GALA Hispanic Theatre’s 2019-2020 season will feature a beloved classic from the Golden Age of Spanish theater leading into two plays by contemporary writers, interspersed with dance, theater for young audience, films and performance pieces.
GALA will initiate its season with Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Life is a Dream, the story of a King who, warned by star charts that his newborn son would some day be a tyrant, banishes the infant to a forest keep under the care of a good friend. Years later the King, recognizing that his life is coming to a close and uncomfortable with his prospective successors, decides to bring his son back for a trial run at rule. Unfortunately, the astrologers were correct. de la Barca’s ingenious solution might provide some ideas to those unhappy with the current political situation. This will be the Nando López adaptation. From September 12 to October 13, 2019; GALA Artistic Director Hugo Madrano directs.
GALA will start 2020 off with Nilo Cruz’s Exquisite Agony. Lorenzo, a composer and an abusive man, has died in a car crash and his heart has been transplanted into the body of Amér. Millie, an opera star, seeks out the man who now carries the heart of her husband, whom she loved despite his faults. “Cruz has a talent for sustaining…doubt,” says Zachary Stewart of Theatermania. “[T]he exquisite agony of which will linger in your mind long after you leave the theater.” From February 6 to March 1 of next year; GALA has not announced a director.
A young man falls in love with his divorced aunt (by marriage) and his father threatens to kill him. An aspirin salesman kills a child in an automobile accident and thereafter can’t bear to be in a motor vehicle; his psychiatrist cures him by teaching him to hate children. Which one is real, and which one is the radio soap opera spun by the master writer? Only the outrageous Nobel-winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa knows for sure, but you will too after you read his novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, or see the Caridad Svich play based on the novel. “I found the adaptation to be true to the spirit of the novel,” Llosa said at the premiere. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter will run from April 23 to May 17, 2020; José Zayas will direct.
All plays will be in Spanish with English surtitles.
In addition to its mainstage theater season, GALA will stage an open weekend of performances by DC theater artists on July 12-13 of this year. On the 12th, Teatro de la Luna will present Aristides Vargas’ Nuestra Señora de las Nubes (Mickey Thomas directs) and on the 13th Teatro la Bolsa will present Dream of Azul, Remember Me, written and directed by Karen Morales-Chicana.
From October 19 to November 2, 2019, GALA will present the first of two bilingual plays for young audiences, Maria Inés Falconi’s Believe It or Not. Eric Swartz directs.
GALA will run its 15th annual Flamenco Festival between November 8-17, 2019, featuring the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company between the 8th and the 10th and Rafael Peral and María Adame between the 14th and the 17th. On November 9, GALA will present Flamenco en Familia on November 9, free to everyone.
GALA’s 8th Annual film festival, Reel Time at GALA, runs between November 20 and 24th of this year, featuring films from Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia. On December 8 and 9, GALA will stage Paul Flores’ We Have Iré. Rosalba Rolón directs.
On January 5, 2020, GALA will present its free Three Kings program to the community at 11.30 am and 2 pm.
The second bilingual play for young audiences, Searching for Menchú, will run between March 14 and 28 of next year. Playwright Cornelia Cody directs.
Finally, in collaboration with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra, GALA will present Ella Es Tango between June 11 and 28, 2020.
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