December 16, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

The zany and acute Culture Clash perform Culture Clash in AmeriCCa at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Culture Clash
• Culture Clash in AmeriCCa
• The hilarious trio known for its shrewdly observed social commentary
• Wednesday & Thursday, January 21 & 22 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $30/$25, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Culture Clash, the most prominent Chicano-Latino performance troupe in the country, will present Culture Clash in AmeriCCa on Wednesday and Thursday, January 21 and 22 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Known for humor that runs from raw and angry to joyful and wacky, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza deliver shrewdly observed cultural commentary. Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, derived from interviews conducted with ordinary people, uncovers the sober, silly, profound and profane voices of our country. The San Jose Mercury News writes, “Art intersects politics in a high-octane fusion of satire, shtick and sociology that cuts to the heart of what it means to be American.”

Citing influence as diverse as Richard Pryor, Charlie Chaplin, Teatro Campesino, Bertolt Brecht, the Marx Brothers and the beloved Mexican film star Cantinflas, Culture Clash is at the forefront of the new vaudeville, incorporating mime, rap, spoken word, dance and performance elements from carpas (unpretentious Mexican traveling circuses) into their work. For the past several years, the group has focused on site-specific theatre, weaving personal narratives culled from interviews into an ongoing dramatic tapestry. Theatre companies from locales such as Miami, San Diego, New York and San Francisco have commissioned Culture Clash to create performance pieces specifically for their cities. The group’s work gives immediate dramatic voice and expression to people in a certain time and place. Indeed, the trio was working on Anthems: Culture Clash in the District, a performance piece about the nation’s capital, at the time of the terrorist attacks, placing them on the frontlines of cultural and artistic response to crisis. Culture Clash uses performance collage to bring history, geography, “urban excavation,” and storytelling together in a contemporary, movable theatre narrative through a Chicano point of view.

Culture Clash’s most recent show Chavez Ravine had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in the summer 2003. Relating the story of a once-flourishing Latino community of Los Angeles that eventually became the land where Dodgers Stadium was built, the play received rave reviews. Billed “a story of political greed and corruption, individual heroism, civic pride, idealism, nostalgia, loss of community and the shaping of the larger Los Angeles community,” by the Hollywood Reporter, Chavez Ravine was called “a wild and hilarious ride” by the Orange County Register.

Culture Clash was founded on Cinco de Mayo, 1984 in San Francisco’s Mission District. Their theatrical works include The Mission (1988) which had a run at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1990, followed by the hit A Bowl of Beings (1991). S.O.S—Comedy for these Urgent Times (1992) examined the Los Angeles uprising and the Rodney King beating and played at the Japan American Theatre and the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Carpa Clash (1993), a tribute to the great United Farm Workers (UFW) President Cesar Chávez, ran at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group. Radio Mambo: Culture Clash Invades Miami (1995) premiered in Miami and toured nationally. In 1998, Culture Clash unveiled two world premieres, Culture Clash in Bordertown for the San Diego Repertory Theatre and The Birds, a musical adaptation of the Aristophanes’ classic, for the South Coast Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Nuyorican Stories (1999) ran at INTAR at New York’s off-Broadway row. The 15-year retrospective Anthology (2000) had extended runs in LA, San Francisco and San Diego. Mission Magic Mystery Tour (2000) played at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre. Anthems: Culture Clash in the District (2002) premiered at The Arena Stage, Washington D.C.

Culture Clash set a milestone for Latinos on television in 1994 with 30 episodes of with their self-titled program on Fox Network Television. Culture Clash made history in several markets across the United States as the first TV variety show with Latino themes written, produced and performed by Chicanos/Latinos.

In Arts & Lectures’ on-going effort to make our events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, the Wednesday, January 21 performance of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa will be signed. American sign language interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center and by the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Access Theatre Endowment Fund.

Read about Culture Clash on its website www.cultureclash.com.

UCSB Arts & Lectures has presented Culture Clash before in October 1997 in two performances of Radio Mambo and in January 1991 in performances of The Mission and Bowl of Beings: A Comedy Revue.

Culture Clash in AmeriCCa is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Daily Nexus and Tinta Latina. Tickets are $30 and $25 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.