Dallas, TX (07/9/19) – Cara Mía Theatre’s 24th anniversary season will be the most diverse and inclusive season in the company’s history, according to Executive Artistic Director David Lozano.

“Our 2019-2020 season shares the complexities and nuanced experiences of contemporary US Latinos,” says Executive Artistic Director David Lozano. “This season will feature Afro, indigenous, queer, body positive and female-centered narratives within the context of stories about coming-of-age, music, culture, immigration and health. This is a new kind of season for Cara Mía Theatre that convenes artists from around the country and different local communities to turn our theatre into a gathering place for diverse voices.”

This season will kick offs with Latinidades: A Festival of Solo Shows. The festival will open with Puerto Rican poet, singer, and actor Flaco Navaja’s love letter to salsa and the Bronx, Evolution of a Sonero. Latinidades will continue with Your Healing is Killing Me by Virginia Grise, a performance about the journey of a Queer, body positive Chicana who navigates the health care system and unearths the traumatic stress of people of color; Ursula, a border experience through the eyes of child by Cara Mía Theatre Artistic Ensemble Member Frida Espinosa-Müller (workshopped in last season’s Teatro En Fuga: A Festival of New Works).

The season continues with the Dallas premiere of Emilio Rodriguez’s coming-of-age journey about the angst of coming out and self-acceptance, centered in a homeless LGBTQ shelter, Swimming While Drowning; the return of the heartfelt, politically charged, and female-driven Latinx classic, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; the regional premiere of My Red Hand, My Black Hand, a renewed collaboration with Dallas’ Soul Rep Theatre about a mixed-race teenager digging into her Native and African-American roots, and staged readings throughout the season of new works-in-development by local and regional writers (TBD). Productions will take place at the Latino Cultural Center.

Cara Mía Theatre’s 2019-20 Season

Latinidades: A Festival of Solo Shows

August 15 - September 8, 2019

NYC’s Pregones and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater’s
Evolution of a Sonero (August 15 - August 18, 2019)

Written and performed by Flaco Navaja
Music performed live by the Razor Blades
Directed by Jorge B. Merced

With unabashed love for The Bronx, a gift for crafting memorable characters, and genuine good humor, Navaja and five top-notch musicians – aka The Razor Blades – bring on the charm, the rhythm, and the soul essential to a Bronx Sonero. Paying homage to many great musical icons—from Janis Joplin to Menudo, from The Doors to Héctor Lavoe, from Jimi Hendrix to Rubén Blades—the play is as much about Navaja’s creative evolution as it is about the wild mix that gives life to a rhyme, a people and a culture.

Please note: Recommended for ages 15 and up. Performance is in English, but some Spanish may be used.

In association with a todo dar productions from Austin, TX
Your Healing is Killing Me (August 15 - August 18, 2019)

Written by Virginia Grise
Performed by Florinda Bryant
Directed by Kendra Ware

When the US health system meets a Queer, Chicana body, its full limitations come into sharp focus. The result is a manifesto full of clarity into the revolution that must come in order for our society to truly care for its most vulnerable.

Your Healing is Killing Me is a collaborative touring production in development.

Please note: Recommended for ages 18 and up. Performance is in English.

Ursula (August 29 - September 8, 2019)

Written and Performed by Frida Espinosa-Müller
Composed and Performed by Armando Monsivais

Ursula tells the journey of Nadia, a 7 year-old, separated from her mother after seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border. As Nadia waits for her asylum to be processed, she reflects on the difficulties she is leaving behind in Honduras and the new reality she is facing. Live, original music from will take audiences into Nadia’s mind as she tries to make sense of all that is happening around her.

Ursula is a Cara Mía Theatre touring production in development.

Please note: Recommended for ages 10 and up. Performed primarily in Spanish with English supertitles.

Swimming While Drowning

Dallas Premiere
By Emilio Rodriguez
Directed by Jorge B. Merced

November 29 – December 15, 2019

When teenager Angelo Mendez decides to leave his home out of fear of further disappointing his homophobic father, he encounters a world he was not prepared for at an LGBT homeless shelter in Los Angeles. There he meets a fellow homeless teen who gives him a voice and unexpectedly introduces him to love. Angelo ultimately learns that all relationships, no matter how powerful, have an unfortunate time cap - which he must cope with through his writing. A dark romantic comedy that is simultaneously gritty, sweet, funny, heartbreaking and real.

Recommended for ages 16 and up. Performed in English.

The House on Mango Street

Written by Sandra Cisneros
Adapted by Amy Ludwig
Directed by David Lozano

February 20 – March 8, 2019

Esperanza's story is the experience of so many Latinas between childhood and adolescence. We see her rush into the innocent games, fantasies and friendships of childhood, yet she begins to become conscious of the dangers and contradictions of being a young women living in the barrio. Esperanza tries to make sense of her place in the world while observing the lives of the women around her and decides hers is going to be different.

Recommended for ages 13 and up.

My Red Hand, My Black Hand

Regional Premiere
By Dael Orlandersmith

May 15 – May 31, 2019

This beautiful exploration and celebration of the historic and cultural nuances tells the story of one girl's courageous search for belonging and acceptance in the two very distinct cultures that make up her heritage—African American and Native American.

Recommended for ages 14 and up. Performed in English.

SEASON PASS & MEMBERSHIP, LATINIDADES FESTIVAL PASS, and SINGLE TICKET PURCHASE INFORMATION

Passes & Memberships: $85 - $250

Latinidades Festival Pass only: $30 - 40

Season Single Tickets: $18
Senior / Student / Veteran Tickets: $13
Opening Night Tickets: $25 (Includes Opening Night Reception)
Thursday Discount Nights: $13
Preview Nights: $10
Group Rates: $10 tickets for groups of 10 or more

Box Office: 214-516-0706
Caramiatheatre.org

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ABOUT CARA MÍA THEATRE

Cara Mía Theatre inspires and engages people to uplift their communities through transformative Latinx theatre, multicultural youth arts experiences and community action. In 1996, co-founder Eliberto Gonzalez founded Cara Mía Theatre because he believed that Chicano literature and its writers ought to be more accessible to the general public. With Adelina Anthony, Gonzalez started the company as a vehicle to bring the Mexican-American experience to Dallas stages. The cultural breadth of Cara Mía Theatre’s plays has since expanded and the company’s artistic approach has simultaneously evolved, especially since the arrival of current Executive Artistic Director David Lozano in 2002. To expand the company’s reach to non-theatre going Latinos, Lozano chose to focus on creating new bilingual plays that were both topical and theatrically unique. Trained in physical theatre, Lozano formed a resident artistic ensemble that devised new works in the form of clown and mask performance, poetic movement and topical, issue-driven plays to speak to the experiences of the local Latinos. Today, Cara Mía Theatre boasts of a resident artistic ensemble that creates new works and also produces classic and new plays by the most acclaimed Latinx playwrights in the nation.