The Penn State Berks Theatre Department will present La Gringa, a play by award-winning playwright Carmen Rivera, as the Spring Workshop production. The play will be presented as a staged reading on Tuesday, Feb. 23; Thursday, Feb. 25; and Friday, Feb. 26, 2016 at 8 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. Admission is free, but space is limited to 40 seats on stage with the actors. In addition, Puerto Rican cuisine will be served after every performance.
La Gringa is about a young woman's search for her identity. The main character, Mari¬a Elena Garcia, goes to visit her family in Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays and arrives with plans to connect with her homeland. Although this is her first trip to Puerto Rico, she has had an intense love for the island and even majored in Puerto Rican Studies in college. However, once Maria arrives in Puerto Rico, she realizes that Puerto Rico does not welcome her with open arms. The majority of the Puerto Ricans on the island consider her an American ? a gringa - and Mari¬a considers this a betrayal. If she's a Puerto Rican in the United States and an American in Puerto Rico, Maria concludes that she is ?nobody? everywhere. Her uncle, Manolo, teaches Maria that identity isn't based on superficial and external definitions, but rather is an essence that she has had all along in her heart.
The cast of La Gringa includes Penn State Berks students Valentina Martinez, Marieli Lopez, Olivia Johnson, Jakim Lett, Keith Flowers, and Fred Beato.
The Bachelor of Arts in Theatre provides students with a solid foundation to become successful theatre artists and effective theatre educators. The degree program also trains students in the skills to become effective communicators and professional program managers.
For more information, contact James N. Brown, Theatre Program Coordinator, at 610-396-6419 or via e-mail at [email protected].