Theater GroupValdezETC-Romance

Necessary Theater: Luis Valdez and the Teatro Campesino

Slideshow from Event

Luiz Valdez Keynote Address

Necessary Theater Streaming Videos

January 12, 2010
Chicano Theater Conference and Diversity Lecture Series
UCSB Multicultural Center

Keynote address by Luis Valdez
Panel discussion with Diane Rodriguez, Jorge Huerta and graduate students
Performance by the Chicano Secret Service

Conference Schedule

9:00-9:30 Coffee
9:30-9:45 Welcome and Introductions
9:45-10:00 The California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives and the Teatro Campesino Archives
with Salvador Güereña
10:00-11:30 Panel with Diane Rodriguez and Jorge Huerta
11:30-12:00 Screening of Selections from the Teatro Campesino Video Archives
12:00-1:00 Break
1:00-1:15 Introduction to Student Panel I
1:15-2:15 Student Panel I
2:15-2:30 Introduction to Student Panel II
2:30-3:30 Student Panel II
3:30-4:00 Coffee
4:00-4:15 Performance by the Chicano Secret Service
4:30-6:00 Keynote Address by Luis Valdez

 

This conference was organized to celebrate the opening of the archives of the Teatro Campesino at UCSB and its accessibility to the researchers, students and community. It also is an opportunity to promote a greater appreciation of Chicano theater and a deeper understanding of the work of the Teatro Campesino. Sal Güereña
Salvador Güereña, Director of the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, Special Collections, UCSB Davidson Library

Luis Valdez Diversity Lecture

Through his storytelling, within its matrix of aesthetic and political concepts, Luis Valdez delineates the evolution of the Farm Workers Theater of America. From his earliest experiences as a migrant worker to his years with Cesar Chavez as a picket captain in the Delano Grape Strike, where he organized El Teatro Campesino, Valdez explores the historical imperative behind his work as a playwright, director and creator of Chicano Theater and Film. Acknowledging the theater as a creator of community and community as a creator of theater, he describes the continuing 45 year mission of El Teatro Campesino, working with an entirely new generation of committed artists from its base in San Juan Bautista, California. As the first Chicano playwright/director to work with the National Theater Company of Mexico in 2010, Valdez then extrapolates from his experiences to outline the trans border, trans national hemispheric perspectives for the future of theater in the Americas.

Panel Discussions

There will also be a morning panel discussion with Jorge Huerta, holder of the Chancellor's Associates Endowed Chair III at UC San Diego, a leading authority on contemporary Chicana/o and US Latina/o Theatre, and a professional director and Diane Rodriguez, an Obie Award winning multi-disciplinary theater artist, anthologized writer, and regional theater director and Associate Producer at Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles.

UCSB Graduate students in the field will present their research papers on two separate panels in the afternoon.

Diane Rodriguez Jorge Huerta Carlos Morton
Speaker Diane Rodriguez Speaker Jorge Huerta

Carlos Morton - Moderator
Professor of Dramatic Art at UCSB

Co-sponsors:

Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Academic Policy
Chicana and Chicano Studies Department
Chicano Studies Institute
Diversity Lectures Program
Graduate Council
Latin American and Iberian Studies Program
Luis Leal Endowed Chair in Chicano Studies
Multicultural Center
Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor
Spanish and Portuguese Department
Theater and Dance Department
UCSB Library California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
UCSB Office of Equal Opportunity

Event. Organizers: Sal Güereña, María Herrera-Sobek and Carlos Morton

For more information: (805) 893-8563 or (805) 893-511, cema@library.ucsb.edu

theater