Stage Notes: Cara Mia opens bilingual world premiere; new seasons from Undermain, MainStage

Cara Mia’s ‘Orígenes/Origins.’ (Courtesy photo)

Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.

Cara Mia Theatre collabs with The Laboratorio de la Mascara for Origenes/Origins

Cara Mía Theatre’s upcoming world premiere is a new bilingual play that is also a collaboration with Mexico City’s Laboratorio de la Máscara. Orígenes/Origins is an immigrant story centered on a teenager sent by family to live with her father in the United States. The play will be performed primarily in Spanish with English supertitles. Orígenes/Origins runs from Saturday-April 30 at the Latino Cultural Center.

“Orígenes is a uniquely Mexican and Latin-American lens on immigration yet it seeks to connect to the worldwide experiences of immigration throughout the world,” Executive Artistic Director David Lozano said in a press release. “Like all of our work with Mexico City’s Laboratorio de la Máscara, cultural roots are a means for healing for those who immigrate to the United States. In Orígenes/Origins, culture is center stage as the pathway towards self-realization.”

From Cara Mia:

Orígenes/Origins is a highly visual fable that weaves the Venado (deer), La Abuela Tortuga (grandmother turtle) and El Insecto Humano (human insect) around the life of a teenager who retraces her journey of immigration from a Latin-American country to El Norte. Orígenes/Origins is a unique production that reflects the cultural and aesthetic traditions of both companies and tells a story that is universal around the world.

The production will feature masks, movement and original music by Peruvian composer Fabricio Cavero. The show was created by Lozano, Cara Mía resident ensemble member Frida Espinosa Müller, and Colombian actor Sorany Gutierrez, under the direction of General Director Alicia Martínez Álvarez of the Laboratorio.

Tickets are available here.

Lou Diamond Phillips to star in Casa Mañana production

Best known for film credits such as La Bamba, Young Guns and Stand and Deliver, Tony-nominated actor Lou Diamond Phillips will take the Casa Mañana stage once again. He was last seen on the company’s stage in 2007 starring in A Few Good Men. He returns to play The Engineer this summer in the musical Miss Saigon.

Casa Mañana’s production of Miss Saigon is directed and choreographed by Greg Zane and music directed by Edward G. Robinson Jr. Additional cast and creative staff to be announced. Miss Saigon runs June 3-11 and tickets are on sale now.

Uptown Players to present 20th annual fundraiser Broadway Our Way ’23.

The cast of Uptown Players’ ‘Broadway our Way.’ (Courtesy photo by Mike Morgan)

BOW is always a highlight in Uptown Players seasons and this year marks 20 years of the musical revue. This year’s production is written and directed by B.J. Cleveland, choreographed by Jeremy Dumont with music direction by Kevin Gunter and Vonda K Bowling and musical arrangements by Adam C. Wright.

This year’s cast of 24, with actors from previous Uptown productions, will sing and dance to 30 songs from recent Broadway hits to classic revivals including Anything Goes, Sister Act, Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia!, Chicago, Titanic, Hadestown and more. This year’s production takes place on a cruise ship where the audience will meet the passengers and watch their stories unfold all through showtunes.

This year’s cast features Mikey Abrams, Tim Brawner, BJ Cleveland, Coy Covington, Peter DiCesare, Jeremy Dumont, Presley Duyck, Stephanie Felton, Micah Green, Jason Hallman, Isaiah Harris, Brian Hathaway, Jacob Hemsath, Elizabeth Kensek, Linda Leonard, Laura Lites, David Lugo, Sara Shelby-Martin, Seth Paden, Amy Stevenson, Kylie Stewart, Gerald Taylor II, Trey Tolleson, Lee Walter, Brett Warner and Paul J Williams.

BOW will als feature more than 50 raffle items including theater tickets, restaurant gift certificates, art, jewelry and more with a grand raffle prize of four-night cruise on Celebrity Cruises out of Miami, courtesy of Dream Vacations and Celebrity Cruises.

Broadway Our Way runs April 20-23 at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre. Tickets are available here.

Season announcements

Undermain Theatre announces 40th season

Undermain Theatre will present its 40th season of cutting edge performance beginning in September. Its 2023/24 season finds the theater working with “long time collaborators as well as artists and voices new to the Undermain.” Next spring, the company will celebrate its landmark season with an underground anniversary event.

The season includes the following (from Undermain):

Sept. 28-Oct. 15: Bondage by Star Finch. This play takes place pre-Emancipation on a small island in the South. With the onset of puberty, Zuri must use her wits to outsmart the twisted desires of a drunken master and a sadistic mistress on a haunted plantation. Hierarchies of race and gender collide in this AfroSurreal tale of an enslaved girl who dares to follow her own instincts toward liberation by any means. Directed by Jiles King with Rhonda Boutté.

Nov. 9-Dec. 3: No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter. Set against the decayed elegance of a house in London’s Hampstead Heath, in this regional premiere, two men face each other over a drink. Do they know each other, or is each performing an elaborate character of recognition? Their ambiguity—and the comedy intensify with the arrival of two younger men, the one ostensibly a manservant, the other a male secretary. All four inhabit a no man’s land between time present and time remembered, between reality and imagination—a territory which Pinter explores with his characteristic mixture of biting wit, aggression, and anarchic sexuality. There will be no performance on November 23 (Thanksgiving).

Feb. 29-March 17: This time by Brian Dang. Jane holds a knife. It’s bloody. Hester lies on a table. She’s bloodied. Peregrine blows out a candle. Go back in time. Jane, Hester, and Peregrine work as maids in a 1900s manor, unable to say what they want to say, stealing moments away from work to hold time with each other. Their love bubbles under their words. We hear their thoughts that they aren’t yet brave enough to tell each other. They can’t stop thinking of death. We hurtle towards it. Brian Dang (they/them) was the 2022 recipient of the Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work for this workshop production. Directed by Gabrielle Kurlander.

May 2-26: The Persians by Aeschylus, adapted by Ellen McLaughlin. Considered the oldest surviving play in theater history, this regional premiere is unique among extant ancient Greek tragedies in that it dramatizes recent history rather than events from the distant age of mythical heroes. The story concentrates on the demise of the Persian Empire, lamented by the Persian queen Atossa, by the folly of her son Xerxes, which caused the empire’s downfall. This is the only surviving play in a trilogy that would otherwise be entirely lost.

For more information or subscriptions, click here.

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas reveal the lineup for its 2023/24 season Secrets, Lies and Chaos

Coming off a strong 50th anniversary season, MainStage ILC follows up with Secrets, Lies, and Chaos. The theme for this season will begin with a production in MainStage’s downtown Irving venue followed by five productions at its home stage in the Irving Arts Center. Season tickets and flex passes will be available for purchase on July 10. Individual show tickets will go on sale Sept. 15.

“Our 2022-2023 season has been incredibly well-received. We are thankful for the support of the theater community and the generosity of our patrons, donors, and the Irving Arts Board.” MainStage Board of Directors President Steven Merritt said in the announcement. “Beginning with our 2023-2024 season, we’re thrilled to bring you six stellar productions, ranging from smash-hit musical comedies, to sentimental fantasies, to classic dramas. We hope you’ll make plans to join us for season 51 here at MainStage Irving-Las Colinas!”

The season includes the following (from MainStage):

Aug. 11-29: Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock. Sherry Wickman is a recent college grad with a master’s degree in art therapy whose job-search hasn’t quite gone as planned. Unemployed and overwhelmed, she retreats to her childhood bed and remains there…until an unexpected employment opportunity gives her a renewed sense of purpose and hope.

Nov. 3-18: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Lawrence Jameson makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money. Freddy Benson more humbly swindles women by fabricating stories about his grandmother’s failing health. But the French Riviera isn’t big enough for both of them.

Jan. 19-Feb. 3: The 39 Steps. Richard Hannay encounters a woman who claims to be a spy. When she’s suddenly murdered, Richard finds himself the focus of a nationwide manhunt led by a mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps.” This fast-paced whodunit combines a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel (plus a dash of Monty Python).

March 8-23: Dear Brutus. Guests are invited to an enchanting country house for Midsummers Eve. Their host, Lob, spins a tale of a mystical forest where they can find dreams and desires answered. Each with their own problems and each curious as to what their “second chance” at life may look like, the guests wander into the woods and seize the opportunity to explore a parallel version of themselves.

May 3-18: Grand Hotel the Musical. Set in a ritzy Berlin hotel in 1928, when the world is between wars and the stock market is booming, a cast of eccentric characters whirl through the Grand Hotel’s revolving doors. Meet the beautiful Prima Ballerina, the charming but broke young Baron, the determined Hollywood hopeful, the deathly ill bookkeeper, the honest, hardworking father-to-be, and the cynical doctor, whose stories intertwine through a series of fateful encounters.

Sept. 20-Oct. 5: The Children’s Hour. An unruly student at a rural Massachusetts boarding school falsely accuses her two female teachers of engaging in a romantic relationship. Suddenly, the two women must navigate the truth among the lies as they fight to save their reputations, their families, and the school itself.

Opening this week: