Dear Educator,

As you plan for the upcoming school year, we encourage you to enhance your curriculum by joining us at GALA Hispanic Theatre for our Student Matinee Programs. The 2011-12 mainstage season productions will provide your students with a valuable opportunity to learn more about Latin American and Spanish cultures in a bilingual setting.

GALA’s 36th season will continue to promote cultural literacy and community integration in an accessible environment, where students can experience live theater and expand their knowledge about the arts, history, and issues affecting their lives and communities.

As part of our efforts to make each GALA performance more rewarding for both you and your students, we can provide the following:

• Simultaneous English surtitles in all performances
• A copy of the script in Spanish and/or English (available upon request).
• Educational supplement with information about the play, playwright(s), historical context, and suggested readings
• Post-performance discussions with the actors and director, where students and professors can inquire about the play and the production process
• Student group rate of $15 per ticket for scheduled performances at 10:30 am (Single Ticket Prices range from $34 and $38)
• Free educator ticket per every 20 students who attend the performance.

The two mainstage productions with student matinees are:

¡Ay, Carmela!
By José Sanchis Sinisterra (Spain)
Directed by José Luis Arellano-García
September 15-October 9, 2011

Troubadour artists Carmela and her companion Paulino perform throughout the Spanish countryside during the Civil War, but they suddenly find themselves in Franco’s occupied territory. Forced to entertain their fascists captors, the fiery and free-spirited Carmela rebels, achieving martyrdom. Carlos Sauro, Spain’s leading film director, produced an award-winning film based on this moving story of a woman’s fight for freedom and the devastating impact of Franco’s repressive regime on Spain and the world.


**Special student weekday matinees for ¡Ay, Carmela! are September 23 and 30, and October 6 and 7, 2011 at 10:30 am.**

Ana en el trópico/Anna in the Tropics
By Nilo Cruz (Cuba/USA)
Directed by José Carrasquillo
February 9-March 4, 2012

The arrival of a new “lector” at a 1929 Cuban cigar factory in Ybor City, Florida, becomes a catalyst amongst the workers. As the “lector” begins to read from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, forbidden passions are unleashed in this powerful play about the transformative power of art in a landscape that pits old traditions against changing economic realities. This Pulitzer Prize winning play fosters an appreciation of literature as a means to inform and entertain, and introduces audiences to the issues faced by Cuban immigrants during the late 19th, century.

**Special student weekday matinees for Ana en el trópico are Fridays, February 17 and 24, and March 2, 2012 at 10:30 am.**

For more information about GALA’s Student Matinee Program or to make advanced reservations for these productions, please contact us at 202-234-7174 or via e-mail at camille@galatheatre.org.

We look forward to welcoming you at the theater!

Camille J. Cintrón
Public Relations & Marketing Associate
GALA Hispanic Theatre
P.O. BOX 43209
Washington, DC 20010
www.galatheatre.org