LCA 1984
CO-PRESENTED BY CIRCUIT NETWORK & RISING RHYTHM
Dec 13th, 14th & 15th 2024
St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, CA
Little Central America, 1984
Theater production featuring poetry, live music, and testimonials emphasizing transnational solidarity through the sanctuary movement.
A Nationally Recognized Show!
Los Angeles, CA| Washington, DC | Houston, TX | Berkeley, CA
Previous Productions
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Co-presented by Circuit Network Rising Rhythm, and St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Little Central America, 1984 will be performed at one of the founding sites of the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. Alongside writer-performers Elia Arce and Rubén Martínez, the cast includes local artists and activists like Leticia Hernández, José Artiga, Nina Serrano and Greg Landau, as well as educators, students, and community members with roots in the Bay Area and Central America.
“‘Little Central America’ is about making connections - across generations, across regions of the country,” says Martínez, who conceived the production and is co-writer and performer with Arce, who also directs. “The ideal of sanctuary is what ties it all together, a notion with roots that go all the way back to antiquity. When people say ’safe space’ today, they’re invoking some of that heritage.”
The show culminates with a ceremony honoring local Central American activists and their allies who played a role in the original Sanctuary Movement or who have responded to the ongoing contemporary refugee crisis. The work presents this American and Central American story to make visible a forgotten chapter in our history and to shed light on the deep context of violence and trauma that today’s refugee crisis stems from – violence that Little Central America, 1984 approaches with the healing salve of art.
For more details about the performance please visit our social media: Instagram and Facebook.
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There are “Little Central America” communities across the United States – and yet, they barely register in our civic imagination. Instead, viciously distorting political rhetoric erases our reality. Our mission is to celebrate the founding, growth and resilience of the Central American communities of the United States by representing ourselves.
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PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES
Friday, December 13, 7:30 pm
Saturday, December 14, 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 15, 6:00 PM
ADMISSION
Admission Level Price Quantity Discount$10.00 ($12.09 w/service fee) Feel free to use the discounted ticket option if you need to.
General Admission$20.00 ($22.69 w/service fee) Still a bargain!
Generous $35.00 ($38.59 w/service fee) Your purchase at this level helps to subsidize our ability to offer discounted tickets.
Thank you!
LOCATION
St. John’s Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
2727 College Ave, Berkeley, CA 9470
“ The ideal of sanctuary is what ties it all together, a notion with roots that go all the way back to antiquity. When people say ’safe space’ today, they’re invoking some of that heritage.”
Meet the Team
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Director, Writer Executive ProducerElia Arce is an artist working in a wide variety of media, including installation, writing, experimental theater, social sculpture, and photo/video/sculptural and live performance. She has performed and taught in universities and art centers throughout the United States, Great Britain, Mexico, Brazil, Mali, Spain, Cuba, Canada, and Costa Rica. A critical study of Arce’s body of work was published in 2018 by the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University. Currently, her work is being exhibited in Costa Rica at Museo del Banco Central, Museo de Arte Costarricense, and at _cero_uno_; a space for artists by artists.
A dual citizen of the U.S. and Costa Rica, she has received awards and fellowships from Getty Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network, National Endowment Fund, Durfee Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the US Fulbright Program.
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Writer, Executive ProducerRUBEN MARTINEZ is a native of Los Angeles and the son and grandson of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, is a writer, performer and teacher. He is the author of Desert America: A Journey Across Our Most Divided Landscape and Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail and other titles. He is currently the host and writer of the web-based interview series “Excavating the Future,” a collaboration between PBS-affiliate KCET of Los Angeles and independent online magazine Capital & Main. He is also the creator and host of the VARIEDADES performance series, multidisciplinary performances that reveal hidden histories in Los Angeles and the borderlands. Two of these, The Ballad of Ricardo Flores Magón and VARIEDADES on Olvera Street, were filmed for broadcast by PBS-affiliate KCET. He is the recipient of an Emmy Award, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
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Touring ManagerLORIS BRADLEY is an artist centered collaborative producer, independent curator and arts consultant based in Richmond, Virginia. She served as Performing Arts Curator at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA; and for nine years she was the Performing Arts Director of DiverseWorks Artspace in Houston, TX, a national non-profit artspace founded in 1983 to support experimentation by individual artists in all arts disciplines. While in Houston she created and curated the DiverseDialogues residency program, commissioning new works in multi-week residencies with artists including Victoria Marks, Pat Graney, Eve Beglarian, Suzan-Lori Parks, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Rhodessa Jones, Elia Arce, John Jasperse, Robbie McCauley, and Mary Ellen Strom, among many others. Dedicated to the creation of new work, Loris continues to collaborate with artists as an independent producer, curator and community engagement specialist.
