A traveling band of feisty actors from the city of El Alto, Bolivia are coming North! Bringing with them a four day in-school program of participatory, playful workshops, the co-production of a public spectacle, and an opportunity for deep cultural exchange and language skills development for host schools. The “Tronistas” will be in the United States in October 2020.

For the past 30 years, Teatro Trono has developed and shared its unique approach to theater with tens of thousands of children and adults throughout Bolivia and South America, as well as in Europe and elsewhere. With its clear mission of using play and performance to advance the goals of human rights, a clean environment, the celebration of diversity and the empowerment of the marginalized, Teatro Trono has created and performed dozens of original works and is a leader in the international Teatro Comunitario (Community Theater) movement.

ABOUT TEATRO TRONO

Teatro Trono has always traveled. Whether into the sprawling neighborhoods of El Alto or across the Andes on road trips, stopping at small villages and schools along the way, making theater accessible in as many ways as possible is central to their vision for theater as a way to teach, to empower, to celebrate, and to heal. In all of their works, youth are present, youth are listened to, and youth become the protagonist of their projects both on and off stage. Now, they hope to travel north, to the United States, to learn and exchange with students and their communities and families. To learn more about Teatro Trono, explore their website.

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Teenage actors parade barefoot onstage, jumping and pounding drums. Others walk in with notebooks and briefcases overflowing with papers. Each actor spouts fragmented political speeches. The play depicts revolts and counter-revolts throughout Bolivian history, ending with a dramatic exchange between a mother and the ghost of her dead son, tortured during a dictatorship. “Don’t cry, Mom!” the ghost says. “I died bravely even though they gouged my eyes out and tore me apart. Don’t cry!”

— Benjamin Dangl, UpsideDownWorld.org

Benjamin edits UpsideDownWorld.org, a Web site on activism and politics in Latin America.
This is an adapted excerpt from his new book, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007).

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4-DAY WORKSHOP PROPOSAL

Teatro Trono proposes to visit sponsoring host schools during October of of 2020. A group of five or seven professional performers will visit schools and spend four days with each, sharing their art and engaging students and staff in a series of performances, workshops, and a grand finale…a new theater piece created by students and Teatro Trono artists that will be open to the public for parents and community members will be invited to experience.

For more information, write to the Director of Partnerships, Simon Hart at [email protected].

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