Tallahassee Hispanic Theater

Tallahassee Hispanic Theater presents
NAVIGATORS
A Comedy by Toni Cabre
Starring: Alejandra Gutierrez and Mattie Ward
Directed by: Kevin Carr

April 25-28, 2019
Schnittman Hall at Railroad Square
623 McDonnell Drive, Tallahassee

Navigators is a hilarious comedy about two people who believe in the virtues of social media. A man and a woman get online to find out what’s happening, to share their feelings, to have fun… Maybe because of they are online, they feel less isolated and somehow happier. But online relationships are very complicated!

Like many of us, the two character in Navigators are lonely. They want to break out of their routine, so they navigate the web to find someone else who wants to play a game.

Do you want to play?

Don’t miss the AMERICAN PREMIERE of NAVIGATORS. Five Performances only!

Tickets: $15/person. Students and Seniors – $12. The play will be performed in English.

Buy your tickets at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/navigators-tickets-60206867361

 

Alejandra Gutierrez, the Artistic Director of THT, was selected as a 2019 Trailblazer by the Oasis Center for Women & Girls in honor of her leadership in community organizing and redevelopment, making a way for others to follow her example.The award ceremony took place on March 8^th during the celebration of the 11th Annual Women’s History Month Luncheon.

Alejandra Gutierrez immigrated from Venezuela to study Spanish literature, earning her PhD from the University of Virginia. While teaching Hispanic language and culture at FSU, she started the first Hispanic theater group in Tallahassee to educate and help others connect with Hispanic culture through the stories and art of theater. Her nonprofit theater group, Tallahassee Hispanic Theater, performs literary plays by Hispanic authors and playwrights at Goodwood Museum, Monticello Opera House, and partners with other theater groups in Tallahassee creating a rich and varied experience.

While studying journalism in Caracas, Venezuela, Gutierrez enrolled in a theater class and fell in love with the art form. For six years, Gutierrez worked during the day as a journalist and spent her evenings acting with groups like Grupo Actoral 80, founded by Argentinean playwright and actor Juan Carlos Gené. Performing plays from all over the world, Gutierrez was able to glimpse other cultures and through the windows that theater provided, appreciate them.

She brings that wonder and passion to her students at FSU who she introduces literary works of Hispanic culture, and to the Tallahassee community through the performance art delivered by Tallahassee Hispanic Theater, a dream she is making come true.

Alejandra is a trailblazer because she has put her passion into action to connect disparate cultures through theater. Her determination, talent, and love of her culture has enriched the city she now calls home, creating a more inclusive, informed, appreciative, and connected society through artfully-told human experience.

When asked about her message to women and girls who might want to follow her path, she offers Discipline: don’t quit when things get hard. And be open to change because wonderful things await.

 

We are looking for a male actor (30s-early 40s) to play the lead role in the upcoming comedy produce by Tallahassee Hispanic Theater. The play is called Navigators by Toni Cabre, and it will be directed by Kevin Carr. The performances will be held April 25-28 at the Schnittman Theater in Railroad Square. Rehearsals will begin mid-March. If you are interested, please email Kevin Carr ASAP at kevinmatthewcarr@gmaill.com for more information.

See a side below.

Come play with us!!!

2 – A BAR

HE and SHE look at each other. Silence.  HE is about to talk to her.

SHE:  Excuse me… I was supposed to meet someone precisely at this bar and at this table.  I don’t think you are…

After hearing her talk, HE gets serious.

HE:  Me?  Impossible.  I was supposed to meet someone that… Well… Someone that isn’t you.

SHE looks at his legs. 

HE: By the way, I’m meeting someone here at this table too.

SHE:  Don’t worry.  I’ll just change tables.  No! No! I can’t see someone coming in in a wheel chair.

HE:  You’re waiting for a… disabled person? A disabled person that you met on Facebook, maybe?

SHE:  Yes, they use Facebook too…

HE:  As well as mute people that talk nonstop. Patricia!

SHE realizes that HE also lied to her. SHE speaks to him clearly annoyed.

SHE:  Robert?!  You are Robert?!  I’m so stupid!  I should have known!

HE:  Well actually… My name isn’t Robert, either… I made it up for … It doesn’t matter… What about you? What made you start lying?

SHE:  Look…

HE:  You like to pretend to be what you’re not, don’t you?

SHE:  Let’s just say, yes…

HE:  Who are you, really?

SHE:  Do you want something to drink? A cocktail?

HE:  I don’t drink cocktails.

SHE: Well, today you do. You think of a drink and I’ll think of another. We’ll mix them together and we’ll drink it.

HE:  And what if they don’t mix well together?

SHE: You wouldn’t believe how many things go well together. This way we won’t discover each other’s real tastes right away.

HE:  You baffle me.

SHE:  Come on, a drink…

HE:  Tonic water.

SHE:  Oh, how daring… Rum.

HE: Tonic water with rum…?  That will turn my stomach inside out.

SHE:  You should have suggested something more original.

HE:  I’m not used to drinking in the morning.?  I didn’t have lunch.  I was busy at the computer.

SHE:  Get something to eat if you want.

HE:  If you have a cocktail, I will too.

SHE:  Do you always make your decisions based on what other people do?

HE:  Sometimes I don’t decide at all.

SHE:  I didn’t imagine you that way.

HE:  Well, that’s the way I am.  In person I don’t know how to pretend.  What’s your real name?

SHE:  Don’t just blame me for not telling the truth.

HE:  I’m not blaming you for anything!

SHE:  Just admit it, you are like me; you don’t play a clean game. I don’t trust people like me, you know…

HE:  Great. I imagine you might have some nice things about you too.

SHE:  Who knows…

HE:  Okay, enough of this game.  My name is…

SHE:  Wait! How am I going to know that if you tell me another name, it will be your real name?  No, no…  It’s better to just assume that everything is made up.  This way, there’s no deceiving one another. I bet you don’t even like horses.

 

Tallahassee Hispanic Theater will be presenting its new play Happily Ever After at the Monticello Opera House on November 9-10, 16-17.
Happily Ever After is an evening of short plays and monologues reflecting on love and relationships. The short plays (Misunderstandings, Don’t Take it Personally, and Melodrama) present couples in three different stages of a relationship, along with some of the challenges, fears, and insecurities which many couples face. The monologues (An Ugly Boyfriend and Perceptions) share insights into the minds of two women struggling with jealousy and self-doubt.

The plays were written by Cristina Colmena, a writer and playwright from Spain, based in New York since 2010. Some of her plays have been staged in La Habana, Madrid, Washington DC, and Miami. Her pieces Happily Ever After and Typing, also participated in the PEN World Voices Festival (April 2013) as part of the “Staged Readings Series New Plays from Spain” in the Martin Segal Theater (NYC).

The first weekend of the play, November 9-10, the playwright will be attending the shows, and will share with the audience in a Q&A event after the performances. This is a great opportunity for the audience to interact with the author, and discuss aspects of the play, the creative process, and the production in an informal manner.

People can also enjoy a traditional Hispanic dinner before the show, at 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional. You can buy tickets for the dinner and play, or just for the play at the MOH website: http://www.monticellooperahouse.org.

Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a tender, intimate and sometimes comical look at the complicated path that many relationships take. After all one plus one does not always equal two.

Dear friends,

Tallahassee Hispanic Theater is doing an Online Silent Auction to raise funds for our next projects.

Please check out our wonderful list of items (art, event tickets, books, etc) and help us to keep bringing Hispanic plays to our community. Thanks!!

https://www.32auctions.com/TallahasseeHispanicTheate

Thanks to everyone who participated in our First Annual Micro Theater Festival. We had a great time and the response of the audience was very encouraging.

Here are some pics of the plays and backstage.

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Meet the playwrights of the four plays we will be presenting as part of our First Annual Micro Theater Festival this Friday and Saturday, July 20-21, at the Carriage House in Goodwood Museum.

 

 

These are the four plays that will be presented in the festival

This play was written by one of the most important contemporary playwrights from Spain: Jose Luis Alonso de Santos. It’s a conversation between a subway driver and a lonely woman who spend the night together after meeting at a bar. With a tragicomic tone we learn about their sorrows and hopes. Directed by Jeff Mandel.

“The Madwoman of Chaillot” is a play written by Venezuelan actress, director and playwright Gladys Prince, who has been part of the theater scene in Caracas for decades. She wrote this monologue inspired by the play with the same name written by Jean Giraudoux in 1943. It tells the story of an eccentric and sharp-tongued woman with a mix of satire and comedy that undoubtedly will charm the audience. Directed by Alejandra Gutierrez and interpreted by Marcy Palmer.

“And the Oscar should go to” is a fresh comedy by Spanish playwright Marc Egea. It’s Oscar night and the presenter, an old Hollywood legend, has made a mistake reading the name of the winner for Best Actress. What will he do? And more importantly, what will she do? Directed by Mickey Clickner, and interpreted by Mike Herrin and Amanda Street.

In “A Trip to the Future” Lana and Tom explore the possibilities that the future may have for them in a “trip” full of surprises. The piece is filled with pop culture references, from Back to the Future to The Matrix. It was written by Nathalia Paolini, a Venezuelan actress, director, and playwright who currently lives in Spain. Directed by Kevin Carr.

Tallahassee Hispanic Theater embraces the concept of Micro Theater, started in 2009 in Spain, presenting a group of short plays that will be performed in the same space: the Carriage House at Goodwood Museum. Micro-theater is a form of theater very popular these days in Spain, Latin America and places like Miami and New York. It brings short stage performances up close to the audience in unusual venues.

Besides the plays, the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy Hispanic food, drinks and live music, interpreted by Charles Santiago and Jesse García.

This will be a non-traditional theater event, where the audience will be able to enjoy the setting, the music, and the performances presented all in the same open space, while moving freely around the space and mingling with others.

For its First Annual Micro Theater festival, THT will be presenting four 15-20 minute plays written by well-known playwrights, as well as fresh new pieces by young authors.

“The Madwoman of Chaillot” is a play written by Venezuelan actress, director and playwright Gladys Prince, who has been part of the theater scene in Caracas for decades. She wrote this monologue inspired by the play with the same name written by Jean Giraudoux in 1943. It tells the story of an eccentric and sharp-tongued woman with a mix of satire and comedy that undoubtedly will charm the audience. Directed by Alejandra Gutierrez and interpreted by Marcy Palmer.

The play “A Brief Encounter” was written by one of the most important contemporary playwrights from Spain: Jose Luis Alonso de Santos. It’s a conversation between a subway driver and a lonely woman who spend the night together after meeting at a bar. With a tragicomic tone we learn about their sorrows and hopes. Directed by Jeff Mandel.

“And the Oscar should go to” is a fresh comedy by Spanish playwright Marc Egea. It’s Oscar night and the presenter, an old Hollywood legend, has made a mistake reading the name of the winner for Best Actress. What will he do? And more importantly, what will she do? Directed by Mickey Clickner, and interpreted by Mike Herrin and Amanda Street.

In “A Trip to the Future” Lana and Tom explore the possibilities that the future may have for them in a “trip” full of surprises. The piece is filled with pop culture references, from Back to the Future to The Matrix. It was written by Nathalia Paolini, a Venezuelan actress, director, and playwright who currently lives in Spain. Directed by Kevin Carr.

July 20-21

8:00 p.m.

Carriage House at Goodgood Museum

Tickets: $5 Students, $8 Seniors and Goodwood members, $10 General. Cash or Card at the door.