THE COMPANY – VUELTAS BRAVAS PRODUCCIONES

Vueltas Bravas Producciones was formed in 2013 by actor/director Jhon Alex Toro. Dedicated to creating works that experiment with theatrical form and examine the relationship between Latin America and the United States, Vueltas Bravas pursues avenues of cross-cultural collaboration to expand their world-view and reach a broad diverse audience. Using a performance style that doesn’t rely on the spoken word, our work utilizes the expressive potential of the body to create innovative theatre works that push the boundaries of theatre. Our first production, Miss Julia, premiered in the prestigious Iberoamericano Festival de Bogotá and has since traveled to many festivals across Colombia, Italy and Spain. Our aim is to continue to create innovative theatrical works that push the boundaries of theatre.

J.ED ARAIZA – ADAPTATION

J. Ed Araiza is the new head of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s M.F.A. Acting Program. He has a long and varied history working on multicultural, cross-disciplinary projects as a writer, director and performer. Professor Araiza holds a B.A. in Theater from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas and studied journalism at San Antonio College. Early in his career, Professor Araiza was a member of El Teatro de La Esperanza Company and worked at both the Los Angeles Actors Theatre and the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
Professor Araiza is a principal actor and original member of the SITI Company, founded by Tadashi Suzuki and Anne Bogart. He is a proponent of Suzuki and Viewpoints training and for the past 20 years has performed in productions in major national and international venues. These include the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Los Angeles Theater Center; Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center; Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater; Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival; Germany’s Biennale Bonn festival; Japan’s Toga Festival; Ireland’s Dublin Theatre Festival; and Festival Le Standard Ideal, MC 93 Bobigny, in Paris.
As a playwright with seven original full-length plays produced, Professor Araiza is a member of The Dramatist Guild, Austin Script Works and NoPE (No Passport Required). He has directed sections of 365 Days/365 Plays at the New York Public Theatre; Voluspa for the National Theatre of Iceland; Savitri, Dancing in the Forest of Death for the META Theatre Festival in Delhi (nominated for best production and best director) and MEDEAstories, his original adaptation of the Euripides, with an international cast for the SITI Studio Theatre in New York. He has also written One Fine Day and Miss Julia, a powerplay.

LORENZO MONTANINI – DIRECTOR

Lorenzo is an italian actor/director. He studied with many international and italian artists such as M. Tarasco. B. Meyers, The Living Theatre, Milon Mela, E. Vargas, A. Bogart. He studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy, and he was the first Italian to train with SITI Company at Columbia University and Skidmore College. He has been directing for the past ten years the experimental theatre lab in contemporary Chinese theatre at the University “L’Orientale” of Naples, staging and adapting Chinese plays never staged in Europe before. Directing and acting credits include: Miss Julia (New York/Colombia), Petimus Rogamus (Rome), The Painted Bird, Palissimo Dance Theater Company (New York), Il Viaggio dell’Uva, Teatro de los Sentidos, Festival Internazionale di Montalcino (Italy), un pasticciaccio (Rome), Mezzanotte all’Havana Cafe (Naples, Italy), Mika, United Nations (New York). He lives in Barcelona and is currently working on adapting a novel by J. Amado for a series of five shows, and on a short novel by M. Tsvietaieva with the mexican translator S. Ancira for the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico.

JHON ALEX TORO – JUAN

Jhon Alex is a Colombian Actor and Director. He attended the  Escuela Nacional de Arte Dramatico Master program and was a  member of Estudio Teatro company under the direction of polish director Pawel Nowicki for ten years. Since 1998 he has studied regularly with SITI company, among his teachers are  Rolf and Heidi Abderhalden from Mapa Teatro .Jhon Alex has developed his work as an actor in theater, television and film. He has represented Colombia in several theater festivals including the Theater Olympics in  Japan at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center and was part of the cast of worldwide recognized movie Maria Full of Grace directed by Joshua Marston .

TINA MITCHELL – MISS JULIA

Tina is a New York based actor, director, teaching artist and theatre maker. Hailing from Australia Tina is a graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts and holds a Masters of Arts Practice specializing in Performance. Tina has trained extensively with The SITI Company and was the company’s Artistic Associate from 2011-2013.

Tina was co-Artistic Director of Chopt Logic, a company dedicated to producing inter-disciplinary live performances that respond to women’s role in contemporary culture, from 2003-2014. She specializes in making work that fuses text, movement and music and has performed in some of the leading Arts festivals in the world. She is also in residence at HERE Arts developing an interdisciplinary opera based on the life of Femme Fatale Mata Hari, which will premiere in the 2017 Prototype Festival. She has worked for many international companies including La Fura dels Baus, the English National Opera, the Adelaide Festival of Arts and Hanyong Theatre from South Korea. Most recently Tina played Lady Macbeth for Southwest Shakespeare, was one of the main cast members in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and appeared in The Event of a Thread with SITI Company. She has just finished working with The Metropolitan Opera on Lulu directed by William Kentridge.

GINA JAIMES ABRIL – CRISTINA

Actriz egresada de La Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá (facultad de artes de la  Universidad  Distrital Francisco José de Caldas) Pertenece desde 1997 al grupo Rapsoda Teatro con el cual ha participado en la creación, montaje, producción, presentación y giras de todas sus obras y performances desde su vinculación y con el que actualmente tiene  varias obras en repertorio, Entre las giras  nacionales: Cali, Leticia y puerto Nariño- Amazonas, Medellín, Yopal – Casanare, Cartagena, etc. y  entre las presentaciones internacionales están: Cádiz y Alcalá de Guadaira (España oct 2010), Taipei- Taiwan (Festival de artes, marzo del 2010) Minneapolis U.S.A. (2008), Barcelona, España (2007), Chiapas- México, Ottawa- Canadá, Quito- Ecuador. Coordinadora y programadora de  Festivales ALTERNATIVO y DE MUJERES EN ESCENA (2005-2009). Tallerista de niños, jóvenes y adultos en diferentes programas del gobierno distrital y nacional, y en proyectos independientes.

Desde el mes de Julio del 2012 asume la coordinación del Teatro el Parque, nuevo escenario de IDARTES, con la esperanza de un espacio nuevo para los niños y las niñas en el arte y la cultura, ha sido la encargada de re vivir la sala, programándola y llenándola de niños y niñas todos los fines de semana, de hacer gestión para cada uno de sus nuevos sueños, conciertos, teatro, títeres, talleres, danza, artes visuales pensadas en los más pequeños, siempre con el apoyo de los diferentes sectores artísticos de Bogotá.

HELEN YEE – ORIGINAL LIVE MUSIC

Helen is a violinist, multi-instrumentalist, composer with experience in a broad range of genres. She was a 2011 fellow at Music Omi International Musicians Residency, a collaborative music-making program. Helen is currently violinist for the eclectic string trio, Trio Tritticali and performs on yangqin, a Chinese hammer dulcimer, with Music From China. She has composed and performed music for plays including Miss Julia, Harry’s Christmas, Krankenhaus Blues and Manon/Sandra. An adventurer at heart, she also loves exploring and collaborating in other forms of improvisation including vocal work, movement and text improv. For ten years she was a founding member of Invert, a string quartet that released three CDs and performed original music composed by its members, with roots in rock, jazz and world music. A lifelong New Yorker, Helen began her music studies with Western classical and traditional Chinese training and, after earning her BA at Yale University, continued her schooling by joining rock bands and studying privately with jazz and improvisation teachers in New York City.