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La Edad de la Ciruela, The Aging of the Plum
by playwright Aristides Vargas  
directed by Abel Lopez
produced by  GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square
reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

GALA director Abel Lopez and his inspired performers make The Aging of the Plum/La Edad de la Ciruela so mesmerizing and real, it moves beyond magic into the sublime. Enacted to the max in the exaggerated style of magical realism, the actors cut to the heart of it and deliver Aristides Vargas’ poetic imagery, as if playing a beautiful violin sonata. (more…)

• Agustín Lara: Boleros & Blues      
• Book by Gabriel Garcia; musically adapted by Mari Paz         
• Conceived and directed by Abel Lopez                                     
• Produced by the GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy   

Who was Agustín Lara, known as Mexico’s musical poet? Worshipped by swooning fans as “Our Golden Skinny Man,” Lara wrote gorgeous, romantic ballads, or boleros, and lived the life of his lyrics-as a woman’s dream of a Latin lover. (more…)

• Blood Wedding
• Written by Federico Garcia Lorca
• Directed by Hugo Medrano
• Choreographed by Danilo Rivera and Genoveva Guinn
• Produced by GALA Teatro Hispano
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Blood Wedding. The title tells the story.  No surprises, everything is literal, predictable, and straight forward, right?  Wrong.  Sure the basic storyline is clearly stated in the title and known in literature worldwide.  But, Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry is an aural feast that must be experienced for the full effect.  GALA’s production of Blood Wedding is a mystical blend of Lorca’s beautiful imagery, authentic Andalusian music, undulating rhythms, even a dazzling taste of flamenco to assure the sizzle factor is caliente.  This show is hot. (more…)

• Your Molotov Kisses (Tu Ternura Molotov)
• by Gustavo Ott
• Directed by Abel Lopez
• Produced by GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy        

Venezuelan playwright Gustavo Ott-highly regarded in the Latino community as a fresh, new voice-injects us with a truth serum that can make us squirm. In his latest comedy, Ott makes a passionate plea to balance extremes. His characters show us that since the advent of international Islamic terrorist attacks, whether it’s crazy or not, we all seem to be living with terror on our minds. Women can be more than sexy bombshells; they can be the bombs themselves.  So let’s detonate all wrong-headed cultural biases. Let’s make love, not war. (more…)

• Cita a Ciegas (Blind Date)
• by Mario Diament
• Directed by Jose Carrasquillo
• Produced by GALA
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

Cita a Ciegas is a terrifyingly beautiful, imagistic play in which a blind man interviews isolated strangers on a park bench, and finds interconnections between them and his own life. If Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot is about waiting; then Diament’s play is about our deep need to achieve immortality by being heard as we face the meaninglessness of existence. (more…)

Latido Negro, Peru’s African Beat

directed by Rafael Santa Cruz

written by Fernando Barreto Arce

choreographed by Lalo Izquierdo,

review by Rosalind Lacy

Break down the barriers. Let fusion reign. In GALA’s world premiere of a new musical Latido Negro: Peru’s African Beat, intoxicating rhythms of African drums blend with echoes of sweet-and-sad Andean or Spanish flamenco-like melodies. Forget the story.  It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s a frame for the poems, and songs, music and dancing passed down from the Afro-Peruvian soul. (more…)

Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue

By Quiara Alegria Hudes

Produced by GALA Hispanic Theatre

Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

(l to r) Manolo Santalla (Pop), Laura Giannarelli (Ginny), Norman Aronovic (Grandpop)  (Photos: Daniel Cima)

               In its 2006-2007 season, the GALA Hispanic Theatre continues to put women in the spotlight, Her Work, His Staging. The third play in a series, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, is a memory play about a patriotic Puerto Rican family, written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, a rising Hispanic playwright from Philadelphia. It’s a story about how war stories from Korea, Vietnam and Iraq bind different generations in the same family together.

(more…)

A co-production from Teatro de la Luna and Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia

Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy     

 (L-R): Kathy Hankins, Alvaro Rodríguez, Adriana González  (Photo: Raymond Gniewek)

     Even though Spain was politically unstable in 1904, composer Amadeo Vives found peace from living with freedom in his heart. He looked to the past to celebrate the carefree life of the mid-1800s by composing the music for Bohemians (Bohemios). Passionate lyrics, by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios supported his vision of a love-filled world: The power of love “….makes the flowers in my shawl bloom,” sings the gypsy girl in Act II.      Teatro de la Luna is known for leading its Spanish-speaking audiences to Latino avant garde plays. The Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia is recognized for introducing operas rarely heard. Together the two companies seem perfect partners for producing this zarzuela, a neglected orphan of Spanish musical theater that refuses to die. Beautifully sung by a splendid band of local opera singers under the artistic direction of music director John Edward Niles and staged by Mario Marcel, the ultra-romantic Bohemians soars. (more…)

Produced by GALA Hispanic Theatre
Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

                                           (l to r) Cynthia Benjamin, Carlos Castillo and  Manuel Cabrera-Santos (Photo: Daniel Troconis)

Argentine playwright Griselda Gambaro took an enormous risk because she couldn’t keep silent about “the disappeared.” When she wrote The Walls (Las Paredes) in 1964, she was ahead of her time. She held up a mirror to the reality of never-ending military state terrorism, which started in the 1960s and peaked in 1983 during the Dirty War, a period of kidnappings, Nazi-like tortures and executions by security police. (more…)

“This is a really wonderful production. It goes right to the heart of human emotions. Very touching.” Hugo Medrano, Producing Artistic Director of GALA Hispanic Theatre talks with members of the company of THROAT, the bold new play by Mando Alvarado, who is joined here by director Michael Ray Escamilla and actor Raul Castillo. They discuss the origin of the play,and its journey from a small New York proscenium stage to the intimate four sided space at Flashpoint, to its next stop, a 400 seat movie house in the town Michael and Mando call home, Pharr, Texas.

Listen here.

 

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