This project features lectures, workshops, screenings, performances and public discussions with artists, critics, scholars and community members about the history, current state and future of performing arts in the U.S./Mexico Borderlands region and beyond. Events are free unless noted.
Lunchtime Lecture Series
This series offers unique opportunities for engaging in intimate conversations with some of the most important performance scholars and artists working in Mexico and United States. Patrons are welcome to bring a lunch during the various lectures.
Oct. 30, noon-1:30 p.m. The Black Body Stands, Still: Stillness within J.T. Zealy's Daguerreotypes
ASU Memorial Union, MU 215
ASU Tempe Campus
A public lecture by Dr. Harvey Young from Northwestern University re-thinking the Black Diaspora in terms of stillness and immobility through a close analysis of J.T. Zealy's 1850 photographs.
Nov. 7, noon-1:30 p.m. Contemporary Children’s Theatre in Mexico
ASU Fine Arts Building B029, ASU Tempe Campus
A survey of contemporary theatre for youth practices in Mexico by Marco Novelo from Teatro Imaginarte in Mexico City.
Nov. 14, noon-1:30 p.m. Performing Mestizaje, The Native Body and the Borderlands
ASU Memorial Union, Room 219, ASU Tempe Campus
Dr. Alicia Arrizon from the University of California at Riverside presents a provocative lecture on the traditions of representation of native bodies in the racial mythologies of performance in the borderlands.
Smithsonian Culturefest
Throughout Phoenix and Scottsdale
Performance in the Borderlands has various events in conjunction with Smithsonian Magazine’s CultureFest 2006, which runs Nov. 2-5. CultureFest pairs the Smithsonian Institution’s most interesting experts with local standouts to highlight the true cultural treasures of Arizona. For more information on Culturefest, visit www.smithsonian.com/culturefest or call 800-774-5020.
Nov. 2, 10:30 a.m.-noon Movimientos! Dancing Into Reading
Burton Barr Central Library, Children's Story Room, 1221 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85504 Movimientos! is a reading and movement program for children ages 4-8 featuring Herberger College of the Arts faculty Ramon Rivera-Servera and Joel Valentin-Martinez. The project combines a public reading program of an illustrated book (selected in conversation with the booking library or venue) that relates to the natural and cultural wealth and diversity of the Southwest Borderlands region of the United States with an engaging creative movement activity to develop a fun and engaging 1 ½ hours of educational entertainment.
Nov. 3, noon -1 p.m. Craftsman’s Theatre: Tourism, Craft Markets and Indigenous Cultures in Oaxaca, Mexico
ASU Art Museum
This lecture looks at the contemporary indigenous crafts industry in Oaxaca in relation to international tourism. The presentation is arranged as a tour through the homes and studios of some of the most interesting and important Oaxacan artists working today.
Nov. 3, 8 – 9 p.m. Contemporary Imaginings of the U.S./Mexico Border
Bentley Projects, 215 East Grant Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004
This lecture looks at contemporary renditions of the US/Mexico border region by an international roster of artists. Looking through the visual repertoire of these artists, Ramon H. Rivera-Servera proposes the arts as a significant venue for imagining the futures of US/Mexico relations and to allow for the more complex philosophical engagement with the question of national boundaries in a region so historically porous and interrelated.
Nov. 4, 2 – 3 p.m. Contemporary Imaginings of the Borderlands
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) at Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 7380 East Second Street, Stage 2 Theater, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
This lecture looks at contemporary renditions of the U.S./Mexico border region by an international roster of artists. This journey carries the audience through the imagination of some of the most creative and thought-provoking artists working in Mexico and the United States today. Also at SMoCA you will be able to see the exhibit, “The Border Film Project: El proyecto fronterizo,” which evolved from a series of collaborations that focus on life on the Arizona/Mexican border.
Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m. Gaytino!
ASU Galvin Playhouse, ASU Tempe Campus
Mariachi to Merman. Sondheim to Cesar Chavez. Show tunes and canciones en español. A remarkable life journey from East LA in the 50s to New York’s Great White Way in the 60s and 70s and back to Hollywood, moving from the back of the bus to the front of American pop culture. A father/son relationship and a treasured boyhood friendship drive this 75-minute autobiographical play through decades of Chicano history and the gay experience from a unique and personal perspective. Touching, hilarious and absolutely one-of-a-kind, Dan Guerrero finally brings his two fascinating worlds together in a riveting solo show.
Tickets: $7.
Dec. 19, 7 p.m. The Phoenix Pastorela
ASU Galvin Playhouse, ASU Tempe Campus
The Consulate General in Phoenix and the Performance in the Borderlands Project invite you to the third annual performance of the Phoenix Pastorela by Borderland’s Theatre. A funny and playful interpretation of the Mexican Shepherd’s play imbued with the end of year review of life in Arizona.
Tickets: $25. To purchase tickets, call 602-242-4481.
The Performance in the Borderlands Project is sponsored by the Herberger College of the Arts and its School of Theatre and Film, ASU Office of the President, the Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies, the North American Center for Transborder Studies, the City of Tempe, Arte Es Amor, and the Mexican Consulate General in Phoenix.
