Flor de Muertos

One showing only! Thursday, Oct 25th 2012 at 7:30pm
Loft Theater, 3233 E. Speedway

General Admission: $8 • Loft Members: $6

Get ready for this year’s All Souls Procession with a special screening of the Tucson-made documentary Flor de Muertos, starring Calexico!

Flor de Muertos (Flower of the Dead) examines the cross-cultural collisions regarding death along the US and Mexico border, commencing with the Mexican celebration of the Dia de los Muertos and ending with the All Souls Procession when 20,000 locals turn out in skull face to rattle through the streets of downtown Tucson, Arizona, to remember, honor, and dance with the dead.

Flor de Muertos – the Aztec Marigold, ‘Cempasuchil’- the scent of marigolds forms a path the souls of the dead can follow back to the living on the annual Day of the Dead. Part documentary, part concert film, Flor de Muertos features acclaimed Americana/alternative band Calexico, playing a concert in Tucson’s historic Rialto Theater to their hometown audience.

Desert rat journalist Charles Bowden, who has roamed the borderlands in search of an elusive truth for decades, author Margaret Regan, artist Salvador Duran and others comment on the insanity of American immigration policies.

Locally made film about our very own All Souls Procession (in which my husband and I have walked, with calaveras/skulls on our heads in the past). I recognized all the names mentioned above who will be in this documentary. Enjoy Tucson and get ready for All Souls on November 4th.

Information on show dates/ticket prices from Tucson Peace Calendar website (with some additions/corrections by me):

“No Roosters in the Desert” at Zuzi! Theater, 738 N. 5th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona

A New Play Commissioned by Borderlands Theater by Playwright Kara Hartzler (immigrant attorney/legal director of Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project)

Directed by Barclay Goldsmith

Winner of the Edgerton Foundation American New Play Award and the NEA Access to Excellence!

October 7-24, 2010

Rolling World Premiere sponsored by National New Play Network: Mexico City, Tucson and Chicago

In this riveting play-based on actual interviews by Anna Ochoa O’Leary-four women trek the desert towards the American dream. On their way they push the limits of their physical and emotional endurance, and they establish profound yet fragile connections with each other through the magical storytelling of the youngest of them, an indigenous woman from Chiapas.

Featuring Annabelle Nunez, Anel Schmidt, Eva Zorilla Tessler, and Veronica del Cerro

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE/TICKET INFORMATION:

SUPPORT HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
AND PURCHASE TICKETS THROUGH DERECHOS HUMANOS
@ 520-770-1373 OR EMAIL CRUZ AT CRUZ@DERECHOSHUMANOSAZ.NET

Preview Performance: October 7, 7:30pm
$17 General, $15 Senior, $10.75 Student

Opening Night Celebración: October 8, 7:30pm
$22 General, Senior and Student
Opening Night Celebración includes postres plus meet and greet the playwright and actors.

Regular Performances: October 9, 15, 16, 22 & 23, 7:30pm &
Sunday Matinees: October 10, 17 & 24, 2 p.m.
$19.75 General, $17.75 Senior, $10.75 Student

Tickets can also be purchased through Borderlands Theater, 40 W. Broadway

RESERVATIONS:
(520) 882-7406 or www.borderlandstheater.org
(For group sales or to arrange accommodations for patrons with disabilities please contact the Box Office.)

Sponsors:
National Endowment for the Arts
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Tucson Pima Arts Council/Kresge Art in Tucson
Dana Foundation
Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays
Lark Play Development Center
National New Play Network (NNPN Rolling World Premiere)
The Smith Prize
University of Arizona College of Humanities
University of Arizona Binational Migration Institute

I first read about this play in ARIZONA Alumnus Magazine (Fall 2010 issue) in an article by Margaret Regan who writes (page 32) that “the four fictional women in the play are going it alone in the desert after becoming separated from the rest of the group. They bond and tell stories and swear they’ll stick together, but when one is injured, the other three are suddenly faced with a moral dilemmma”, which becomes the central drama of the play.

Dr. Anna Ochoa O’Leary wrote a research study entitled “Women at the Intersection: Immigrant Enforcement and Transnational Migration on the U.S. Mexico Border”, which attorney Kara Hartzler read to write this play. Ochoa O’Leary is a UA Assistant Professor of Mexican American and Raza Studies. She had interviewed about 130 women in 2006 & 2007, who had been repatriated back to Mexico.