Date and Times:
Saturday, December 12, 2020, at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 13, 2020 Matinee at 2:00 p.m.
Venue: Virtual
Tickets: $20.00
TORCHED! & THE RED ROSE - Virtual Event
MIFA Victory Theatre in collaboration with New England Public Media (NEPM), Nueva Esperanza, and
Holyoke Media Presents the return engagement of New York's Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PregonesPRTT) in a double feature virtual staged reading of two plays with talkbacks at the end of each performance. Original music by Desmar Guevara. TORCHED! written by Pregones/PRTT Artistic Director, Rosalba Rolón and THE RED ROSE original story “Little Things Are Big,” by activist Jesús Colón, adaptation by Rosalba Rolón.
TORCHED!
Written by Rosalba Rolón
Music by Desmar Guevara
A production of Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (Pregones/PRTT)
Directed by Rosalba Rolón
Performers (in alphabetical order)
Actors: Christin Eve Cato, Caridad De La Luz, José J. García, Omar Pérez
Musicians: Desmar Guevara, Alvaro Benavides (two more musicians-names TBA)
About: Audiences get a special sneak peek behind the scenes of Pregones/PRTT. See the creation process and first act of their upcoming musical TORCHED! The play speaks to the now legendary era of the Bronx fires. The piece sheds light on the: victims, residents, workers, firefighters, the perpetrators, public and private institutions, landlords, the accomplices, Hollywood, and mass media in the destruction of the reputation of an entire community around the globe.
THE RED ROSE
Adaptation and Dramaturgy by Rosalba Rolón
Music by Desmar Guevara
Original story Little Things Are Big, written by Jesús Colón
A production of Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (Pregones/PRTT)
Directed by Rosalba Rolón
Performers: José J. García, Lead Actor in Little Things Are Big
Ensemble: Caridad De La Luz, Shadia Fairuz, Elise Hernández, Omar Pérez, Danny Rivera
Musicians – Desmar Guevara, Anthony Carrillo, Antonio Guzmán, Sergio Reyes, Ariel Robles.
About: A musicalized collection of stories about the first generation of Puerto Rican immigrants in New York City, in the 1920s-1950s. Based on the writings of Puerto Rican writer and activist Jesús Colón, this piece takes us to the height of the McCarthy era in the 1950s, in which more than 1,000 Puerto Ricans, including Jesús Colón, were brought to trial, labeled as the Puerto Rican Reds. Little Things Are Big is one of the cherished stories of the production, as it sheds light on the racial tensions of the times, still relevant today. The story takes us to a subway station, in which Jesús Colón, a Black Puerto Rican, faces a situation that could be explosive.