Ophelia's Jump To Receive $10,000 Grant From The National Endowment For The Arts

Ophelia's Jump has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Challenge America award of $10,000. This grant will support the realization of employing a Deaf Latina Director for the upcoming world premiere of CJ: a Trilingual Play written by Mercedes Florisislas. In total, the NEA will award 257 Challenge America awards totaling $2,570,000 that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

"The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Ophelia's Jump, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community," said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. "We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives."

"Ophelia's Jump is thrilled and honored to have been chosen for an NEA Challenge Grant," said Founding Artistic Director, Beatrice Casagrán. "OJP works to produce theatre that sparks conversations and amplifies diverse voices. CJ: a Trilingual Play which will be partially funded by the NEW Challenge grant will employ a Deaf Latina Director - which we believe to be the first opportunity of this kind for a Deaf Latina in the US. We are very excited to build a team of Deaf and hearing artists to collaborate under the leadership of an emerging Deaf Latina Director and are raising funds to help pay for the costs of employing Deaf artists, interpreters, and translators for the project, as well as to teach ASL to Hearing actors on the project so that they can better communicate with Deaf cast and perform in ASL as well as in English and Spanish as required by this wonderful script."

Presented in November and December 2024, CJ: a Trilingual Play re-imagines A Christmas Carol as a Mexican-American coming of age story. Carolina Juarez (CJ) is the disaffected teenage daughter of a woman who struggles with depression and drug addiction. CJ is temporarily sent to stay with her aunt and Deaf grandmother who suffers from dementia. CJ, who speaks little Spanish and no ASL, cannot communicate with her Grandmother and wants little to do with her family. During a teenage tantrum, she destroys a stuffed monkey beloved by her grandmother, bringing the toy to life and ushering in a series of Aztec deities who teach CJ about her Mexican heritage and her grandmother's life, giving her a new understanding of the many struggles that her grandmother endured as a young Deaf Latina trying to raise her baby. CJ finds an understanding and appreciation for her grandmother and for own culture and learns that communication comes in many forms.

Located at 2009 Porterfield Way, Suite H, in Upland, Ophelia's Jump is an award-winning, non-profit regional theatre company based in Claremont and performing in Claremont and Upland. Ophelia's Jump Productions was founded in 2013 by women and queer artists and educators who believe that the purpose of theatre is to create unending conversations, spark imagination, incite conscience, and elicit a visceral response. OJP aims to invigorate the creativity and intellect of our community by working with local and regional artists to tell compelling stories and educate new generations of theatre lovers. Ophelia's Jump is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

Additional information available at opheliasjump.org or info@opheliasjump.org

For more information on other projects included in the NEA's grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.