A Night Out On The Town with the Ladies of Luna…

The first of several Season 11 Kick-Off Events is finally here!

Start your Labor Day weekend right by joining the Lunaticas as they host a night out on the town, and the first event of their new NOCHE BOHEMIA (Bohemian Nights) Series.

This unique new series is dedicated to featuring the diverse range of Latina Talent in Chicago. At these Noche Bohemia events you will see all kinds of talent from the various artistic disciplines ranging from: music, dance, story-telling, burlesque, and poetry to clowning and acrobats—and everything in between. This is the place where Latina artists that we either: a) haven’t been able to work with formally in our productions or education programs or b) artists who are Luna Friends/Company Members,  whom we have either worked with before or have long supported our work —  can share/test out their new work with our audiences. We strongly believe their original art is groundbreaking/important/fun/needs support from Chicago’s All Latina Theatre Company. The Noche Bohemia series is a safe space where these artists can both develop and perform their work/art in front of a live audience, and also receive feedback in a non-formal way. In turn, these nights are audience engagement opportunities for us, with the hope that the audience can mingle with Teatro Luna and the performers–get to know us all in a more personal and easy going setting that our formal productions (then again, if you have ever been to a Teatro Luna show, you know were not at all that formal!). Basically– we want to hang out with you!

As Teatro Luna continues to grow it’s National relationships and reputation, we have a strong desire to remain committed to Chicago talent (traditional theatre and beyond), and this series is one of the ways we will continue to foster the growth and access Latina performers have with our amazing (and growing) audience. We can’t cast everyone in our shows or accept them in our programs– (and besides some of these ladies are THE experts anyway)– this is just another (very fun!) way to continue to give back and build new relationships with Latinas in the Arts. And to be honest, any excuse for an event we will jump on!

The first event in the series is called: BAJO LA BELLA LUNA / BEAUTY IN MOONLIGHT and takes place at WICKER WELL (1637 W. North Avenue) from 7-10pm — or later on  September 1, 2011.

Join us for performances by: Artistic Associate Kristiana Rae Colón, Esmie “Amorpoesia” Cuevas, Ivelisse Diaz, Sophie Minx, Sandra Posadas & Anjee O, and our Headliner RUBY YO. (Photos and links to their web presence way below). Tickets are $20 and all funds support the work of our ambitious 11 season (both productions and education programs). You can purchase them here: http://bit.ly/lalunabella. Please consider purchasing a ticket even if you are unable to attend. 

Check out one of the full online promos below:

PERFORMER INFO:

Kristiana will be presenting 15 minutes of blended performance, and won’t give us any other clues– guess you’ll have to come to see what she has in store! Kristiana is a new Artistic Associate of Teatro Luna, and we couldn’t be happier about boasting that we’ve snagged up one of Chicago’s very own home-grown TALENTS. We are truly BLESSED.

Kristiana Rae Colón: a proud resident of Logan Square, is an adjunct English professor at Chicago State University, as well as an experienced poet, performer, burgeoning playwright, and Artistic Associate at Teatro Luna. She also serves as an Assistant Editor for Muzzle, an online literary magazine and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her publication in Organs of Vision and Speech. Kristiana has seen her work anthologized in Dzanc Books’ Best of the Web 2010 and Haven Books’ Not a Muse collection. Her most recent full-length play one week in spring was a finalist for Victory Gardens’ Ignition festival and had its first full staged reading in Teatro Luna’s Lunadas series in October 2010. A complete list of publications, as well as text, audio, and video samples of Kristiana’s work can be found at www.kristianacolon.com.

Esmie, one of Chicago’s most requested spoken word artists will be performing for Teatro Luna for the first time ever, and we couldn’t be more tickled to finally work with this talented chica! She will be performing about 12 minutes of original work.

Esmie “Amorpoesia” Cuevas: is a third generation Puerto Rican woman, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is a member of the Vida Bella Ensemble – cast of “Bless me, Madrina!” and the award-winning “The Brown Girls’ Chronicles” performed in Chicago, New York, and L.A in 2009 and 2010.  She was also individually casted as a spoken word artist in the Beast Women Productions “Beast Women Spring 2011 Series”. She has been a featured artist at many venues, festivals, and universities throughout the Chicagoland area, as well as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the USA Shaolin Temple in New York City.  Amorpoesia is also co-founder of the Ponce @Nite collective, which provides a platform to bring various art forms and cultural practices to the people in her communities. Learn more at facebook.com/amorpoesia

IVELISSE DIAZ, PHOTO AND INFO WILL BE UPDATED ASAP

Sofi is a new LUNA FRIEND, and we can’t wait to see her perform just as much as you– because we haven’t had the delicious opportunity to do so yet– buckle your seatbelts Chicago because this promises to be crazy-awesome! Her piece that she will be performing is called: La peor de todas / The Worse of All.  She is keeping her performances details a secret, so we will just have to wait until Sept. to get the full story 😉 Meow check out that photo!

SOFI MINX: is an Asian-born performance artist raised in the Americas who is dedicated to exploring body-politics. Learn more at http://sofiminx.wordpress.com

Luna friend and Playlab 1A 2011 participant, Sandra Posadas, will be performing as: The Poetically Spoken A Collaboration between La PiXie and Anjee O– sounds fierce right?  La PiXie and Anjee O met while performing during the 2010 Summer Beastwoman Series at the Greenhouse Theater.

La PiXie:  is an educator, published artist/illustrator,artisan, performance poet and actress.She is an original cast member of the Vida Bella Ensemble. A writer/performer with Tour Guides and Beastwomen at the Green House Theater. She has published her poetry in several anthologies including The Poetically Unspoken Anthology (2010) and  Shades of Faith; Minority Voices in Paganism Anthology (to be published by the Immanion Press UK 2011). She also performs at various Chicago venues and has presented her art work at several different local venues including the I Love Hip Hop Symposium 2010, Momma’ Hip-Hop Kitchen in New York, Palabra Pura through the Guild Complex. Learn more at: sandraposadas.com

ANJEE O: is a Chicago performing artist of many talents. She is an actress, singer, and slam poet. Through poetry, song, comedy, and unconventional performance art she seeks to inspire a greater interest in performance art that celebrates female empowerment, diversity, and individuality. Anjee O is a founding member of The Freshman Comedy Troupe. She has sung back-up for How Far to Austin. She also performs poetry at various Chicago venues. Most recently, Anjee returned from the 2011 National Poetry Slam in Boston  with the Words That Kill Slam Team. Learn more: http://www.anjee-o.com

RUBY YO will be headline the evening, and has promised to perform a 4 song set that features songs ranging from the lows and highs of love, to sweet revenge, partying, and the experience of growing up in Chicago’s inner city. Ruby Yo (aka Marilyn Camacho) is a long time Luna friend, having recently been seen in Teatro Luna’s GL 2010. We can’t wait to see her make it to the big leagues with her music. Catch this performance as she plans to unveil some never before heard music!

Marilyn Camacho:  known as rapper, singer, and songwriter, Ruby Yo!, was born and raised in Chicago’s Southside Pilsen and Gage Park, and is the middle child of 8 children, all of Puerto Rican descent.  Influenced early into the hip-hop culture, her brother’s were B-Boys and graffiti artists, she started singing, writing poetry, and acting out scenes she wrote by the age of 10.  While attending Marie Curie Performing Arts High School as a drama/music major, she witnessed the gang violence in her neighborhood, listened heavily to Tupac n Biggy, wrote verses, spit them to her friends and discovered she had a knack for rapping. She went on to continue her theater studies at Barat College and Columbia College in Chicago, but dropped out and decided to focus on music full-time. Since then she’s been performing at local hip-hop music venues, and has also built a strong acting/directing reputation as one of the founders of UrbanTheater Company (UTC).   She has been onstage in numerous theatrical productions, featured in multiple national commercials, indie films, voice-over, and print work.  Ruby is definitely no stranger entertainment; combining theatrics, eclectic production, an energetic rap flow, and melodic singing she is forging herself as a quadruple threat.  Her music is a cool mix of 80′s influenced hip-hop, pop, R&B, and Latin. Her single release, “Fire It Up”, and future mixtape/album release will move Ruby Yo! to the forefront of woman in hip-hop making some serious noise, especially rising from the Windy City. Learn more at www.rubyyo.com , www.facebook.com/iamrubyyo

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Anymore questions about BAJO LA LUNA BELLA? Go ahead and shoot producer/curator and TL Exec. Director Alex Meda an email (alexmeda(at)teatroluna(dot)org. Or call our office at 773.819.LUNA(5862).

Tickets are on sale now at http://bit.ly/lalunabella. They are only $20– but there is an option to buy a Season 11 Membership + your LUNA BELLA ticket all at once ($100, a $150 value!).. consider this option to get you a secured seat at every TEATRO LUNA event in 2011-2012!

Thoughts, ideas, questions… leave a comment!

And PLEASE PLEASE re-post and share with your friends… TICKETS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR, ONLINE ADVANCED SALES ONLY.