Sharpshooters, earthmovers, helicopters, and women who take to the skies to defy gravity? Find all that and more in MACLA’s upcoming presentation, Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind.
This theatrical concert is the collective work of Grammy Award-winning musical director Martha Gonzalez, Alpert Award-winning interdisciplinary artist Virginia Grise and director Kendra Ware. There will be two evening performances at 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and a 2pm matinee on Sunday.
Ware, who has been involved since the very beginning, recalls how the three creators met while working at a women’s prison in Goodyear, Arizona. The writer of the play, Virginia Grise, was adapting the novel Their Dogs Came with Them by Helena Maria Viramontes into a theatrical performance with the help of inmates, who wanted to collaborate on a theatrical production.
“So I came in as a director due to the limited time and availability that the women had inside,” Ware says. “And we actually produced a show with about 17 female inmates and also with the help of outside professional designers, who were able to produce it for one day under complete distress.”
After the initial show, she invited Martha Gonzalez to join the production and help with the songwriting, Ware says.
The performance will feature a broad mix of genres, including Mexican music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz, funk, rock and gospel—flavorfully brought to life by the talented cast. Members include Tylana Renga Enomoto and Juan Perez from Grammy-winning band Quetzal alongside actor Lulu Matute.
“We are really looking forward to sharing our work with the communities in San Jose because this piece is about the building of the freeway in Los Angeles. It’s a story of displacement, gentrification, and how communities come together,” says Grise, the creative producer.
Ware describes the play as a beautiful hybrid world that’s not quite a musical and not quite a play; it’s become its own thing, and after seven years of development, she’s proud of it.
“You’ll see on stage a violinist who speaks but also dances. We have musicians who are acting and people who are working out of their comfort zones, which builds something that is really surprising and special. So I think if there’s one reason to come and see the show, that’s it,” she says.
Performances of Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind take place at 8pm on Sept. 27-28 and 2pm on Sept. 29 at MACLA, 510 S. 1st St, San Jose. Reserved seating is $45; general admittance is $30 ($10 for students). maclaarte.org
