Lydia

Director’s Note (from the program)

Octavio Solis, whose plays draw from Mexican-American culture and transcend it, is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and one of the great playwrights of our time. Chief among Solis’ contributions to the Latino Theatre community is over 25 plays for Latinx audiences with roles designed for Latinx actors.

The excitement and anticipation were palpable in 2008 when the West Coast Premiere of Lydia was announced: a play about a Latinx family – with an all Latinx cast – and folklore that was authentically ours! For this play to be produced on a mainstream Equity stage felt like a seismic shift in the Bay Area theatre scene. It gave Latinx actors hope – of seeing and representing ourselves onstage in all our complexity.

It is an honor to direct this staged reading of Lydia. A staged reading is a form of theatre, somewhere between reading the script and a fully realized theatrical production. It allows the audience to imagine the possibilities of what a production could be. Theatre, among the oldest and most important art forms globally, exists to hold a mirror up to society and give rise to introspection. Including Latinx and other marginalized voices onstage allows us, as a society, to see ourselves more clearly.

Lydia, set in a 1970’s Chicano household near the border, is ultimately a family drama. It provides a new vantage point for reflecting on themes found in much of APF’s work. This vista nueva has a different sound too. The language of the play is a rich mixture of Spanglish and poetry. Wherever you are within the spectrum of theatre-goers: whether this is your first visit or you are an avid supporter; familiar with the poetry of Tennessee Williams or Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales – Bienvenidos! Let’s look in the mirror together, and reflect on the American Dream.

B E T W E E N  W O R D S
Let’s travel
          be tween worlds
          be tween words
          be tween young and old
          neither here nor there
                  yet we exist; with a passion
                          Seeing farther
                          Hearing more
                          Tasting the spectrum of spices
                                  that bring tears
                                  to the eyes
                                  and sweat
                                  to the brow
Express what is in our souls

– Gigi Guizado