This Land spans over 150 years, four families with ancestry in different parts of the world make their home on one particular plot of Southern California land now known as Watts. A host of old curses and blessings, traditions and recipes, loves and betrayals travel down family lines from the 19th to the 21st century, forcing each successive generation to ask in times of hardship, “Should I stay or should I go?” Los Angeles native Evangeline Ordaz crafts a rich and complex web of diverse characters who through triumph and despair discover how deeply they are rooted in the dreams of their ancestors and the land on which they stand.
CAST
IAN ALADA*
JOHANNA McKAY*
RICHARD AZURDIA*
LeSHAY TOMLINSON*
CHERYL UMANA BONILLA*
JEFF TORRES*
NIKETA CALAME*
*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
creative team
Evangeline Ordaz
Playwright
Becca Kessin
Sound Design
Tamadhur Al-Aqeel
Producer
Armando Molina
Director
Daniel Muñoz
Stage Manager
Susan Gordan
Publicist
Justin Huen
Scenic & Lighting Design
Heather McLane
Assistant Stage Manager
Diana Romo
Group Sales
Manee Leija
Costume Design
Benajmin Durham
Video Design
Anne Brashier
Video Promotion
photos
Photos by Grettel Cortes Photography
MEDIA
reviews
"RECOMMENDED...playwright Evangeline Ordaz has written a satisfying piece of AMERICAN EPIC THEATRE."
- Stage Raw
"What began as a commission by Center Theatre Group for Mexican-American playwright, Evangeline Ordaz, to write about the changing demographics of Los Angeles has morphed into a play that's POWERFUL AND COMPELLING."
-Tin Pan L.A.
"Part of the pleasure is watching the actors' agility in switching rapidly back and forth between the characters they play, and seeing a lovingly prepared dish handed off between time frames."
- Peoplesworld
"...World Premiere Drama This Land, WAS MADE
FOR YOU AND ME!"
- Bucking Trends
"It's a GLORIOUS PIECE OF THEATRE and these two artists are well-worth watching while we educate ourselves from their message."
- Latin Heat
"WOW! TWO ABSORBING AND ILLUMINATING HOURS of Los Angeles theater at its best..."
- Stage Scene LA
"...the TIMELESSNESS OF GOOD STORYTELLING to create a wonderful emotional and educational journey into the ecosystem of Los Angeles and helps us realize how we all are connected to each other and our land."
- USC Annenberg Media
"...the story pulsed with a TRANSLUCENT BEAUTY, told in overlapping and simultaneous scenes with the past, present and future meeting and blending and curling through and around each other as if strands woven deftly by gentle unseen hands into a shimmering cosmic braid."
- Brooklyn & Boyle
awards
2018
NAACP Theatre Awards
Best Lead Female 99 Seat - Niketa Calame
Best Lead Female 99 Seat - LeShay Tomlinson Boyce
Best Playwright 99 Seat - Evangeline Ordaz
Best Producer 99 Seat - Company of Angels*
Best Set Design 99 Seat - Justin Huen*
*Winner
2018
Stage Raw Theatre Awards
Set Design - Justin Huen
Video/Projection Design - Ben Durham
Supporting Female Performance - Cheryl Umana Bonilla
Playwriting - Evangeline Ordaz
Production Design - Company of Angels
Production of the Year - Company of Angels
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT
Evangeline Ordaz is a native of East Los Angeles, Evangeline is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant father and Chicana mother. Evangeline is a UC Berkeley trained attorney who practiced public interest law before becoming a full time playwright and screenwriter. As an attorney she practiced immigration law, slum-housing litigation, criminal appeals, and human rights law both in the United States and Mexico. Evangeline’s play This Land was commissioned by The Center Theater Group (Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theater/Ahmanson Theater) and further developed at the Hedgebrook Women's Playwrights Festival. Center Theater Group produced a public reading in February 2015. Her play Visitors’ Guide to Arivaca was featured at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ New Play Summit. Visitor’s Guide, also saw production by Teatro Vision in San Jose and Company of Angels Theater in Los Angeles. Company of Angels also produced Evangeline’s play Bordering on Love, which she wrote while a member of the Center Theater Group’s playwrights’ workshop. Borderlands Theater in Tucson produced Evangeline’s play Hippie Mexicana and commissioned Visitors’ Guide to Arivaca. Evangeline is currently a writer on the Starz dramedy Vida and the Netflix drama Seven Seconds. Other recent credits include writer on the BET drama In Contempt, writer/producer of the first season of East Los High (Hulu), and writer of the feature film Chiclets (Odd Lot Entertainment), which is set in East L.A.’s underground music scene. Evangeline was an ABC Disney Writing Fellow and a staff writer on the ABC television series EYES.
This Land was originally commissioned by Center Theatre Group
SPECIAL THANKS
Director Acknowledgements: Lindsay Albaugh, Tonantzin Carmelo, Liz Femi, Elizabeth Frances, Mika Gonda at Pico Playhouse, Rudy Marquez, Catalina Maynard, Xavi Moreno, Diane Rodriguez, Tony Sancho, Bernadette Sullivan, Pier Carlo Talenti, Sara Tomko, Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Watts Village Theater Company
Playwright Acknowledgements: Kiki and David Gindler, Hedgebrook, Anne Mahoney, Pier Carlo Talenti
This production is made possible by in part by the California Community Foundation, Eastside Arts Initiative, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the generous contributions of Company of Angels supporters and contributors.