Cascarones

Directed by: Daniel Banks

Produced by: Vanessa Pike-Vrtiak

Set Design: Dahl Delu and Wendie Cutcher

Lighting Design: Ross Rauschkolb

Sound Design: Casey Mraz

Production Manager: Alexis Miles

Stage Manager: Carla Garcia

About the play:

Cascarones takes place in San Antonio, Texas, as teenager Mary Margaret Caceres, who works for the transit authority giving people bus route directions, attempts to understand the mapping of her community and city. As she navigates the daily challenges her working class family faces, she encounters in a dreamlike state John Wesley Powell, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and the other men whose actions in the past influence her present.

DNAWORKS, in collaboration with Teatro Paraguas, will present the world premiere of Cascarones by Irma Mayorga at Teatro Paraguas opening September 4, 2014 and running for 8 performances. Developed at the O’Neill Playwrights conference at the Eugene O’Neill Center in 2003, Cascarones is directed by DNAWORKS co-founder Daniel Banks.

Banks sets the play between two facing sides of the audience, representing the Grand Canyon that Powell was the first to map and where the Caceres family vacationed when Mary Margaret was a young girl. The cast includes Nicholas Ballas, Nicole Gramlich, Jonathan Harrell, Marcos Kelly, Roger Montoya, Bernadette Peña and Cristina Vigil.

A staged reading of Cascarones was held at Teatro Paraguas in February 2014, attracting the breadth of Santa Fe's communities. A moving community dialogue followed the reading resulting in audience members having a deeper understanding of Chicano culture and history. One audience member remarked, “This is just the kind of theatre Santa Fe needs in order to bring people together.”

Banks states: “I attended the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and saw the staged workshop of Cascarones.

I was incredibly moved by the story and the complex dramaturgy of the script. I asked Irma for a copy of the play and taught it at NYU to undergraduate drama students. I always knew I would direct it one day and, when I arrived in Santa Fe four years ago, I immediately felt that this was the city where Cascarones needed to be widely heard.”

Irma Mayorga will be in Santa Fe during the rehearsal and development period as an Artist-in-Residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute through their Community Partnership Initiative.

Exciting Cascarones News -- Special Events

* Before the Sunday afternoon performances (September 7 & 14), Cascarones audience members will be treated to a special dance performance by Flamenco Troupe & Ballet Folklorico of Santa Fe DANCEWORKS!

Please arrive at 4:15 pm to experience this company's inspiring work.

* After the performances of Cascarones on September 4, 5, 12 & 13, DNAWORKS Co-Directors Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks will be leading their signature Community Dialogues.

Cascarones is co-produced by Teatro Paraguas, in collaboration with Associate Producers Nicholas Ballas, Estevan Rael-Gálvez and Juan Rios, Diane Karp, Lisa Samuel and Les Samuel, and Roxanne Swentzell. Funding for the project comes from the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission, the McCune Visual Performing Arts grant through the NM Community Foundation, and over 100 donors who contributed through a successful Indiegogo campaign.