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POWELL, Wyo. - The nationally acclaimed Core Ensemble brings its unique brand of chamber music theater to Wyoming Monday, Oct. 4, for a 7 p.m. presentation of “Tres Vidas” in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium at Northwest College.
Featuring a marriage of theatrical narrative to chamber music performance, the ensemble weaves drama, history, theater and music into a program about three legendary Latin American women.
“We are very fortunate to bring a performance of this caliber to Northwest College,” said Mary Ellen Ibarra-Robinson, an associate professor of Spanish and project director for the NWC Diversity Awareness Committee that sponsors the performance. “This program should appeal to a broad audience, especially to those with interests in music, theater, art, poetry, Latin American history, literature, Spanish, and women’s studies. Rarely is there an opportunity to hear chamber music on stage combined with all these disciplines.”
Folk, tango and instrumental pieces from Latin America are intertwined into theatrical vignettes focusing on renowned Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Salvadoran peasant-activist Rufina Amaya and Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni.
The storylines include Kahlo’s dramatic and passionate relationship with painter Diego Rivera, Amaya’s astounding singular survival of the massacre at El Mozote, and Storni’s life-long challenges as Argentina’s first great feminist poet.
Actress Roseanne Almanzar portrays the multiple characters while interacting with the onstage musical trio of cellist Tahirah Whittington, pianist Hugh Hinton and percussionist Michael Parola.
“Tres Vidas” includes images of Kahlo’s dramatic visual work, passages from Amaya’s heartfelt testimony about the ravages of civil war in El Salvador and excerpts from Storni’s passionate poetry.
Based in Florida, the Core Ensemble has taken its productions to Australia, the Caribbean, Russia, Ukraine and every region of the United States. In 2000, it received the Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the arts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Admission to the Monday evening program is free, but donations are welcome.
Earlier in the day, the ensemble will present two artist-in-residence programs which are also free and open to the public.
The first, which begins at noon in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium, is geared to musicians and performing artists.
At 2 p.m. in Room 115 of the Orendorff Building, the ensemble will talk about the three influential Latino women and Latin American history during a Spanish language class.
Sponsored by the Northwest College Diversity Awareness Committee, the “Tres Vidas” performance was underwritten by the Northwest College Student Senate and several NWC academic divisions, with partial funding from the Wyoming Humanities Council, a state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Wyoming Arts Council, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Click here for more information about the Core Ensemble performers, programs and “Tres Vidas” presentation.
