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Washington, D.C. – GALita, a program for the entire family, is proud to present Fábulas Mayas by Cecilia Cackley, with a bilingual adaptation by Karin Tovar. Directed by Cecilia Cackley, based on the original staging by David Lloyd Olson for the premiere production in 2013 for GALita, Fábulas Mayas will be presented from March 9 through March 21, 2015 at GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010. The theater is located one block north of the Columbia Heights Metro station on the Green line. Parking is available at the Giant Food garage on Park Road, NW.
In this entertaining children’s play, the Creator and Shaper provide lessons about life through the creatures they create to populate the earth. This lively adaptation of traditional Mayan legends and fables features shadow and hand puppets, traditional songs and original music as we watch with fascination as the world comes alive with rabbits, deer, coyotes, bats and humans.
"Folklore and mythology," states playwright Cecilia Cackley, "have been one of my passions ever since I read the myths of ancient Greece as a child. However, the stories and legends of Europe are much more familiar to most people than those of Latin America. I hope that by sharing these Mayan stories, more people are inspired to seek out the traditions they come from and the rich history of the Maya civilization."
Student matinees for Fábulas Mayas are scheduled on March 9 through March 13, and March 16 through March 20 at 10:30 am. Special performances for the general public will take place on Saturday, March 14 and Saturday, March 21 at 3 pm. The duration of the show is approximately 60 minutes and the content is appropriate for the entire family, but in particular for children pre-K through 5th grade.
The production is made possible with the generous support of Target, The City Fund, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT AND PRODUCTION
Cecilia Cackley is a playwright and puppeteer based in Washington DC. Her play Fábulas Mayas was commissioned and produced by GALA in 2013 and later presented as part of the 2014 INTERSECTIONS Festival at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Her puppet plays Coyote Places the Stars and Anansi's Appetite were presented by Wit's End Puppets at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Cecilia is an affiliated teaching artist with The Theater Lab, Imagination Stage and Encore Stage & Studio. She is a company member at Young Playwright's Theater and has directed for three of their New Play Festivals. Her shadow play Saudade was produced at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival last month and she will be performing a new show, The Bridge, at the Puppets in Prague festival in June.
Featured in the cast are Cecilia Cackley, Chema Pineda-Fernandez and Carol Spring, who appeared in GALita’s premiere production of Fâbulas Mayas in 2013. Also appearing is Miguel Amaguaña, who was seen earlier this season in GALita’s Tum Tica: una historia de música y familia and GALA’s Los empeños de una casa. Mr. Pineda-Fernandez has appeared at Actors Repertory Theatre and StudioWorks VA, and Ms. Spring is a member of Half Mad Theater and a former member of Blue Sky Puppet Theatre.
Puppet Design is by Wit’s End Puppets and Costume Design is by Chelsey Schuller Mariano Vales is Music Director and Sound Design is by Kenny Neal. Screen Design is by Niell Duvall and Kathryn Dooley is Stage Manager. Reuben Rosenthal is Technical Director and Hugo Medrano is Producer.
ABOUT GALITA AND WIT’S END PUPPETS
Since 1980, GALita has produced children’s theater by Hispanic playwrights in both Spanish and English that inspire a sense of joy, discovery, pride and identity in our community’s children. GALita has produced works by such prominent writers as Jorge Díaz from Chile, Néstor Hidalgo from Argentina, and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra from Spain, among others. GALita also has commissioned new works and adaptations based on classic Hispanic literature, presented international theater companies such as Teatro Gayumba from the Dominican Republic, produced several children’s film festivals, and collaborated with the Inter-American Development Bank and Kids Euro Festival on children’s programming
Wit's End Puppets is an experimental puppet theater in Washington DC, creating original work for adventurous audiences. Founded in 2012, Wit's End has produced The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of Kismet as part of CulturalDC's Mead Theater Lab program and Anansi's Appetite for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It has created puppets for local companies, including Arts on the Horizon and GALA, and co-produced Fabulas Mayas, a collection of Guatemalan folktales, with GALA. Wit's End's latest project is Saudade, a shadow play about the immigrant experience in DC that has been developed with support from the Puffin Foundation and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Wit's End's team of collaborators includes Cecilia Cackley, Genna Davidson, Amy Kellett and Patricia Germann.
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