Valencia, CA, Feb 20--Making its world premiere on March 19-22 in Los Angeles, site-specific performance installation rasgos asiáticos, commissioned and produced by CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) / Duende CalArts, explores the historic confluence of China, Mexico, and the United States. Highlighting the issues presented in rasgos asiáticos, CNP / Duende CalArts presents a series of community-focused conversations and activities which will explore the complex intersections of cultures that have shaped California’s history.
In conjunction with rasgos asiáticos, the series of free public events is inspired by the intersecting histories of Chinese and Mexican migration in Los Angeles and beyond. The project recognizes the legacy of community building and rebuilding. The interrelated events illuminate narratives that have been obscured, building a deeper understanding of the histories our region holds through outreach.
Written by CalArts alumnx Virginia Grise and directed by alumnx Alexis Macnab, rasgos asiáticos is produced by CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts, and Duende CalArts, a CNP initiative dedicated to developing and producing innovative work emerging from Latinx and Latin American communities and sources.
rasgos asiáticos is on view nightly in Chung King Court at Automata and from 6-9pm, March 19–22, 2020. Admission is free. RSVPs are required to ensure admission. CLICK here for more information.
The following community events are presented by CalArts Center for New Performance, in conjunction with rasgos asiáticos. For details visit centerfornewperformance.org. All events are FREE. RSVP at www.centerfornewperformance.org
February 24–March 13, 2020
Puesto de Palabras
Open story sharing and writing space with Virginia Grise
Monday through Friday
[Closed March 5 & 6]
9 am - 4 pm, Automata
504 Chung King Court, Los Angeles, CA 90012
No RSVP required
Inspired by her grandfather and uncle—Chinese merchants who operated a fruit and vegetable puesto in a Mexican market in Monterrey, Mexico—theater artist Virginia Grise opens up shop daily at Automata Arts and celebrates the day-to-day neighborhood encounters that “open hours” can foster. Drop in on Grise as she makes her writing practice public and invites you to share your own stories of the places, people, and events that have shaped your personal narrative.
Puesto de Palabras is part of the development of rasgos asiáticos, a site-specific performance installation that premieres March 19–22, which delves into the intertwined histories of Mexican and Chinese immigration in the U.S. In a daily ritual of public interaction and exchange, Grise explores what it means to find one’s place in a new community, and gathers individual perspectives from the people whose lives are anchored in, or intersect, with Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
February 27 and March 2, 2020
These Are My Papers
A Performance Talk by Virginia Grise
February 27
7 pm, Gateway to Nature Center
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument
130 Paseo De La Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012
March 2, 2020
7 pm, ArtChangeUS
California Institute of the Arts
24700 McBean Pkwy, Valencia, CA 91355
Part lecture and part performance, award-winning theater artist Virginia Grise speaks about moving bodies and porous borders as she shares both personal stories and historical research related to her newest theater project, rasgos asiáticos.
March 8, 2020
Piñata Lantern Making
Noon - 5 pm, Automata
Chung King Court, Los Angeles, CA 90012
This family friendly, hands-on craft activity invites you to contribute to the making of Virginia Grise’s newest performance installation rasgos asiáticos. The author and creative team are on hand to teach you how to make specialty piñata lanterns that will become part of the site-specific installation.
Sponsors
rasgos asiáticos was commissioned and produced by CalArts Center for New Performance / Duende CalArts, in association with a todo dar productions.
rasgos asiáticos is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by CalArts Center for New Performance, DiverseWorks in partnership with MECA Houston, Performance in the Borderlands, Fulcrum Theater, and NPN with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts - visit www.npnweb.org.
rasgos asiáticos was created with support from the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Soho Rep Theater’s Writer/Director Lab; and Pregones Theater’s Asuncion Award for Queer Playwrighting.
This presentation is made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities - visit www.calhum.org.
Community Partners
Automata
Chinese American Museum
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument
Founded in 2002, CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) is the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts. Established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, media, and interdisciplinary projects, CNP extends the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national, and international levels. CNP offers seminal artists from around the world resources to develop new works that expands the language, discourse, and boundaries of contemporary theater and performance. By infusing the work of transformative artists with the talent, vitality, and impulses of emerging artists in the CalArts community, CNP fosters the future of live performance.
Duende CalArts is an initiative of the CalArts Center for New Performance dedicated to developing and producing innovative work emerging from Latinx and Latin American communities and sources. Established in 2009 by Marissa Chibas, Duende CalArts brings prominent and emerging Latinx and Latin American artists from the performance community to develop adventurous projects at CNP. It aims to expand aesthetic boundaries and performance discourse, collaborating with national and international Latinx artists and advancing multilingual works.
California Institute of the Arts has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines, and cultural traditions.