Pelú Theatre Presents A SUICIDE NOTE FROM COCKROACH

Pedro, a cockroach from the low-income housing projects in NYC, is about to commit suicide. He has been married seven times, and each of his wives has been killed! He lost his best friend, he lost his job... he has nothing and he hates the world! This is his story, a story of a poor Latino that went from human to a suicidal cockroach...

This debut production of Pelú Theatre presents a circus theatre spectacle exploring the themes of exile and the birth of a new subculture in America, putting a comic twist to the existential dilemma of being an immigrant in the U.S. The show is based on the poem A Suicide Note from a Cockroach in a low-income housing project written by Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri. In it, the company uses circus as its vocabulary for telling stories: aerialists, tumblers, acrobats, musicians and, of course, clowns form an ensemble of cockroaches trying to live a decent life -- but with one antagonist, a human!

The show will be performed in "spanglish", or the language that defined the puertorican exile in NYC. Both English and Spanish speaking audiences would not find any trouble in understanding or following the action, and at the same time be transported musically to the "barrio".

Cast

Carlos Alexis Cruz.......... Pedro

Mayra Acevedo............. wives/ensemble

Sarah Farrell................. wives/ensemble

Jason McLin................. best friend

Jack Lynn.................... a tall man

Acrobats/Gossipers:

Daniela Steiner, Robin Woolman, Kyoko Uchida and Terra Zarra

Circus Band:

The Juan Prophet OrganizationWhen: March 18th-21st and 25th-28th, 2010

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays @ 8pm

Sundays @ 2pm and 8pm

Where: Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR
Admission: $10

Tickets can be purchased in advance online at pelutheatre.com, in advance at the PDX Ticket Network box office at the Hollywood Theatre daily 1-9 p.m., or at the door the day of the event.

More Information: www.pelutheatre.com

About Artistic Director CarlosAlexis Cruz

CarlosAlexis Cruz graduated from the Masters in Fine Arts in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre program at the Dell'Arte International School in California. There he became particularly interested in the use of circus arts for the "telling of a story", and the world of a clown theatre. So, he went to train in circus arts at the San Francisco Circus Center under the guidance of Master Chinese acrobatics teacher Lu Yi specializing on aerial straps, among other things. He has been working as a professional actor for the past eight years starting his career in Puerto Rico, passing through northern California and at the present moment in Portland, OR touring shows in, around and across the U.S., Dominican Republic and Mexico. Locally he has performed with Do Jump! Theatre in Entusiasmo, with Miracle Theatre Group in the Día de los Muertos shows La Carpa del Ausente and La Carpa del Maestro as well as Oyá: Call the Storm. CarlosAlexis currently works as company actor with Imago Theatre in Frogz, BigLittleThings, and Zoo Zoo. In 2004 his work was particularly highlighted by the Theatre Critics of Puerto Rico for his performance in ?conos de Vellonera, pointing him out as the only contender for the Best Young Actor recognition, to a ceremony that never happened. He has participated in numerous events for Latin American TV including Telemundo's film Bala Perdida in which he played a leading role. He has a BA degree in film studies from the School of Communication at the University of Puerto Rico.

About Nuyorican Poet Pedro Pietri
Poet and playwright Pedro Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on March 21, 1944. Three years later, his family moved to Harlem. He attended public schools in New York City and was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War from 1966-68. His publications include Illusions of a Revolving Door: Plays (1992), The Masses are Asses (1984), Traffic Violations (1983), Lost in the Museum of Natural History (1980), Invisible Poetry (1979), and Puerto Rican Obituary (1973). His work has also been included in anthologies such as The Prentice Hall Anthology of Latino Literature (ed. Eduardo del Rio, 2002); The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (ed. Alan Kaufman, 2000), The Latino Reader (eds. Harold Augenbraum and Margarite Fernandez Olmos, 1997), Inventing a Word: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Puerto Rican Poetry (ed. Julio Marzan, 1980), and The United States of Poetry. His honors include several New York State Creative Arts in Public Service grants and a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. A resident of New York City and prominent Nuyorican poet, Pedro Pietri died on March 3, 2004.

Pelú Theatre is a company based in Portland, OR but rooted in San Juan, PR. As a result its artists are interested in the conversation between the theatre tendencies of these two particular places, creating the birth of a third theatre out of a cultural limbo. The company is mainly interested in fusions... circus and theatre, commedia and melodramas, clowns and death. When "stuff" is mixed up together on stage, just like rice and beans, it creates the birth of that third scene that lives only in front of the eyes of the audience. This keeps audiences at The Edge of their seats, exactly as Pelú wishes.

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