National Performance Network (NPN) showcase next FRIDAY, June 2nd

I am one of nine performing artists in the Metroplex who have been invited to perform in a showcase for the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK.

Here are the 9 invited performers/performing groups: Teatro Dallas, Amon Rashidi (Rapademics), David Marquis, Uriah Elion, Will Richey, Venus Opal Reese, Tammy Gomez, GNO, and Laney Yarber.

Vicki Meek, artistic director of the SOUTH DALLAS CULTURAL CENTER near Fair Park, is the person who invited us to perform in this showcase. The South Dallas Cultural Center is an arts partner--or member performing arts venue--of the NPN, so because the Regional Meeting is to happen in Dallas this year, she's the one who's setting up the June 2nd show.

Here's Vicki in her own words: "We will present you at Richland College's Fannin Performance Hall on Friday, June 2.  The showcase will start at 8 pm and conclude at 9:45 pm.  Each artist will have 10 minutes maximum. Even though this is for a regional meeting, meaning only the Southern partners will be in attendance, your work will be known beyond the region since so much of how an artist gets booked has a lot to do with word-of-mouth accolades from other NPN partners. 

I am very excited about presenting you to my fellow NPN partners since I know the calibre of talent your work represents.  The DFW area artists you represent need to be known outside Texas!  The South Dallas Cultural Center strives to create those opportunities whenever possible."

So---my friends and readers--I am pretty stoked to have been included on this roster of performers. I'm gonna do my best, with a 9-minute (i timed it last night) monologue titled MALINCHUCA. Almost hard to believe that I wrote this piece over 10 years ago, and that I've never performed it myself, though 2 different actresses have taken on the role--under my direction.

A bit of background: Dona Marina, also known as “Malintzin” and “La Malinche”, attained mythical stature because of her association with Hernan Cortes--as his personal translator during the conquest of Mexico. In MALINCHUCA, Dona Marina reappears as a mad-as-hell ‘chuca with a tongue-lashing for historical revisionists.

I was commissioned by MEXIC-ARTE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY in Austin to write MALINCHUCA--the script--in 1994, when it was first performed for an SRO audience. This work went on to receive a first-runner-up award in the Fort Worth Hispanic Playwrights' Festival in 2001.