On February 19, 2023, La Casita will co-host a panel discussion at Syracuse Stage entitled, “Repairing through Representation and Cross Collaboration.” The presentation will begin at 1:00 p.m., prior to the 2:00 p.m. performance of the bilingual play Espejos: Clean. La Casita will also host a reception following the performance.
The panel discussion will offer the audience an opportunity to reflect on how community health and repair can begin through cultural representation and bilingual theatre. Panelists will include the playwright, Christine Quintana; the production’s director, Melissa Crespo, as moderator; Syracuse Councilor-at-Large, Rita Paniagua; and La Casita’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Catalina Niño Cordero.
After the show, guests are invited to La Casita at 4:00 p.m. to meet and greet the production ensemble of Espejos: Clean and enjoy a tasting of authentic Spanish cuisine by Jandy’s. La Casita is located on the ground floor of the Lincoln Bldg., 109 Otisco St., Syracuse, NY, 13204. Free parking is available.
Espejos: Clean is a bilingual play by Latina playwright Christine Quintana. The production is performed in English and Spanish, featuring supertitles in both languages throughout. The story portrays the lives of two women from very different backgrounds who meet at a destination wedding in Mexico and are each forced to consider the possibility that they are not alone in their struggles. The production will run at Syracuse Stage from February 15 to March 5, 2023.
According to director Crespo, “Christine Quintana’s Espejos: Clean perfectly embodies the saying ‘We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are.’ I am honored to lead this beautifully heartbreaking and at times hilarious story that pushes us to heal our own trauma and challenge our own assumptions. Christine says this play, ‘is an exercise in compassion.’ I am excited to see audiences in Syracuse embrace this play, no matter where you come from.”
La Casita’s youth program “TC: Toward College / Talleres Culturales” offered a theater workshop last fall where program participants read and discussed the play. The workshop was led by Syracuse University Associate Professor Gail Bulman, Syracuse Stage staff, and students from the Maxwell School’s PLACA (Program on Latin America and the Caribbean). Now the group of teens from La Casita will have a chance to see the play performed, thanks to a generous donation from the Reisman Foundation that included tickets for La Casita’s youth and families. The TC program at La Casita launched in the fall of 2022 thanks, in part, to the support of the Central NY Humanities Corridor.