ALLIANCE OF TEATROS LATINOS, NEW YORK

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1 ALLIANCE OF TEATROS LATINOS, NEW YORK Teatro Círculo*Teatro IATI*INTAR*LATEA*Pregones Theater*Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre*Repertorio Español*Teatro SEA*Thalía Spanish Theatre For Immediate Release Contact: José Antonio Cruz, Repertorio Español New York, NY, USA: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 The creation of an alliance of nine award winning New York City Latino theaters was announced on Monday, October 4, 2010 during New York City s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission s opening reception for this year s Latin Media and Entertainment Week. Carlos Manzano, the Executive Director of the Latin Media and Entertainment Commission made the announcement on behalf of the newly formed Alliance of Teatros Latinos New York. In attendance were New York City Deputy Mayor Carol Robles Román; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin; Latin Media and Entertainment Commissioner Mario Baeza; Carlos Sánchez of Telemundo 47; Ramón Pineda of Univision 41 and the hosts for the evening, Lisa García-Quiroz and Daniel Osheyack from Time Warner. Forming part of the Alliance of Teatros Latinos New York are nine awardwinning organizations including INTAR, Teatro IATI, LATEA, Pregones, Repertorio Español, Teatro Círculo, Thalía Spanish Theatre, SEA and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. These nine organizations report a total employees, combined revenues of $6.5 million as well as total audiences of over 300,000 annually. The mission of the Alliance is to advocate on behalf of a strong Latino sector within New York s competitive nonprofit theater and performing arts fields. To its membership, the Alliance provides a common platform for leadership development, strategic resource sharing, and building brand visibility.

2 Member organizations are longtime theater companies running a full range of performance and education programs in Spanish and English. Together, the consortium serves a diverse and growing audience from all five NYC boroughs and the greater metropolitan area. All segments of this population including largely underserved youth and the elderly benefit from affordable access to new and classical theater works, cultural heritage preservation, and public dialogue. These ongoing accomplishments have earned the Alliance membership numerous merit and media recognitions at the local, national, and international levels. A high resolution photo with Commissioner Levin, Commissioner Baeza and the Executive Directors of Alliance theaters is available at: Information about member theaters follows: +Teatro Círculo José (Cheo) Oliveras, Artistic Director joliveras@teatrocirculo.org Based on East 4th St. in Manhattan, Teatro Círculo Ltd. is a theater company committed to preserving and promoting our cultural heritage through the presentation of creative, inclusive and educational theater works. It is its purpose to expose the public to the best works of Spanish and Latin American playwrights, both contemporary and classical. The company's main programs include their Main Stage NY Seasons, touring throughout the US and abroad, Training Unit Program for professional Latino actors and Educational Programs at NYC public schools. Since its inception in 1994 Teatro Círculo has received over 45 ACE & HOLA Awards as well as an OBIE Award for artistic excellence. +Teatro IATI (Instituto Arte Teatral Internacional, Inc.) Vivian Deangelo, Executive & Artistic Director vivian@teatroiati.org IATI is a New York-based, non-profit theater organization established in 1968, dedicated to serve all audiences in Spanish and English languages. The theater s mission is to perform and promote contemporary Latino heritage through full productions in theatre, music and dance, as well as staged readings and workshops, serving as a bridge between artists and underserved communities at its New York home in the Lower East Side as well as on national and international tours. The theater s vision is to bring art into the lives of those in

3 poverty, ethnic and cultural isolation. IATI s artists address contemporary issues of broad human interest and frame them in an appropriate cultural context of powerful social impact to provoke introspection and social awareness. The Company is also devoted to the emergence of new artistic talents in the disciplines of theater, music, and dance, providing the training and encouraging fulfilling their dreams. +INTAR (International Arts Relations, Inc.) Louis Moreno, Artistic Director lmoreno@intartheatre.org INTAR is an organization committed to the development of "theater arts without borders." Over the past four decades, INTAR has produced classics, Latino adaptations of classics, cabarets, and 70 world premieres of plays written by Latino-Americans, including 2005 Oscar nominee José Rivera and Pulitzer Prize recipient Nilo Cruz. To date, the theater has commissioned, developed, and produced works by more than 175 Latino writers, composers, and choreographers. It has assisted hundreds of Latino playwrights, directors, and actors in obtaining their first professional theater credits, union memberships, and reviews in English-language media. "There's scarcely a Latino artist in America who hasn't been supported or trained or produced by INTAR," according to The New York Times. +LATEA (Latin American Theater Experiment and Associates) Nelson Landrieu, Executive Director nelson@teatrolatea.com Established in 1982 LATEA is one of New York s premier and highly regarded offoff Broadway Latino theaters. It was founded and operates under the direction of two well-known professional stage, film and television actors who are committed to providing opportunities to New York s emerging and professional artists, especially Latinos who would otherwise not have the resources or affordable physical facilities to exhibit their works and talents. As arts advocates, LATEA s founders took the initiative of providing much needed leadership to secure and safeguard the continued use of their city-owned property, a struggle that led to the creation of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, where the theater is housed. LATEA s mission is to foster, preserve, promote and maintain the history, literature, cultural values and heritage of the Latin American people, including the Caribbean. To educate North American audiences and the general public of the contributions made by Latinos and to demonstrate the universality of beliefs that bind us all together as universal human beings.

4 +Pregones Theater Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director Founded in 1979, Pregones Theater is a Bronx-based ensemble whose mission is (1) to create and perform original musical theater and plays rooted in Puerto Rican/Latino cultures, and (2) to present other performing artists who share our twin commitment to the arts and civic enrichment. The ensemble is known for mining connections between theater and popular culture, for creating plays with dynamic visual and rhythmic character, and for galvanizing multiple generations of theater goers and aspiring artists. The company owns and operates its own professional theater in the South Bronx. With an exciting year-round calendar of performing events, Pregones Theater is quickly becoming an arts destination of city-wide appeal. Numerous awards include: Primary Cultural Institution Designation from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Governor s Arts Award and the prestigious Duke/Mellon Leading National Ensemble Theater recognition. +Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Miriam Colón Valle, Artistic Director miriam@prtt.org The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre s (PRTT) mission is to advance bilingual Puerto Rican and Latino dramaturgy, theatrical performance, and performing arts training and thus to enrich the professional theater and national culture. PRTT was founded in 1967 by Miriam Colón Valle following the highly successful run of the English-language production of The Oxcart, René Marqués classic drama of Puerto Rican migration. The play was directed by acclaimed director Lloyd Richards and starred Miriam Colón, the late Raul Juliá and Lucy Boscana. This initial summer production helped launch the Spanish bilingual theater movement and led to the creation of a major cultural legacy for the State of New York and the U.S.. PRTT s lasting impact is felt in four decades of continued theater programming and audience development through the company s four major programs: the MAINSTAGE, the annual SUMMER TOUR, the RAUL JULIA TRAINING UNIT and the PLAYWRIGHTS UNIT. Awards include the ACE Hispanic Theater Award, New York State Governor s Arts Award, HOLA Actors Guild Award, the Obie and many more. +Repertorio Español Robert Federico, Executive Director r.federico@repertorio.org

5 Since its inception in 1968, Repertorio Español has remained committed to its original founding mission of presenting the finest Latin American, Spanish, and Hispanic American theatre; creating and maintaining a professional company of actors, singers, and directors to perform works in the Spanish language and to bringing theatre to a broad audience, including Hispanics of all national backgrounds. Throughout its history, Repertorio has introduced thousands of adult and student audiences to the best theater from Latin America and Spain as well as plays by emerging Hispanic American theatre artists. The company s artistic excellence has earned national recognition, including four Obie awards, two New York State Governor s Art Awards, a 1996 Drama Desk Award, major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, many national and local awards, including recent awards from Theater Communications Group and the Arts & Business Council. +Teatro SEA Dr. Manuel Morán, Founder & Artistic Director MMoran@sea-ny.org (212) The Society of the Educational Arts, Inc./Sociedad Educativa de las Artes, Inc. (Teatro SEA) was founded in 1985 in Puerto Rico. The Company s mission is to provide Latino children, youth and their families with training and access to arts and culturally relevant programming. Teatro SEA is New York City s only Latino children s theater marking a first for Spanish-speaking families, who now have a place to call their own. Through its diverse repertory Teatro SEA aims to introduce and preserve Latin American arts and culture for Latinos and initiate non-spanish speaking audiences to Latino arts and culture. In addition, through its annual tour of children s theater in Spanish, the Company brings professional, artistically excellent live theater directly to community centers, cultural venues, schools and libraries in neighborhoods where Latino s live. For the nearly 100,000 disenfranchised Latino children and families the Company serves each year, often this is their first experience of live theater and their only opportunity to interact with professional Latino theater artists. Teatro SEA s theater and puppetry performances and multidisciplinary arts programs are intended to raise self -esteem and to strengthen cultural identity by offering possible solutions to improving the quality of the lives of those served. +Thalía Spanish Theatre Angel Gil Orrios, Artistic & Executive Director agil@thaliatheatre.org

6 Every month is Hispanic Heritage Month at Thalía Spanish Theatre, the first and only bilingual Hispanic theatre in Queens, New York. Thalía serves one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the United States, including more than one million Hispanics from all over the world. Thalía s mission is to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of Spanish and Latin American culture with unique productions of plays, musicals and dance. The theatre produces bilingual plays performed alternately in English and Spanish, cutting-edge world premiere dance musicals, and folklore shows of music and dance, and offers bilingual theatre workshops for youth and children as well as free outdoor festivals in local parks. The theatre s more than 160 productions have won 152 awards for artistic excellence, including the 2009 Mayor s Award for Arts & Culture and the 1997 New York State Governor s Arts Award. #####