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.

Caridad de la Luz (also known by her nom de poésie et de musique La Bruja), shown at right, will star opposite Elise Santora in the musical Betsy! Conceived and developed by Ron Short, Dudley Cocke, Beegie Adair, Rosalba Rolón and Desmar Guevara and directed by Rolón, the Pregones/PRTT and Roadside Theater co-production will take place in April at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, located in the theater district of midtown Manhattan. For more information, click here.

Group of the Arts (GOTA) is presenting Pablo Cabrera's ¡Por mi madre, que es verdad! An adaptation of Enrique Buenaventura and Tomás Carrasquilla's A la diestra de Dios Padre and the medieval legend of The Blacksmith and the Devil, it is directed by J. Edgar Mozoub and stars Telba Cavero, María Cotto, Enmanuel García Villavicencio, A.B. Lugo, Mozoub, Yvette Quintero, Héctor Luis Rivera and Raúl Rivera. Performances will take place in April at the Broadway Blackbox Theater, located in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. For more information, click here or here.

Mike Smith Rivera (oftentimes known by his nom de clown Mr. Clown), shown at left, and Kelly Anne Burns (oftentimes known as her nom de clown Missus Clown) will co-host Last Call, a monthly "late-night cabaret mixtape", presented by and at Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), located in the theater district of midtown Manhattan. The latest edition will take place on Saturday, March 28, 2015. For more information, click here.

J.W. Cortés will host the Fashion House of Hope Benefit Dinner and Fashion Show on Thursday, May 7, 2015 at Gargiulo's, located in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn. 

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?

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR PLAYWRIGHTS – The American Playwriting Foundation's The Relentless Award

the relentless award

Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Relentless Award, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his pursuit of truth in the theater, is the largest annual cash prize in American theater awarded to a playwright in recognition of a new play.

What we are looking for:

• Plays that are challenging.

• Plays that exhibit fearlessness.

• Plays that are not mainstream.

• Plays that exude passion.

• Plays that are relentlessly truthful.

The American Playwriting Foundation encourages submissions by first time playwrights, women and playwrights of color.

Prize:

• The author of the Relentless Award-winning play will receive $45,000.

• The winning playwright will have the option to have the winning play published by the Dramatists Play Service.

• The winning playwright will have a week-long residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm, an artist residency program housed on a working organic farm in Brewster, New York. The author can elect to have a director, a dramaturg and actors join him or her while in residence on the farm.

Ed Vassallo.

• The selected play will have a national roll-out through the Ed Vassallo Relentless Reading Series, established to help bring to life and develop the winning play by presenting a series of staged readings at some of the top theaters across the United States.

• When the winning play is selected, three runners-up will also be named.

Deadlines:

Submissions will be accepted up until midnight of July 10, 2015. The winner and three finalists will be announced on October 2, 2015.

Eligibility/Criteria for Submission:

• Any unproduced play written by a United States citizen is eligible for The Relentless Award.

• Each play must be submitted with a letter from a theater professional recommending the play. “Theater Professional” is defined as anyone who has worked in theater in any artistic capacity for a minimum of four years.

• Plays with a producer, producing organization or theater attached are not eligible.

• As much as we love them, one-act plays, musicals and plays for children are not eligible.

• The author must be at least 21 years old.

How to submit your play:

Use the form below to submit your play and accompanying letter of recommendation to The American Playwriting Foundation.

• NOTE: please DO NOT have your name or other identifying info (email/phone number) on any of your manuscript pages. This will preserve the author's anonymity for the judges.

• We prefer to receive your files as pdfs (rather than Word documents).

• You will receive a confirmation email after we receive your files.

To submit your play, click HERE.

Netflix Movies: Producers Weigh Hidden Downsides

Illustration by Scotty Reifsnyder.

Netflix's bold foray into original movies has been swift and, at least among filmmakers, a bit controversial. That's because striking a deal with the streaming giant means giving up on the fantasy lurking in the psyche of every producer, director and star: that your movie will become a box-office phenomenon and make you rich.

Read Pamela McClintock's article in The Hollywood Reporter about how Netflix is entering the world of film production (and the challenges that it faces, for both producers and Netflix) 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.

Caridad del Valle, shown at right, booked a national cable commercial for Cleaning USA, after the director found her profile in HOLA's online directory and called her in to audition.

Marco Antonio Rodríguez's play Barceló on the Rocks has been named as a semifinalist of in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference. (The play can currently be seen in Spanish, as Barceló con hielo, at Repertorio Español, located in the Rose Hill section of Manhattan. The production is directed by José Zayas and stars Rodríguez and Billy Martin Mejía. For more information, click here).

E3Outlaws Productions is presenting Dario Fo's No hay ladrón que por bien no venga (also known as The Virtuous Burglar). Directed by Enmanuel García Villavicencio, the production stars Sebastian Stimman, Ramón Hierro, Maritza Vives and Yane Suco, and will be performed in May as part of the Festival de Teatro del Comisionado at the Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU, located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. For more information, click here (link is in Spanish).

Cynthia Bastidas acted in Quit The Road, Jack. Written by Jerry Polner, the play was directed by Jonathan Warman and took place in March at Theaterlab, located in the Garment District of Manhattan. 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?

American Film Institute (AFI) & SAG-AFTRA Set Ambitious Mentorship Programs After President Obama’s Call To Service

President Barack H. Obama announced today that the American Film Institute (AFI) and SAG-AFTRA will launch mentorship programs aimed at the next generation of entertainment professionals. Speaking at the second annual White House Student Film Festival on Friday, March 20, 2015, he said the groups will work alongside the federal agency that leads his United We Serve program with a goal of one million mentor hours in the next three years. A number of big names from the biz attended the event at the White House — which featured the announcement of A Call to Arts: The One Million Mentor Hours Pledge — including Steve McQueen, Hilary Swank, Will Packer and J.J. Abrams.

For more information, read the Erik Pedersen article in Deadline by clicking here. For more information, on A Call to Arts: The One Million Mentor Hours Pledge, click 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.

Luis Salgado was profiled in the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora, where he speaks of his career as an actor-singer-dancer-choreographer-director-teacher-arts activist. To take a look at the article, which is in Spanish, click on the photo at right.

Pablo Andrade stars in the short film The Tablecloth (written and directed by Youssef Lahlou). The film is an official selection of the 2015 Short Film Corner at the world famous Cannes Film Festival (scheduled to take place in May in Cannes, France).

A.B. Lugo booked a role in the feature film El Gallo (written by Joel Luna and directed by Ali Abouomar). The film, which stars Monte Bezell, Chris LaPlanta, José Ramón Rosario and Francesca Van Horne, also stars Manny Alfaro, Denia Brache, AR García, Abraham Makany, Paul Mauriello, Lara Goldie, José A. Esquea, and Luna, and is currently shooting in New York City.

Jason Torres will be starring in the short film The Runner of Pamplona (written by Erik Wegner and directed by Steve Rahaman), scheduled to go into production shortly. For more information about the film, click here.

Susan Rybin was interviewed by Víctor Solano in the Univision program "Acá entre nos", where she spoke about her role in the Walter Ventosilla play El mandatorio idiota, which is currently running at IATI Theater in Manhattan's East Village, which is directed by Jorge B. Merced and also starring Vivian Deangelo. To see the interview (which is in Spanish and also featured Fabián Zarta of the production), click on the video 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?

Journalist Mekahlo Medina on the Internal Racism and Discrimination Within Latino Media

Emmy Award-winning journalist
Mekahlo Medina.

"I was always the dark kid in class. The negrito, moreno or indio and they never said those words as terms of endearment. My New Mexican heritage blends Spanish, French, German, Pueblo Indian and Apache Indian over 400 years in northern New Mexico. Some of my family is white, blonde and blue-eyed while others are dark or darker than me.  

"The whiter you were, the higher value my community placed on you. It wasn’t just society, it was families. My mom would always say, 'Stay out of the sun, hijo! You don’t want to get too dark.' She wasn’t worried about my health, she was worried about how I would be perceived. 

"She had good reason to be worried. 

"All media, for generations, have placed a higher value on the more Anglo-Saxon looking individuals. 

"Back in the 1940s, actors Anthony Quinn and José Ferrer got more work because they looked white and for years did not address their heritage in publicity. Later on, Jo Raquel Tejada changed her name to Raquel Welch and Ramón Estévez changed his name to Martin Sheen to avoid type casting. More recently, director Robert Rodríguez said his own sister felt compelled to change her name to get acting work in Hollywood. She looked white, but her last name was Spanish. 

"All that impacts how you look at others and more importantly, how we look at ourselves." –MEKAHLO MEDINA, President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ)

Check out more of what Mekahlo Medina thinks about the "internal racism and discrimination" within Latino media, as well as how the NAHJ plans to discuss these issues at its national conference (scheduled to take place in Orlando, Florida in September 2015) by clicking here.