ALIENS Immigrants and Other Evildoers

Performances September 16-19, 2010 @ 8 PM
Ashé Cultural Arts Center
1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, (504) 569-9070

The Shadowbox Theatre
Performances September 23-26, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3 & Oct. 7-10, 2010 @ 8 PM
2400 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans

A Sci-fi Latino Noir Multimedia Solo by award-winning performance artist José Torres-Tama that satirizes the status of Latino immigrants as "aliens" and explores the rise in hate crimes against immigrants across the U.S. Torres-Tama shapeshifts into numerous Latino “extraterrestrials” who bilingually challenge the flaws of a country built by immigrants that vilifies the same people whose labor it exploits. ALIENS asks the hard question, “Since the Pilgrims arrived without papers and were the first illegals, why were they not deported?”


The ALIENS creative lighting design has been developed by John Grimsley of Dog & Pony Theatre Co. The video film shorts are done by Bruce France of Mondo Bizarro, and Billy Atwell, a key collaborator from New York, has created an engaging orginal sci-fi music score that accompanies some vignettes. The classical recordings of opera vocalist Claudia Copeland will also be featured in the production.

In New Orleans, ALIENS will have its national debut at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center from September 16-19. Ashé is located at 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. ALIENS moves to the Shadowbox Theatre at 2400 Saint Claude Avenue for an additional three-week run through October 10.


BLACK & BROWN ALLIANCE PANEL

September 18, 2010, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - FREE
Ashé Cultural Arts Center

As part of the ALIENS performance community outreach Ashé will host a panel discussion of notable speakers, including Marcel Rivera from the Faith Health Alliance, John O'Neal from Junebug Productions, Ed Buckner from the Porch and Dennis Soriano from the Congress of Day Laborers. The panel will convene to discuss a variety of challenges that the Latino immigrant community is facing, including wage theft, housing, and health issues. These are issues that also affect the working class African American community. We believe it is of great importance to bring these two communities of color together, for they share a parallel history of struggle and marginalization. The diverse panel will engage in a discussion that invites the public and these two communities to develop better working strategies for greater allegiance and social change.


THEATER & PERFORMANCE ART WORKSHOP

September 19, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. (FREE to all interested in performance art)
Techniques for Theater & Performance Art: As part of the ALIENS performance outreach, José Torres-Tama engages participating students and/or community members in an interactive exchange exploring creative strategies such as movement, improvisation, visual rituals, personal stories, incantations/songs, and the effective used of one's voice in theater and performance practices. The workshop is designed to empower participants with a varied toolbox of skills for the creation of original theater and performance work.

Torres-Tama’s interdisciplinary performance workshops have been presented at Cornell, Duke, Rutgers, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, University of Maryland, Roehampton University in London, the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool and Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth, Wales.

ALIENS is a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by MECA (Houston) in partnership with GALA Hispanic Theatre (D.C.), and the Ashé Cultural Arts Center (New Orleans), and the NPN. For more information: www.npnweb.org