Reviews for Teatro Vivo Performances
Review: Real Women Have Curves by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 17, 2018
The appealing humanity of this small band of sisters is an implicit appeal to audiences and to faceless society to recognize the value of their work and their very existence in U.S. society. The playwright gives Estela and her comrades a triumph in which we can all share.
The script of Josefina López’s Real Women Have Curves is swift moving and atmospheric, and it blasts along like a roller coaster doing the curves. The women aboard the ride are sharply differentiated, talky and engaged with one another. It’s not surprising that this 1990 play produced in Los Angeles was eventually turned into a successful film back in 2002. Austin’s Teatro Vivo does a good job of it, too, for director Claudia M. …
Review: Nuestra Pastorela by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 03, 2016
Director Ricky Ramón evokes a lively circus-style performance from his clowns, rich in gesture and pantomime. They frustrate minor devil Pingo, who's doing everything possible to keep these Bozos out of Bethlehem.
This weekend we attended Teatro Vivo's Nuestra Pastorela on Thursday and Zach Theatre's Christmas Carol on Friday, so as K. commented, we're now well prepared for the Christmas season. For Mexican and Tejano communities the pastorela tradition is as fundamental as Dickens' Christmas fable is for English speakers. The differences are immense and instructive. Dickens published his novella in 1843. Franciscan friars established the pastorela tradition soon after the conquista. One of the earliest documented instances was La Comedia de …
Review: Ay, No! by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 09, 2014
Coronado Castillo's piece would have been more satisfying if it had offered some hope of enduring emotional attachment between the two women. Instead, she pumps us up with the comedy of mockery, exaggeration and irony.
Liz Coronado Castillo's comedy telegraphs its quirky contradictions right on the poster: One chica. Two tías. And three fairy-drag-queens. The mind boggles: let's fling a trio of campy drag performers into a patio occupied by a thoroughly traditional Latino matriarchy and enjoy the fireworks and confusion. On opening night most of the audience was enthusiastic and willing to linger afterwards to praise the humor and the message of tolerance. Aye, No! balances those two worlds pretty …
Review: Aye, No! by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 09, 2014
Liz Coronado Castillo's comedy telegraphs its quirky contradictions right on the poster: One chica. Two tías. And three fairy-drag-queens. The mind boggles: let's fling a trio of campy drag performers into a patio occupied by a thoroughly traditional Latino matriarchy and enjoy the fireworks and confusion. On opening night most of the audience was enthusiastic and willing to linger afterwards to praise the humor and the message of tolerance. Aye, No! balances those two worlds pretty evenly and director …
Review: Mariachi Girl
by Jessica Marie Padilla
Published on November 10, 2012
Mariachi Girl is a well rounded Theatre for Youth musical enjoyed by all ages, one that asks important questions of its audiences. The musical asked me to remember.
I remember it as if I had suddenly woken from a dream. I was crouching on the living floor, ear pressed to the window like Beethoven, listening to the sound of a tuning guitar, chords on a keyboard, and the distinct hum of the accordion and amplifier. They were bringing my mother a serenade for Día de Las Madres, Mother’s Day. It was my father, grandfather, and whatever friend they could find with a cable and …
Review: Mariachi Girl by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 28, 2012
a charming, very Tejano experience, a fable about a young girl who dreams of performing with her father's mariachi band, even though he insists that the musical tradition must continue to be exclusively masculine.
At the Zach Theatre Teatro Vivo, the University of Texas and the Zach 'Theatre for Schools' program have been presenting Roxanne Schroeder-Arce's play to schoolchildren during the week and to the public on weekends. It's a charming, very Tejano experience, a fable about a young girl who dreams of performing with her father's mariachi band, even though he insists that the musical tradition must continue to be exclusively masculine. The performance is accompanied and supported by a real …