7:00 pm
This event will be a stage reading of Interview with a Mexican, based on conversations with Gustavo Arellano, columnist and author of Ask a Mexican and Taco USA, as adapted for the stage by Anthony J. Garcia.
A carnival of conversations and random perspectives about what it means to be a Mexican, inside or outside the US. Over the years, Gustavo Arellano has established himself as the authority on what it is to be a Mexican in his newspaper column Ask a Mexican. He challenged “gabachos” (his word) to come out of the closet and ask the obvious, ignorant, and sometime racist questions, which he met with derision and insult, but also with a tremendous amount of information. The ultimate Chicano nerd has placed his trust in making the transformation of his writings three-dimensional in the hands of Tony Garcia, Executive Artistic Director of Su Teatro in Denver. A 46-year veteran of sarcasm and cultural enlightenment, Garcia is inspired by the character of Gold Hat from the movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a role long viewed as a stereotypical portrayal of the Mexican bandit. However, what is often overlooked is the sly genius of Adolfo Bedoya, the actor who played Gold Hat.
The play, with musical accompaniment, is set to open in September at Su Teatro, and will return to the NHCC in its full version in November after a brief stop at MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americano) in San Jose, CA. An additional performance is scheduled at Colorado State University in Pueblo, CO, with other stops pending.
The reading is part of a process of development funded by the National Performance Network, which has as commissioning partners Su Teatro, MACLA, Colorado State University-Pueblo and the NHCC.
Participating actors include Lorenzo Gonzales, Chair of the Acting Department at Naropa University in Boulder, CO; Manuel Roybal, former Su Teatro company member and now a resident of Albuquerque; and the legendary Loren Poole, aka Lynette “La Burqueña.”