the way we think, therefore it has to be the way we see ourselves on the stage.”
All of the readings will take place on Sundays at 6pm at the Road Less Traveled Theater inside the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre.
Admission is a suggested donation of $5.00.
For more information, please contact Victoria Pérez at 716-238-1522 or email at nosotros310@hotmail.com.
Series Schedule:
Sunday, November 18th
LA GRINGA, written by Carmen Rivera, directed by Sheila Lopez, and starring Sarielys Matos, Rolando Gomez, Victoria Perez, Jose Rivera, Mercedes Perez, and Dewel Perez. LA GRINGA is a play about the search for one’s identity. Maria Elena Garcia, a Nuyorican, visits her uncle in Puerto Rico during Christmas holidays and arrives with plans to connect with her homeland. The only problem is that in Puerto Rico she is thought of as an American – a Gringa.
Sunday, January 27th
EL INSOLITO CASO DE MISS PIÑA COLADA (THE PREPOSTEROUS CASE OF MISS PIÑA COLADA), by Carlos Ferrari is a hilarious play about a mother’s outlandish and incredible measures to make sure that her daughter is crowned Miss Piña Colada. Carlos Ferrari’s play is a bitingly funny exploration of society’s frivolous consumption and its obsession with appearances.
Sunday, March 17th
LA LUZ DE UN CIGARILLO (THE LIGHT OF A CIGARETTE) by Marco Antonio Rodriguez unfolds over the course of two evenings, as mother and son, two estranged generations of Dominicans living in mid-town Manhattan, attempt to rekindle the love and appreciation for each other and their roots… but unexpectedly reveal intimate and taboo secrets which threaten to destroy an already thin bond.
Sunday, April 28th
COSER Y CANTAR by Dolores Prida. The reading is part of an evening which “explores and celebrates the roles of Latinas in arts, culture, and society of the United States”. The play focuses on Ella and She - two halves of the same person. Ella is a Cuban immigrant, while She is her more Americanized self. Although the play was written in 1981, López maintained that the topic of Hispanic-American identity was timeless, “especially when we are the fastest growing community in the United States!” The second half of the evening will be an “exploration in words” of the roles of Latinas in the United States. Pérez said that the Raíces ensemble would “explore our identity and the struggle of living within two cultures”. All of the women who have participated in the Raíces Voces Latinas reading series to date will appear; performers include Smirna Mercedes-Pérez, Mariana Cole-Rivera, Ingrid Córdova, Sarielys Matos, Rosa Fernández, and Pérez who will also direct. The reading will star Rosa Fernández and Sarielys Matos, with narration by Rebecca Ward. Sheila M. López will direct.
