Octavio Solis's RETABLOS Opens In Word For Words Z Below Theater

Word for Word's first production of the 2020 Season is Octavio Solis's Retablos: Stories from A Life Lived Along the Border from his same titled memoir of growing up in El Paso. Retablos: Stories from A Life Lived Along the Border runs February 22 -March 15, in the Z Below Theater in San Francisco.

The production is directed by Sheila Balter and Jim Cave and opens with press performance February 22 & 23, Saturday 8 PM & Sunday 3 PM (previews Feb.19- 21).

The cast for Octavio Solis's Retablos: Stories from A Life Lived Along the Border features actors Maria Candelaria*, Edie Flores, Carla Gallardo, Gendell Hernandez*, Gabriel Montoya, Regina Morones, Ryan Tasker*, Brady Morales-Woolery*. *Actors Equity Association.The production designers include: Scenic Design by Nina Ball, Original Music and Sound by David R.Molina, Lighting Design by Jeff Rowlings, Costume Design by Callie Floor with Dramaturgy by Karina Gutiérrez.

Retablos, Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border has been named one of the year's Best Books by Buzzfeed and recommended three times by the New York Times. The stories in the book are a memoir about growing up brown at the U.S./Mexico border - seminal moments, rites of passage and crystalline vignettes. In his uniquely framed memoir, playwright Octavio Solis channels his youth in El Paso, Texas. Like traditional retablos, the rituals of childhood and rites of passage are remembered as singular, dramatic events, self-contained episodes with life-changing reverberations.

On February 27, Word for Word presents An Evening with Octavio Solis A post-show conversation and book-signing with Retablos' author Octavio Solis.

Author of over 20 plays, Octavio Solis is considered by many to be one of the most prominent Latinx playwrights in America. With works that both draw on and transcend the Mexican-American experience, he is a writer and director whose style defies formula, examining the darkness, magic and humor of humanity with brutal honesty and characteristic intensity. His imaginative and ever-evolving work continues to cross cultural and aesthetic boundaries, solidifying him as one of the great playwrights of our time.

Mr. Solis' relationship with Word for Word extends back twenty years, when he directed their production of "Slaughterhouse" by Greg Sarris. In 2010, he adapted John Steinbeck's "The Pastures of Heaven" (which was one of the five NEA Distinguished New American Plays) for a Word for Word collaboration with Cal Shakes. Mr. Solis is a member of Word for Word's Authors' Council.
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