*Note: This is a change in date and location from the original listing. Extreme Home Makeover has been replaced by Carlota: Jewelry Box of Secrets
The ON THE BRINK Reading Series is aimed at amplifying marginalized voices and exposing students to a diverse array of BIPOC, queer, and women artists from around the nation and the world. A collaboration of professional theatre artists, faculty members, current students and CSU alumni, On the Brink explores works representing a variety of underrepresented voices and perspectives.
Led by Professors Saffron Henke and Javier Hurtado, the goals for the series are to expose students at CSU to work from artists they may not otherwise know, to share with students the work their professors do, to encourage a curiosity for and practice of reading new plays, and to bring together faculty, professional artists and students in creative collaboration.
Each reading is followed by a post-show facilitated reflective discussion to process the work and the issues each play raises.
The 2023-24 Season:
Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman.
Directed by Javier Hurtado
Tuesday, February 13, 7:30 p.m.
The Magic Rat; The Elizabeth Hotel
Archer (still Angela to his family) doesn’t want to move back to his childhood home in eastern Oregon when his father falls ill. But at night under the oldest Ponderosa Pine, he meets a stranger who knows the history of the forests and the sadness of losing endangered things. As Archer accepts big changes in his family, he discovers the power of names and the histories they make and mask.
Carlota: Jewelry Box of Secrets by Rodrigo Garcia and Ugho Badu- Translated by Victor Spielberg Verdejo{
Directed by Javier Hurtado
Wednesday, March 6, 7:30 p.m.
Bas Bleu Theatre, 401 Pine St.
Inspired by The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca, Carlota: Jewelry Box of Secrets is set in the house that the protagonist, Carlota inherited from her father. It is a house where time has stopped. Carlota and her three daughters live there: Mari Fer, the eldest who does not stop sweating; Mari Pepa, the second who suffers from a terrible illness, and Mari Tere, the youngest who suffers from a condition that is greater than her strength. One summer, Carlota, Soledad, her lifelong companion, and Carlota’s daughters, attend the funeral of Heladio del Monte, a poor man who has come to the worse. Going to the wake of the deceased, Heladio unleashes a series of events that trigger the revelation of a secret that will change everyone’s lives.
Carlota has been produced multiple times since it premiered in 2016. The play is originally written and performed in Spanish. This is the first time that this play will be performed in English. Following the performance, the writers of the original Spanish text, Rodrigo Garcia and Ugho Badu will join us via zoom for a talkback with the audience facilitated by Dr. Javier Hurtado.
This Carlota is being produced in collaboration with Bas Bleu in Fort Collins and Teatro Alebrijes in San Jose, CA.