PLAY MAID: a new solo performance by Jesús I. Valles

September 13th, 7-8 pm in the Helms Theatre (109 Culbreth Road) with 30 min. talkback to follow
Free and open to the public.

"Perhaps this is a spell, an exorcism, a summoning of "The Maid" as a social and theatrical role. Perhaps this is a play. PLAY MAID is an exercise in pre-emptively mourning my mother, and thanking her, and remembering all the women she cleaned for, all the babies she was paid to raise. This play is me, eulogizing Lupe Ontiveros, legendary for having played over 150 maids in her acting career. Structured as a series of monologues and solo exercises that interrogate the role of the maid as a sociological, theatrical, and pop culture figure, PLAY MAID is an exercise in slowly losing your mother to the very labor that fed you, clinging to any refractions of her image on stage, on screen, in the mirror."

Maleficios: A Workshop in Crafting Curses for the Stage

September 14th, 4-6 pm in the Helms Theatre (109 Culbreth Road)
Free and open to all UVA students

In this writing-for-performance, Jesús I. Valles invites participants to consider curses as powerful parts of performance texts that can become seed and motor for new work. The workshop will showcase small case studies of curses in performance and plays, writing exercises for participants, and an opportunity to share (if desired!). No previous writing or performance experience is necessary, though it will certainly be valued in the room.

Participants will need something to write with, something to write on, and will hopefully leave the workshop with a small piece of text that they can expand after our time together.

Space is limited to 14 students.

RSVP to Katelyn Hale Wood at khw6c@virginia.edu by September 10th.

Jesús I. Valles

(they/them) is a queer Mexican immigrant, educator, writer-performer from Cd. Juarez/El Paso. Valles is the winner of a 2023 Princess Grace Award in theater, the 2023 Yale Drama Series (Bathhouse.pptx), the 2022 Kernodle Playwriting Prize (a river, its mouths), and was named the 2022 Emerging Theatre Professional by the National Theatre Conference. Valles has received support from The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Playwrights' Center, and Sewanee Writers' Conference. Valles is a Core Apprentice of the Playwrights' Center and received their MFA in writing for performance from Brown University.

Residency co-sponsored by the UVA Arts Council: Enriching the Arts on Grounds; the Institute of the Humanities & Global Cultures; the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese; and the Department of Drama and Dance.

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