Celia Herrera Rodríguez: Conceptual Designer, The Mathematics of Love

Set for The Mathematics of Love, Brava Theater Center –  designed by Celia Herrera Rodríguez with Tanya Orellana (2017)

Conceptual Designer for The Mathematics of Love, Celia Herrera Rodríguez is a San Francisco based painter, installation and performance artist and frequent collaborator with Cherríe Moraga.   

For The Mathematics of Love, Rodriguez has designed set and costumes and directed the overall visual storytelling of the play.

A frequent collaborator of Cherríe Moraga, Celia has been the conceptual, set, and costume designer for many of the recent plays. Rodríguez' designs are thorough, infusing every inch of the stage with a visual historical narrative that is vibrant and immediate.

Other theatrical collaborations with Moraga include The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea, La Semilla Caminante (Brava Theater Center, 2010), and New Fire (Brava Theater Center, 2012).

The Hungry Woman –  A Mexican Medea, set design by Celia Herrera Rodríguez (2005)

Rodríguez's own work has been exhibited and performed around the world from Medellin, Columbia, Brussels, Belgium, to Alanya, Turkey. Her work is permanently housed in private collections as well as public collections in the Gorman Museum at UC Davis and the Institute of American Indian Art in Sante Fe, New Mexico. She lectures in Xicana Indigena Art Theory, History and Practice at UC Berkeley.

Scenes above and below from New Fire, Brava Theater Center (2012)

Cherríe Moraga - A Vital Voice

Cherríe Moraga is one of the most influential writers that is read today.  Her new play, The Mathematics of Love, makes its World Premiere at Brava in August. 

Perhaps known best for the seminal anthology The Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (co-edited with Gloria Andaluza) - a staple read in graduate programs in literary arts, gender, sexuality, race and/or cultural studies.  Her work is ground-breaking and she has become a guru for young writers, activists and cultural artists of color.  Her voice on cultural issues is seasoned, sharp, complex and vital.

The Mathematics of Love runs August 10-27 at Brava

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Cherrie Moraga speaks in the 2013 documentary Makers: Women Who Make America 

First Photos of the World Premiere of Cherríe Moraga's Mathematics of Love

Get a first look at the press photos from Cherríe Moraga's new play, The Mathematics of Love. The play is having it's theatrical world premiere at Brava August 10 – 27, 2017. Tickets here.

Photos by Gareth Gooch.

Unconditional Love

What a summer to be an intern at Brava! I went from reading Cherríe Moraga's Loving on the War Years in my militarism class at San Francisco State to helping promote the world premiere of Moraga's play, The Mathematics of Love. The Mathematics of Love opens on Thursday, August 10, 2017. 

The Mathematics of Love tells the story of Peaches, an aging, mid-staged Alzheimer's Mexican woman married to her Anglo husband, Poppa. The couple is awaiting their out-of-town-son, "God" in the Lobby of Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. Malinche, a 16th century Native female slave turned slaveholder, wearing red lipstick and sunglasses with a "small pyramid of Louis Vuitton luggage" trailing behind her. In Peaches' time traveling encounter with Malinche, she is forced to concede a radically ledger on her life; it's love and losses--the sum of a 500 year old rupture in America. 

I have yet to see the play (and seriously can't wait!), but I've spent some time researching the themes and characters Cherrie Moraga presents. I have so many thoughts and questions about her upcoming play. Like, is, Malinche's "small pyramid of Louis Vuitton" a metaphor for her life? Will she ever feel the love desired, romantically and platonically? Although Malinche was born into a noble Aztec family, a series of unfortunate events happen throughout her life: Malinche was close to her father who passed away; her mother, being so self-centered, sells her into slavery, leading her to have a misconception of love...

We hope you'll join us to see Cherríe Moraga's new upcoming play. Can't wait to tell you more after the world premiere of Mathematics of Love! 

GHOST LIMB showcases the work of fight choreographer Marilet Martinez

From a single slap (A Delicate Balance), or an alley mugging (Rent), to an all out battle, physical violence in a script should always be handled by a fight choreographer. For Ghost Limb, currently playing on Brava's Main Stage, Marliet Martinez (also an actor) is that person. 

"My main focus when creating this particular fight scene was to have the violence explode onto stage then vanish quickly. So that the family barely has time to process what just happened. Stage combat is a story telling tool, and in this moment I wanted to highlight the helplessness of common people when military rule become the order of the day. "  - Marilet Martinez

A short video of Marilet's work on Ghost Limb.

For more on fight choreography read Melissa HIllman of Impact Theatre's article on the subject.

Marilet Martinez

See Marilet perform in the SF Mime Troupe's summer show, WALLS, in parks around the Bay Area.

From Audience to Intern

Official Selena Q. Perez Fan T-shirt

Hello! My name is Chalyna Lazo, Brava’s new Communications and Marketing intern. I’m very happy and excited to be guest blogging for Brava this summer!

My first experience with Brava was three months ago when I attended the “Selena Night” with some friends. We wanted to celebrate Selena’s life and music, so we went to Brava for the screening of the 1997 biopic and a dance party.

My overall impression of the event was the authenticity: attendees were diverse, all sharing a space where they admired a beautiful soul who brought joy to many. A 20th anniversary screening of Selena was an excellent choice for Brava, because Selena inspired so many artists to pursue their dreams. Brava isn’t just a space for professional artistic opportunity, but felt, to me, like a safe haven for all of us.

The mission and atmosphere was so beautiful, I wanted to continue learning and growing with Brava. At the “Selena Night” I expressed my interest in becoming an intern and was fortunate to become part of their staff for the summer. My experience as Brava’s intern has been amazing adventure so far.

For Brava's “Summer of Xicanas” series, I have been researching the themes in Ghost Limb and The Mathematics of Love to provide audiences background to the references the directors use in their plays. For additional content, check out my blog post on Argentina’s period of State Terror during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s.

I would like to personally invite all of you to the premieres of Ghost Limb on July 13 – 23 and The Mathematics of Love, running August 10 – 27. I will also be at the Brava table in the lobby during some of these events, so stop by and say hi! We hope to see you there!

Meet Malena Juanatey - Film Director, Observando al Observador

Malena Juanatey is the writer, director, and narrator of Observando al Observador, the first offering in our Summer of Xicanas series.

Malena Juanatey was born in Buenos Aires in 1985, and began her film studies in the Universidad del cine (FUC) in Buenos Aires. In 2006, after producing several short and feature film projects, she began the research that led to Observando al Observador (Observing the Observer), a documentary film written, produced, and directed by Malena Juanatey. The film analyzes the role taken by the United States during the last military coup in Argentina, through the testimonies of two US citizens who were kidnapped in those years.

Throughout the years Juanatey began to work in many different disciplines, and was part of the team that produced "Changing Places" in 2015 (an interdisciplinary festival supported by the Siemens Stiftung and the government of the city of Buenos Aires), and also the first Biennale of Performance in Argentina.

Apart from her work in film, Malena Juanatey is also a singer, songwriter, and co-founder of the group Las Martas – and has an absolutely beautiful voice! Juanatey will be joining us on Wednesday, June 21 for Brava's presentation of the US premiere of Observando al Observador, and will be on hand following the screening for the panel discussion.  Maybe we can coax her into a song!

Las Martas is a quintet founded by Verónica Sala (Voice) and Malena Juanatey (Voice), with Santiago Deluca (Guitar), Mauricio Martin (Contrabass) and Alejandro Hagopian (Drums)

Five Articles on Argentina's Dirty War which is at the center of two productions coming to Brava's stage.

Two productions in Brava's groundbreaking performance series, Summer of Xicanas: Theater, Film, y Encuentros, take as their political subject Argentina's military dictatorship of the 1970s and its progeny, the Dirty War, and include Observando al Observador, Malena Juantaney's film chronicling the 1970s imprisonment of the San Francisco icon Olga Talamante, and Marisela Orta's new play, Ghost Limb. The articles below offer insight into the devastation and ongoing repercussions of that time, covering Obama's controversial 2016 visit to Argentina at the  anniversary of the conflict, and the subsequent declassification of long hidden documents on America's role in the war and the disappearance of thousands of Argentinian citizens.

America's Role in Argentina's Dirty War

- New York Times

Obama was called upon by human rights activists in Argentina and around the world to cancel the trip – The Guardian, March 4, 2016

But Obama eventually made the trip as activists seized the opportunity for dialogue and action – The New Yorker

Subsequently, on March 27, 2017, 931 new documents on the atrocities committed by Argentina's  military government during the 1970s were declassified by Obama – Infodocket.com, 04/28/17

Now you can read them, and learn firsthand what went on and what governments are capable of  – NSAEBB 

First Look at Ghost Limb

Get a first look at the press photos for Brava's presentation of the World Premiere of Marisela Trevino Orta's haunting and beautiful play Ghost Limb.  

Ghost Limb stars Tim Garcia as Javier Alfaro, Michele Apriña Leavy as Consuelo Alfaro, Gabriel Montoya as Eugenio Alfaro, and Ben Ortega as the Doctor/General, with Ryan Vasquez, Livia Gomes Demarchi, and Adela Guzmán.  

Directed by Mary Guzman.

Ghost Limb runs July 6 - 23, 2017. Tickets available here.

Set in Argentina during the Dirty War and riffing on the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, Marisela Treviño Orta’s Ghost Limb tells the story of los desaparecidos—the disappeared of Argentina—and the mothers who fiercely protested the military dictatorship who took their children.

When Consuelo’s son Javier is disappeared from his home by the military, the world plunges into winter, and only a lone pomegranate tree—whose fruit Persephone was tricked into eating, forever binding her fate to the underworld—remains. During Javier’s abduction, Consuelo’s arm is badly injured by soldiers. As the pain in her arm grows stronger, so too does her connection to her son, as his pain at the hands of his torturers becomes her own.