Inaugural INGENIO Play Fest Milagro Begins 9/8

Milagro is excited to announce the inaugural INGENIO Play Fest. INGENIO is a new play and playwright development program for Latina/o playwrights. Four plays were selected after a national request for submissions and will be presented in a concert readings over three days, September 8-10, 2017, following a week of rehearsals. During the rehearsal process, playwrights will work with guest artist Daniel Jáquez, directors, and dramaturgs in the continued development of the scripts, preparing them for a full production. Each reading will be followed by a moderated feedback session, led by guest artist Daniel Jáquez and other guests. INGENIO Play Fest is supported by the National New Play Network's Collaboration Fund.

The plays and playwrights selected for the inaugural INGENIO Milagro Play Fest are Valentino and the Chilean Heiress by Guillermo Reyes, a tango-infused tale of a Chilean drama queen; I Kissed Chavela Vargas by Monica Palacios, a memory play revolving around three generations; Shoe by Marisela Treviño Orta, a girl who breaks the cycle with a click online; and Los Dreamers by Mónica Sánchez, the story of immigration and love.

In addition, seven plays were selected for the INGENIO Milagro Play Reading Series. The readings will be held throughout the season, starting in January 2018.

INGENIO is FREE and open to the public. All readings start at 7:30pm and 2pm on Friday, September 8th through September 10th. No reservations necessary. For more information visit http://milagro.org/event/ingenio-milagro-2017/

INGENIO Milagro Play Fest Details

Valentino and the Chilean Heiress by Guillermo Reyes
Friday September 8, 7:30 PM

A wealthy Chilean heiress, Blanca DeMille, meets Rudolph Valentino in New York in the 1910s when he was a vulnerable, impoverished Italian immigrant struggling to survive as a dancer with almost no hint of the legend of superstardom that will one day greet him. His relationship to Blanca forms part of Valentino's early rumor and legend and it is presented in a highly stylized, tango-infused, fictionalized version. This play illustrates that aspect of the legend and the real-life tragedy that surrounded Blanca, who shot her husband to defend her family told through the eye of Junior, her son.

Guillermo Reyes has produced and published a variety of plays including Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions with Urban Stages, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, among others. Men on the Verge debuted in L.A. at the Celebration Theater and won the L.A. Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play which went on to win The New York Outer Critics' Circle Award for Best Solo Performance for Felix Pire during its off-Broadway run. In 2010, he published Madre and I: A Memoir of our Immigrant Lives with the University of Wisconsin Press. He's a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Film, Dance and Theater.

I Kissed Chavela Vargas by Monica Palacios
Saturday September 9, 2:00 PM

I Kissed Chavela Vargas is a memory play with music that revolves around three generations of Chicanas. A performance piece about performing, aging, healing, female sexuality and about grace. Vivacious 70 year old Rosa struts around her world in a black slip and heels proving to her over-protective daughter Petra she's not your ordinary retiree. Petra's daughter Blue is at the start of her singing career and has a deep connection with her eccentric grandmother. A tragic event brings Nurse Chavela into the trio's mix allowing Rosa to reveal her true colors. Mother, daughter and granddaughter struggle with their relationships with one another and with life. They sing, they dance, they fight and ultimately they find love.

MONICA PALACIOS is the creator of solo shows, plays, screenplays, short stories, stand-up comedy, poems, essays featuring the Latinx LGBTQ experience. National and international scholars have critically engaged her work in academic journals, books, dissertations and conference panels. Palacios has received numerous awards for her positive contributions to the Latinx LGBTQ population. Monica received a Postdoctoral Rockefeller Fellowship from UCSB allowing her to write, direct and produce her play Sweet Peace. Monica's play, Say Their Names, is traveling throughout the U.S. with After Orlando, an international theatre action in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting. This summer Monica presented her solo shows, San Francisco Mi Amor! and BROWNER QUEERER LOUDER PROUDER. I Kissed Chavela Vargas is being developed with scholar and director Jorge Huerta.

Shoe by Marisela Treviño Orta
Saturday September 9, 7:30 PM

Marta gave up college and life outside her family's double-wide trailer in Texas to take care of her manipulative mother. In fact, none of her siblings have been able to escape their mother's grasp. A new online relationship reignites Marta's dreams and curiosity about the world outside, but her younger sister Ileana will do anything to escape home life-even if it means sacrificing Marta's happiness.

MARISELA TREVIÑO ORTA's first play Braided Sorrow won the 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, received a 2008 world premiere at Su Teatro in Denver, and won the 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama. Other plays include: American Triage (2012 Repertorio Español Nuestras Voces Finalist); Ghost Limb (2017 Brava Theatre); Heart Shaped Nebula (2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist, 2015 Shotgun Players); and Woman on Fire (2016 Camino Real Productions). She is working on her grim Latino fairy tale cycle-The River Bride (2013 National Latino Playwriting Award Co-Winner, 2016 Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Wolf at the Door, and Alcira. This summer she will take her new play Shoe to The Kennedy Center as part of the National New Play Network's Playwrights Week.

Los Dreamers by Monica Sanchez
Sunday, September 10, 2:00 PM

Scoobi, a "Dreamer" who came to the US without papers since childhood, is finishing school. She lost her boyfriend at war and got a marriage of convenience. We discover how this once fixed marriage becomes love over time. It is a mother daughter story that focuses on the relationship between the mother's past and the child's understanding and acceptance of the present. This story grips immigration, education, and fighting for what you believe.

MÓNICA SÁNCHEZ has followed her bliss, towards a life in the theatre and the theatre of life. She's honed the craft of professional actor; written and developed work collaboratively and independently for the stage; directed a handful of productions small and large; and enjoyed a myriad of assignments as a teaching artist and community engagement facilitator. After 20+ years in San Francisco and Los Angeles, working with inspired and inspiring contemporary theatre artists, the prodigal daughter has returned to New Mexico where she is currently dreaming and scheming as a cultural warrior and MFA candidate at the University of New Mexico. Writing credits include: From the Chronicles of Odisia Sanchez, No Swamp Like Home, The Gentry: Ten Minutes For Alex Nieto, Rubi X and Los Dreamers.

About INGENIO Play Fest

INGENIO Milagro is a play and playwright development program for Latina/o playwrights. It serves as an intrinsic step in the development of new full-length theatrical works through concert and table readings, guiding playwrights and their works from concept to production. Directors, dramaturgs, and actors bring the plays to life for one performance for an audience of theatre professionals and members of the public, which is followed by a moderated feedback session.

LOCATION: 525 SE Stark St. Portland, OR 97214

AGE RECOMMENDATION: Most INGENIO plays are recommended for high school age and up.

MORE INFORMATION: milagro.org or call 503-236-7253

ABOUT MILAGRO

As the premiere Latino arts and culture center of the Pacific Northwest, Milagro has provided extraordinary Latino theatre, culture, and arts education for the enrichment of all communities since 1985. Teatro Milagro, Milagro's touring & arts education program, presents its original bilingual plays and educational residencies to diverse and underserved communities across the nation. On the mainstage, Milagro produces a full season of regional or world premieres, including one Spanish language play each year, as well as our long-running Día de Muertos signature production. We entertain our audiences; we give them pause to think, feel and imagine; and, through the cultural lens of Latinidad, we reflect the full spectrum of humanity. For more information about Milagro, visit milagro.org or call 503-236-7253.