Tunde's Trumpet: Upcoming Performances

"I'm like your fairy godmother, only much, much cooler." - Oshun

Join us next week for 3 Tunde's Trumpet performances!

12:15pm at Peninsula Park, as part of the Peninsula Park Centennial Celebration!

1pm and 4pm at the IFCC/Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center! Tickets here! See you there!

Boom Arts Receives a Grant from the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition

Boom Arts is pleased to announce that the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition has awarded us a grant of $1500 in support of Tunde's Trumpet, to be presented around the city this summer. Thank you, citizen volunteers of the Coalition! Thank you, Oregon Cultural Trust!

Web Updates for Boom Arts

Ladies and gentlemen, we've upped our game! This site will continue to serve as the Boom Arts blog, but our main web site is now on Striking.ly. You can still reach it via www.boomarts.org, or you can click on this link to check it out: http://www.strikingly.com/boomarts. To return to this site, just hit BLOG on the nav bar at the top. Thank you!

Boom Arts Presents: TUNDE'S TRUMPET! June 27-August 4, 2013

Boom Arts presents the West Coast premiere of a fantastical puppet musical for kids & families:

TUNDE’S TRUMPET

Book by Chisa Hutchinson
Music by Elliot Goldman

Lyrics by Sarah Gancher
Originally commissioned by City Parks’ SummerStage
Directed by Lava Alapai
Music Direction Ezra Weiss
Puppets by Anna Cosper & Afsaneh Aayani

Featuring Afsaneh Aayani, Lexie Hull, Jocelyn Seid, Blake Stone, Ithica Tell
and Live Jazz Trumpet
June 27-August 4, 2013
Performance Locations, Dates, & Times Below
This production is supported by the Regional Arts and Culture Council and Work for Art

and presented in collaboration with Portland Parks and Recreation's Summer Free for All,
Ethos Music Center, and the Community Music Center
In-Kind Sponsor for Select Parks Performances: Subway

Portland, Oregon, June 27th, 2013—Boom Arts, in collaboration with Portland Parks and Recreation’s Summer Free for All, Ethos Music Center, and the Community Music Center, presents the West Coast premiere of Tunde’s Trumpet, a puppet musical for kids and families by award-winning playwright Chisa Hutchinson. Join us at community music schools and public parks across Portland this summer for this spirited story about making music and keeping your eye on the prize.

When Tunde Akeredolu turns ten, his dad presents him with a special gift: a trumpet. Tunde loves the instrument, but now this wild child has to settle down and learn to play it! With the help of the mysterious puppet goddess Oshun, Tunde must defy a series of challenges like Doubt, Frustration, and Jealousy—brought to life in the form of sassy, fantastical puppets—to achieve his goal. Sweet, rambunctious Tunde embarks on a music-filled journey towards musicianship and maturity.

Boom Arts’ production of Tunde’s Trumpet will be directed by Lava Alapai (2012 Drammy Award in Directing for Locomotion, Oregon Children's Theatre), with music director Ezra Weiss (Cinderella, Northwest Children’s Theatre) and puppet creators Anna Cosper and Afsaneh Aayani. Performers will include acclaimed jazz trumpeter Farnell Newton (“Newton’s trumpet is fluid and mellifluous…The musicianship is superb”—The Oregonian), puppeteer Ithica Tell (Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre), actress Jocelyn Seid (“masterful”—Willamette Week), and newcomer Blake Stone as Tunde. Tunde’s Trumpet represents the Portland debut of Lily Award-winning playwright Chisa Hutchinson, an exciting voice in NYC theatre and a playwright noted for her sensitivity to the emotional experiences of young people.

Tunde’s Trumpet was originally commissioned from Hutchinson by City Parks’ SummerStage in New York City, where it had its world premiere in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park in 2011. In keeping with this spirit, Boom Arts and its community partners will bring Tunde’s Trumpet to multiple outdoor and indoor sites around the city this summer.

Indoor performances will be presented in collaboration with Ethos Music Center (June 29) and Community Music Center (August 2, 3, & 4). The suggested donation for these performances is $20/family and reservations may be made through www.boomarts.org. PP&R’s Summer Free for All “Movies in the Park” series will also present Tunde’s Trumpet on four occasions as picnic-time/pre-movie performances in public parks, with free Subway sandwiches provided.

Performance dates and times are as follows:

·         Thursday, June 27, 12:15pm, Peninsula Park (presented in partnership with Summer Free for All), 700 N Rosa Parks Way, Portland, OR 97217

·         Saturday, June 29, 1pm & 4pm, IFCC Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, (presented in partnership with Ethos; reservations at www.boomarts.org) 5340 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97217 

·         Saturday, July 13, 6:30pm, Wilshire Park (in partnership with Summer Free for All & Sponsored by Subway—free sandwiches available) NE 33^rd and Skidmore, Portland, OR 97212

·         Sunday, July 21, 6:30pm at Unthank Park (in partnership with Summer Free for All & Sponsored by Subway—free sandwiches available), N Haight between N Shaver and N Failing St, Portland, OR 97227

·         Friday, July 26, 6:30pm at Gateway Park (in partnership with Summer Free for All & Sponsored by Subway—free sandwiches available), NE 106^th and NE Halsey, Portland, OR 97220

·         Friday, August 2, 7pm; Saturday, August 3, 2pm & 7pm; Sunday, August 4, 2pm, Community Music Center (presented in partnership with Community Music Center; reservations at www.boomarts.org) 3350 SE Francis St., Portland, OR 97202

Please continue to check www.boomarts.org for updates and changes.

Boom Arts’ production of Tunde’s Trumpet is made possible with support from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Work for Art, the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and the Oregon Cultural Trust, with special thanks to members of the Boom Arts Founding Circle and in-kind sponsor Subway.

Boom Arts/On The Boards/ontheboards.tv: Community Screenings Project, April 17-June 20, 2013

We are pleased to announce that through a special partnership with On the Boards in Seattle and ontheboards.tv, Boom Arts will be producing performance-on-film + community discussion events featuring the Mexican troupe Teatro Linea de Sombra's theatre piece AMARILLO in FIVE Pacific NW communities this Spring! This poignant visual/object/multimedia theatre work brings a poetic Mexican perspective to our shared dialogue on Mexican and Central American immigration to the US. Conversations will include area scholars and community leaders. FIRST UP: we're in the Cinema Pacific Festival in Eugene, OR on April 17! Full listing here

       Full press release below:

 

MULTI-CITY PARTNERSHIP BRINGS INNOVATIVE THEATRE PERFORMANCE AND DISCUSSION EVENTS ON THE TOPIC OF IMMIGRATION TO OREGON AND WASHINGTON THIS SPRING

FEATURING TEATRO LÍNEA DE SOMBRA’S:

AMARILLO

(Mexico)

Portland, Oregon—Boom Arts (Portland) and OntheBoards.tv (Seattle) in partnership with arts centers throughout the region will bring Teatro Línea de Sombra’s beautiful, poignant, timely theatre work Amarillo, in a high-definition filmed version, to communities around the Pacific Northwest April 17 – June 20, 2013.

Created by the acclaimed Mexican theatre troupe Teatro Línea de Sombra, Amarillo uses contemporary visual and multimedia theatre to evoke the hope and despair experienced by Mexican and Central American migrants attempting to cross the US/Mexico border. Amarillo, with its universal themes and compelling imagery, has toured throughout the US and around the world, resonating with audiences of all languages and backgrounds. The piece expands our collective conversation about immigration and border issues with a poetic Mexican perspective.

The performances of Amarillo were filmed with live audiences November 8-11, 2012 at On the Boards in Seattle during part of its US tour. The show,  called “stunning, vital, unforgettable” by the Seattle Times, was then edited in conjunction with Thinklab Inc. and the artists to create a filmed version that best represented the original performance.

Between April and June 2013, OntheBoards.tv and Boom Arts will expand the Pacific Northwest audience for Amarillo by screening an HD film of the piece in five regional communities. The film was made for OntheBoards.tv, an online, on-demand site for the best of contemporary performance. Each screening will be hosted by and co-curated with a local arts partner and will include a bilingual discussion and Q & A featuring local scholars and community leaders. Ticketing for each screening and discussion event varies; please send inquiries to Ruth Wikler-Luker, Curator and Producer of Boom Arts, at ruth@boomarts.org.

The Community Screenings Project is an extension of the live performance of Teatro Línea de Sombra’s Amarillo, and is made possible by Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Details on each screening follow on the next page.

The screening/discussion events for Spring 2013 will include:

Cinema Pacific Film Festival

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

April 17, 2013 at 4:00pm

Featuring a discussion with Amarillo director Jorge Vargas (via Skype from Mexico); Amalia Gladhart, Professor of Spanish and Head of the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon; and Lynn Stephen, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon, and Director of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies.

Tieton Arts & Humanities

Mighty Tieton Warehouse

Tieton, WA (Yakima Valley)

May 10, 2013 at 6:30pm (Doors open at 6pm/Taco Truck Onsite)

Featuring a discussion with Paul Apostolidis, Professor and T. Paul Chair of Political Science at Whitman College and author, Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America About Democracy (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), and community leaders. Followed by a reception with live music by members of the Seattle Fandango Project.

El Centro Milagro

Portland, OR

May 22, 2013 at 7:00pm/Suggested Donation $5 (No reservations necessary).

Presented in conjunction with El Centro Milagro’s mainstage production, Dance for a Dollar. Featuring a discussion with Amalia Gladhart, Professor of Spanish and Head of the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon.

Columbia Center for the Arts

Hood River, OR

June 5, 2013 at 7:30pm

Followed by a discussion with community leaders.

Ross Ragland Theatre

Klamath Falls, OR

June 20, 2013 at 7:00pm

Followed by a discussion with community leaders.

Boom Arts presents, produces, and develops socially relevant theatre and performance in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Please visit us at www.boomarts.org.

OntheBoards.tv is an on-demand website for HD-quality contemporary performance films available for stream, download or mobile viewing via individual or subscription purchase. Launched in January 2010, this first-of-its-kind site brings contemporary work to a wider public by filming top caliber performances with multiple high-definition cameras, editing the film collaboratively with the artists, and delivering them online as feature-length performance films. Filmed at On the Boards, as well as peer theaters across the country, the performances present a snapshot of the best new works by current leaders in dance, theater and music. Fans of contemporary performance have found better access to HD-quality videos of the artists they want to see regardless of where they live or their busy schedules at prices they can afford.

Coleman Reading a Smashing Success!

Thank you and congratulations to all the artists who participated in last Wednesday's reading of The Coleman Family's Omission! A terrific acting ensemble was led by the wonderful visiting director Julian Mesri (NY/Buenos Aires). The house was full and we had to add extra chairs. What a wonderful way to end this year's International Plays in Translation series!

Special thanks to Boom Arts Founding Circle members Fred & Cheryl Grossman, Dania Caron, the Mancini Family, & Howard Shapiro; as well as:

Brian Weaver and Portland Playhouse, Tim DuRoche & World Affairs Council of Oregon,  Fred  & Cheryl Grossman for supporting Julián’s travel to Portland, Lori Eberly & Family for hosting Julián, Denise Van Leuven and the Reed College Music Department, Claudio Tolcachir, Jonathan Zak, Maxime Seuge, Jean Graham-Jones, Elisa Legon, Frank Hentschker and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (NYC), Susana Tubert and TeatroStageFest (NYC), Julián Mesri, Michele M. Mariana, Deirdre Atkinson (& Family), Nevan Richard, Paul Susi, the Playhouse Apprentices, Tracy Cameron Francis & Family, Morgan, & Julian & Nadine Luker, and all of Boom Arts’ generous supporters in our inaugural year of programming. 

Boom Arts Reading Weds. March 27 at 7:30pm at Portland Playhouse

Buenos Aires comes to Portland!

Boom Arts presents a one-time reading of the Argentine play that took the 
world-renowned Buenos Aires indie theatre scene by storm:

THE COLEMAN FAMILY’S OMISSION
By
Claudio Tolcachir
Presented in a new English translation by Jean Graham-Jones and Elisa Legon
Followed by a Q & A with NY-based Argentine-American director Julián Mesri
Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 7:30pm
At Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., PDX 97211
Suggested donation $10. No reservations necessary.

Part of Boom Arts’ International Plays in Translation Series
Presented in collaboration with Portland Playhouse and the World Affairs Council of Oregon

Reading Directed by Julián Mesri
Featuring Michele M. Mariana,* Dierdre Atkinson, Nevan Richard, 
& Portland Playhouse Acting Apprentices

Boom Arts, in partnership with Portland Playhouse and the World Affairs Council of Oregon, concludes its 2012-2013 International Plays in Translation series with a reading of Argentine playwright Claudio Tolcachir’s internationally acclaimed dark comedy about family eccentricity and dysfunction, The Coleman Family’s Omission.


Presented here in its first English translation, Coleman—which took the Buenos Aires indie theatre scene by storm when it opened in the playwright’s apartment in the mid-2000s, and played over 1,000 times locally and on tour around the world—offers us a glimpse into the chaos and absurdity of everyday life in a three-generation household. Grandma is sick; Mom is caught in a state of perpetual adolescence; brothers Damián and Marito won’t stop squabbling; and sister Gaby’s half-baked entrepreneurial strategies for sustaining the family are less than promising. The family’s precarious existence mirrors the national condition in post-crash Argentina, where prospects for advancement are few and futility and frustration are endemic.

The Boom Arts reading of The Coleman Family’s Omission will be directed by Julián Mesri, an Argentine-American director based in New York. Mesri, who will speak as part of a Q & A after the reading, joins us fresh from a stint with New York’s legendary Repertorio Español, where he is currently directing the Spanish Golden Age classic Fuenteovejuna. The reading will feature leading Portland actor Michele M. Mariana* (Coraline, Cabaret), Dierdre Atkinson, Nevan Richard, and members of the Portland Playhouse Acting Apprentice Company. This event is curated and produced by Ruth Wikler-Luker, Boom Arts.

The English translation of The Coleman Family’s Omission, by noted scholar and translator of Argentine theatre Jean Graham-Jones and Elisa Legon, was recently published in the anthology Timbre 4: Two Plays by Claudio Tolcachir by the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at the City University of New York. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the reading. 

*Appears courtesy Actors' Equity Association