The San Diego repertory theater has a long history of producing plays with Latino themes. They are launching a program to showcase the next generation of Latino theater with the first Latin new play Festival. This festival will feature readings of four place, one of them cowritten by members of the performance group Culture Clash. Joining me is Sam Woodhouse. Welcome back . Herbert Siquenza is here and welcome. Thank you for having us. By way of explanation, this is a gender world of same Latino and Latina. I talked about the history of producing plays by Latino artist. Do you see this festival as a next step ? Absolutely. We produced over 50 mainstage productions. It has been 30 years. It is time to launch a new play Festival as part of the setting the stage campaign which is a capacity building campaign expect how much interest is in festivals for new place? Does that generate a new audience ? We will see. This is the first one. It is this weekend. We do have a fair amount of reservations. That is exciting to see. The new play opens is "El Cipito: A Salvadorian Odyssey" which you wrote with Culture Clash. What is it about ? It is based off of the lives and it is written by Randy. It is a novel where he takes a myth of El Salvador as -- he is a little boogie man. He said that into modern-day America and he explains how and why Salvadorans are in the United States in the first place. The whole diasporas from the 30s until now and the problems we have with MS-13 and the gang that Trump talks about. This explains why they were created in the first place. MS-13 is the gang that we heard the president talk about and he is committed to dismantling the gang. Why is it important to explore how people are affected by MS-13 and exactly where MS-13 came from. MS-13 is an international gang. It is a home security they'd labeled it a terrorist organization. It is a frightening gang. It was formed by war-torn children from the Civil War of the 80s. They came to Los Angeles where they were quickly recruited by each gangs like 18th Street. That is the oldest gang in LA. Eventually they formed their own gang and that is how MS-13 was created out of the experience in LA. Many of these kids were deported back to El Salvador where they continue to live the gang life and organize down there. They truly are an international organization. It is told through the guise of a fictional character ? Exactly He becomes the mayor of Los Angeles and the president of the United States. [ laughter ] Anything can happen as you well know. [ laughter ] Can you give us an overview of some of the other plays that are presented ? This is the only one in which the future president of the United States and this is the reason we're doing it. There is a piece set in the 1980s where two young women one went to punk and one went to rock. To pop. Excuse me. It is called fabulous monsters and homeless. It is about a sex addict and a young therapist who tries to deal with the client issue and there is a drama called Guadalupe about a mother and sun -- son who tried to heal the pain of and the loss. It is interesting. You have punk rock and sex addict group at a mythical man who has be on backwards and he becomes president of the United States. It has romance -- advanced dramatically. What I like about this is that they are written by young playwrights. These are mostly unproduced and young Latinx playwrights. We are excited. They are writing about other things besides identity politics. How difficult is it for playwrights to get the work staged without a festival? It is very difficult. It is all about exposure. My half a story in 1998, Culture Clash was doing a showcase in Princeton and someone solace. He says these guys are young and unique and they have a different voice and I want to produce them. Sam put us on the regional map. As soon as the record produces, other theater started producing Culture Clash and the rest is history. It took an exposure to put us on a map . I have been speaking with Herbert Siquenza and Sam Woodhouse. The free Latinx festival runs September 2 and the third. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The San Diego Repertory Theatre has a long history of producing plays with Latino themes written by Latino playwrights.
Now, the Rep is launching a program to develop and showcase the next generation of Latino theatre with its first Latinx New Play Festival. Latinx is a gender neutral term for Latino or Latina.
The festival takes place Sept. 2-3 and will feature readings of four plays, including "El Cipitio: A Salvadorian Odyssey," by Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas, co-founders of the Latino performance troupe, Culture Clash. The play is a dark comedy based on the novel, “The Lives and Times of El Cipitio ,” by Randy Ertll.
“It’s an amazing novel where he (Ertll) takes a folkloric myth of El Salvador, el cipitio, he’s kind of like a little boogie man and he sets it in modern day America and he explains…the diaspora of the Salvadoran experience from the 30’s til now, through the civil war and the problems we have with MS-13,” Siguenza said.
Attendance to the play readings is free.
Siguenza and Sam Woodhouse the Rep's co-founder and artistic director, discussed the new play festival Wednesday on Midday Edition.
