CalArts Center for New Performance and Duende CalArts Present Finding Shelter

CalArts CNP and Duende CalArts present a special evening around Finding Shelter | Image: CalArts CNP

On Wednesday (March 13), CalArts Center for New Performance and Duende CalArts present a special screening of the documentary Finding Shelter at The Sotomayor High School for Science and Art in Los Angeles.

Finding Shelter tells the stories of several unaccompanied minors seeking refuge in the US and how their real life experiences were made into an internationally acclaimed play in 2016. The documentary is narrated by one of the young women interviewed for the play, who is now a college student studying engineering. The film has a run time of 30 minutes and features both Spanish and English subtitles.

In that same spirit, the screening will be followed by a bilingual panel discussion featuring:

• Dr. Susan J. Terrio, professor at Georgetown University and author of Whose Child Am I? Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in US Immigration Custody;
• Steve Vigil, executive director of Homies Unidos, which provides life skills and parenting programs for target families and gang at-risk / gang involved youth;
• Camila Alvarez, deportation defense attorney with CARECEN, the largest Central American immigrant rights organization in the country.

Shelter, the stage play, premiered in 2016 in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and was soon after presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It was directed by Mexico City-based playwright and director Martin Acosta and written and conceived by Marissa Chibas, who is current faculty in the CalArts School of Theater.

CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) is the professional production arm of CalArts, established to provide a unique artist-and-project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance and interdisciplinary projects. CNP puts the progressive work happening at CalArts in conversation with professional communities at the local, national and international levels. It also enables CalArts students to work closely with celebrated artists and gain invaluable experiences outside the classroom.

Duende CalArts is a CNP initiative dedicated to developing and producing innovative work from Latinx and Latin American communities and sources. Established in 2009 by Chibas, Duende CalArts aims to expand aesthetic boundaries and performance discourse, collaborating with national and international artists.

The screening is free and open to the public, and those interested can RSVP on Eventbrite.