Aztlan: a Journey Back to Homeland

Synopsis: Aztlán links 959 years of history through three playlets. The story travels over hundreds of years using mythic Mayan and Mexica imagery to tell a contemporary tale of a young man on parole, attempting to reimagine a new future for himself. In a land once stricken with drought and now drowning in empire, Aztlán battles with a series of real and mythic demons that haunt his journey toward making a new life for himself.

Artistic Statement: As a writer, teacher, collaborator, comrade, producer, playwright Luis Alfaro is THE one, pushing the limits of cathartic storytelling while staying utterly human. He revels in creating community in the theater and the neighborhoods using poetic and pedestrian universal truths to unite us. His intelligence, passion, and humanity are searing, funny, and universal explorations of class, race, and gender.

Luis Alfaro's signature approach to shaping work articulates a genuine multicultural theatrical tradition. The social and aesthetic impact of his body of work proposes a new cultural reality. Each project pushes us to explore unique approaches to localized collaborative new play development. The plays and processes that we've done together- with resident company Campo Santo and the Magic Theatre- provide opportunities to explore our human condition while giving voice to people in the State of California. Alfaro's plays take us on journeys across Highway 99 and question real-life conflicts with redemption, purging, guilt, redemption, and vengeance.

Working with him in the creation of new plays helps us locate ourselves on a constantly evolving social and cultural map. The exposed heart of Alfaro's approach and writing are full of conundrums and conflicts that are at once biblical and filled with interior poetry. In his body of work, we excavate and expose California's buried history, collective memory, and forgotten pasts, while simultaneously embodying the shifting demographics- and the resulting social, economic, cultural, and political tensions- of our State's present. It is a rare gift each time to have an opportunity to work with Alfaro and to journey this terrain together.
With Alfaro's integrity and organic processes, we're gifted a path to explore and merge the reality of today's world with the remains of the past- on this same land of California. Alfaro's urging and direction inspire us to reach for something new by reinterpreting classic materials with purposeful storytelling and experimental multi-disciplinary theatre aesthetics.

Grant Statement: The Magic was so delighted to be able to add a crucial extra week of rehearsal with these incredible artists and, most of all, the incomparable Luis Alfaro. Extra time is always important with new work, but especially with text as deep and enriching as Luis', and with how he crafts the script to fit the actors. Edgerton's award could not have come at a more important time, when support for new work is becoming increasingly scarce and so many organizations are faced to make difficult decisions on the work they produce.

Creative team:

Director: Kinan Valdez
Scenic Design: Tanya Orellana
Lighting Design: Alejandro Acosta
Video Design: Joan Osato
Properties Design, Assistant Scenic: Ashley Mendez
Costume Design: David Arevalo
Sound Design: Christopher Sauceda
Stage Manager: Lauren Quan
Fight Choreography: Ogie Zulueta
Assistant Director: Perla Vanesa Barraza
Photographer: Jay Yamada
Producer: Craig Moody
Co-Producing Organization: Campo Santo

Cast:

Juan Amador - Balanque / Tezcatlipoca
Catherine Castellanos - Martina / Meztli
Daniel Duque-Estrada - Aztlán
Gabriela Guadalupe Maldonado - Huitzil/ Tllali
Sean San José - Mictlāntēcutli / Mickey
Ogie Zulueta - Aguila

Aztlán: A Journey Back to Homeland