A Place Called Home Announces Inaugural EL CENTRO DEL SUR LATINX THEATER FESTIVAL

A Place Called Home a transformative youth and community center serving South Central Los Angeles, announces the inaugural El Centro Del Sur Latinx Theater Festival streamed free to the community through support from the National Endowment for the Arts, to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The six theater companies participating in El Centro Del Sur Latinx Theater Festival include: Latino Theater Company; East Los Angeles College; Company of Angels; Teatro Luna; Casa 0101 Theater/Chicanas, Cholas, Y Chisme; and A Place Called Home Theater Program/ACT @ APCH. Each of the six family-friendly (PG / TV-14) productions will include Spanish subtitles and will be followed by live Q&A sessions translated into Spanish in real time. Two of the productions are world premieres.

"We look forward to returning to live performances in our beautiful Bridge Theater at A Place Called Home soon, but we're thrilled to be able to celebrate virtually, with our collaborative partners, the incredible, diverse Latin talent that calls Los Angeles home," said APCH Chief Program Officer Jewel Dellegal. "We're deeply grateful to the NEA for supporting our inaugural year and hope to make this a highly-anticipated annual experience for the community of South Central."

The staff of A Place Called Home conceived of the theater festival in response to increased interest in, and demand for, quality theatrical experiences from APCH members and the larger South Central community. The opening of the Bridge Theater in 2017 ushered in a new era of opportunities for young people to engage in acting, playwriting, theatrical production and theater management opportunities. The 90011 zip code where APCH is located is one of the most impoverished and systemically under-resourced in the nation. This incredible space for learning also doubles as a cultural enrichment and artistic entertainment venue for the entire neighborhood.

APCH CEO Jonathan Zeichner states, "At A Place Called Home we believe that exposure to, and exploration of, the arts is a powerful key to self-actualization. We find great meaning and joy in offering courses, career preparation and performance opportunities in visual arts, dance, music and theater for the young people we serve. We opened our on-campus theater in 2017 to not only give our members a space to learn and perform, but to give the entire community a safe gathering space to celebrate and immerse in the Arts."

Originally conceived as a weekend-long community celebration to take place in Fall 2020 at A Place Called Home's Bridge Theater, El Centro Del Sur Latinx Theater Festival was reimagined as an online streaming experience as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kicking off the festival on Thursday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m., Latino Theatre Company will stream Solitude. Inspired by Octavio Paz's essay collection The Labyrinth of Solitude, Evelina Fernández's acclaimed play explores universal themes of life, love and loss woven through the consciousness of multi-generations of Chicano life and culture. A wealthy and successful lawyer who hasn't seen his mother in 20 years returns home for her funeral. There, he revisits his past and those he left behind. The journey is led by Man, a Paz-quoting limo driver and self-appointed expert on love, and accompanied by a live cello. Layered and richly theatrical, Paz's themes are deeply explored in this ground-breaking piece. The eloquent phrasing and dynamic rhythms of the script's poetry is well-matched by director's Jose Luis Valenzuela's stunning visual pictures, silhouettes, dance and slow-motion sequences

Celebrating one of the most original Latino talents of our day, East Los Angeles College will present From the Works of John Leguizamo From East Coast to East Los on Friday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. In this collection of eight monologues chosen from Leguizamo's Spic-O-Rama and Mambo Mouth, you will meet characters filled with a dark and intellectual humor reflective of an immigrant family in Queens, New York

In the world premiere of Lolo, presented by Company of Angels on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m., Lorraine "Lolo" Lopez is forced to return home from college upon the sudden loss of her father, a pillar in the Baldwin Park community whose life work had been put into his shop and his classic car. Faced with the news that her mother cannot run the shop without her and that her half-brother wants his piece of the pie, Lolo must make the difficult choice of staying on her own path or picking up where her father left off.

On Thursday, Sept, 23 at 7 p.m., Teatro Luna West offers up the world premiere of The Inbetweens. Four stories, each crafted as a response and meditation on grief and healing - two words we have all been dealing with for the last 16 months of the Covid-19 pandemic - were filmed in Mexico City, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and Chicago. Audiences will journey with four performers through the rage, softness, isolation and hope that great loss and transformation bring out in all of us. From tracking the lessons passed down after losing a mentor of over 12 years to cancer through the rollercoaster of suffering from witnessing the decay of dementia, we are all learning how to be better humans to ourselves and each other.

Womxn In Herstory, presented by Casa 0101 Theater/Chicanas, Cholas, Y Chisme on Friday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m., is a festival of short plays exploring the struggles and triumphs of womxn throughout the ages. Plays include: Adelita, Catch One, Chabuca Mami and Me, Eve's Deliverance, Last Woman Standing, Manitas, Wemoon, Xochitl Xience.

The festival wraps up on Saturday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. when APCH Theater Program and ACT @ APCH present Alice in Slasherland. When young Lewis Diaz accidentally resurrects the soul of a brutally slain girl named Alice, he unwittingly unleashes a literal hell on earth. Now, with every imaginable kind of demon, monster, and killer ravaging his small town, it's up to Lewis and his newly undead companion to protect his classmates - including longtime crush Margaret - from becoming freshly slaughtered carcasses. With the help of Alice's trash-talking demonic teddy bear, Lewis races to find a way to close the rift before the devil himself shows up and totally ruins their senior prom.

Each streaming production is free, includes Spanish subtitles, and will be followed by a live Q&A translated into Spanish in real time. For tickets visit: www.apch.org/elcentrodelsur.