After an eight-year absence from acting, Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez returns to the stage to reunite with the Teatro Vista ensemble. The cast includes Teatro Vista Artistic Director Edward F. Torres; Teatro Vista ensemble members Sandra Delgado, Sandra Marquez, Joe Minoso and Juan Francisco Villa; and Anthony Moseley and Sona Tatoyan. This world premiere is the culmination of Teatro Vista's 15th Anniversary Season. Massacre runs March 24 - April 22, 2007, in the Owen Theatre; the opening night is Monday, April 2.
"The Goodman is thrilled to partner with Teatro Vista to present the world premiere of the important, electrifying new play," said director Chuck Smith. "Massacre challenges the audience to discover answers to the questions it asks about violence, revenge and the demons in us all."
Adds Teatro Vista Artistic Director Edward F. Torres: "Massacre is about what we do to ourselves when we do not actively pursue our inner voice, and we succumb instead to the social and political complacency that our modern world wraps us in."
Covered in blood, seven people rush into the living room of an old New England farmhouse clutching ice picks, cleavers and pitchforks. Members of the closely knit Latino community of bucolic Granville, New Hampshire, have just murdered their fellow citizen Joe, town bully and local tyrant. They are exhilarated, having liberated the town of Joe's outrageous crimes after six years of terror. But as the excitement wears off, the seven begin to have doubts about the righteousness of their act, about each other's trustworthiness and, worst of all, about Joe: is he really dead? Massacre explores the courageous and volatile connections between members of a community forced to bond together and act against terrifying oppression, and the emotional toll of such an act.
José Rivera is a recipient of two Obie Awards for Playwriting for Marisol and References to Salvidor Dali Make Me Hot, both at the New York Public Theater. His screenplay for Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries), directed by Walter Salles, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award, and a Writers Guild Award. The screenplay received Spain's Goya Award and Argentina's top award for screenwriting. Other honors include the Imagen Foundation's 2005 Norman Lear Writing Award, a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and a Rockefeller Foundation grant.
In 1989 Rivera studied with Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel GarcÃÂa Márquez at the Sundance Institute. His plays Cloud Tectonics, Each Day Dies With Sleep, Sonnets for an Old Century, Sueño, Giants Have Us In Their Books, Maricela de la Luz Lights the World, Adoration of the Old Woman, and Massacre (Sing to Your Children), which was commissioned by LAByrinth Theater Company, where it had a staged reading in association with the New York Public Theater, have been produced around the country and translated into seven languages. School of the Americas premiered at the Public in the summer of 2006 in a co-production with the LAByrinth Theatre Company. Upcoming work includes The Untranslatable Secrets of Orlando Corona and a screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Rivera will make his film directing debut with Celestina, based on his play Cloud Tectonics in summer 2007.
Chuck Smith (Director) is Goodman Theatre resident director, an artist-in-residence at Columbia College Chicago and an associate producer of Legacy Productions, a Chicago based touring company. Most recently, Smith curated the Goodman's August Wilson Celebration and directed Crumbs from the Table of Joy. Goodman credits include the Chicago premiere of Proof and The Story; the world premiere of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin's The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston's Huntington Theatre where it won the IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for best direction; Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun; Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; A Christmas Carol; Vivisections from a Blown Mind and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. He directed Knock Me a Kiss at Victory Gardens, where other directing credits include Master Harold and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine with Esther Rolle and Eden, for which he received a Jeff nomination for best direction. Smith is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center's Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 award of merit presented by the Black Theatre Alliance of Chicago; and is currently a board member of Sullivan House, The League of Chicago Theatres and the African-American Arts Alliance of Chicago.
Sandra Delgado (Janis) is associate artistic director of Teatro Vista where her work includes Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner; El Grito del Bronx and Two Sisters and a Piano. She is also a founding member of Collaboraction where her acting highlights include Casanova, Guinea Pig Solo, Cosmonaut's Last Message and Refuge. Other Chicago credits include Sonia Flew at Steppenwolf and Mariela in the Desert, Electricidad, A Christmas Carol and Zoot Suit at the Goodman. Henry Godinez (Panama) is the resident artistic associate at Goodman Theatre, where he is curator of the biennial Latino Theatre Festival. At the Goodman he has directed the world premieres of Karen ZacarÃÂas' Mariela in the Desert, Regina Taylor's Millennium Mambo and Luis Alfaro's Straight as a Line; Electricidad by Luis Alfaro; Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez; Red Cross; the Goodman/Teatro Vista co-production of José Rivera's Cloud Tectonics; and A Christmas Carol. Godinez is co-founder of Teatro Vista and served as its artistic director for its first five years. With Teatro Vista, he directed Broken Eggs, El Paso Blue, Journey of the Sparrows, Santos & Santos and The Crossing. Other Chicago work includes Anna in the Tropics at Victory Gardens.
Sandra Marquez (Vivy) is an ensemble member of Teatro Vista, for which she served as associate artistic director for eight years. Her credits include Sonia Flew and One Arm at Steppenwolf; Another Part of the House with Teatro Vista; Our Town at Madison Repertory Theater; Living Out, a Teatro Vista/American Theater Company co-production (for which she received a Jeff nomination); Anna in the Tropics at Victory Gardens; and Mariela in the Desert and Electricidad at Goodman Theatre. Joe Minoso (Erik), a Teatro Vista Ensemble Member, was most recently seen in Our Town at Madison Reperatory Theatre. Other credits include Horetensia and the Museum of Dreams at Victory Gardens; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with Teatro Vista; Short shakespeare! Comedy of Errors at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Living Out, an American Theater Company/Teatro Vista coproduction. Anthony Moseley (Joe), the Goodman's 2007 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow, is artistic director of Collaboraction, where he has produced over 30 productions and 50 theatrical events including Collaboraction's annual Sketchbook Festival. His past Collaboraction directing credits include Refuge by Jessica Goldberg (2000 Jeff Citation nomination for Best Direction) among many others. As an actor, he has been seen in Collaboraction's When You Comin' Back Red Ryder (1999 Jeff Citation nomination for Best Actor), Beyond Therapy, Three Sisters, and Pong by Brett Neveu as well as the films The Trouble with Dee Dee, The Acedia Thing and Versus. Sona Tatoyan (Lila) has performed at Playwrights Horizons, the Lee Strasberg Institute, Hartford Stage Company, American Conservatory Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre and LAByrinth Theatre Company.
Film roles include the The Tape Recorder and The Journey. Edward F. Torres (Hector) is co-founder and current artistic director of Teatro Vista, where he last appeared in Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue. Most recently, he directed The Sins of Sor Juana by Karen ZacarÃÂas. He has also appeared at the Goodman in Luis Alfaro's Electricidad at Victory Gardens in Anna in the Tropics. Directorial Credits for Teatro Vista include The Show Host, Ambrosio, Broken Eggs, The Boiler Room and Aurora's Motive. Acting credits for Teatro Vista include The Crossing, Broken Eggs, Santos & Santos and El Paso Blue. In 2005 he served on the Illinois Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts theatre panels. Torres is also a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre's Director's Lab West. Teatro Vista ensemble member Juan Francisco Villa (Eliseo) most recently appeared at Steppenwolf Garage Theatre in the Teatro Vista/Rivendell Theatre Co-Production of Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue. He appeared in Electricidad at the Goodman, and his other credits include Pegasus Players, Walkabout, Blind Faith, About Face, Salsation, Next Theatre, Chicago Dramatists and Teatro Luna. He appears weekday mornings in the DBA Studios production of The Adventures of Kid Zero by Ifa Bayeza.
Teatro Vista, Theatre with a View was founded 16 years ago by Godinez and Torres to provide an increased number of opportunities for Latino performing artists in Chicago. Committed to reflecting the Latino experience, it has emerged as a leader in the Latino theater movement in the United States. Over the past decade, the Goodman and Teatro Vista have enjoyed fruitful partnerships and frequent collaborations. Members of the Teatro Vista ensemble, including Massacre cast members, have appeared on Goodman stages, and Teatro Vista is a regular participant in the Goodman's biennial Latino Theatre Festival.
The design team for Massacre includes Christine Pascual (Costumes), Brian Sidney Bembridge (Set), Mary Badger (Lighting) and Mikhail Fiksel (Sound).
Tickets to Massacre (Sing to Your Children) are $15 to $30. -- www.goodmantheatre.org
Posted March 5th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
