TCG Books Announces The Publication of Oh, Wild West!

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Oh, Wild West!, Culture Clash's new trio of plays that rewrites California's past. For more than twenty-five years, this award-winning trio - Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza - has been storming the nation's stages with their unique blend of hilarious comedy and shrewdly observed social satire, becoming the most prominent Chicano/Latino performance troupe in the U.S. This latest anthology includes a preface by Richard Montoya and introduction by Tony Taccone, as well as an interview with Culture Clash by John Glore.

"This brilliant team of writer/performers offers artful, intelligent work that deserves the rap attention of large and diverse audiences." - BackStage West

In Oh, Wild West!, Culture Clash interweaves pop culture with their home state's local history. Chavez Ravine covers the land grab that uprooted an entire community to build Dodger Stadium; Water & Power focuses on the assimilation of Chicanos and their rise to political influence and Zorro in Hell! reimagines early California through the eyes of the original masked man. "Sharp, cutting and on The Edge" (Los Angeles Times), Culture Clash applies its signature irreverent comic style to an exploration of the American obsession with Westward Expansion that rings particularly true today. As Salinas states, "These plays have a specific voice of race and culture that will engage dialogue because of the continual shift of landscape of this subject...Our plays want to engage the reader by examining our historical past -not always accurate in history books- in order to know where our collective Latino pulse is today."

"Fans of Culture Clash's Chicano-inflected, spoken-word-erupting performance art needn't worry that they've lost sight of their significant gifts. Water & Power, a tale of brothers and a morass of local and national corruption, daringly bundles these elements into tragedy - a significant step in an ambitious new direction." - Los Angeles Times

To request a review copy of Oh, Wild West!, please contact Julie Haverkate at jhaverkate@tcg.org.
Culture Clash is Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. Founded in San Francisco's Mission District on Cinco de Mayo in 1984, they have become the most prominent Chicano performance troupe in the U.S. Their work ranges from sketch comedy to full-length plays and adaptations of Greek classics, and has been produced at universities and theaters throughout the country.

For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is the national organization for the American theatre. It exists to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Founded in 1961, TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre.

In 2005, TCG received the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in recognition of its impact on the national field. TCG and its member theatres are major contributors to the American theatre sector, which employs nearly 130,000 people, produces more than 187,000 performances each year and contributes $1.9 billion to the US economy annually. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, TCG is led by executive director Teresa Eyring and governed by a national board of directors representing the theatre field. Please visit TCG's website and online bookstore at www.tcg.org.

Oh, Wild West!
The California Plays
By Culture Clash
Paperback 288 pages illustrated with photos
$16.95 978-1-55936-327-3
July 2011

Also by Culture Clash, available from TCG Books:

Culture Clash in AmeriCCa
$15.95 978-1-55936-216-0 paperback

Culture Clash: Life Death and Revolutionary Comedy
$14.95 978-1-55936-139-2 paperback

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. Orders: 800-283-3572. SAN number: 63170X. Individuals may call 212-609-5900 or visit our online bookstore at www.tcg.org. For postage and handling, please add $5.00 for the first book and $.50 for each additional copy.

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