Support INTAR Theater's New Work's Lab Summer 2012 Workshop Presentation of "DANCE FOR A DOLLAR"
INTAR, one of the United States' longest running Latino theaters producing in English, works to:
- Nurture the professional development of Latino theater artists.
- Produce bold, innovative, artistically significant plays that reflect diverse perspectives.
- Make accessible the diversity inherent in America's cultural heritage.
About DANCE FOR A DOLLAR
by Creators Daniel Jaquez and Mariana Carreno- King.
"Given our interest in Mexican traditional dance and music, we began investigating the type of dancing going on in the Mexican community in New York City. We observed their behavior with an eye for patterns, rituals and connections to the mother country. We found a socially, culturally and politically significant ritual; a ritual we labeled the muchachas que bailan. (The ladies/girls who dance.)
We used to come to the U.S.A. to partake of the much-advertised “Land of Opportunity,” to enhance our life and yours. We bring our knowledge, our ethics, our cuisine, and in exchange we would get a crack at buying a house, going to a good school, starting a business and building our home and our community. This is not so easy now. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting, well... poorer. So, our ingenuity turns shit into compost and we sell it - not unlike the Irish, the Jews, the Italians, etc. not so many years ago.
So what do we do? The lucky ones start up businesses, usually food establishments full of familiar treats and hard to find pleasures. During the day, these places bring together hungry families eager to belong and find empowerment in placing an order of comforting food. By night, these places become sanctuaries for the “American dream”: Houses built to minimize rejection and maximize profit. A place to unwind, to celebrate, to seek the familiar, to release a little of the burden we carry from the choices we’ve made. But it is a mirage of happiness and choice: A new prohibition-era speakeasy, a Wiemar Germany underground cabaret. Come on in and forget the demons outside for a couple of hours. A beautiful lady will dance with you for $2 a dance, an age old story.
This entrepreneurial effort is very wise since the muchachas used to spend nights at dance halls anyway. Here, they have the power and the goods: people want them. Nobody gawks at their short legs, at their brownness or at their black hair unless it is to praise it, to feel it. The clients look to escape, cuddling between gentle arms and warm breasts while a nostalgic beat is heard in the background. This beat - a warrior’s call to action, an ocean reclaiming land, a waterfall feeding our fields - puts us in a trance and we fly home."
The New Works Lab, developed and honed for over a decade, provides an opportunity for Latino playwrights of significant promise to advance their works-in-progress through workshops leading to public presentations. The lab creates a supportive professional environment for playwrights, directors, actors, and other theater artists, encouraging them to experiment, take risks, and collaborate.
Your contributions towards INTAR's New Work's Lab will support the 45 year old theater company's mission to produce latino voices. Funds raised by this campaign will provide monies for all aspects of the production of DANCE FOR A DOLLAR at INTAR.
In order for American Theater to flourish we must produce and encourage audiences to support works that explore all people and experiences. This play will push the boundaries of perceptions of Latino immigrants through the viceral experience of dance and theater.
Help us by spreading the word. Share this campaign with friends, contribute what you can and come to the show! Theater can't happen without an audience. This can only happen with your voice and your presence!
About the Creators
Daniel Jáquez (www.danieljaquez.com) a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, is a NY based freelance director, an Associate Artist at The Miracle Theatre in Portland, Oregon and Teatro V!da in Springfield, MA as well as an Advisory Board member for The Lark's US/Mexico Word Exchange. From 2003 to 2006 he was Director-Producer of INTAR Theatre’s NewWorks Lab and he is the co-founder of Calpulli Mexican Dance Theatre in Queens, NY and from 2003 to 2011 was its Artistic Director and choreographer.
He has directed and produced shows Off and Off-Off Broadway and at renowned concert venues such as Symphony Space and Carnegie Hall. Regionally, he has directed across the United States and has also worked in Russia, Switzerland, France and Mexico. He has translated into English plays by DAvid Olguín, Alejandro Ricaño, Mónica Silver, Miguel Sabido and Lope de Vega.
He has served as panelist and/or committee member for the NEA, TCG, New Dramatists, NYSCA, CUNY, etc. His teaching experience includes: Adjunct Professor at Manhattanville College, Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, Guest Artists/Teacher at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College and many community workshops in dance and theatre.
In 2000 he earned an MFA in Directing from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute at Harvard University. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab and of NoPassport, a pan-american theatre coalition.
Daniel grew up in Cd. Juárez, Mexico and studied Actuarial Science at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Texas and was a member of the Society of Actuaries.
Mariana Carreño King
Mariana is a freelance writer, translator, director and actor. Her plays include Ofelia’s Lovers, developed as part of a 2-year residency at Mabou Mines; Darkroom written as member of the Hispanic Playwrights in Residency Lab at INTAR; The Wake, produced at INTAR's NewWorks Lab; Fool’s Journey, a finalist of the O’Neill Playwrights Conference; Two Minutes in the Lobby, Waiting for the Post Office to Give Birth to Time and Dessert Stories received stage readings at LAByrinth Summer Intensive Retreats and at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre; Pitahayas was a finalist for the 2003 Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award; Night of the Cat-Sitter, Clowns, Static and Mexico 68 have been presented or workshopped at The Public, The Milagro, Theatre @ Saint Clement’s and with LAByrinth Theatre Company.
Mariana’s directing credits include a bilingual production of Eduardo Machado’s The Cook for Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, TX, workshop productions of Space Oddity at Aaron Davis Hall, Dinner with Jobita and la Chacha at INTAR and Pilgrim at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, all written by Henry Guzmán.
Her column, En español, por favor, was published from 2004 to 2006 in the VNU’s magazine Marketing y Medios, and it was a finalist for the 2006 American Business Media’s Neal Award. She has also written for National Geographic Traveler Mexico, Marie Claire en español, Colombia’s El Tiempo, offoffoff.com and Portada magazine.
Mariana is a member of LAByrinth Theatre Company.