Los Angeles Students Create Original Performance Inspired by Getty Exhibit

Getty, About…Productions and Plaza de la Raza will present Ancestral Connections: Yanculia/Restoration.

The production is an original performance created collaboratively by Los Angeles high school students as part of the Youth Theatre Summer Intensive program built around the Getty exhibition, Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery.

Developed in response to the exhibition, the performances will integrate poetry, movement, video projections and music. The free performances will take place at the Plaza de la Raza on July 18 at 7 p.m. and at the Getty Villa on July 20 at 3 p.m.

Latino students will work with professional instructors and guest artists during the five-week youth theater workshop at the Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for Arts and Education in Lincoln Heights. Under the direction of Eddie Ruiz, students will explore performing art forms and storytelling through a global cultural lens. Professional video maker Ly Eisenstein will enhance the performance with student-created images, handmade masks and photos of pottery from the exhibit.

Students will develop and rehearse a creative production that encompasses their perspectives on the mythological themes of the antiquities exhibition. They will also take field trips to the Getty Villa Museum to explore Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery and meet with David Saunders, associate curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa Museum and co-curator of the exhibition.

“In developing the Picture Worlds exhibition and exploring Greek, Mayan, and Moche narrative and visual traditions, I’ve already had the chance to work with the About… Productions team over the past two summers, and the engagement with the students has been truly rewarding,” says David Saunders, assistant curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa Museum. “Now that the exhibition is underway, I’m really looking forward to taking students into the galleries, looking up close at the stories represented, and seeing how imagery informs this year’s performances.”

About About… Productions

About…Productions, now in its 36th year, creates original interdisciplinary theatre and educational programs that inspire new perspectives on history, humanity and culture. The award-winning company is dedicated to creating new work through collaboration to create artistic and community dialogue, and believes in the power of theatre to enlighten audiences, transform youth and celebrate the lives of older adults. Its theatre and educational programs uncover and illuminate the cultural history of the Southwest, California and Los Angeles.

About the Plaza de la Raza

Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for Arts and Education is the only multidisciplinary community arts venue dedicated to the Eastside of Los Angeles. Founded in 1970 by prominent labor, business and civic leaders as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, it provides affordable, after-school, intergenerational arts education programs to nearly 5,100 children, teens and adults each year. Its mission is to foster the enrichment of all cultures by bridging the geographic, social, artistic and cultural boundaries of Los Angeles and beyond.

comments

To post a comment, you must register And to log in.