In March, we posted about the world premiere of award-winning Mexican playwright Alejandro Ricaño’s Timboctou at REDCAT. The bilingual collaboration between CalArtian and Mexican artists, will now be remounted for a run in Guadalajara, Mexico, from July 6-15 at UDG Cultura, the presenting organization based at the University of Guadalajara.
The play, which depicts the “interactions of strangers who find their lives suddenly intertwined by acts of violence and corruption,” now has its second run giving many participating current CalArts students and recent alums a professional opportunity to work internationally on the project.
More from Reed Johnson of the Los Angeles Times, who discusses the play in a March 9 review:
Timboctou, a bilingual, multimedia piece by the precocious 27-year-old Mexican playwright Alejandro Ricaño, is one of a proliferating number of plays, movies and television series that address the volatile and complex subject of Mexican narco-terrorism. In it, the fates of a lovelorn Spanish tourist, a well-meaning Mexican official, two rather clueless U.S. dudes on spring break and twin sibling narco-thugs reminiscent of Samuel Beckett’s tramps in Waiting for Godot all collide on a 100-degree day in Tijuana by way of Puerto Vallarta.
Co-developed as part of a bilingual theater initiative by the CalArts Center for New Performance and the University of Guadalajara, it’s among the most subtle and striking artistic responses so far to the violence that has claimed 40,000 Mexican lives since 2006.
Led by celebrated Mexican director Martín Acosta, the production includes the work of CalArts actors Juan Parada (Theater MFA 12), Michael Aurelio (Theater BFA 13), Jeremy Kinser (Theater BFA 12) and Kyle Stockburger (Theater MFA 12), stage manager Jen Wilson (Theater MFA 13), production manager Juli Figueroa (Theater MFA 13), technical director Ben Womick (Theater MFA 12), lighting designer Ellie Rabinowitz (Theater MFA 11), scenic designer Angel Herrera (Theater MFA 12) and video designer Keith Skretch (Theater MFA 12), in addition to Center for New Performance producer and faculty member Carol Bixler.
“Created in both countries through multiple workshops, our collective commitment to equality of process has brought unforeseen riches to our work on Timboctou,” says Travis Preston, CalArts Center for New Performance Artistic Director and dean of the School of Theater. “This presentation in Guadalajara beautifully completes the circle of relationship between us.”
The video above is the latest trailer for Timboctou in English. El siguiente vídeo está en español:
Timboctou
UDG Cultura
Teatro Esperimental de Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico
July 6-8, 13-15, Fridays & Saturdays 8:30 pm, Sundays 7 pm
Ticket info