The Core Ensemble Information

Musical theatre productions celebrating multicultural and feminist themes. Shows include: “Of Ebony Embers-Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance” Explores African American music and poetry of the 1920’s and 30’s. Features 3 great poets of the period: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay and painter and muralist Aaron Douglas. Music from the Jazz Age and African American composers of classical music.“Tres Vidas” (“Three Lives”) is based on the lives of three legendary Latin American women: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni and Salvadoran peasant-activist Rufina Amaya. Mexican folk songs and Argentine tangos; works by composers such as Astor Piazzolla.“Ain’t I a Woman!” is based on the lives of four African-American women: novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, ex-slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, folk artist Clementine Hunter, and civil rights worker Fannie Lou Hamer. Music from spirituals and blues of the Deep South, the Jazz Age, concert music by African Americans. “Los Valientes” (“The Courageous Ones) features three Latin American figures: muralist Diego Rivera, human rights activist Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Mexican-American outlaw Joaquin Murrieta on whom the Zorro legend is based. Music by Latin American composers, popular and folk music from Latino cultures.