UnCaged/Desenjualadas

UnCaged 

finding voices <-> transforming lives
10 years of collaboration with our Guatemalan companeras

UnCaged/Desenjualadas
Directed by Jennifer Thalman Kepler

Nov 15 - 5:30 pm | Nov 20 - 7:30 pm | Nov 23 - 2:30 pm

Slant Culture Theatre Festival
Walden Theatre's Altspace, 2nd Floor
1123 Payne Street, Louisville, KY

Arts-Louisville.com reviewer Eli Keel asks and answers a key question - "A theatre festival like Slant is a great place to ask what art is for...Uncaged...has the most concrete and most assured answer to the big question: Art’s purpose is to build bridges of understanding between people, so we can all live safer, happier, more fulfilling lives."

UnCaged/Desenjauladas is a reflection on the past decade of LFL's groundbreaking collaboration with women in Guatemala, as they discovered their artistic voices by sharing their stories and creating theatre based on their experiences. Hot on the heels of the Guatemalans' first visit here in Louisville with LFL, this work-in-progress was shared at Walden Theatre, as part of the 3rd Annual Slant Culture Theatre Festival. LFL plans to expand and fully produce Uncaged in a future season.

Slant audiences witnessed the artistic journey of LFL artists and the Guatemaltecas over the last decade, as the Guatemalan women have used their newly discovered artistic voices to educate and uplift other women. This journey resonates with the national icon of the quetzal, a bird who does not sing when in captivity. The production included scenes created in Guatemala, new work created this fall in the U.S.A., and video of both new and existing scenes.

This collaboration began in 2004 with LFL artists traveling to Guatemala to teach Guatemalan women theatre activities LFL uses to create their original theatre pieces.  Together they then used these activities to explore personal stories of gender-based inequities in power in their communities' leadership. As the Guatemalan participants discovered they had a valuable tool of transformation, they pushed to expand the work to address broader social justice issues as well. These have included doctor-patient relations, nutrition and food security, domestic violence and violence against women. Read more about this exceptional collaboration and their recent visit in the Courier-Journal and The Winchester Star.

For more information about LFL's work in Guatemala, visit our Faith Stories Project page.

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Acting Company:  Shannon Woolley Allison, Trina Fischer, Asly Toro

Design & Production Company:  Nancy Clinton (Stage Manager), Holly Stone (Media Design, Graphic Design)


Press Release
UnCaged/Desenjualadas Press Release

Press
Courier-Journal
The Winchester Star
A rtsLouisvlle.com

Reviews
Arts Louisville, by Eli Keel



Slant-color

Slant Culture Theatre Festival, held annually in November, is envisioned as a laboratory for uncommon works highlighting the skills of local artists and engaging community-wide audiences. The Festival grew out of Walden Theatre’s Slant Culture Series of plays, named for the lab practice of tilting a test tube to maximize an area for growth. Walden created Slant Culture six years ago to develop new plays by rising writers that feature complex teen characters, in order to challenge young actors to seek inspiration from a new angle – inward. By expanding the series into a Festival, Walden Theatre invites fresh collaboration and experimentation among an array of Louisville’s performing arts stalwarts. More info at www.slantculture.com.