The Borderlands Theater presents West Side Stories, written by Veronica Weatherbie, with contributions from Patricia Preciado Martin, Milta Ortiz, Silviana Wood and Marc David Pinate, edited by Milta Ortiz and directed by Jonathan Heras and Marc David Pinate. The theater festival will take place from Thursday to Sunday from April 20-30, 2023. Pre-show picnics and activities begin at 6:00 PM. The main stage show begins at 7:45 PM at Bonita Park at 20 N. Bonita Avenue.
theater festival
West Side Stories invites you to dine al fresco with your loved ones, check out interactive game shows, join heritage talk circles, walk through augmented reality installations and hear local stories told through shadow box installations. Give your audience the chance to experience the story. Before play begins!
Heritage-based theater festivals are fun for all ages. Intended to be shared with family and friends. Event to select a payment method for ease of access. We recommend booking online: https://cloud.broadwayworld.com/rec/ticketclick.cfm?fromlink=2233472®id=64&articlelink=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3J8DSQQ?utm_source=BWW2022&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article&utm_content=bottombuybutton1. First come, first served. Free parking is available on Bonita Avenue. Accessible by bus number 21 and 22.
Bring your own chairs, blankets, ice chests, food, whatever you bring to the park. West Side Stories is a non-alcoholic event.
experience
picnic with family and friends
The festival celebrates West Side pride and invites spectators to create special family recipes to enjoy with family and friends. If you don’t have it, check out our website for Sonorense classic Chile con Carne Colorada. If you don’t have time to cook, we recommend choosing dinner from traditional West Side restaurants such as Pat’s, Tania’s, St. He Mary’s, and Marisco Chihuahua. Or you can go to the local food his truck and buy dinner.
Garden of Gethsemane shadow box installation
Digital animation and shadow theater techniques inspired by shadow box art tell the story of Felix Lucero and the battlefield promise that inspired him to carve the statues that grace the gardens of Gethsemane on the banks of the Santa Cruz River. I’m here. Under the Congress Street Bridge.
Augmented reality experience
(Co-sponsored by the Arizona State Museum) Browse photo galleries depicting the people and places of the West in the 1940s, 50s and 60s on your smartphone. Holograms of people from the past tell stories of life on the Westside.
Community Land Trust Game Show
(Co-sponsored by Pima County Community Land Trust and UA Theater students)
A humorous and interactive game show that challenges audience participants and tests their knowledge to keep their neighborhoods from gentrifying. A fun way to learn how the Community Land Trust works to secure affordable housing in your neighborhood.
heritage talk circle
Lifelong Westside Elders share their experiences living, working and organizing on the Westside. Inspired by indigenous storytelling traditions, talk circles are places for all to listen, ask questions, reminisce and share. We are proud to introduce the following Heritage speakers.
Thursday, April 20th
Armando Rodriguez discusses the 1-C Americanization program and growth in Menlo Park.
Friday, April 21st
Patsy Lee remembers her father’s store, Allan’s Market, in Barrio Hollywood.
Sunday, April 23rd
Margo Cowan tells the story of an organized community on the West Side,
Manzo District Council
Friday, April 28th
Barbara Lewis and her brother George Hollins share a Westside African-American perspective.
Sunday, April 30th
Sixto Molina recalls his time at the Tucson Police Department and assignment to the Adam Wang Community Policing Project.
process
The Barrio Stories Project was born out of an impulse to honor and celebrate Tucson’s historic Mexican-American Barrios. West Side Stories has deep roots in Westside and is run by professional artists working with current and former residents of the area. Borderlands artists formed a steering committee made up of Westside residents who met monthly to create a theatrical experience unique to the Westside.
At the heart of the festival is the desire to share a piece of the West Side’s rich history from the voices of its residents. Residents were interviewed to create the plays and installations that make up the festival. A recurring theme in Oral History reflects how the inhabitants of the barrio supported each other to survive and build community.
Westside Stories is a collaborative placemaking initiative between residents, artists, local government, education and community service organizations. Project partners include the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation, which advised Borderlands Theater on its use of Bonita Park and completed a major upgrade to the gardens. of Gethsemane. Tucson City Council District 1, which provides advice and sponsors the festival. The Pima County Community Land Trust provided technical expertise and worked with UA students to create the Community Land Trust game show. The Arizona State Museum worked with the UA Center for Digital Humanities to create an augmented reality experience based on archival photographic research conducted by the Borderlands Theater.
Quote from Mayor Regina Romero
“The Borderlands Theaters celebrate the history and heritage of our historic barrio and Mexican-American culture. They tell the true stories of the people and places that make Tucson vibrant and diverse. It’s important to remember and celebrate our heritage, and sharing our stories together is powerful… Please join me in supporting Borderlands.”
Collaborating artist details:
Born and raised in Nogales, Veronica Weatherby is an actor and writer. She joined the Barrio Stories Nogales project in early 2020 as her assistant in production before the project went on her two-year hiatus. In the meantime, she has developed several “bridge” events, connecting the spaces between Nogales and Tucson artists, and sharing original barrio her stories between the dates of her events and her final production in June 2022. bridged the time of Nogales has enriched and grown her relationship with her hometown and community.
Her work for West Side Stories included conducting oral history interviews, collecting historical photographs, and organizing a steering committee. Veronica is the principal playwright of West Side Stories main stage plays. She expresses her heartfelt gratitude to all Westsiders for opening their home and heart to her and leaving a record of their lives.
Award-winning playwright Mirta Ortiz was born in El Salvador and raised in the Bay Area. She now calls Tucson her home. She is developing the musical Anita at the Borderlands Theater in collaboration with composer Quetzal Guerrero. Current development workshop partners include the University of Arizona and Childs Play. Anita’s excerpt was featured in her 4xLatine by Latin Musical Theater Lab. Milta attended Arizona State University as a 2020-21 She Projecting All Voices Mellon Fellow, where she developed a solo play with Anita, performing What Are You? In Fall 2022, she directed Ballet & Bagels, her TYA play she wrote with students from her College Pima Her Community in Spring 2022. Commissioned and produced by Milagro Theater Group, Judge Torres toured universities across the country (2019-2020). Mirta is an associate of the Borderlands Theater and her artistic director, with several world premieres including Sanctuary (2018) and her Más (2015). Más’ production of Borderlands toured the University of Arizona. Más was produced by Su Teatro Her, Ubuntu Theater Project/Laney College, and San Diego State University. She earned her MFA from Northwestern University and her bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University. She is proud to serve on the Board of Directors of the National New Play Network and serve as Commissioner of the Tucson Convention Center.
JONATHAN HERAS is an actor and singer from Yuma, Arizona, currently a performing artist in Tucson and a member of the Borderlands Theater Ensemble. He has worked with various local theaters including Live Theater Workshop, Stories That Soar and Gaslight Theater. He develops and writes content with his group of artists called Digital Desmadre and creates content and awareness through his social media platforms. For over ten years he has worked with young people as a drama teacher. Currently, he is the music director of the Sal He Point He Catholic High School.
MARD DAVID PINATE is an indigenous Xicano production theater located in the ancestral homeland of the Sonoran Desert region. He has worked with nationally renowned companies such as Magic Theater, Campo Santo, El Teatro Campesino, ShadowLight Productions, Steppenwolf, Cleveland Public, Milagro Theater and Kennedy Center for the Arts. Borderlands Theater Producer His Artistic Director, his passion for creative placemaking and placekeeping has led him to develop and direct ethnographic projects focused on the stories of Southern Arizona, including: increase. American Studies Program; The Sanctuary, (also playwright Mirta Ortiz) The Tucson origin story of the Sanctuary movement. Barrio Stories is a large site-specific heritage festival centered around the history and heritage of Tucson’s Mexican-American Barrios. Sonoran Shadows, a shadowplay adaptation of the story by Patricia Preciad Martin. His work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Doris His Duke Foundation, The National New Play His Network, The Mellon Foundation, and The Theater Communications Group. His script credits include numerous street theater actors, Brown Planet Horror with Paul Flores and Amalia Ortiz, 2012: Time of No Time (commissioned by La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA) and most recently, Includes Antigone at the Border. It is a post-colonial adaptation of a Greek classic, for which he received the New England Foundation for the Arts National Touring Project Award. He is a founding member of performance collectives such as Chicano Messenger of Spoken Words, Grit Serpentino and Hybrid Performance Experiment (HyPE). Mark earned his MFA in Directing from DePaul University’s Theater School, Pima Community He teaches Theater at College, and Creative Placemaking at the University of Arizona.
Adam Cooper-TERÁN (ACT) hails from Tucson, Arizona and is of mixed Mexican, Yaqui and Jewish roots. Known for collaborations among various theater companies, theater companies, musicians, dancers, educators and activists, Adam’s work has been featured worldwide in large-scale media projections, musical interventions and digital storytelling installations. increase.
