More Information About Working Titles: Latina/o Arts Now!

Description

Friday, June 24 @ 8:30pm
Brazilian-born choreographer Marina Magalhães presents a new work of contemporary dance theater, “Talk Back: Crônicas of Power,” which features a colorful and thought-provoking series of dance crônicas, or first-person short stories. “Talk Back” employs a visceral blend of samba, Afro-Brazilian and contemporary dance that gives voice to unheard and misrepresented Latino/a characters in the uncomfortable, contradictory and sometimes downright hillarious places of power struggles. To the beats of Caetano Veloso's flowery Bossa Nova, the eccentric sounds of Forró in the Dark, and original composition from world-renowned Brazilian musician, Badi Assad, Magalhães celebrates and critiques performance practices ranging anywhere from the internationally-venerated and overtly-machista Brazilian soccer game, to the festive traditions of carnaval and forró.

Crystal Sepulveda’s “Dirty Laundry on Sundays” is a non-linear solo performance of fantastical images.  Sepulveda re-imagines the nature of domestic space as a site that is both enticingly absurd and perhaps all too familiar. Imagine, a woman who “lost” her skirt cleverly discovers a new function for her personal items. Driven by desire and the need to break up the tedium of household chores, she transforms with each layer of panties that endlessly deprives the voyeuristic observer of pleasure; or maybe not.

Saturday, June 25 @ 8:30pm
Marissa Chibas’s “Clara’s Los Angeles” is a performance piece with a silent video and live music component about a Latina wardrobe mistress from the 1920s who wakes up on a park bench in current day Silver Lake, Los Angeles and confronts the completely transformed world she has been catapulted into.

Eva Montealegre’s “Reinventing Eve-A” represents her quest to reclaim her true identity, as Montealegre pursues everything Cuban. Informed by dreams and visions, she became engrossed with the past and searched out the roots of her lineage throughout history, discovering the truth about her family and her Jewish heritage in Spain, Italy and Cuba.

Marcos Najera’s "Brown Oxygen/Oxigeno” is a collection of monologues performed through movement and metaphor that explore the inner workings of the Latino mind and people of color. The project asks the question: where do mental health problems and mood disorders originate inside our heads? Collaborators include Leslie Ishii (voice), Sheetal Ghandi (movement), Debra Piver (acting), Dorinne Kondo (dramaturgy) and Juliette Carrillo (direction).

About the Ticket Supplier: Highways Performance Space

Highways Performance Space is Southern California's boldest center for new performance. Founded in 1989, Highways continues to be an important alternative cultural center in Los Angeles that encourages fierce new artists from diverse communities to develop and present innovative works.

Highways promotes the development of contemporary socially involved artists and art forms. Our mission is implemented through four programs (the performance space, workshop/university program and two galleries). Annually, Highways co-presents approximately 250 performances by solo dramatic artists, small theater groups, dance companies and spoken word artists; curates and exhibits approximately 12 contemporary visual art exhibits per year with work that explores the boundaries between performing and visual art forms; commissions and premieres new work by outstanding performing artists; organize special events, curate festival, offer residency and educational programs that engage community members in the arts while providing access to professionally-directed instruction.