A hip-hop theatre coming-of-age story by Pulitizer Prize finalist, Kristoffer Diaz
Preview: Friday, March 17, 2017
Opening Night: Saturday, March 18, 2017
SACRAMENTO, CA – Teatro Espejo, Sacramento’s longest running Latino theatre company, opens their production of Welcome to Arroyo’s by Kristoffer Diaz on March 18, 2017, with a preview on March 17. The play runs through April 9 at California Stage. Welcome to Arroyo’s is a modern-day tale of love, loss and family bonds told through a lens of hiphop and youthful energy.
Alejandro Arroyo owns the newest (and cleanest) bar in New York City's Lower East Side. He insists it’s a “lounge” and works non-stop to try to make it the hottest spot in the LES. His younger sister, Molly, has a nasty habit of writing graffiti on the back wall of the local police precinct. Officer Derek, a recent NYC transplant with something to prove, has a series of run-ins with Molly. Lelly Santiago, a socially awkward college student who calls herself “a nerdy little Puerto Rican girl,” may have discovered that the Arroyo siblings' late mother was one of the founders of hip-hop music.
Two fresh and funny DJs, who call themselves the “TripNel Cartel” – a play on words off their real names – and who Diaz uses as narrators in the style of a Greek chorus, spin the story, rewind scenes, and create community in this hip-hop theater coming-of-age story.
New York playwright Diaz was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, which won a 2011 Obie Award for Best New American Play. Welcome to Arroyo’s, one of his early plays, is an homage to hip-hop that daringly writes women into the narrative of the foundations of hip-hop.
The play has a feminist bent, with a talented female graffiti artist whose late mother may hold a significant place in hip-hop history; and a highly enthused female grad student, whose love for (and research about) hip-hop has no boundaries.
The play is directed by Nicole C. Limón a long time member of Teatro Espejo. Music direction is by Adam Freas, with Mike Brim and DJ Jonathan Reyes of local hip-hop education organization, The Low End Theory Collaborative. The cast includes Ruben Oriol-Rivera as Alejandro Arroyo, Jezabel Olivares as Molly Arroyo, Bardo Gonzalez as Trip Goldstein, Ike Torres as Nelson Cardenal, Devin Valdez as Lelly Santiago, and Rhett Richardson as Officer Derek.
Welcome to Arroyo’s is produced by Teatro Espejo, Manuel José Pickett, Artistic Director.
March 17 –April 9, 2017 Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm Sundays at 2pm California Stage, 2509 R Street, Sacramento
Tickets: $20 General, $15 Seniors/Students with I.D. (Tickets for March 17 Preview, $12.50) www.Arroyos2017.brownpapertickets.com Group Sales of 10+ contact: teatroespejo@hotmail.com
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