GALA Theatre Reflects on Past 40 Years as New Season Begins

In September our 40th anniversary season takes off with the world premiere of a new adaptation ofYerma!

Lo más nuevo en GALA

¡En septiembre inauguramos nuestro 40° aniversario con la premiere mundial de una nueva adaptación de “Yerma”!

Reflecting on 40… How it all Began!

As we begin to celebrate our 40^th anniversary, it is a good time to pause and reflect on how it all began. In 1975 Hugo Medrano and Rebecca Reed saw that the cultural needs of the Latino community in Washington, DC were being unmet and that a theater for and about the Latino performing arts was necessary. Operating out of a townhouse in Adams Morgan, which had a bohemian, artist’s colony atmosphere,Grupo de Artistas LatinoAmericanos (GALA) came about in 1976 as a collective of visual artists, writers, dancers, singers, musicians, and actors.

“It was in August 1976 when we staged our first play La Fiaca by Argentinean Ricardo Talesnik,” states Hugo Medrano, GALA co-founder and Producing Artistic Director. “The production, which in four performances drew an audience of over 1,200, was part of the Hispanic American Festival week. Its success made us aware of the huge interest in Hispanic theater.”

Since then GALA has pursued two goals: to bring Spanish, Caribbean and Latin American plays to the attention of the Spanish-speaking community in Washington, D.C.; and make the Latino performing arts accessible to the English-speaking public/increase awareness by the English-speaking public to the richness and diversity of the Latino performing arts.

Now 40 years later, we enter a new season with Latino artists from different countries and cultures coming together in a new adaptation of Federico García Lorca‘s master piece Yerma by Fernando J. López, to honor one of the greatest playwrights of the 20^th century… Artists from Spain, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and the U.S. bring their artistry to this contemporary take on a classic tale. So come to GALA and discover García Lorca a new from September 10 through October 4, 2015.

For more information call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org. Purchase tickets now!