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Playwright/Director Luis Valdez Leads Theatre Workshop
at Pomona College
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Luis Valdez, called the father of Chicano theatre, will lead
a student workshop and give a talk at Pomona College on
Thursday, February 8, at 7 p.m. The playwright and director
is known for his various plays, such as Zoot Suit;
movies, including La Bamba; and for founding El
Teatro Campesino, a farm workers’ theatre that evolved into
a national Chicano theatre movement.
Valdez has given the Chicano theatre movement a voice since
1963, when the San Jose State College drama department
staged his first play, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa.
In 1965, he founded El Teatro Campesino, which produced
one-act plays—often without stage, script or
props—dramatizing the circumstances of migrant workers. The
year 1987 marked his greatest success when he directed the
hit film La Bamba. Valdez employs a technique called
“theatre of the sphere,” a sacred philosophy based on
indigenous Aztec and Mayan spiritual thought.
His work has been honored with numerous awards. These
include an Obie (Off-Broadway Theater Award) in 1968, as
well as Los Angeles Drama Critics awards in 1969, 1972 and
1978. Valdez also received an Emmy in 1973. In 1983, the San
Francisco Bay Critics Circle awarded him “Best Musical.”
The workshop will be held in the Allen Studio Theatre (Seaver
Theatre, 300 E. Bonita Ave., Claremont) at Pomona College
and is sponsored by the Department of Theatre & Dance. For
further information, contact: (909) 621-8186.
The Pomona College Department of Theatre & Dance is the only
five-college theatre department in the world. Serving Pomona
College, Pitzer College, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd
College, and Claremont McKenna College, it offers
theoretical and practical work in all phases of theatre and
dance, within the context of a rigorous liberal arts
education. In addition to its academic offerings, it
produces a variety of plays and an annual dance concert. The
plays selected include classics old and new, contemporary
plays and experimental pieces. The productions offer
opportunities in performance, design and technical work to
all interested students of The Claremont Colleges. |
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