INTERVIEW: This new play is staging an immersive Quinceañera
Image courtesy of The REAL / Provided by The Press Room with permission.
When audience members take in a performance of Quince this weekend at the People’s Garden in Bushwick, Brooklyn, they should be ready to experience a Quinceañera celebration. The new show from writer Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez and director Ellpetha Tsivicos, both billed as co-creators, follows a 14-year-old girl on the eve of her big day as she confronts her queer identity, her family and the traditions she has learned from her culture.
There are four performances of Quince scheduled for Aug. 21 and 22, and only 45 people are allowed to experience each showtime. Masks will be worn by both audience members and performers, and social distancing of at least 6 feet is required.
“It’s been really, really exciting and really great, and so many people are interested in it,” Tsivicos said in a recent phone interview. “And I think everyone really needs a little art right now.”
Quiroz-Vazquez concurred: “It’s been a very magical experience the way everything has come together.”
The two creative partners are also filmmakers, and they started working some time ago on three different short-film scripts. That project is known as the Chicana Cycle and is based in part on the Mexican-American community of East Los Angeles, where Quiroz-Vazquez grew up. Quince is one of these scripts.
“And we wanted to do a staged reading of the short film to kind of work with the script and see where it was going, if it would work as a piece of theater,” the director said. “And we were supposed to do that reading in April, and we had decided that while it would be a staged reading, I wanted everyone memorized. And we wanted a live band, and we wanted to invite everyone into a Quinceañera so it wasn’t just a 20-minute reading because who is going to want to go see a 20-minute reading?”
The playwright and director called the experience an immersive Quinceañera with a live band, party favors and costumes — all presented by the theatrical company The TEAM. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed their plans, and everything was put on hold. Only this summer, when things started to take a turn for the better in New York City, did the two creatives come together and start envisioning a socially-distanced performance, one that address the coronavirus.
“It kept feeling like we were going to postpone this forever,” Tsivicos said. “We realized we have this relationship with this community garden. Hey, what if we do it in the community garden? I mean, this is ultimately about community, and that is where that began.”
The play is inspired by one of Quiroz-Vazquez’s family members and her journey toward self-discovery. In particular, the 14-year-old girl in the play provides commentary on her identity and her relationship with her faith, which is Roman Catholicism.
“Which are things I’m always thinking about because they’re so relevant to Chicano culture and Mexican-American culture, this kind of interplay of multiple groups,” Quiroz-Vazquez said. “How does Catholicism interact with indigenous traditions? How do those traditions interact with African traditions? How do they interact with new immigrants from Asia? … It’s been quite the process.”
Quiroz-Vazquez added: “Like being queer … that feeling of being not accepted in your own culture I think really aids in the process of assimilation a lot of times because people are like, well, if my culture is rejecting me, it might just be easier to blend in — to reject it and blend into this American culture.”
For Tsivicos, the play is about the “million other things” that they both have faced as first-generation Americans, and now an audience — finally an audience! — is able to experience their vision.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Quince, written and created by Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez and directed and created by Ellpetha Tsivicos, will be presented Aug. 21-22 at the People’s Garden in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Tickets are free but need to be reserved in advance. Click here for more information. As of press time, all performances are sold out.
