PLACAS to Run 2/18-28 at Casa 0101

Inspired by the real-life experiences of ex-gang member Alex Sanchez, Culture Clash's Ric Salinas stars in the story of a Salvadoran immigrant who tries to reclaim his family while letting go of his gangbanger past. PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo by 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award-winner and celebrated spoken word artist Paul S. Flores gets a limited two-week run at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights from February 18 through February 28. (Scroll all the way down to view downloadable photos.)

Directed by Latino Theater Company's Fidel Gomez and originally developed with Cornerstone's Michael John Garcés, PLACAS is a bilingual tale of fathers and sons, transformation and redemption that illuminates one man's determination to reunite his family after surviving civil war in El Salvador, immigration, deportation, prison and street violence.

In addition to Salinas, the PLACAS ensemble includes Eric Aviles, Edgar Barboza, Zilah Mendoza, Xavi Moreno, Sarita Ocón and Emiliano Torres.

As part of the writing process, Flores interviewed over 100 gang members, parents and intervention workers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and El Salvador. The character of Fausto Carbajal (Salinas) is loosely based on the experiences of former gang member Sanchez, now an internationally recognized violence prevention pioneer, expert on gang culture and youth criminalization, and co-founder of Homies Unidos in Los Angeles.

In street culture, placas (barrio slang for body tattoos) signify an individual member's unswerving loyalty to the gang and also serve as a mechanism to create a new identity. Using Fausto's tattoos as a metaphor, PLACAS explores the process of tattoo removal as one possible path for former gang members to move forward. Laser tattoo removal is a complicated and painful procedure that can take years to conclude, and it is especially risky for ex-gang members because their former comrades see it as betrayal and may target those who seek treatment. Partly because of this risk, gang prevention workers, police, probation officers, judges and caseworkers see tattoo removal as a legitimate step gang members can take toward reintegrating into civil society.

A theater artist, writer, social commentator, activist and founding member of Culture Clash, Salinas was born in El Salvador and immigrated to San Francisco's Mission District when he was 12.

"Living in San Francisco in the eighties, the time when the war sent many refugees to places like San Francisco's Mission District, I saw first hand how this wave of immigrants impacted the neighborhoods and how the realities of trying to adapt to living in the U.S. impacted Salvadorans," he says. "I was almost killed trying to prevent gang violence in front of my home in the Mission, so it is something I have first hand experience with. I agreed to play Fausto because I'm hoping that by telling his story, it will allow audiences, old and young, to experience and learn about the consequences when loved ones become caught up in gang activity."

"What a gang member has to go through to be human is huge," Flores explained in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "There's a mangled sense of identity, of life outside the gang clashing with the code of the gang. How do you recover from that? How does a man like Fausto recover his humanity after a lifetime of war and violence?"

PLACAS was first produced at the San Francisco International Arts Festival in 2012, and has since traveled to over a dozen cities around the country. In 2014, it premiered in Los Angeles with four performances at downtown's Los Angeles Theatre Center. The 2016 California tour, which includes Richmond, Stockton, Santa Ana and Boyle Heights, is sponsored by the California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities, National Compadres Network, Homies Unidos, Unity Council Latino Men and Boys Program, California Endowment Sons and Brothers. This project was made possible in part by the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards program.

Poet, performance artist, playwright, and spoken word artist Paul S. Flores explores the intersection of urban culture, Hip-Hop and transnational identity rooted in his growing up in both Chula Vista, CA and Tijuana, Mexico. His other theater works include the solo performance You're Gonna Cry and the two-hander REPRESENTA!. He is the recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2014 KQED Hispanic Heritage Local Hero, and a 2011 San Francisco Weekly "Best Politically Active Hip-Hop Performance Artist." Support for his work also includes the National Performance Network Forth Fund Award, NPN Creation Fund, NEA Theater grant and National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts Individual Artist Award. As a co-founder of Youth Speaks, he has introduced spoken word to hundreds of thousands of youth all over the country, and has developed a national platform for young people through the Brave New Voices: National Teen Poetry Slam, seen on HBO. He teaches Hip-Hop Theatre and Spoken Word at University of San Francisco.

The San Francisco International Arts Festival presents and produces innovative projects that are focused on increasing human awareness and understanding by presenting world-class International Artists whose work is rarely seen in the United States.

CASA 0101 is dedicated to providing vital arts, cultural, and educational programs - in theater, digital filmmaking, art and dance - to Boyle Heights, thereby nurturing the future storytellers of Los Angeles who will someday transform the world.

Set design for PLACAS is by Tanya Orellana; lighting design is by Pablo Santiago; sound design is by Alejandro Acosta; projections design is by Yee Eun Nam; tattoos are designed by Sarita Ocón; technical director is Marissa Marshal; stage manager is Julian Fernandez; and the production manager is ERic Reid.

PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m. from Feb. 18 through Feb. 28. Tickets are $15 when purchased purchased online in advance and $20 at the door. Casa 0101 is located in Boyle Heights at 2102 E 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033. For more information, to purchase tickets and to find a schedule of free workshops, events, public forums and panels to be held in conjunction with the performances, call (323) 263-7684 or go to www.casa0101.org.

PLACAS includes the use of Spanish, strong language, and simulated violence. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

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