DC Theater Arts

Tag: Desaparecidas

  • Insights into their December shows in NYC from Migguel Anggelo, Jaime Lozano, and Florencia Cuenca

    Insights into their December shows in NYC from Migguel Anggelo, Jaime Lozano, and Florencia Cuenca

    Beginning this week, two original musical productions from multi-talented Latin American artists will open in NYC. Playing December 1-3, at Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theater, is English with an Accent by Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter, dancer, actor, and painter Migguel Anggelo, whose work – exploring the intersection of his queer, Latino, and immigrant identities – uses music, physical theater, dance, and costume to follow an immigrant caterpillar’s arrival in New York with the hopes of becoming a butterfly and attaining the American dream. Performed with a company of ten dancers, the piece is directed, choreographed, and developed by Avihai Haham, with original music and lyrics composed by Anggelo and longtime collaborator and music director Jaime Lozano, and celebrates the release of their album of the same name on December 2.

    Migguel Anggelo (right) and the company of English with an Accent. Photo by Teresa Castracane.

    For three weekends in December, at Brooklyn’s JACK, the award-winning Mexican-born Lozano is also premiering the Spanish-language concert musical Desaparecidas, about the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez. Told through the lens of Mexican folklore and music, the show, conceived by Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and Rachel Stevens, features a book by Georgina Escobar, music, arrangements, and orchestrations by Lozano, lyrics by Lozano and Cuenca, and an all-Latina cast of six women led Cuenca, who also directs. Set at a traditional state fair, the sounds and rhythms of Mexican-style songs weave together the diverse stories of real-life women – from the missing, to the socially invisible, to the forgotten – while exploring the culture’s systemic machismo, gender-based oppression, violence, and femicide, and calling for a future of “Ni Una Más” (Not One More).

    During a very busy tech week, Migguel, Jaime, and Florencia kindly made time to answer some questions about the genesis and content of their works and the significance of their themes.

    What was your motivation for creating the show?

    Migguel: My goal was to create a story that shows the journey of an immigrant in a poetic way. The journey of an immigrant is not just about dreams, although those are really important. In my case, it was more about finding a safe home, but my hope is that the work conveys what a long journey it is for an immigrant filled with anxiety, fears, anticipation, expectation, patience, frustration, hope, excitement, and even happiness – you name the emotion. Sixteen long years after coming to the United States, I am finally an American citizen. It has not been an easy road, but it’s gratifying now to feel like I officially belong.

    Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and their son Alonzo. Photo by Paul Aphisit.

    Jaime: Florencia and I come from two strong matriarchal families. Strong and amazing women raised us; they have been our inspiration and our strength. That’s why, as you already know from all my other shows, women are a very important part of my work. Florencia’s family is originally from Ciudad Juárez, México, a city where being a woman has really been a challenge. Back in the ‘90s, that city was seen by the eyes of the world for the very unfortunate reason of its terrible femicides. For this specific show, we felt the responsibility to tell the stories to honor all these women – the Desaparecidas.

    Florencia: The need for telling our own stories. To honor the lives of many women whose lives have been forgotten.

    Can you tell us a little about the style and format?

    Florencia: Desaparecidas is a musical that takes place in a Palenque – a Mexican state fair or rodeo – a place where people from all backgrounds gather to see a show that can include cockfighting and a concert.

    Jaime: Ideally it would be performed in a theater-in-the-round but for this production we have the audience at the sides. It is a very intimate and kind of immersive show, very influenced by Mexican culture, literature, and music. All the songs are completely in Spanish but for the book, the scenes are in English – and sometime in Spanglish. It is an experiment. We consider this a developmental production. Our stories are ours to tell as we want to tell them, with no excuses or apologies, but at the same time we are discovering what is the best way to tell these stories. It’s a process.

    Migguel: English with an Accent is not a traditional musical. Instead, we created a hybrid work that I think of as musical dance-theater, bringing the music from my concept album of the same name to life on the stage. Movement is really important in this work and using dance as a storytelling device is something that I have dreamed about for a long time.

    Migguel Anggelo. Photo by Teresa Castracane.

    What do you hope audiences take away from it?

    Migguel: At the end of the day, it is technically about a caterpillar that comes to New York City with the hopes of becoming a butterfly – a parallel to the immigrant experience of seeking a green card or citizenship. After we previewed the work for the first time in Washington, DC last spring with Washington Performing Arts and Gala Hispanic Theatre, many people said that this was the first time they ever saw their story reflected on stage. They kept saying, “That’s my story!” We hoped that would be the case. But at the end of the day, the green card is not the magic answer, and it’s more about finding your place in the sky than getting your wings. That’s universal, whether you are an immigrant or not.

    Florencia: I hope they can see that Desaparecidas is not a story that is just targeted to a Mexican audience; people from all backgrounds can relate and connect with this story in many ways.

    Jaime: To be honest I don’t hope anything, hahahahahaha. We are passionate about our stories, our people, our community. We love our country, our home México, and we also love this beautiful country and its people, who have welcomed us. We love our culture, our music, and we love the stories we are creating, struggling in the middle of this these two big cultures, Mexican and ‘United Statesian.’ We only want to own and to tell our stories in the most honest and respectful way, from our hearts. And I strongly believe that by doing it in this way, the audience will take away something.

    Jaime Lozano. Photo by Alejandro Pujol.

    How important is it to you to collaborate with a “familia” of other Latin American-born artists?

    Florencia: It is something that we rarely get to experience and one of our missions is to recreate these rooms more and more. There is no better feeling than having the opportunity to create with a company that gets it – that understands the material they are telling. It’s amazing to be able to switch from English to Spanish, with Spanglish in between.

    Jaime: It is my mission, our mission, and it is my honor, to be surrounded by my people, my Familia, to create opportunities for all of us to tell our stories, to learn from those, to learn from each other, to own who we are, to discover who we are. It is very rare to be in a room full of Mexican artists, or Latine artists. And you know what? It feels so good and so right. We are all Mexican, or Latine, or immigrants, and we have our very own unique and valid journey. We are the same, but we are different; we embrace those difference and we honor our common background to let you know we are here to stay, we are here to tell our stories.

    Migguel: If theater and music are about anything, it’s collaboration, and that’s really important to me. My bond with Jaime Lozano is very special. He is a joy to make art with – like a brother. While I am from Venezuela and he is from Mexico, we both share the experience of having a foot in both worlds – one in the countries that we grew up in and the other in the United States. We both know what it’s like to miss family, friends, customs, traditions, sites, smells, and more, but also to have dreams so strong that they drive you to search for more. I’m proud of the fact that we each bring our own flavors and influences to our collaboration. That often delivers surprises for both of us.

    Migguel Anggelo. Photo by Nico Iliev.

    How exciting is it for you to be performing your original work at Lincoln Center?

    Migguel: It’s incredibly exciting! I am so grateful to everyone at Lincoln Center for believing in me and this project. The support of their co-commission of the work has truly made English with an Accent possible. As an immigrant who arrived in this country without speaking English and with just a few pennies in his pocket, I am extremely moved that this could be my reality sixteen years later. This is one of the reasons why I left my country; I knew there could be opportunities like this. Thank you, Lincoln Center. You have shown me that it is possible to achieve dreams.

    Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to give our readers an inside preview of your upcoming shows and their extremely important subjects.

    English with an Accent plays Thursday, December 1-Saturday, December 3, 2022, at  Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Clark Studio Theater, Samuel B. and David Rose Building, 165 West 65th Street, NYC. Tickets (on a Choose-What-You-Pay basis, with a suggested price of $35), are currently sold out, but additional seats may be released; to check on availability, go online.

    Desaparecidas plays Fridays-Sundays, December 2-18, 2022, at JACK, 20 Putnam Avenue, Brooklyn, NYC. For tickets (priced at $20, plus fees), go online.

    SEE ALSO: 
    Migguel Anggelo’s new dance-theater piece to open its wings in DC  (interview feature by Matré Grant, March 24, 2022)

  • A variety of genres, styles, and moods in three concerts on the NYC cabaret scene

    A variety of genres, styles, and moods in three concerts on the NYC cabaret scene

    No matter what your taste in music and entertainment, NYC’s legendary nightclubs have it, as proven by three selections that kicked off the week at don’t tell mama, Birdland, and Joe’s Pub. And though they were one-night-only performances, you can be sure that the popular artists who packed the houses will return for future engagements – just as they did this time following their past successes at the venues.

    Vangari. Photo by Peter Welch.

    Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, don’t tell mama, established in 1982, welcomed back Vangari for an encore performance of Cautionary Tales, nominated for two Broadway World Awards in 2021. The mother-daughter duo of Evangeline Johns and Ariana Johns, masterfully accompanied by Musical Director Darryl Curry on piano and vocals (and hilarious heckling!), performed a one-hour eclectic set list of hits from the 1920s to the 2010s, from blues and jazz to country, rock, and Broadway, from Bessie Smith to Kander and Ebb and The Cure.

    With top-notch arrangements by Curry, choreography by Max McGuire and Mark Mindek, and lots of comical repartee between and during the numbers, the show took on a Vaudevillian sensibility, opening with The Beatles’ throwback “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” (even the bowler hats with glittering silver bands, in which the women took the stage, evoked the style and fun of the era). Mom Evangeline brought her deep strong voice and breath control to her solos on “Don’t Smoke in Bed” by Willard Robison, a medley of country songs (the music on which she grew up and in which she finds parallels with the blues), and the Great American Songbook classic “My Funny Valentine” from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms. And daughter Ariana’s higher pitch and emotive expression were featured in her renditions of the more recent “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and “Liquid Lunch” by Dutch pop and jazz singer Caro Emerald (amusingly accompanying herself on martini-glass maracas!).

    Darryl Curry and Ariana Johns. Photo by Peter Welch.

    Among the favorites of the show were the Johns’ harmonies on “Blue Blues” and the up-tempo “Java Jive” (with the terrific Darryl delightfully joining in on both), their familial banter and laughs (and obvious love and respect for one another) on “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Very Far from the Tree” (from the 1984 Broadway musical The Rink), and their uplifting encore of the 1944 WWII-period song “Accentuate the Positive” by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music), which they dedicated to the people of Ukraine and intended for it to leave the audience with a smile on their faces (it did).

    Vangari: Cautionary Tales played on Sunday, March 27, at 4 pm, at don’t tell mama, 343 West 46th Street, NYC.

    Marissa Licata. Photo by Deb Miller,

    That same evening, Birdland presented Marissa Licata Quartet: Strings on Fire, marking the show’s return to the iconic jazz club’s intimate subterranean theater for two encore performances after the internationally acclaimed electric violinist’s headliner debut there in September 2021. Accompanied by Michael Aarons on guitar, Martin Doykin on bass, and Shannon Ford on drums, the classically trained, highly innovative, and experimental Licata led the musicians through a diversified mix of instrumental pieces and three select songs that featured vocals by guest singer Aury Krebs (whom she met six months ago during her previous appearance at Birdland and invited to perform with her this time).

    Shining throughout the 80-minute program were Licata’s vibrant and affecting love of music, dazzling virtuosity on the violin, and obvious enjoyment of playing. The passionate standing performance included inspired segments of improvisation and untitled selections of traditional Bulgarian, Serbian, and Klezmer folk music with unexpected meters, fiery gypsy rhythms, and blockbuster crescendos that showcased her signature flair and lightning-fast fingering and bowing. She and the band also showed their command of jazz and jazz-fusion in Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” the musicians’ featured solos and jamming, and Krebs’ smooth and resonant vocals on Be Steadwell’s “Greens” and “Feelin’ Good” (written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd).

    Aury Krebs and Marissa Licata. Photo by Deb Miller.

    And the variety didn’t end. There was Astor Piazzolla’s 1974 “Libertango” (the title, combining “Libertad” and “tango,” symbolizing Piazzolla’s break from classical tango to tango nuevo), an exquisite interpretation of the 1939 musical classic “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (we could almost hear the violin singing the lyrics in Licata’s bittersweet performance), and more, plus a funky encore of The Pointer Sisters’ “How Long (Betcha’ Got a Chick on the Side)” that had the endlessly talented Licata and Ford providing back-up vocals for Krebs and left the audience looking forward to her next return to Birdland.

    Marissa Licata Quartet: Strings on Fire played on Sunday, March 27, at 7 and 9:30 pm, at Birdland Theater, downstairs at Birdland Jazz Club, 315 W. 44th Street, NYC.

    Florencia Cuenca and the band. Photo by Deb Miller.

    On Monday, March 28, a narrative song cycle from Desaparecidas, the new musical-in-progress by Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and Rachel Stevens, premiered at Joe’s Pub with a powerhouse all-Latina cast, shining a spotlight on the challenges faced by Mexican women in a dangerous world of traditional gender-based oppression, violence, femicide, and machismo. Emceed by the effervescent and engaging Cuenca, who provided background commentary and set-ups for the characters and their songs, the concert’s feminist theme of empowerment had an exuberant fighting tone that celebrated the strength of these “badass women” and their hope for the future with the protest movement’s cry: #NiUnaMas (desaparecida) – not one more (missing woman).

    For non-Spanish-speaking members of the audience, the concert included projected English translations of the Spanish-language songs so everyone could follow along and embrace the momentous message of the hour-long show, which was developed by Cuenca and Lozano during an artists’ residency with the Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians in 2020-2021. Recounting the actual words and true stories of individual women in Ciudad Juárez who were interviewed for the project, the numbers featured inspiring lyrics by Lozano and Cuenca, the sounds and rhythms of Mexican-style music by Lozano, who also provided the arrangements and orchestrations, and music direction by Jhoely Garay.

    (Left to right) Aline Mayagoitia, Majo Rivero, and Florencia Cuenca. Photo by Deb Miller.

    The stellar vocal performances by Cuenca, Sonia de los Santos, Aline Mayagoitia, Majo Rivero, and the renowned Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent; In the Heights) captured all the inherent emotion of generations of women, while bringing apropos movements and full empathy to their musical roles, backed by the phenomenal band of Garay and Lolivone de la Rosa on guitars, Jordyn Davis on bass, Wen-Ting Wu on drums, Simone Baron on accordion, and Lozano on keyboard, guitar, and bajo quinto. They had everyone in the house joining in on the spirited refrains of “No No No” and “Ni Una Más” with passion and commitment to the important cause and to the outstanding show that’s championing it.

    Desaparecidas played on Monday, March 28, at 7 pm, at Joe’s Pub, inside The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC.

  • New Mexican/American musicals ‘Desaparecidas’ and ‘¡Americano!’ coming soon to NYC

    New Mexican/American musicals ‘Desaparecidas’ and ‘¡Americano!’ coming soon to NYC

    A one-night-only concert and a limited-engagement musical are coming this week to NYC stages, created and performed by a talented roster of Latin American musical-theater artists. Both promise to be must-see shows inspired by momentous real-life stories, events, and cultural traditions.

    Art by Martha Orendain.

    A set list of songs from the new musical-in-development Desaparecidas, conceived by Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and Rachel Stevens, will be premiered at Joe’s Pub on Monday, March 28. With music by Lozano, lyrics by Lozano and Cuenca, arrangements and orchestrations by Lozano and Jesús Altamira, and music direction by Jhoely Garay, the concert will feature performances by Cuenca, Sonia de los Santos, Aline Mayagoitia, Majo Rivero, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and more.

    An eclectic group of local female organizers gather for a secret rally, but when a young newcomer stumbles upon their midnight vigil on the eve before her quinceañera, she is forced to envision an identity beyond her assumed fate. Told through the lens of Mexican folklore, the show celebrates the individual lives of women in Ciudad Juárez, explores their systematic oppression, and illuminates the challenge of embracing honored cultural customs while fighting for autonomy and an end to gender-based violence and killing in a dangerous world of machismo.

    Desaparecidas plays on Monday, March 28, at 7 pm, at Joe’s Pub, inside The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $20, plus a two-drink or $12 food minimum per person), go online. Everyone must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and booster, along with a photo ID, to enter the building and must wear a mask inside when not actively eating or drinking.

    Following a record-setting run at Arizona’s Phoenix Theater Company, the new musical ¡Americano! comes to NYC for a twelve-week limited Off-Broadway engagement, March 31-June 19, at New World Stages. Featuring an original score by acclaimed singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez (Lola, named one of NPR’s top 50 albums of the year), additional lyrics by Barnard and Rosenberg, a book by Michael Barnard, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Fernanda Santos, choreography by Sergio Mejia, and an almost entirely Latino cast, it tells the true story of the life and achievements of American Dreamer and hero Tony Valdovinos, with topical themes about immigration, refugee advocacy, and voting empowerment for minority communities.

    As a child growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Tony, inspired by the events of 9/11, focused on the goal of enlisting in the Marines on his 18th birthday. But when he tries, he discovers he is an undocumented immigrant. With grit, determination, and help from his family and community, Tony finds a new mission that can make history, create good, and inspire change, challenging preconceived notions and reminding us that America’s strength has always been its melting-pot culture of enterprising immigrants.

    ¡Americano! plays Thursday, March 31-Sunday, June 19, 2022, at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, NYC. For tickets (starting at $49), call (212) 239-6200, or go online. Proof of vaccination and booster, a photo ID, and a properly fitting mask are required.