DALLAS: Cara Mía Theatre has announced its 25th season, titled “Visions of the World.” The season will feature a series of intersectional arts experiences in lieu of a traditional main stage lineup.
“The past eight months have inspired us to fuse art-making with a vision for transforming our city more than ever,” said artistic director David Lozano in a statement. “It is only fitting that our 25th anniversary season will mark a major step in our evolution as we plant the seeds for a better world with our vast network of artists, activists, patrons, and partners. During our 25th transformative season, Cara Mía will reimagine what a theatre can be.”
The season began with Dael Orlandersmith’s My Red Hand, My Black Hand (streaming now through Nov. 8), produced in partnership with Soul Rep Theatre. The play, featuring original music by Frederick Sanders, is about an interracial Black and Native family. Guinea Bennett-Price directs.
Next will be “Day of the Dead Caravan and GOTV Vigil for Victims of COVID” (Nov. 1), a car caravan, protest, and vigil with large-scale calavera floats, puppets, political teatro, and danza. The event will be presented in partnership with League of United Latin-American Citizens.
Following will be Remember. Breathe. Dream. (Nov. 20-Dec. 13), a contemplative visual arts journey spanning the footprint of the Latino Cultural Center that will invite participants to imagine a new world. The experience will be created by Playwright in Residence Virginia Grise, sculptor Andrew Scott, Zen practitioner Dr. Ruben Habito, and storyteller and healer Stefanie Tovar, among artists from Dallas and Los Angeles.
The programming will continue with TBD (no…that’s actually the name of the show), a co-production with Teatro Dallas that searches for the roots of theatre to ignite the voices of the people.
The season will conclude with Latinidades (spring 2021), a festival of indoor, outdoor, and virtual arts and community experiences.
In addition, the “Visions of the World” season will launch a new initiative to support the visions of independent artists and activists called La Siembra Project. CMT’s first two commission recipients are Jodi Voice Yellowfish and Virginia Grise. Yellowfish will curate a series of talking circles founded on principles of Native culture and wisdom with the objective of reclaiming one’s life from the chaos of the Western world. Grise joins Cara Mía as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and HowlRound Theatre Commons Playwright in Residence. Over the next three years, she will develop Da Grove: Un Taller for Dreaming, a performance lab with residents from Pleasant Grove designed to collectively imagine and build new worlds into existence.
Cara Mía is also extending its community action programming with a new branch called Community Care. This new initiative will be led by BIPOC artists. The program’s community “circles” will focus on the intersection of arts and health, racial healing, mentorship, and activism.
Finally, CMT will continue to offer educational programming with a diverse array of virtual and safe in-person options to continue reaching more than 17,000 young people per year through schools and community centers.
