Watts Village Theater Company Brings Street Performers to Metro

On Saturday, Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) street performers traveled along the Expo Line during Opening Ceremonies and performed original, site-specific pieces at USC, Crenshaw, La Cienega and 7th/Metro Stations. Directed by WVTC’s Associate Artistic Director, David Guerra, the performances, titled Uncovering Los Angeles’ Hidden Treasures, featured actors/musicians Raul Cardona, Lauren Dobbins-Webb, Reggie Neal and Samyrha Saba. Each scene constituted a moment in a collective love story between the masked couple, performed by Cardona and Dobbins-Webb, as they journeyed along the rail line exposing the history of the neighborhoods at each new station.

The performances began at USC, where the actors and musicians interacted with commuters near the station platform and invited them to wonder what all the excitement was about. Passersby were also encouraged to pose with the performers and have their picture taken by Saba, who was equipped with a Polaroid instant camera and handed them the photo as a gift (many people were not used to waiting 30 seconds for their images to “appear” and yes, many still “shake it”). Then the troupe was off to Crenshaw where they ran into Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who tweeted his excitement about, “WVTC out on the Expo Line.” Next was La Cienega, then back to USC where the travelers came upon Beth Peterson’s huge, multicultural puppets and improvised a group dance to the tunes of Make Music LA’s live Jazz quartet. Finally, WVTC’s performers landed at 7th/Metro station and concluded the day of festivities.

Uncovering Los Angeles’ Hidden Treasures on Expo was the continuation of over three years of strategic collaboration between WVTC and Metro, part of an ongoing partnership to promote ridership through performing arts events on Metro. As for future Metro Line Openings WVTC’s Managing Director, David Mack, noted, “WVTC thanks Metro for putting together an amazing Opening, and we look forward to continuing to work with Metro in the future to secure the resources necessary to make the next Opening even more memorable for LA’s residents.”

For WVTC’s part, next up is Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles’ Hidden Treasures on Metro’s Gold Line opening Saturday, August 25, 2012, with performances from Union Station through the East LA Civic Center. Partnering companies include Company of Angels (CoA), East LA Rep, Moving Arts, Rogue Artists Ensemble, The Vault, Opera del Espacio and Sirk one & NoVa. For details and ticket information visit http://wattsvillagetheatercompany.org.