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Washington, DC - GALA concludes its 40h anniversary season ¡Viva los 40! with El Paso Blue by award-winning writer Octavio Solís. Directed by José Carrasquillo, the production is performed in English only and will run June 2 through June 26, 2016 at GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street, NW. Discounted parking is available at the Giant Food garage on Park Road, NW with GALA validation.
In this wild and comic saga of lust, revenge, identity, and the blues, Al leaves his wife Sylvie in the care of his father before serving a prison sentence. Upon release, he discovers that this beloved and the old man have fallen in love and run away. The epic chase that ensues across El Paso pits together the funniest cast of characters ever assembled on a sprawling manhunt.
“Octavio Solís,” states Hugo Medrano, GALA’s Producing Artistic Director, “is a writer who transcends his Mexican-American experience as he examines the gloom, magic and humor of humanity with ferocious honesty and intensity.” He has “an extraordinary ability to look with compassion into the hearts of his ordinary, flawed characters. But his storytelling, so rich in imagery, is uniquely infused with poetry, sexual desire, childlike wonder and violence all at once,” writes The Denver Post.
“Although written in the 1990s,” says director José Carrasquillo, “El Paso Blue has always felt relevant to the here and now. Set in the Southwest, this adaptation by Solis of the classic Oedipus Rex is straight from today’s headlines, a powerful story of what it means to be an immigrant in an ever changing value system. Solis’ hyper poetic language brings to mind the best of Sam Shepard, and his storytelling is both theatrically compelling and genuinely funny---encompassing the past and the present, the vast American terrain, and a true journey of the heart.”
Performances of El Paso Blue are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm. The Noche de GALA Artist Reception and Press Night is Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 8 pm.
This production is made possible with support from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT AND DIRECTOR
Octavio Solís is a playwright and director whose works include Alicia’s Miracle, Se Llama Cristina, John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Marfa Lights, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The 7 Visions of Encarnación, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, Santos & Santos, and La Posada Mágica. His plays have been produced at the California Shakespeare Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Dallas Theater Center, Magic Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Venture Theatre, Latino Chicago Theatre Company, El Teatro Campesino, and Cornerstone Theatre. Among his awards are the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center, the Will Glickman Playwright Award, and the 2003 National Latino Playwriting Award. He is the recipient of a 2011 United States Artists Fellowship and 2014 Pen Center USA Literary Award for Drama, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. His new anthology, “The River Plays” has been published by NoPassPort Publishing.
José Carrasquillo is a GALA company member, where he last directed La señorita de Tacna by Mario Vargas Llosa. Other GALA productions include Ana en el trópico, Lúcido, The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico, Cita a ciegas, El arquitecto y el emperador de Asiria, and La granada. On stage at GALA he played Don Quixote for GALita's production of The Adventures of Don Quixote directed by Hugo Medrano. Other directing credits in the region include The Body of an American and After the Fall at Theater J; Happy Days, Macbeth, Medea, Blood Wedding, Metamorphosis and The Maids at WSC Avant-Bard; Patient A at Freedom Stage; Jesus Hopped the “A” Train at Round House Theatre; A Language of Their Own and Clean at Studio Theatre; Sueño, an adaptation of Calderon’s Life is a Dream at Olney Theatre Center for the Arts; and the world premieres of The Obituary Bowl at Woolly Mammoth, The Magic Rainforest at The Kennedy Center, and Donna Q at Signature Theatre.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Featured in the cast are Lawrence Redmond, a two-time recipient and multiple nominee of the Helen Hayes Award who appeared in All the Way at Arena Stage and is making his first appearance at GALA; Veronica del Cerro, who was last seen at GALA in Ana en el trópico; Andrés Talero, who was seen at GALA in Elliot-A Soldier’s Fugue; Alina Collins Maldonado, who last appeared at GALA in Mariela en el desierto; and Bob Sheire, who was in GALita’s Fábulas Mayas.
Scenic design is by Regina García, who is designing her first production at GALA but has designed for Pregones Theater and Repertorio Español (New York), and The Court Theatre and Teatro Vista (Chicago), among others. Lighting design is by Christopher Annas-Lee, who designed Yerma at GALA for which he was nominated for a 2016 Helen Hayes Award. Costumes are by Robert Croghan who designed for Señorita y Madame. Sound design is by Neil McFadden who designed for Ana en el trópico, and Properties design is by Marie Schneggenburger who designed props for La señorita de Tacna. Nelly Díaz-Rodriguez is Stage Manager; Lena Salins is Production Manager; and Reuben Rosenthal is Technical Director.
TICKET INFORMATION
Single tickets are $42 on Thursday and Sunday, and $38 on Friday and Saturday. Tickets for senior citizens (65+) and military are $26, and $20 for students. Additional discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. Tickets for Noche de GALA and Reception are $50 per individual, $90 per couple and $15 per subscriber.
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