Welcome to Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble and See-what Productions Present:

"A play about: poetry and perversion; about making love and making art; about that old story of loving to death. Who murdered “Sirena Cantante” is not the question.
The question is: why?"

Directed by Cherríe Moraga & Adelina Anthony

STARRING:
Adelina Anthony*, Virginia Grise, Cheryl Umaña*, Anthony Rodrigo Castillo,
Brenda Banda, D'Lo, & Melissa Hidalgo
Cast Bios

DESIGNERS & PRODUCTION CREW:
Celia Herrera Rodriguez (Conceptual Scenic & Costume Design), Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz (Design Consultant), Angela Fong (Stage Manager), Tatiana Kuilanoff (Scenic Designer),
Amy Millan (Costume Designer), Xaime Casillas (Sound Designer),
Xanthe H. Huynh (Assist. Sound Designer),
Karyn Diane Lawrence (Lighting Designer) and Richard Ordiano (Resident Artist & Set Builder)

SPECIAL NOTES:
SEATING IS LIMITED. ARRIVE EARLY. ABSOLUTELY NO LATE SEATING. NO TICKET REFUNDS
OR TICKET EXCHANGES!
Unclaimed seats, including presale, will be released at showtime
Play is intended for mature audiences and may not be suitable for children.
Contains: strong language, partial nudity, and adult situations.

ABOUT THE PLAY:
“Digging Up the Dirt^*” takes place, as Moraga writes, “Inside The Poet’s head, somewhere in the fragmented Chicano nation of Aztlán.” Here, as in most Moraga plays, the playwright uses the imagined landscape of the Southwest to poignantly explore those censored questions that continue to impact Chicana lives. And, as in most Moraga plays, such depictions give all of us pause –regardless of race or gender or sexuality. This is especially the case in “Digging Up the Dirt” where the plot thematically interweaves two murder stories. One is the tale of “Sirena Cantante’s” murderer, “Zanzibar,” serving a life sentence, while engaging in lesbian romances and being mercilessly visited by the probing “Poet.” The second is an intimate account of the murder of “Amada,” a Chicana lesbian killed by the hand of her own son. Through the telling of both stories, alternately satirical and tragic, audience members are held accountable for their own “crimes of passion” and the play becomes a kind of moving mirror to all our unacknowledged “murderous” deeds of the heart.

PLAYWRIGHT / CO-DIRECTOR:
www.cherriemoraga.com
Cherríe L. Moraga plays and publications have received national recognition, including most recently, a 2007 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellowship for Literature and in 2009, a Gerbode Foundation Playwright Collaboration Award. She is the author of numerous titles, including This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (co-editor with Gloria Anzaldúa) and the now classic, Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Pasó Por Sus Labios. Her most recent collection of writings, A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: A Decade of Discourse, is to be published by Duke University Press in 2011. Moraga has also published three volumes of drama through West End Press of Albuquerque, New Mexico. A San Francisco Bay Area playwright, Moraga has premiered her work at the Public Theater, Theatre Artaud, Theatre Rhinoceros, the Eureka Theatre, and Brava Theater Center. Her most recent play, “La Semilla Caminante,” was produced by Campo Santo Theater in San Franciso in April. For over ten years, she has served as an Artist in Residence in the Department of Drama at Stanford University and currently also shares a joint appointment with Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity.

CO-DIRECTOR / FEATURED ARTIST:
www.adelinaanthony.com
Adelina Anthony is a long-time artistic collaborator and mentee of Moraga. Anthony is a critically praised actor, consistently garnering Best-Actor nominations for her theater work in Texas and California. She is also one of her generation's most prolific solo performing artists. In the last 4 years alone, she has twice been nominated by the L.A. Weekly for Best Solo Performance, nominated in Theater for an Alpert Award, awarded the C.O.L.A. Fellowship for Solo Performance by LA, and awarded Premios Sin Limite Best Solo Performer in NY.

Cherríe Moraga is recipient of the NFA/JPMorgan Chase Master Artist Grant, which is funded by the NALAC Fund for the Arts and JPMorgan Chase Foundation with support from the Ford Foundation and Southwest Airlines. Other NFA funders include: MetLife Foundation, Nescafe Clasico, Heineken USA and The City of San Antonio Cultural Collaborative.

*Appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association