Lorenzo Garcia

Creating Community in a University Production of Bocon

Abstract Rehearsing and ‘living through’ a play production provided opportunities for nine students to reflect on their lives as theatre artists. In a series of interviews, the students searched for what was in their educational programme to establish the kinds of community they desired. That vision focused on the themes of inclusion, collaboration and voice. The interrelated themes reflect attempts to define organisational lives around shared ideals or ‘virtues’. While adhering to certain beliefs about how individuals should live in relation to each other is important, there are two other defining characteristics of the common ground that connects these students to each other. The basis for the creation of community is also advanced by a willingness to recognise individual identity and the interconnectedness among group members. Finally, finding common ground is associated with preserving a compact of affirmation, solidarity and critique.

Three decade drama/theatre and (for/with/by/about) youth crowd-sourced timeline

What events, patterns, or people have shaped the field or marked its milestones since Youth Theatre Journal’s (YTJ’s) first issue in 1986? We put the call out to YTJ readers, this rich array of ent...

Adding to the Dialogue with Latina/o Plays for Young Audiences

Change begins with concerted efforts, as Gloria Anzaldua (1991) declares, “to interact, to repeat back, or reflect or mirror, but also do more than just reflect back or mirror—to add to the dialogue” (256).

From Memory to Action: Teatro Dallas’s Production of Pizcas

In this brief meditation, and with an interest in the interplay of cultural memory and official history, the author directs attention to the production of Pizcas aimed at children and performed by Teatro Dallas at the Latino Cultural Center. The author argues that the production, and the theatre activities played out with children immediately following the production, engaged latinidad in order reveal places of affective investment and empowerment. It is a fact that Latin@ youth cannot escape the intricacies of living with a complex identity that much of the U.S. populace is uncomfortable addressing.

Living With/Through Loss and Grief in Lisa Loomer's Bocón!

In Lisa Loomers Bocón (Big Mouth), Miguel—a 12-year-old boy—has to travel north to the United States after witnessing soldiers arrest his parents. My reading of Bocón relies on asking how the process of holding on to intense loss may actually serve to counter the process of assimilation as a particular form of national integration. I then turn to Bocón as a dramatized rendition of one boys journey in which the salient feature is the persistent deploying of an idyllic recollection of his parents—which constructs for him a reassuring point of ethical comparison by which to judge an impoverished present.

The Border Logics of Adolescent Development in Cherríe Moraga's Giving up the Ghost

Through the character of Corky/Marisa, Cherríe Moraga in Giving Up the Ghost offers a rare instance in which a Chicana adolescent queer is placed front and center, notably as a model of liberation. In this article, I argue that Ghost demonstrates lives forced to play out a “border logics”—which draws specific attention to the idea that Chicanos/Mexican Americans often must function within and between two or more frames of reference. By exploring the inner shadows of Corky/Marisa, Moraga offers a critical dialogue about the local and transnational histories lying within the complex grid that constitutes the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. In the light of the decades since its first publication in 1986, the point to be made is that Moragas play continues to acquire critical social meaning precisely because Moraga utilized the stage not as a place for forgetting, but for remembering, for drawing attention to the continuing erasure of Chicana/o cultural landscapes and presences by policy makers, popular culture, and the public at large.