The Taos News from Taos, New Mexico • Page 20

B4 THE TAOS NEWS Thursday, JUfM 30,1988 Arts A bilingual tragi-comedy set in war-torn Nicaragua Tec's Final Spin," a farcical and moving tale of a young Chicane caught in war-torn Nicaragua, will be brought to Taos Community Auditorium by El Teatro de la Esperanza iday (July 1) at 8 p.m. The bilingual play is a tra- gi-comic and probing look at a young Latino man's search for identity, a respected career and moral conviction, as he is swept from his familiar urban world in the United States into a turbulent Central American paradise in the midst of war. It is subtitled "bullet dancing in times of war." The plot is based on fact (the war in Nicaragua) and fantasy (a major comic character, Teo's grandfather, is a dead man). Humor runs rampant, making biting comments on current U.S. involvement in Central America.

Originally conceptualized by Anita Mattos and Eulalio "Lalo" Cervantes, Teo's Final Spin" premiered in June 1987 as a work-in-progress at San Francisco's Life on the Water Theater. Cervantes is the principal playwright of this main stage production, with direction by Anita Mattos and Jose Guadalupe Saucedo. Choreography by Pam Gray, formerly of Wallflower Order Dance Collective, includes lively salsa and A nuncios -COMMON GROUND, THE WOMEN'S CONNECTION," is the major juried competition of the Dallas Women's Caucus for Art's November "Focus on Women's Art" It is open to women from five states, including New Mexico. Lynn Gumpert, formerly senior curator for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and now the New York-based curator for MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) at Los Angeles, is the juror. Prizes include cash awards up to $1,000 and five one-person shows.

All customary media will be accepted, and there is a three work limit. Send SASE to Christine Byers, DWCA, Dept PR, 3425 Swanson Piano, TX 76023. ARTS FELLOWS: the deadline for applying to the National Endowment for the Arts Spring 1989 administrative seaaion is July 22. For more, 827-6490. break-dancing routines.

The all-Latino cast features actors renowned for their work in classic drama, comedy and mine, as well as Chicano theater. They include Ricardo Salinas, Richard Talavera, Herbert Siguenza, Ruben Castro, Corina Beltran and Dena Martinez. The play is interwoven with a musical score of salsa and synthesizer. Musical highlights include a bilingual rap song, bata drumming, some full-ensemble singing and traditional Latin instruments. "Teo's Final Spin" is a visual, kinetic production.

Actors express emotion and develop the story line through movement as well as words and songs; elements of the set transform from a bar top to a coffin, trash cans and benches turn into a hydroelectric plant. Teatro de la Esperanza, an internationally acclaimed bilingual and bicultural company founded in 1970 in Santa Barbara, is the only professional touring Latino ensemble in the United States. Touring nationally since 1978, Esperanza has been invited to numerous theater festivals, including the Festival of Open Theatre in Wroclaw, Poland; BITEF Festival in Belgrade, Yugoslavia; the Festival of Latin American Popular "Teo's Final Spin" (or "bullet dancing in times of stars Ric Salinas, left, and Richard Talave. The play chronicles the misadventures of Teo (Salinas), from collecting garbage in San Francisco to bumbling about in Nicaragua while AWOL from the U.S. Army.

Theater in New York City; the TENAZ in Cuernavaca, Mexico First Annual Theater Festival and San Antonio, Texas. Since in Managua, Nicaragua; and 1986, Esperanza has been in residence at the Mission Cultural Center at San Francisco. For more, 758-2052. Amado Pefta will be in Taos for his annual exhibition opening reception Saturday July2, 3-6pm and Sunday July 3, 1 3 pm for a poster party, Please join us! Amado Pefta "Stete de Taos" 1968 Taos Show Poster HUM Taos Gallery 119 A Kit Carson Road Taos New Mexico 87571 505-758-4887.