Rarámuri Dreams
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About Rarámuri Dreams
Written by Camila Villegas (Mexico)
Translated from Spanish by Daniel Jáquez
Directed by Opalanietet
Nicolasa goes to the police to report that her son has been kidnapped. Jacinto confesses to the murder of his friend. Unfolding in the rugged landscape of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Northern Mexico, both parents seek justice and redemption—if only the system worked that way.
Cast:
Tanis Parenteau as Nicolasa
Reza Salazar as Jacinto
This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Born in 1974, Camila Villegas is a Mexican playwright. After studying economics and living for two years with the Tarahumaras—an indigenous community of Northern Mexico—she redirected her career towards theatre. In 2008, she founded Tepalcate Producciones, an association for female actors, directors, and playwrights that has produced over thirty plays. Villegas writes for young and adult audiences alike. Her most recognized plays are Jacinto y Nicolasa (in English, titled Rarámuri Dreams) and the children’s play is Las arañas cumplen años. Her work has been presented in Portugal, Spain, United States, Chile, and Canada.
Daniel Jáquez is a director, theater-maker and translator of plays who recently relocated from New York to San Diego. He is originally from Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, México—traditional territory of the Manso, Apache, Jumanos, and Rarámuri people.
Jáquez serves as a member of the Advisory Committee for The Lark's México/U.S. Playwright Exchange Program. He has translated plays by award-winning Mexican playwrights and his translations have been published by NoPassport Press, The Mercurian, and Asymptote. In 2017 and 2019, Jáquez was commissioned by The Old Globe’s Arts Engagement to devise two plays for the City Heights’ community celebration of Día de Muertos.
Jáquez is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, The Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee, The Fence, and NoPassport, a Pan-American theatre coalition. He worked as Director and Co-Founder of Unit52 (Intar), Director of INTAR/Jerome Foundation NewWorks Lab, Co-Founder of Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, and Interim Artistic Director of Milagro Theatre (Portland, OR). Jáquez earned an MFA in Directing from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute at Harvard University and a BS in Mathematics from the University of Texas.
Opalanietet is a member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribal nation. Upon graduating from New York University' Tisch School of the Arts, Opalanietet has performed in workshops and productions at such renowned New York theatrical institutions as New Dramatists, LaMaMa E.T.C., and New York City Opera at Lincoln Center. In 2012, Opalanietet founded Eagle Project, a theater company dedicated to exploring the American identity through the performing arts and our Native American heritage, eagleprojectarts.org. Through his leadership, Eagle Project has collaborated with and performed at the Public Theater, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Ashtar Theater in Palestine. In April 2020, Eagle Project collaborated with the American Indian Community House of New York City and First Nations Theatre Guild to create Native Theatre Thursdays, a virtual reading series of new Native work.