The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Theater Arts/Teatro Salon Program Hosts LA CARPA DE LA FRONTERA in March

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Theater Arts/Teatro Salon Program will present the La Carpa de la Frontera written and performed by CARPA San Diego, a touring Mexicano vaudeville show from San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.

CARPA stands for Cultural Association Representing Performing Artists under the direction of Samuel Valdez and Guillermo ‘Memo’ Mendez.

 CARPA San Diego, now in its 10th year anniversary, will tour San Antonio for the first time and it is scheduled to perform at the Plaza Guadalupe on March 23, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.

CARPA San Diego, will rehearse a skit titled “Hunter” with Grupo Animo, the youth resident theater company of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, led by Jorge Piña, Theater Arts Director. It will be part of the evening performance at Plaza Guadalupe.

 Admission is free to the public, but only 200 chairs will be available at the Plaza Guadalupe, on a first come, first served basis. The public is encouraged to bring their own lawn-chairs. Advanced tickets for the evening performance can be ordered here. Patrons can also visit Guadalupe Latino Bookstore, 1300 Guadalupe St., Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to obtain tickets.

This event is sponsored by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Performance Network, and a generous grant from the National Latinx Theater Initiative.

Prior to the evening performance at Plaza Guadalupe, the company will present a short skit at the annual Cesar E. Chavez Foundation March on March 23 at 9:00 a.m. 

During their brief tour in the city, CARPA will also give a theater workshop to Teatro Alas, the youth theater program of SaySi. They have also invited San Antonio own Chicana actor Anna de Luna to perform a scene from her acclaimed one person show Carmen from Mexico.

"I am so honored and excited to be performing with La Carpa de la Frontera!” says de Luna “This is a great opportunity to collaborate with teatristras outside San Antonio to share, create and engage audiences with our cultural activism."

 According to artistic director Samuel Valdez, La Carpa De La Frontera is a site-specific vaudeville bilingual touring show which can be taken into any community in need of healing from the pandemic situation. These performances will address issues such as immigration, race, gender, human rights, labor rights, accessibility, and culture in the comedic form used by the old carpa style concept in Mexico during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. The intent is to build a touring troupe of performing artists whose focus is social change creating a show dealing with social, political issues through a comical platform that the most vulnerable communities of any city can enjoy.

According to creator Guillermo ‘Memo’ Mendez, La Carpa De La Frontera project has three specifics objectives in mind to offer any performance site. In our development process, we are working hard to concretely establish these objectives in place. They include:

1. Presenting a show that is deeply rooted in the old carpa style, using political and social issues as its basis in comedic form.
2. Offering workshops on the dynamics of carpa style, inviting community members to begin creating their own future performances.
3. Connect with local carperos to begin a collective seeing how we can support each other’s work using the resource we have, as well as exchanging ideas for future collaborations.

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