THE ART OF DREAMING: A Landscape Of L.A. Voices to be Presented at Lineage Performing Arts Center

The Art of Dreaming: a landscape of L.A. voices is an uplifting live theatrical production featuring four writer-performers, all of whom are professional teaching artists connected to About…Productions' Young Theaterworks program, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. The monologues are based on each writer's personal, cultural, and L.A.-centric experience. 

The production directed by Marlene Beltran explores dreaming as a poetic and active practice—how individuals imagine identity, belonging, perseverance, and future possibility. Beltran says, “this devised work centers original monologues written and performed by professional teaching artists reflecting on what it means to live, create, and educate in Los Angeles. Written in response to students' powerful voices, the deeply personal monologues explore what it means to dream in a world shaped by migration, generational memory, injustice, and a longing for rest. These stories of freedom and fear, family and community, and joy and grief illuminate dreaming as both an act of survival and a radical expression of hope.”

The writer-performers are: 

Catherine Dee Holly a classically trained actor, writer, and director. She has performed on stages across the country and has appeared in This Is Us (NBC) and NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), as well as the Cannes-acclaimed short films Heartbreak Happy and Tragiometry. She is also a trauma-informed educator, specializing in social-emotional storytelling and performance work with diverse communities, including incarcerated youth and neurodivergent performers.

Brandon Rachal a theatremaker, arts educator. He has been a featured performer with: Black Light Arts Collective, Anteaus Theatre, Inkwell Theatre Lab, Texas Shakespeare Festival, and Downtown Rep. As a teaching artist, his focus is on using devised theatre methods to inspire creative expression and social change. He co-hosts The Melanated Archives, a podcast that serves as a digital time capsule celebrating iconic Black actors in theatre, film, and television.

Marta Portillo has used theatre education as a vehicle to work with communities in health education, social justice, intergenerational theatre, and in-school and after school programming for over a decade. She received a best lead performance nomination from the Orange County Theatre Guild for her performance in ALMA at the Chance Theater.  She has also worked on several network TV shows and is inspired to help people use their voice to tell their stories.

Sayda Trujillo an actor, director, voice specialist and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Cal Poly Pomona. She has performed and educated globally with The Freedom Theatre in locations including Guatemala, Ecuador, Chile, Singapore, Spain, Germany, Colombia, UK, Egypt, Turkey, India and Palestine. Four solo shows she wrote and performed in have been presented at REDCAT, La Mama, and New York Theatre Workshop. Her practical research and writing focuses on voice and identity, the integration of voice and movement, and decolonizing actor training and pedagogy through the study of the concept of Nepantla and Mayan cosmology. Of her experience with About…Productions Trujillo says “this has given me the much needed time and space to reflect on the power of art and place, and our roots collective and journeys.”

The writers/performers were inspired by youth they mentored to write their own monologues. As part of the Art of the Monologue workshops, many of these students will present their monologues for a multi-school audience before a private matinee performance of The Art of Dreaming.”

Ly Eisenstein is designing video projections which are an important element of the production which will integrate student voices from About…Productions' Young Theaterworks program. Eisenstein has recently worked on Kubrick's Aryan Papers, L.A. Real, She Who Was No More, and on the installation Voices of the Universe for the LA Astronomical Society. Tony Sauza is the sound designer and has composed original music for the production. He is an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist focused on Afro-Caribbean music.