Miracle Theatre Group Announces 2010-2011 27th Season

Miracle Theatre Group, the Northwest's premier Latino arts and culture organization, today announces its 2010-2011 season featuring an exciting line-up of four world premiere productions and a Pulitzer Prize winning drama.

Preceding the start of the nonprofit organization's 27th season will be its second annual Luna Nueva Festival, a multidisciplinary celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month featuring staged readings of new plays, poetry readings, live music and dance presentations (a full schedule to be announced later this summer for events beginning in mid-September).

The Miracle then officially begins its season in October with Viva Don Juan, this year's edition of the theatre's signature celebration of Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). January brings the world premiere of Duende de Lorca, a biography of famed Federico García Lorca that will tour nationally throughout 2011. In February the company will stage Ana in el trópico, the Spanish-language version of Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics, which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The season continues with the debut of a new playwright and her magical apocalyptic story called Boomcracklefly, followed by a company-created, modern adaptation of the picaresque classic Lazarillo de Tormes retold through physical theatre.

Also on the schedule are a number of special events, including the annual community Christmas celebration, Posada Milagro; a staged reading in Spanish for the 2011 International Women's Day; and Summer at Milagro educational activities that this year include a Spanish-immersion theatre camp for children, a bilingual hip-hop dance class for teens and Spanish-language acting workshop for adults. El Centro Milagro will also continue to host a variety of community meetings and events, including the Small- and Mid-sized Arts Coalition, the Portland Theatre Marketers Roundtable, Los Porteños Latino Writers Group, Portland Latino Gay Pride, and many others.

Miracle Theatre Group's 2010-2011 season includes:

VIVA DON JUAN
An original, bilingual celebration of Day of the Dead
October 29-November 14, 2010
Every fall, the dead are commemorated in a lively show of dance, music and theatre in Portland's longest-running Day of the Dead celebration. This year, los muertos return accompanied by the legendary Don Juan, that selfish rogue who took great pleasure in defying the opponents of his romantic interests. But when the world's most devilish romantic revisits the living on Día de los muertos, he soon discovers a new perspective on life, love and second chances.

DUENDE DE LORCA
A original, bilingual Teatro Milagro production
Written by Dañel Malán
January 14-22, 2011
Federico García Lorca is celebrated the world over for his passionate, avant-garde poetry, music and plays. Yet at the age of 27, he was just another struggling artist living with his parents, writing puppet plays that were laughed off the stage by critics. His need for freedom fueled his desire to succeed, and his travels through New York and Cuba quickly became a quest for cultural integration and acceptance. In the Americas, Lorca shone like a mad and fiery diamond, fusing his cante jondo with Afro-Cuban son to create a new rhythm of powerfully poetic drama.

ANA EN EL TRÓPICO
[Anna in the Tropics]
Winner of the 2003 Pulitizer Prize for Drama
Written by Nilo Cruz
February 11-March 5, 2011
Presented in Spanish with easy-to-follow supertitles in English
In this beguiling story set in a Cuban-American cigar factory in 1929 Florida, cigars are still rolled by hand and "lectors" are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics and the American dream prove a volatile combination. "The words of Nilo Cruz waft from the stage like a scented breeze. They sparkle and prickle and swirl, enveloping those who listen ... in timeless passions that touch us all." (Miami Herald)

BOOMCRACKLEFLY
A world premiere production in English
Written by Charise Castro Smith
March 25-April 16, 2011
When you spend your life dreaming, what happens when you finally get what you want? In a New York barrio, a female impersonator ignores the advice of an imaginary grandmother to fall in love with an insatiable scientist; in a Key West circus, two acrobat sisters are divided over the ghost of Ernest Hemingway; and in revolutionary Havana, a man who wishes he had wings yearns to fly away to another land. Three seemingly disparate stories weave together in a clever combination of science fiction and magical realism to create an eccentric environment that is as unsettling as it is irresistible.

LAZARILLO
An original, bilingual physical theatre production
Created by CarlosAlexis Cruz
May 6-28, 2011
Sold to a blind beggar as a child and then passed from one master to another - each more cruel and incompetent than the next - young Lazarillo must pilfer and deceive to survive, and is usually punished for his pains. But like his successors Pinocchio or Huck Finn, the endearing Lazarillo learns to fake miracles and mouse infestations, to expose hucksters and the absurdities of the establishment, all in an attempt to elevate his position in society. Based on the first picaresque novel once banned by the Inquisition, this modern interpretation integrates hip-hop, circus and comedia dell'arte traditions to create a vibrant evening of physical theatre suitable for all ages.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AND LOCATION
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:00 p.m. Sundays at the Milagro Theatre (525 S.E. Stark St., Portland).

TICKET INFORMATION
Various season ticket packages are available for purchase, ranging from $69-$99. Individual ticket prices are $14-$25, with discounts for students, seniors and groups of 15 or more. Subscriptions, single tickets and group reservations are available by calling 503-236-7253. For more information, visit www.milagro.org.

ABOUT MIRACLE THEATRE GROUP
The Miracle Theatre Group has been dedicated to bringing the vibrancy of Latino theatre to the Northwest community and beyond for more than 25 years. In addition to its national tours, Miracle provides a home for Spanish and Latin American arts and culture at El Centro Milagro, where it enriches the local community with a variety of community outreach projects and educational programs designed to share the diversity of Latino culture. For more information about the Miracle Theatre Group, visit www.milagro.org or call 503-236-7253.

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