UCAT Digital Program Book

united colours of arizona theatre presents in

collabor ation

The

with

scottsdale

arts

presents

Summer

of Love part of the ucat summer series

Romeo y yours Julieta truly A bilingual adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

a cabaret featuring

alyssa chiaRello

I wanna taking the f%#! like

Romeo+Juliet

wheel

a cabaret featuring

damon j. bolling

scottsdale center for the performing arts

7380 e. 2nd street | scottsdale, az 85251

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Presents

Romeo y Julieta

Aug 5

A bilingual adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

7:30 p Aug 12 7:30 p

I wanna

Aug 5

fri

.m.

fri

.m.

7:30 p f%#! like Aug 12 7:30 p Romeo+Juliet yours Aug 6 7:30 p truly Aug 14 2p fri

.m.

fri

.m.

sat sun

a cabaret featuring

.m.

.m.

alyssa chiaRello

taking the wheel a cabaret featuring

damon j. bolling

Aug 7

2p Aug 13 7:30 p sun

.m.

sat

.m.

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts | Stage 2 Our theatre’s reach is wide representing our members both in Tucson and Phoenix who resides on the traditional lands of several Indigenous tribes, including but not limited to the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Ak Chin Indian Community, the Salt River Indian Community, Pascua Yaqui tribe, and the Hia-’Ced O’odham tribe.

We acknowledge the harm and the injustices both past and present in the erasure of many Indigenous peoples, including those on whose land this institution is located. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, assimilation, and settlement that bring us together here today.

This acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. We pay our honor and respect to the people of these communities for their stewardship of the land and resources throughout time immemorial.

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A note from the founder of The United Colours of Arizona Theatre, Chanel Bragg Hello fellow Theater Lovers, I am Chanel Bragg, one of the founding presidents of United Colours of Arizona Theatre (UCAT).

On behalf of my partner Jacqueline Castillo, our phenomenal advisory board, and myself; we welcome you to UCAT’s Summer series titled: “The Summer of Love”. Returning from last year’s success of the featured production “The Last Five Years” (Los Ultimos Cinco Años), we decided we would rather focus our theme on Love this season rather than heartbreak.

Special Thanks- I am grateful to Christopher Chávez (Director) and Alejandra Luna (Assistant Director) for the artful direction of our staged play readings: “Romeo y Julieta” and “I Want to F%#! Like Romeo + Juliet”. We are so blessed to have such talented BIPOC artists in our state, and we are ecstatic for you to see this amazing cast. I would also like to extend a thank you to our accompanists Mark Foreman and Joshua Condon for supporting our phenomenal, featured vocalists in the cabaret portion of the summer series titled: “Yours Truly”

by Alyssa Chiarello and “Taking the Wheel” by Damon J. Bolling. It is our goal here with The United Colours of Arizona Theatre, that we support the tradition of featuring members of the UCAT collective by creating space on our platform to highlight individualized works. Get ready to be blown away, because boy can they SANG!!!!!

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for personally supporting our newly budding theater. For the last six years, UCAT has served the local fine arts community by providing support to our BIPOC performers through workshops, audition prep, dance classes, masterclasses, free headshots, town halls— the list goes on. Now, your presence allows us to take our vision a step further as we actualize being our very own performance entity. We truly would not be here without your generous support. So, whether you have bought a ticket to support any of the shows in our series, or donated to our fundraiser via your time, space, or dollars, we are appreciative of your helping to truly establish UCAT as the “community’s theatre.” This is a real grassroots effort for the people, by the people. I also want to extend a hearty thank you to Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts for providing not only a space this summer but also for taking a chance to collaborate with a new organization that supports communities of color. I am indebted to the entire staff and Meribeth Reeves, managing director of the Center, for the excellent care of our Productions.

Thank you for spending this time with us.

Best, Chanel Bragg Founder and Lover of Theatre

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A note from the director of Romeo y Julieta and I Wanna F%#! Like Romeo and Juliet, Chris Chávez As UCAT decided on a theme this year, we discussed a number of shows and ideas to bring together into one series. With that we thought of all the things that the plays and cabarets, we though that Love was the common theme. And so was born: Summer of Love.

With our theme picked out, we came upon two different plays. The first, Romeo y Julieta (In About 30 Minutes), as you can probably guess from the title, is a bilingual adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, condensed to about 30 minutes. This play was adapted by students at Pima Community College in Tucson, who also provided us permission to present it in our summer series. What I like about this adaptation is not only is it bilingual, but it also takes out a lot of the filler. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Shakespeare, but let’s be honest some of his worlds could take a good editing (don’t hurt me, please!). One thing you’ll notice, and will also want to pay special attention to in this play, is that each actor plays numerous characters from the play, sometimes in the middle of a scene. This has been the challenge, but also the fun in this script!

Along with the theme of love and with Romeo y Julieta (In About 30 Minutes) at the forefront of our minds, we came upon the script, I Wanna F%#!

Like Romeo and Juliet by Andrew Rincón, a perfect companion piece to the first. Much like Shakespeare’s text, this play has its own moments of drama, love, fantasy, and so much more. What I love about this story

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is that at its core, is a queer love story, which is rare, and a BIPOC queer love story at that, which is even rarer.

Not only that, Andrew places us firmly in the realm of Magical Realism, which is by far one of my favorite literary and art styles.

With these two plays, UCAT is holding strong to their commitment to serving marginalized communities.

As has been apparent, theatres aren’t always representative of the communities they serve.

BIPOC communities don’t always find a place where they feel comfortable, especially when they don’t see/ hear their stories being told. With these productions, you have two scripts written/adapted by BIPOC artists, with a fully BIPOC cast and production staff. These are the stories we need to continue seeing to make the theatre landscape truly equitable.

As for our summer series, we will also be presenting two cabarets by two local theatre favorites, Alyssa Flores and Damon J. Bolling. Both well known for their theatre credits in Phoenix and beyond. These are sure to be two amazing shows that you will not want to miss!

Thank you to UCAT for bringing me on board!

To Alejandra, thank you for all your assistance through out this process, I look forward to continuing to work with you! And the biggest thank you to my cast, you are all stars!

Chris Chávez Director

Romeo y Julieta

I wanna

THE CAST

THE CAST

ACTOR 1 Mercutio/Juliet Lincey Maldonado

THE GODS

A bilingual adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

ACTOR 2 Tybalt, Servant 1, Nurse, Paris Alicia Torrez ACTOR 3 Friar, Lady Capulet, Servant 3 Anthony Martinez ACTOR 4 Romeo, Servant 2 Alexander Patrick Stage Directions Ajejandra Luna, Chris R. Chávez

f%#! like

Romeo+Juliet

Cupid Lincey Maldonado Valentine Alexander Patrick The Poet (voice of) Michael Thompson THE LOVERS Benny Randle Lamar Overton Alejandro Diaz Anthony Martinez THE DENTAL HYGIENIST Betti Alicia Torrez Additional Voiceovers Alejandra Luna, Avery Jones, Chris R. Chávez Stage Directions Ajejandra Luna, Chris R. Chávez

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THE BIOS Chris R. Chávez Chris R. Chávez, a native of New Mexico, has been in Phoenix for almost 20 years. After mostly years of acting and singing, he has turned to directing. You can catch some of his work in the 2022-2023 season: La Ruta (Straycat Theatre), Angels In America: Millennium Approaches (Fountain Hills Theatre), and Next To Normal (Desert Stages Theatre).

Alejandra C. Luna Alejandra is an actor and director who holds a BFA in Acting from Western Michigan University and is currently a core ensemble member for Teatro Bravo, Arizona’s first Latinx theatre company.

Most recently played Josefina in Southwest Shakespeare Company’s production of Mojada. She recently directed Three’s a Party at Mesa Community College and A Christmas Carol at Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. Alejandra is passionate about increasing opportunities on and off the stage for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) artists and expand the number BIPOC patrons to attend shows by making show attendance more accessible. She will continue to work to increase those numbers in her community.

Website: alejandracluna.com Lamar Overton Lamar Overton is a Phoenix based actor who was last seen as an ensemble member in The Bridge Initiative’s production of Just Be, directed by Maybe Stewart. Lamar would like to thank both Chris and Alejandra for their support and vision.

“Everything is as it should be the universe is unfolding.”

Lincey Maldonado Lincey is a Mexican actress studying theatre at Arizona State University. This is her first production with UCAT and hopefully not her last. She has

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previously played Luciana in La Comedia of Errors for ASU. In the fall, she will be in ASU’s production of The Wolves.

Anthony Martinez Anthony Martinez (Lady Capulet, Friar Lawerence, Alejandro) is thrilled to be making his debut with UCAT in their Summer of Love series. Past credits include Three’s A Party (Marcos, Teatro Bravo), Scapino (Stage Manager, MCC), and Noises Off (Assistant Stage Manager, MCC). Gracias a Chris y Alejandra por esta oportunidad inolvidable. ¡Vamos!

Alicia Torres Alicia Torres is a Phoenix native who loves the theatre and education. This is why she went back to school and got her bachelor’s degree in theatre at ASU! She loves playing parts that interpret events in her life. She writes fiction based on her life experiences and for fun, she volunteers as a DJ at KWSS! L. Alexander Patrick, PhD L. Alexander Patrick, PhD, has enjoyed working as a visual, theatrical performer, and a dance artist. He appreciates all arts and continues to work towards a shared value for the experiences of all. He is thankful to be able to bring art to the masses and share in lessons learned with all that he has worked with in the beautifully artistic world!

yours

truly

taking the wheel

alyssa chiaRello

damon j. bolling

THE BIOS

THE BIOS

Alyssa Chiarello Alyssa Chiarello is singer/actor who performs all over The Valley from The Phoenix Theatre Company stage to being a lead female singer in The Instant Classics band and Brockpro Entertainment.

Tour Credits: The Alexander Project: A Tribute To The Music of Hamilton. Recent Regional Theatre Credits: The Rocky Horror Show (Janet), Million Dollar Quartet (Dyanne), EVITA (Evita), In The Heights (Vanessa), Hedwig... (Yitzhak), West Side Story (Anita), RENT (Mimi). Film/TV: Manley Films, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Terrenga Productions. Studio: Uber Muse Entertainment, The Brain, KOTU Klan, Ambient Skies Productions.

Damon J. Bolling For over 30 years, Damon has been fortunate enough to grace the stage and screen.

The recipient of 3 AriZoni Awards for theatre excellence, Damon has acted and directed with valley theaters including Black Theatre Troupe, Theatre Works, Phoenix Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Fountain Hills Theatre, Desert Stages Theatre, Greasepaint Youth Theatre, and Desert Foothills Theatre.

Always a proponent of social and cultural responsibility, Damon has been an advocate of storytelling through art by breaking down barriers and disrupting the status quo.

a cabaret featuring

a cabaret featuring

The United Colours of Arizona Theatre wants to give special thanks to those who have helped us to be able to put on the Summer of Love series. It takes a village, and we are so happy to have a community that supports us and wants to help BIPOC artists in this community grow.

Donate to UCAT by scanning this QR code:

ScottsdaleArts.org | 480-499-TKTS

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