This reading will be presented virtually on Monday, December 6th at 6 pm MT.
This is a bilingual play in English and Spanish.
Actors will be speaking English and Spanish. Subtitles in English will be included.
Additionally, a plot summary will be available in Spanish and English if you would like to familiarize yourself with the play ahead of time.
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Esta es una obra de teatro bilingüe (en inglés y español).
Los actores hablarán inglés y español. Se incluirán subtítulos en inglés.
Además, una descripción del show estará disponible en español e inglés si a uno le gustaría familiarizarse con la obra con anticipación.
ABUELAS
Translation by Paula Pizzi-Black
Directed by Gabriella Cavallero
Gabriela is an Argentine concert cellist living in Chicago with her American husband and adjusting to life as a new mom. Life is good—normal life worries—but good, until a visit from two strangers upends everything. This play, about the long and devastating repercussions of Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, asks how one goes on after discovering their life is a lie? Does the restoration of truth bring freedom or suffering? Is it possible to integrate two identities into one life? Abuelas explores these questions as well as the heart’s capacity for forgiveness, even in the face of the harshest betrayal. Written as a companion play to The Madres, Abuelas is a bilingual play in both English and Spanish.
STEPHANIE ALISON WALKER is an award-winning playwright committed to radical truth-telling in her work. Her plays are known for mining humor in darkness, the personalization of the political, the complexity of human emotions, and the exploration and dramatization of the strength of women. Her full-length plays include The Madres (Winner of the 2019 Francesca Primus Prize, O’Neill Finalist, NNPN Rolling World Premiere 2018), The Abuelas (Antaeus Theatre Company - Los Angeles and Teatro Vista- Chicago Tribune Critic’s pick 2019), Friends With Guns (O’Neill Finalist, Shared World Premiere - Chapel Theatre Collective/The Road Theatre/Uprising Theatre 2019), The Art of Disappearing (Primus Prize Finalist, 16th Street Theater 2015) American Home (Little Candle Productions 2017), The Ordeal of Water (Bay Area Playwrights Finalist), and her newest play, Sophia Hayden Deserves Better. Stephanie’s work has been produced and/or developed at Teatro Vista, New York Theatre Workshop, Inkwell Theater, Chicago Dramatists, 16th Street Theater, Moving Arts, Antaeus Theatre Company, The Road Theatre, Skylight Theatre, Little Candle Productions, San Diego Rep, Boulder Ensemble Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and more. Stephanie’s short plays are anthologized by Smith & Kraus and have been produced all over the world. Over the course of the pandemic, Stephanie collaborated with a wonderful group of artists across the country via Zoom to create the bilingual version of Abuelas with translator Paula Pizzi-Black. Stephanie is a proud alumni of the Playwrights Union, member of the Dramatists Guild and the Antaeus Playwrights Lab and HONOR ROLL!—an action and advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40 whose aim is to significantly increase our inclusion and representation on stage and in the theatrical canon. She is a mom to two spirited humans—Malcolm (11) and Graham (7)—and is privileged to be raising them with her brilliant husband Bob while also selling real estate in the suburbs of Chicago with her mom.
Abuelas is presented as part of Local Theater Company’s Local Lab new play festival. Local Lab is a development program that offers playwrights and audiences the chance to participate in conversations that help move new plays toward full productions. Learn more and get tickets for all of the Lab plays at localtheaterco.org/locallab11.
Accessibility information:
Closed captions in English and Spanish will be available for this presentation.
If you have an access need not listed here or if you have any questions, please contact info@localtheaterco.org.
