DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
Director's Note
Dia De Los Muertos is… a bilingual Western, with Spanish and English dialogue, with Irish terrorists from 1916, set in Mexico with magical realism and ghosts, and it’s a theater piece… not a movie. Even as I write this it sounds crazy. But the seeds of this play are actually not crazy at all.
I love westerns. Growing up in Arizona I was surrounded by the cowboy culture. Movies like The Good Bad and the Ugly, A Fist Full of Dollars thrilled me. The idea that people walked around with guns everyday in bars, stores, and towns carrying the power of life and death creates a
back drop for incredible drama, action and theater.
When my creative team began this journey, we started out exploring 2 cultures that at first glance seemed so so so very different. Separated by climate, language, history... what we thought we would find was actually the opposite of what we discovered.
Dia De Los Muertos and SHAMAN? are both days in which the two cultures celebrate and remember those that have passed. The Irish culture and Mexican culture are like siblings. While Ireland was fighting for its Independence after the Easter rebellion of 1916, the Mexican revolution was also in full swing. Both cultures have a history of invaders, a history of violence in their struggle for Independence... even their flags are very similar. The time periods and the themes gave birth to so much creativity that this is only one play of a five cycle story paralleling the Mexican and Irish experience and their history. This is the first one we have written and produced and is the 3rd in the cycle of plays.
We are all haunted by something. A choice we made, advice our parents gave, the words we said in the heat of an argument that we can never take back. Our ghosts not only formulate who we are but also what we become. Just like the characters in this play, all we have are the choices we make for our future. Can we can escape the ghosts that haunt us?
Because the truth is every choice we make... has a price.
“Bonilla has given the piece a fine production, with a spare but functional set (uncredited) and effective lighting by Alex Moore. Bonilla has also provided a number of lively fight sequences (including one featuring whips). In the role of Pablo, he heads a cast of a dozen excellent actors, most of whom take multiple roles as the epic story unfolds.”
“Parallels between Mexican and Irish independence movements, gun play and humor, mysteries and spiritualism, and cinematic traditions of American westerns inform Dia de los Muertos, the current offering of Theatro LATEA and Core Creative Productions.”
Starring: Staring: Michael Poignand, Alberto Bonilla, Alexander Stine, Ydaiber Orozco, Robert C. Raicch, Adyana de la Torre , Elizabeth Inghram, Robert Wesley Brown, Ariel Bonilla, Eevin Hartsough, Javier E. Gomez, Maria Stamenkovic Herranz
Fight Choreography by Alberto Bonilla, Associate Director Lawrence Ballard, Technical Director of LaTea Alex Moore, Costume Design by Yakima Levy, Photographs by Ed Wheeler, Original Poster Concept by Alexander Stine & Michael Poignand