Getty, About…Productions, And Plaza De La Raza Launch Second Youth Theater Summer Intensive

Getty, About…Productions, and Plaza de la Raza launch their second Youth Theater Summer Intensive, a six-week summer theater program focusing on the youth's ancestral connections.

A select group of Latinx students from various high schools in Los Angeles will work with a team of professional teaching and guest artists focusing on Greek, Roman, and Mesoamerican mythology. Teaching artists Eddie Ruiz, Jozben Barrett, and Katarina Lopez and guest artists including Estela Garcia will help students explore performing art forms and storytelling through a world culture lens.

Classes are held four days a week at Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts & Education, with Thursday field trips to the Getty Villa. Theater games and exercises, improvisation, music, movement, and creative writing will allow the students to learn how to collaborate with one another, share their talents, and create an original script. While visiting the Getty Villa, students will also meet with David Saunders, associate curator of antiquities, to research the museum's collection of ancient objects for inspiration and learn more about an upcoming 2024 exhibition focusing on Mesoamerican vessels curated by Saunders.

“We believe in the power of theater to bring transformative experiences to youth. It's a unique opportunity to provide them with 20 hours each week of empowering instruction and arts engagement, especially through the Getty visits,” says Theresa Chavez, About...Productions' producing artistic director. “This program proves that the collaboration process is powerful and transformative on multiple individual and communal levels. We're very excited to share their original work which will reflect on their cultural explorations and dialogue.”

Their original performance titled Ancestral Connections: Non Centeotl, Nin Tonantzin/Sacred Maíz, Our Mother will integrate text/poetry, movement, video projections, and music, and take place at Plaza de la Raza on July 27 at 7 pm and at the Getty Villa on July 29 at 2 pm. Tickets are free of charge.

Now in its 35th year, About…Productions creates original interdisciplinary theaterworks and educational programs that provoke new perspectives on history, humanity, and culture. The award-winning company is dedicated to generating new work through collaboration to create artistic and community dialogue, and believes in the power of theater to enlighten audiences, transform youth, and celebrate the lives of elders. Its theaterworks and educational programs unearth and illuminate cultural histories of the Southwest, California, and Los Angeles.

Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts & Education is the only multidisciplinary community arts venue dedicated to serving the Eastside neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Founded in 1970 by prominent labor, business, and civic leaders as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, it offers affordable after-school, intergenerational arts education programs to nearly 5,100 children, teens and adults each year. Its mission is to foster enrichment of all cultures bridging the geographic, social, artistic, and cultural boundaries of Los Angeles, and beyond.