TANA sponsors El Teatro performance
UC Davis’ TANA community art center is sponsoring a free performance by El Teatro Campesino, presenting its play Aventuras con Verduras, Spanish for Adventures with Vegetables, Saturday (Aug. 27) in Woodland.
TANA (Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, or art workshops of the new dawn) commissioned the bilingual play, in which El Teatro, founded by farmworkers on the Delano grape strike picket lines in 1965, encourages people to eat more fruits and vegetables for better health.
“It is our hope that the presentation will showcase the power that the arts can play in sparking positive social change through creating a public forum on healthy living through theater,” said Carlos Francisco Jackson, an assistant professor in UC Davis’ Department of Chicana/o Studies, which runs TANA.
Funding for the play comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, via a grant channeled through the state Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy California, which aims to improve the health status of low-income Californians through increased fruit and vegetable consumption and daily physical activity.
El Teatro, based in San Juan Bautista, debuted Aventuras con Verduras in nearby Salinas on May 21 and has since performed vignettes from the play for more than 400 students and families in Monterey County.
The performance at the Woodland Opera House, 340 Second St., is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. People interested in attending are asked to RSVP via e-mail to ncastro@ucdavis.edu; include your first and last name along with the total number of people attending, including yourself.
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the arboretum
The Fairies, Mechanicals and Lovers are coming to the arboretum for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in a production described as a “celebration of the arboretum and what makes Davis one of a kind.”
The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble is presenting the play in partnership with the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum. The ensemble staged its debut production, Romeo and Juliet, one year ago in the arboretum, and went on to stage three other productions in the arboretum.
Now comes the 2011-12 season, starting with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Rob Salas, to be presented 15 times in the gazebo: 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 15-Oct. 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18 and 25, and Oct. 2.
Tickets: $12 general admission, $8 students, $5 for ages 12 and under. To reserve tickets or for more information, send an e-mail to davis.shakespeare@gmail.com or call (530) 802-0998.
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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu