“Zoot Suit” by Luis Valdez Based on the infamous 1942 “Sleepy Lagoon” murder mystery and the resulting “Zoot Suit Riots” in Los Angeles , playwright Luis Valdez weaves fact and fiction to depict the fate of 22 young Mexican Americans brought to trial for a murder they did not commit. “Zoot Suit” brings together unforgettable characters such as the irreverent El Pachuco and the charismatic Henry Reyna, an unsuspecting gang leader who finds himself caught in the middle of the racially turbulent events
Luis Valdez's Los Vendidos "Los Vendidos," which translates from the literal Spanish to "The Sold Ones" or a more appropriate translation of the title is "The Sell Outs." This is a satiric play written by Luis Valdez and performed by "El Teatro Campesino," which translates into "The Farmworkers’ Theater." El Teatro Campesino, founded by Luis Valdez in 1965, was a group of California farmworkers who put together "Actos," or "Skits." These "Actos" were made mainly to entertain "striking farmworkers
psychedelic rock and the budding hippie culture. “ In October of 1965, many Red Dog participants returned to their native San Francisco, where they created a new collective called “The Family Dog”. founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Chester Helms (father of San Francisco’s 1967, Summer of Love) was a music promoter and a counter culture figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the mid to late Sixties. Helms had recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer
As a young child, Luis Valdez was raised in the agricultural labor camps where his parents worked in the fields picking seasonal crops. Due to the lack of his parents long working hours, little pay, he chose to use theater as a path for him to brighten up the Latino experience in the film industry. Without him, there would be no modern Chicano theater as we can see in today’s society. Though Valdez spent most of his childhood traveling from place to place with his parents, he managed to be known
social movements were taking place in the United States like the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s movement, and the LGBTQ movement. “Companies such as the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Teatro Campesino, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe questioned dominant media and state narratives around economic and social oppression, democracy, equality, and the rule of law” (citation). Lastly, the last wave of documentary theater, which still affects theater today, come from artist