It is important to note that Encuentro is not merely a collection of plays from Encuentro 2014. Rather, it offers a critical lens to the festival that considers various questions of representation and offers an important account of the origins and inner workings of the LTC. In addition to an introduction and conclusion by us, the editorial team, the volume also includes the following plays and critical introductions:
- Aliens, Immigrants & Other Evildoers by José Torres-Tama; introduction by Dr. Tiffany Ana López
- Dreamscape by Rickerby Hinds; introduction by Olga Sanchez Saltveit
- La Esquinita, USA by Rubén C. González; introduction by Dr. Jorge Huerta
- Patience, Fortitude, and Other Antidepressants by Mariana Carreño King; introduction by Dr. Beatriz Rizk
- Premeditation by Evelina Fernández; introduction by Dr. Grace Dávila-López
- Zoetrope: Part 1 by Javier Antonio González; introduction by Dr. Irma Mayorga
The historic festival ushered in a new era of Latinx theatre artists in conversation with each other and also fostered an ecosystem in which Latinx theatre scholars could thrive.
As such, Encuentro not only documents the theatrical productions at the festival but also chronicles the role of this work on the larger national theatre scene. These plays and performances speak to the diversity of Latinx identities and cultures. They include cultural ritual, political demonstration, and social practice, thus offering a dynamic portrayal of how the United States Latinx community engages in identity formation. Moreover, the plays in this volume offer a diversity of aesthetics, dramatic structures, and thematic content dealing with gentrification, marriage, migration, racial and gendered violence, and the US-Mexico border. The anthology also documents the role that theatre and performance play in these conversations. To further facilitate this discussion, the introductions, written by leading Latinx theatre scholars, contextualize the work and offer valuable pedagogical and dramaturgical tools to anyone interested in engaging with the plays.
The plays themselves can be used as primary material for cultural studies classrooms. La Esquinita, USA by Rubén C. González, is a one-man tour de force that speaks of the lives that inhabit a now-decaying neighborhood. Aliens, Immigrants & Other Evildoers by José Torres-Tama, another solo piece, thrusts the reader and audiences into an uncompromising look at current immigration politics in the United States. Along the same testimonial line, Rickerby Hinds’s Dreamscape delves into the true story of a young black woman’s death at the hands of police in the late 1990s. Also taking a historical approach, the experimental piece Zoetrope: Part 1 by Javier Antonio González unequivocally makes a statement on Puerto Rico’s status over a fifty-year trajectory. Patience, Fortitude, and Other Antidepressants by Mariana Carreño King offers a modern take on Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma while exploring issues of sexism, police brutality, and homophobia in present-day New York City. Evelina Fernandez’s Premeditation mines the theme of marriage and class while offering a theatricalization of film-noir aesthetics with a Chicano lens. Overall, Encuentro offers a rich source of socio-historical material useful in a variety of contexts; whole courses can be designed around the book as a primary source of study.
Our intent was, from the beginning, to present this as a living document, one in which social, participatory actions between artists, communities, and researchers have been in constant dialogue. For instance, the foreword by José Luis Valenzuela, artistic director of the Latino Theater Company and the LATC, is a living testimony of cultural assertion. It echoes Luis Valdez’s poem “Pensamiento Serpentino,” a cornerstone of Chicano cultural identity from its inception. Our introduction and conclusion provide an update on current issues affecting Latinx theatre and Chicanx-Latinx cultural studies as a whole at the beginning of the twenty-first century. These issues go beyond the defined contexts of theatre and performance and spill into the sociopolitical context of our time.
“Encuentro” means “an encounter,” and this is precisely what we intend to facilitate via this book: opportunities for students, scholars, and theatremakers to encounter Latinx theatre on the page.
“Encuentro” means “an encounter,” and this is precisely what we intend to facilitate via this book: opportunities for students, scholars, and theatremakers to encounter Latinx theatre on the page. While Encuentro can certainly be useful to theatre companies, directors, actors, and the like, as scholars, our primary aim is for students and fellow scholars to use this anthology in the classroom as a way to stage these so-called encounters.
It is important to think of this book as useful in a number of different classroom contexts, not just in theatre, English, comparative literature, or performance studies. Of course, classes in these departments are the primary target for the anthology. However, due to its social and political subtexts, thinking beyond the restrictions of departmental cartographies suits this volume well. For instance, cross-listed courses in American and Chicano/Latinx histories, sociology, political science, and anthropology would benefit from our editorial approach of conceiving this volume as an historical record.
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