HOLA Member Bochinche

Bochinche refers to “gossip”. In this sense, we use it to mention HOLA members or Friends of HOLA who are getting acting, performance or similarly artistic gigs and/or recognition in the media. The names of HOLA members and Friends of HOLA are listed below in boldface. To see what other HOLA members are doing currently, click here.

Andrea Navedo, shown at right, wrapped up her recurring role for this season (at least) of  “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC).

Robin De Jesús acted in a guest-starring appearance on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC).


Marco Antonio Rodríguez, shown at left, is now a permanent columnist for Latino Leaders Magazine. My monthly column is titled "¡Pulso Pulse! The Beat Of A Latino In The Entertainment Industry". Check out his first entry titled, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough... but am I Latino enough?" To read the article, click here.

Carlos A. González will be performing at The Reel Comedy Show, an evening of comedic short films interspersed with sets by standup comedians. The event will take place on Sunday, June 23, 2013 at The Cutting Room, located in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. For more information, click here.

Roger González booked a regional commercial (for the Northeast region) for Premio Sausages.

José Yenque, shown at right in the photo at right with Academy Award-nominated actor Edward James Olmos, was selected as one of the 25 Club Leaders of the Future - Los Angeles by Latino Leaders magazine.

Ziad Tayeh walked the runway in a show at the Sky Room (in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square) for Laila Skye Boutique and Dramatizon Makeup Design.

Héctor Luis Rivera is starring in the Danilo Arroyo-helmed short film Bums.

If you are an HOLA member or a Friend of HOLA and want to submit a bochinche item, send us an e-mail. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, why not join? If you live outside the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, you can find out more information on how to do so, by clicking here. If you are not a Friend of HOLA, why not become one?

HOLA Member Bochinche

Bochinche refers to “gossip”. In this sense, we use it to mention HOLA members or Friends of HOLA who are getting acting, performance or similarly artistic gigs and/or recognition in the media. The names of HOLA members and Friends of HOLA are listed below in boldface. To see what other HOLA members are doing currently, click here.

Susana Pérez, shown at right, booked the lead role in the educational video series "Project Success" after she read the casting notice in the announcements that HOLA sends to its members and self-submitting.

 

Carlos A. González headlined a stand-up comedy gig with Dave Lester on Sunday, May 19, 2013 at Moe’s Fort Greene in Brooklyn. He will follow this up by headlining an evening of comedians (Jamie Roberts, Clayton Fletcher, Adrienne Lapalucci and Laura Prangley; the event will be hosted by Miguel Dalmau) on Sunday, June 16, 2013 at Niko's in White Plains, New York.

           

Mauricio Pita, Carmen Cabrera and Malena Ramírez are in the cast of the Luis Vélez de Guevara play Reinar después de morir. Directed by Inés García, the production will be mounted in June and July at Repertorio Español, located in the Rose Hill Section of Manhattan. For more information, click here.

Mônica Steuer can be seen in the film Sleeping With The Fishes (written and directed by Nicole Gómez Fisher). The film also stars Gina Rodríguez, Ana Ortiz and Priscilla López and will be screened at the Brooklyn Film Festival on June 1 and June 8, 2013 at Windmill Studios and indieScreen, respectively (both in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn). For more information, click here. In addition, 200 cartas, a film in which she stars, will hit theaters in select movie theaters in New York starting on June 14, 2013. The film was written and directed by Bruno Irizarry and also stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jaime Camil, Irizarry, Dayanara Torres, Iris Chacón, Mayra Matos and Alfredo De Quezada.

Ziad Tayeh booked a State Farm commercial.

Darío Gómez is one-half of the bachata duo Jay & Darío. The duo has just released the music video for their new single "Quién sanará". Produced by Meadow Park Entertainment and directed by Edwin Decena, the video can be seen below.




If you are an HOLA member or a Friend of HOLA and want to submit a bochinche item, send us an e-mail. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, why not join? If you live outside the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, you can find out more information on how to do so, by clicking here. If you are not a Friend of HOLA, why not become one?

HOLA Mentioned in SAG-AFTRA Magazine

On March 30, 2013, SAG-AFTRA celebrated the first anniversary of the merger of the two screen, radio and broadcast performer unions (Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and as such the SAG-AFTRA magazine's Spring 2013 issue highlighted the "great moments" in the merged union's first year of existence.

One of the highlights was when SAG-AFTRA Co-President Roberta Reardon and SAG-AFTRA Co-Secretary-Treasurer Amy Aquino attended the HOLA Awards in October 2012 and spoke on the union's diversity efforts. You can see the article above at right (with a photo of Ms. Aquino in the center of the second row of photos). Click on the photo to enlarge.

Also, Mmes Reardon and Aquino can be seen at that event in the video (directed by filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao) below.

The New TV Season, One Stereotype at a Time

Left to right: Liza Lapira, Lauren Ash and Rebel Wilson
in “Super Fun Night,” coming next season to ABC.
Photo by Colleen Hayes/ABC.

Check out Mike Hale's blog in the ArtsBeat: The Culture at Large section of The New York Times about how the new television is rife with stereotypes by clicking here.

Report: HOLAtalks: MARLENE FORTÉ

On Thursday, May 16, 2013, the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), in association with the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) and Hollywood Casting and Film presented an HOLAtalks event with actress, director and producer Marlene Forté. This event was notable in that it was the first event HOLA has held outside New York City and the first to be held in Los Angeles.

The moderator of the event was Bel Hernández, founder and publisher of industry publication Latin Heat. The chat took place at Hollywood Casting and Film, located in the heart of Hollywood. Among those in attendance were HOLA members from New York, HOLA members from California (including a former HOLA executive director), several HOLA awardees and many Friends of HOLA.

Bel and Marlene spoke about her beginning as a Cuban-born and Union City, New Jersey-raised child of immigrant parents and the eldest of three daughters who were all named after actresses (she was named after Marlene Dietrich) and how when she first experienced the footlights on stage in a school play as a ten year old, she knew she had to be an actress. However, she did not act on this desire until twenty years later (when her daughter and "best production" Giselle Rodríguez Forté was 10 years old). In between that time, she owned and operated a video store for six years (before the advent of Blockbuster Video).

She spoke on her studying, getting her first union gig (a commercial) and later becoming one of the founding members of the LAByrinth Theater Company. She starred in and co-produced the film Lena's Dreams (also starring David Zayas and Judy Reyes) and then moved in 1999 to Los Angeles to further her career. After doing two recurring roles on television series, she worked with Tony Plana at the East L.A. Classic Theater.

After venting her frustrations over the stereotypical roles she has gone up for (the Latina maid, the weepy mother) and still being asked where she is from (which is illegal under federal law), she also spoke on playing those characters if they had depth. She later worked with directors J.J. Abrams and Tyler Perry. She also went as far to say that the Latino community needed a "Latino Tyler Perry" and that person hasn't fully materialized yet (although director-producer Robert Rodríguez comes closest). 

Bel asked her about working with Cynthia Cidre (the showrunner of the TNT series "Dallas") and her character Carmen Ramos. She fell in love with the character after reading the script and finding the character to be well-rounded and filled with humor, inner strength and resolve.

After the discussion, there was a question and answer session with a packed house of those in attendance. Forté gave her advice to a mother whose teenage daughter was interested in acting, as well as why she never "auditions". ("I don't go to do an audition; I play the scene. I go there and I play the scene. If I don't get the role, I at least was able to play the scene at that moment.")

Also, Marlene spoke of the importance of HOLA, which she credited as being invaluable and extremely important in her career. Bel added that she was quite pleased that HOLA has arrived on the West Coast and that the time is right for a unification of Latino performers nationwide, including a fully national directory of talent.

At the conclusion of the event, those in attendance went to the "unofficial official" afterparty at the Next Door Lounge, a short walk away from Hollywood Casting and Film. The boîte, a watering hole in the style of a speakeasy, in which entry was only possible upon the utterance of a password. For that evening, the password was "HOLA". The afterparty afforded those in attendance to possibility to meet, hang out and network in a relaxed atmosphere.

HOLA would like to thank many people for the enormous success of this event, including Delta Air Lines (whose kind sponsorship enabled HOLA to travel to Los Angeles), NALIP, Hollywood Casting and Film, Latin Heat, Fredonia Productions, Milly Bigay, Javier Márquez, Mónica Delgado, Sunny Vachher, Marco Páez, Octavio Marín, Louis Perego Moreno (Tío Louie), Beni Matías, Marisa Sarto, Miguel Mejía, Laura Patalano, Ayanery Reyes, Oliver Mayer, Bel Hernández, Marlene Forté and all those in attendance.

[Photos in this blog are by Marisa Sarto. To see more photos of this event, plus photos of the "unofficial official" afterparty, click here.]

'Devious Maids' TV Show: Will Eva Longoria's Lifetime Program Perpetuate Latina Stereotypes?

Check out this blog by HOLA member Vanessa Verduga in PolicyMic about the upcoming Lifetime television series "Devious Maids" (based on the popular Mexican telenovela series Ellas son la Alegría del Hogar), produced by Eva Longoria and Marc Cherry which centers around five Latina maids by clicking here.

HOLA Member Bochinche

Bochinche refers to “gossip”. In this sense, we use it to mention HOLA members or Friends of HOLA who are getting acting, performance or similarly artistic gigs and/or recognition in the media. The names of HOLA members and Friends of HOLA are listed below in boldface. To see what other HOLA members are doing currently, click here. 

Roberto Adolpho, shown at right, booked a role in a filmed comedy sketch for the internet called "Times Square Neverland" (written by Ángelo Mercado, Jr.) after he read the casting notice in the announcements that HOLA sends to its members and self-submitting.

Gilbert Cruz booked a day player role on “Girls” (HBO).

Jay Rodríguez nabbed a role on the short film Moon Knight: Blood and Silver (written and directed by Nicolás Ortiz.

Brenda Hernández, shown at left, booked the lead role in the educational video series "Project Success" after she read the casting notice in the announcements that HOLA sends to its members and self-submitting.

Lina Gallegos’ play Wild in Wichita/Locuras en Wíchita is having a bilingual (and West Coast premiere) production at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts. Directed by Denise Blasor, the production is having a May and June run at the Carmen Zapata Theatre, located in the Lincoln Heights section of Los Angeles, California. For more information, click here. 

If you are an HOLA member or a Friend of HOLA and want to submit a bochinche item, send us an e-mail. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, why not join? If you live outside the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, you can find out more information on how to do so, by clicking here. If you are not a Friend of HOLA, why not become one?