2005 - 2006 Season  "30^th Anniversary - Join the Uprising!"

PASO NUEVO             August 13, 2005
El ascenso de los poetas de verano: El susurro de Henry Roxo
The Rise of the Summer School Poets: Henry Roxo's Whisper
Written and performed by PASO NUEVO and Mattías Kraemer
Selected poets include: Paul Laracue (Haiti), Otto René Castillo (Guatemala), Alfonso Quijara Urias (El Salvador), Judith Malina (New York), Federico García Lorca (Spain), Pablo Neruda (Chile); and Paso Nuevo Poets: Laron Hayes, Adán Centeno, Marvin Cruz, Ada Pineda, Verónica Flores, Ramón Campos, and Sylvia Cedillos.
Director: Mattías Kraemer 

TE QUIERO, MUÑECA              September 15-October 9, 2005
I Love You, Doll
by Ernesto Caballero (Spain)
Commissioned English translation by Heather McKay
In Spanish with simultaneous English supertitles.
Producer: Hugo Medrano
Director: Harold Ruiz
Stage manager: Andrés Acosta
Designer: Elizabeth McFadden (Set), Ayun Fedorcha (Lights), Alessandra D'Ovidio (Costumes), David Crandall (Sound), and Brenden McDougal (Properties).
Cast: Lucrecia Basualdo (Rosa), Carlos Castillo (Andrés), Ana Verónica Muñoz (Nora/Eva), Eva Salvetti (La Doctora), and Luis Simón (Ramón).
Production Staff: Alessandra D'Ovidio (Production manager), Brian Hemmingsen (Technical director), Laura Quiroga (Backstage manager), Horacio Quintanilla (Master carpenter), Octavio Medrano and Andrew Honeycutt (Set construction), Meaghan Toohey (Scenic painting), Andrew Griffin (Assistant Light designer), Brendon Vierra (Master Electrician), Ted Madison, Nathan Devonshire and Melissa Johns (Electricians), Andrés Acosta (Lights operator), Brendon Vierra (Sound technician), Leonor Hernández (Seamstress), Daniel Cima (Photography), and Nestor Cortesi (Promotional video).
Reviews: 

   "...First, no cease-war has been called in the war between the sexes. And second, you can't always get what you want - and when you do, you usually realize you didn't really want it to begin with. A tad overgenerous with such truisms, 'Te quiero' is not a literary masterpiece like the works to which Caballero pays overt homage: Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'; George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion;' and Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein.' But it has a roguish sparkle, and it's been given a terrific look and pace by director Harold Ruiz and his team of designers and actors... Providing the show's crucial pivot is Muñoz's inspired interpretation of Nora, a Stepford wife with a mind of her own... Castillo cinches the role of the self-righteous metrosexual Andres, expressing the character's arrogance even in the way he sits on the sofa, holding up his hand so that Nora can supply the requisite drink. Providing a fun contrast are Lucrecia Basualdo and Luis Simon as Andres and Nora's schlumpy Rosa and Ramon. Rounding out the cast is Eva Salvetti, who lends a suitably intimidating air to La Doctora, Nora's scientist creator..." Celia Wren, The Washington Post (September 21, 2005)

  "...'Te quiero, muñeca', written by Ernesto Caballero and directed with clockwork precision by Harold Ruiz, often seems like a digitized pastiche of several seminal writings with feminism as the subject.... Sometimes the ideas get lost, sometimes they resonate, and sometimes they disintegrate on impact...Still, 'Te quiero...' has been built to entertain, and it never disappoints. Credit the success to Ruiz's knack for comic timing, and to the cast with the best chemistry in town..." Christopher Correa, Washington Theatre Review (September 19, 2005)

EYEWITNESS BLUES*                         November 18-20, 2005
Testigo del Blue
A fusion-based exploration of music and language directly from the New York Theatre Workshop, by two members of Universes
Written and performed by Mildred Ruiz and Steven Sapp
Developed and directed by Chay Yew
In English only
Musical compositions: Paul Thompson, Carlos Pimentel, Antoine Drye, Maurice S. Turner, II
Stage manager: Heather Hershey
Designers: Narelle Sissons (Set), Heather Hershey (Lights), Emilio Sosa (Costumes), Matthew Given (Sound), Jaime Coronado and Adesola Sosakalumi (Choreography) and Enrique Lopez (Flamenco guitar).
Cast: Steven Sapp (Junior McCullough [Soul]), Mildred Ruiz (Duende) and Maurice S. Turner, II (Junior McCullough [Body/Trompet]).
Production Staff: Alessandra D'Ovidio (Production manager), Brian Hemmingsen (Technical Director),  Horacio Quintanilla (Master carpenter), Eric Lucas (Carpenter), Brendon Vierra (Electrician & Lights operator), Matthew Givens (Sound operator), Groove Gumbo (Promotion & Design), and Christopher Shell (Playbill design).
*In partnership with Washington Performing Arts Society

EL RUFIÁN CASTRUCHO        February 23-March 19, 2006
Castrucho, the Hustler
Commissioned English translation by Heather McKay
In Spanish with simultaneous English supertitles.
Producer: Abel López
Director: Hugo Medrano
Stage manager: M. Jimena Paz
Designers: Stefan Gibson (Set), Ayun Fedorcha (Lights), Neil McFadden (Sound), Osbel Susman-Peña (Props), Monalisa Arias (Fight coordinator), and Alessandra D'Ovidio (Costumes).
Cast: Ernesto Concepción (Castrucho), Alicia Kaplan (Teodora), Carlos Castillo (Don Alvaro), Oscar Ceville (Don Jorge), George Laws Garcia (Camilo), Angel Torres (Don Héctor), Edgar Trujillo (Belardo), Alejandro Arce (Pradelo), Emilia Sims (Fortuna), Monalisa Arias (Escobarillo, Brisena), Hugo C. Dubon (Guzmán), Lorena Sabogal (Lucrecia, Beltranico), Hector Díaz (General de Ejército), Manola Santalla (Don Rodrigo), and Joaquín Mundo (Paje).
Production Staff: Alessandra D'Ovidio (Production manager), Brian Hemmingsen (Technical director), Eric Lewis and Andrew Honeycutt (Set construction), Brendan Vierra (Master electrician), Marisa Za Johns, Maureen Tobias, and Erin Soo (Electricians), Laura Quiroga (Backstage manager), M. Jimena Paz (Lights operator), Mattias Kraemer (Sound technician), Kerry Waters and Mariana Fernandez (Scenic painters), Leonor Fernandez (Seamstress), Mariana Osorio (Makeup), Daniel Cima (Photography), Nestor Cortesi (Audio/Video), Claudia Smith (Graphic design), and Christopher Shell (Playbill design and production).

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