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PAST EVENTS & PERFORMANCES

Variety Show 2020 Poster
Valiente poster
TZAQIK | a tale, of many
Contra la Corriente
Story Circles
The End of the World | Variety Show
The End of the World Variety Show Part 2

Hosted by Heather Lee Echeverria & Wallace Yan

Artistic Direction: Lucas Goodman

Editor: Peter Newell

Lighting Designer: Diana Herrera

Production Design & Poster: Jacqueline Gonzalez

Performances by: Lu Valero, Liana Moore, Jamie Collazo, Felix Colon, Aleisha Lew, Natalie Satarzadeh, Mary Marie Hill, Heather Lee Echeverria, Kiki Ruiz, Annelise Hermsen, and Jesús López Vargas

PC: Lucas Goodman 

Performance Date: October 30th, 2020 | 7pm 

Cast: Félix Colón, Katherine Lingle, Evan Lugo, Jessica Montez, Pallavi Rajan, Erika Clark, Erica Bogan, Violeta Ruiz-Lopez, Carina Negrete, Freya Starks, Isabella Harris, Natalia Chambers, Emily McKeon, Taylor Payne & Ashley Onks

TZAQIK | a tale, of many

​Written by Jesús López Vargas
Directed by Shelby Caughron & Jesús

     López Vargas
Choreographed by Piper Bockstahler
Scored by Dimitri Soto & Ezra Anisman

POSTPONED due to COVID-19


​Production Manager: Jessica Keasberry
Technical Director: Merle DeWitt III
Lighting Designer: Nita Mendoza
Assistant Lighting Designer: Jacqueline González
Sound Designer: Ezra Anisman
Projection Designer: Arielle Singer
​Associate Projection Designer: Kyrsten Goodrich
Costume & Make-Up Designer: Athziri Morales
Associate Costume Designer: Meghan Marshall
Associate Costume Designer: Maria del Carmen      

     Vargas Rodriguez
Scenic Designers: Jesús López & Merle DeWitt III
Production Stage Manager: Samson Lautzenheiser
Assistant Stage Managers: Mason Bergenholtz &

     Matthew Byrd
Dramaturge: Herman Gomez
Produced by MOON | COLLECTIVE, Brown Bag

     Theatre Company, UCI Illuminations & K.B.

     Theatre Company

 

March 27th, 28th & 29th | 4pm & 8pmxMPL

(Experimental Media Performance Lab) (California)

Valiente

PLAYWRIGHT: Melissa Gutierrez

 

DIRECTOR: Molly O'Donnell

 

LIGHTING DESIGN: Sonya Wong
SOUND DESIGN: Joshua Price
COSTUME DESIGN: Meghan Minguez-Marshall
SCENIC DESIGN: Jacqueline Gonzalez

CAST:
VALENTINA (and others): Linda Cristal Ureña
VAL: Delilah De La Rosa 
PIPER: Lia Prindle 
DERICK: Alec Risley 
ROBIN: Hugo Conde 
STAGE DIRECTIONS: Olivia Pech 

 

THE END OF THE WORLD
Variety Show

Producer / Project Manager: Jesús López

Stage Manager: Meghan Marshall

Event Manager: Carina Negrete

Lighting Designer: Nita Mendoza

Asst. Lighting Designer: Jacqueline Gonzalez

Sound Supervisor: Bryan Vartanian

Hosts: Meliza Gutierrez & Wallace Yan

House Managers: Evelyn McCollum & Erika Clark

PAs: Peter Newell & Elisa Alvarez

PC: Jesús López

To see show performance, Click here.

Culture Clash in Americca

Written by Richard Montoya, Herbert Siguenza & Ric Salinas (CULTURE CLASH)

Directed by Victoria Yvette Zepeda

Props & Scenic Design: Leah Booth

Costume Design: Shawna Jackson

Lighting Design: Nita Mendoza

Projections Design: Arielle Brown

Sound Design: Zared Mance

Dance Choreography: Marco Antonio Miranda

Movement Choreographer: Shawna Jackson

Stage Manager: Samson Lautzenheiser

Graphic Designer: Jesús López Vargas

PC: Brown Bag Ensemble

Late Night with Brown Bag Woks: Variety Show

PC: Brown Bag Ensemble

To see show performance, Click here.

Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá

"Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá" is a full length play, and new work, inspired by the stories from various 1st generation, 1st generation college, undocumented, and DACA Latinx college students on the campus of UC Irvine. The play follows two students who have grown up under the stress of having undocumented family members and even being undocumented themselves. What happens when the fear of deportation becomes real?

Just Like Us

"Just Like Us", by Karen Zacarias. Presented by Brown Bag Theatre Company and sponsored by the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. 

Based on Helen Thorpe’s bestselling book, this documentary-style play follows four Latina teenage girls in Denver—two of whom are documented and two who are not—through young adulthood. Their close-knit friendships begin to unravel when immigration status dictates the girls’ opportunities, or lack thereof. When a political firestorm arises, each girl’s future becomes increasingly complicated. Just Like Us poses difficult, yet essential questions about what makes us American.
 

Written by Karen Zacarías

Directed by Victoria Yvette Zepeda

Costume Design: 

Lighting Design: Marissa Diaz

Sound Design: 

PC: Brown Bag Ensemble

Quebrando el Silencio

Quebrando El Silencio: Breaking the Silence-Latinx Voices

 

March-June 2017

 

Written by Brown Bag Ensemble

Directed by Victoria Zepeda

Scenic Design: Tessa Bookwalter

Costume Design: Danielle Nieves

Lighting Design: Wesley Charles Chew

Sound Design: Matthew Eckstein

PC: Brown Bag Ensemble

A new, original work, by members of Brown Bag Theatre Co. at UC-Irvine, shows a compelling look into the lives of Latinx students at UCI as they share their struggles of identity, activism, relationships with family and culture, and ultimately, being a Latinx student in higher education. In times like today where the voices of the media are distorted and false, this new work, written by members of Brown Bag Theatre, gives us the chance to hear the voices not often heard. Help us break that silence (Quebrando el Silencio!)

LYDIA

The Flores family is a Chicano family living through the turmoil of a tragic car accident in the early 1970s in El Paso Texas. A mysterious young woman enters their lives, bringing change. Lydia is a universal story of family, secrets, love, and sacrifice.

 

Performances:

 June 3rd-5th, 2016

 Little Theater, UC Irvine

 

Director: Maria Patrice Amon

Associate Director/Acting Coach: Maribel Martinez

Scenic Design: Luis Mondragon

Costume Design: Jojo Siu

Lighting Design: Jamie Eby

Sound Designer: Matthew Eckstein

Stage Manager: Briaana Abasta

Cast: Maria Oliveira, Julianna Ojeda, Luis Mondragon, Raul Vega Martinez, Letty Mendoza, Amilcar Jauregui & Hugo Conde.

To see the performance, Click here.

Tomas

Tomás and the Library Lady adapted by Jose Cruz Gonzalez
Co-production with Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble

Tells the story of young Tomás as he learns the joy and freedom of language through the mentorship of a kind librarian.
Was viewed by 600 student, 40 staff & faculty members, and 30 families from our 6 performances in Santa Ana.

Emsemble work that toured to local junior high schools in 2015-2016.


Directed by: Sara Guerera
Performance Dates / locations in Santa Ana, Ca
March 11, 2016 - Thomas Edison Elementary 
Mach 18, 2016 - Latino Health Access (LHA)
March 25, 2016 - Carl Harvey Elementary

Los Vendidos

 

Los Vendidos (The Sold Ones ) by Luis Valdez

A one-act play by Chicano playwright Luis Valdez, a founding member of El Teatro Campesino. Wrote it in 1967. The play examines stereotypes of Latinos in California and how they are treated by local, state, and federal governments

 

Directed by: Sara Guerrero

Performed at:

UCI Studio 4 in Fall 2016

UCI HIB135 as part of 22nd Annual Juan-Bruce Novoa Mexican Studies Conference in Spring 2016

Santa Ana High Schools in Winter 2016

The Service Worker's Project

 

This community-engaged project connected with the community of Service Workers on the UC Irvine Campus. Through a series of events and story circles, we developed a relationship with the workers, learned about their struggles and their successes, and developed a new play with original music inspired by this beautiful community.

In Contra la Corriente/Against the Current, we highlight the humanity of the Service Workers and their plight against an unfair workplace. It is an insight into the lives of individuals who are often ignored on our campus and yet are perhaps the most “human” of us all. They have families, they have struggles, and they have a voice that must be heard.

Performance Dates: May 1st-3rd, 2015 -Robert Cohen Theatre, UC Irvine

To see the performance, Click here.

Yerma.

The focus of this production was on the lyrical beauty of Lorca’s and a desire to retain as much of the original Spanish as possible. We wanted to show not only the Spanish culture of his work but the various Latinx cultures evident in our student population.  Yerma provided our students the opportunity to explore innovative design techniques with expressionistic designs along with puppet and mask work to express the worlds of the play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOA to the Divine Narcissus

Loa to the Divine Narcissus by Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz is a brilliant allegory of Europe's colonization of the America's. Written in 1689 by the first female playwright of the Americas, this short piece was originally meant to introduce a longer theatrical play. The 2012 Brown Bag Theater Company production of Loa to the Divine Narcissus also served as an introduction to Brown Bag's forthcoming longer theatrical productions.  Loa to the Divine Narcissus initiated the trajectory of Brown Bag Theater Company with a focus on the historical lineage of Chicano and Latino Theatre with an awareness of issues related to identity and social justice. 

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