Reimagining Access and Representation in the Performing Arts During Quarantine
Adriana Domínguez, Kim McKean, Georgina Escobar
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ADRIANA DOMÍNGUEZ is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at UTEP. She has published with Chicana/Latina Studies, Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, Camino Real, presented at NACCS, MALCS, MALAS, SCOLAS, NEH, KCACTF, and has received successful funding for projects from the TCA and the NEA. Recent projects include: Real Women Have Curves, Luna, El Toro y La Nina, A Christmas Carol, en la Frontera, and Cenicienta. Her areas of focus are underrepresentation and exclusion in the theatre and Chicanx/Latinx work. Adriana lives in El Paso, TX, a vibrant community that knows no borders.
KIM MCKEAN is an award-winning director based in El Paso, TX. She received multiple awards, including ‘Outstanding Director of a Play’ from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for her production of Lydia by Octavio Solis. Her short film, The Arrangements, was nominated for “Best of the Borderscene” at the Borderscene Film Festival in Las Cruces, NM. In addition to her directing work, McKean is an educator whose scholarship involves new work development. She founded Reunión Revolución Radio, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Performance at University of Texas at El Paso. GEORGINA ESCOBAR is a queer fronteriza playwright. She is a MacDowell Fellow, Djerassi Resident and recipient of the Kennedy Center Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award. Her work has been featured in the Kilroys List, The Texas Review, Los Bárbaros, McSweeney’s Anthology, and New Passport Press. Her plays have been produced across the USA and internationally in Mexico, Denmark, and Sweden. Her work has been produced and developed at INTAR, New York Children’s Theatre, Project Y, Clubbed Thumb, Lincoln Center, Bushwick Starr (NY), Two Rivers (NJ), Milagro (PDX), Aurora Theatre (GA), and Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre (IN). |
Abstract
At the University of Texas at El Paso, where the authors are based, programming intended to promote community engagement had to be reconceived due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ReUnión rEvolución: a Latinx New Works Festival, an event developed in partnership with the Chamizal National Memorial, slated for late March 2020, was initially programmed with the intention of celebrating both local and national Latinx voices and stories by featuring a multitude of free events for the community. Planned events included staged readings of new plays, writing workshops, panel discussions with playwrights, and an opening and closing night reception for festival artists to connect more intentionally with the community. Necessity created opportunity and ReUnión rEvolución Radio was born; a space to investigate language, identity, and connections to the community.
At the University of Texas at El Paso, where the authors are based, programming intended to promote community engagement had to be reconceived due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ReUnión rEvolución: a Latinx New Works Festival, an event developed in partnership with the Chamizal National Memorial, slated for late March 2020, was initially programmed with the intention of celebrating both local and national Latinx voices and stories by featuring a multitude of free events for the community. Planned events included staged readings of new plays, writing workshops, panel discussions with playwrights, and an opening and closing night reception for festival artists to connect more intentionally with the community. Necessity created opportunity and ReUnión rEvolución Radio was born; a space to investigate language, identity, and connections to the community.
| etudesdec2021dominguezetal.pdf |
