Culture Clash in AmeriCCa

By and starring Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas & Herbert Siguenza
February - March, 2010 at the San Diego Repertory Theater

Change has come in America. And nobody shows us the intimate details of a more perfect union than the Culture Clash trio with their out of the box comedic AND dramatic entertainment.

For over two decades this ensemble of writer-actors have practiced the art of theatrical-social anthropology by digging deep into America’s culture to formulate their outrageous brand of “performance collage.”

As in all of their memorable comedic sketches, the characters in AmeriCCa are adapted from real interviews with people from across the U.S. who live radically diverse lives. The troupe’s signature use of satire, vaudeville, mime and spoken word dramatizes the voices of the socially invisible and the New Americans, offering a fresh examination of cultures in flux. From Cuban exiles and Haitian immigrants in Miami, to a Puerto Rican political activist in Manhattan, to commies and dot-commers rubbing elbows in San Francisco’s Mission District, to expatriates in Tijuana and Ugandan cab drivers in San Diego, these are unforgettable characters who will leave you gasping, laughing and cheering.

Since creating this work at our theatre nine years ago, the ensemble has mined the cultures of Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston and Orange County (adding to their interviews with people from Miami, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and our own San Diego and Tijuana).

Culture Clash has raised their artistry to a masterful level that makes this work of theatre simply the most provocative expression of American desires, inclusion, irony and diversity that I have ever seen on the American stage. This is one powerful journey that will make you laugh, wonder and say “yes we can” all in the same evening.

For ticket info:

San Diego Rep. Box Office Telephone: 619-544-1000

 The final show to open in the New Theatre is the first of the commissions for American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle, announced in June 2008. AMERICAN NIGHT by Culture Clash will be directed by New York-based and Obie Award-winning artistJo Bonney. The play weaves multiple narratives about ordinary people who, in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, resist the status quo and sacrifice their well-being for the benefit of others.

The 2010 season will begin previews on February 19 and close on October 24.

http://www.osfashland.org/plays/boxoffice/

Culture Clash

Thursday, November 20, 2008 : 7:00pm

University Park Campus
Bovard Auditorium

USC student with valid ID, $5. USC faculty and staff, $10. General public, $20.

Latino/Chicano comedy and theater group Culture Clash pays homage to everyone from Cantinflas to the Marx Brothers.

http://www.usc.edu/spectrum

Written by RICHARD MONTOYA

Directed by SAM WOODHOUSE

Starring HERBERT SIGUENZA

October 21 - November 16, 2008
Previews - Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday at 8pm, Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 8pm
Press Opening: Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 7pm 
   

      

Culture Clash, America’s premier Latino theatre troupe, has been called “The Marx Brothers meet the Rolling Stones.” We call them our favorite ensemble of actor-writers in America. They are sly and incisive theatrical anthropologists, commentators on who we are today, in an America that has never looked the way it does before. Trust us… nobody writes about Californians like they do!  

Ensemble leader Richard Montoya has written a truly humorous, tough-minded and penetrating look at Southern California’s power politics, and the Latinos and Gringos who hold our future in their hands. Ranging from the hilarious to the chilling, this is a gripping piece of Southern California noir fiction in the tradition of Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley and the film “Chinatown.” At the center of the intrigue lives the power of brotherly love as two brothers, flush with the temptations of new and immense influence, attempt to save themselves from the abyss of realpolitik.

The Story

A hardworking Chicano father nicknamed his twin sons Water and Power, underscoring the family motto: “There is no power without water, and no water without power.” Water has become a rising star State Senator with his eye on Washington; Power is an honored Police Lieutenant who breaks all the rules.

It has been raining for 17 days and nights. The brothers are trapped inside Motel Paradise on Sunset Boulevard. On the eve of an election that could propel Water’s political career into the fast lane, Power has ignited a life-or-death scandal that threatens to derail the lives and dreams of each of them. The brothers, and the city, are in trouble.

This is theatre of the moment: Montoya’s careening, buoyant imagination bursts forth in an explosive story that is political, social, satirical, ethnic, fearless, often moving and always dramatic. Water & Power won the Los Angeles Theatre Critic’s Circle and Ovation Awards for Best New Play when it premiered in 2006. REP audiences will be the first to see this award-winning work prior to its feature film debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

CULTURE CLASH IN AMERIccA and CHAVEZ RAVINE

November 20th, 2008

USC Campus

More information to come…

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Culture Clash in AmeriCCA

TWO SHOWS ONLY!

January 23 and 24th, 2009

National Hispanic Cultural Center

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.nationalhispaniccenter.org/index.php

Water & Power

By Richard Montoya of Culture Clash
Directed by Herbert Siguenza

March 12–29, 2009

Teatro Vision, San Jose, CA.

http://www.teatrovision.org

Written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash

Directed by Lisa Peterson

WORLD PREMIERE IN 2009!

With Culture Clash,  “You laugh, you enjoy, all the while sensing that you’re also seeing something  authentic, something important that lurks underneath politics and headlines.”

- Steven Winn, San  Francisco Chronicle

Secrets in the  Military. Conflicts on the Rez.  A  female U.S. Army Captain returns from Iraq to inform the Chief of a New  Mexico Native American tribe that his son died under her command. Officially  classified as a friendly fire death, the suspicious circumstances create a  crisis of conscience for Captain Siler, who takes the case of Lance Corporal  Raymond Birdsong to the Military Courts.

Culture  Clash, L.A.’s premiere Chicano performance  group, returns with a World Premiere play about America’s constantly shifting  political landscape exploring loss, identity and the notion of occupied  homelands.

Richard  Montoya employs the group’s signature research and interview process to mold an  intensely personal story. Palestine, New Mexico promises to be an inherently theatrical work that mixes humor and cold fact to  unforgettable and galvanizing effect.

From the team that  brought you the sold-out Taper hits Chavez  Ravine andWater & Power!

Culture Clash in AmeriCCa - Buy Tickets

The wildly popular satiric trio Culture Clash returns to the Goodman with their smash hit, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, a witty, moving, devastatingly hilarious, hysterical and historical look at our society’s toughest issues: changing attitudes toward ethnicity after 9/11, gender roles and sexuality, illegal immigration and the ultimate question: What does it take to be an American?

Founded in San Francisco in 1984 by Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza, Culture Clash has become the most prominent Chicano/ Latino performance troupe in the country. American Theatre Magazine calls Culture Clash “The Marx Brothers meet the Rolling Stones,” and the Miami Herald describes their work as “wicked, observant comedy interspersed with keenly acted monologues that make your heart ache.”

Culture Clash in AmeriCCa (Los Angeles)
Escrita y actuada por Culture Clash
Invitados Especiales: Scott y Randy Rodarte
Agosto 14 - 17 | en el Albert Theater | En inglés

Después de su increíble éxito, regresa a el Goodman Theater la aclamada sátira del trío Culture Clash,Culture Clash in AmeriCCa. Una graciosa, divertida, conmovedora, devastadora e histórica vista a fuertes temas de nuestra sociedad: El cambio de actitudes culturales después de los eventos del 11 de Septiembre (9/11); roles de género y temas de sexualidad, inmigración ilegal y una pregunta fundamental: ¿Qué se necesita para ser Americano?

Fundada en San Francisco en 1984, por Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas y Herbert Siguenza, Culture Clash es uno de los grupos teatrales Chicano/Latinos más exitosos del país. La Revista American Theater ha considerado a Culture Clash como “una mezcla entre los Hermanos Marx y los Rolling Stones,” y el Miami Herald los describe como “un grupo de comedia donde lo divertido es actuado con ingeniosos monólogos que te rompen el corazón.”