THEATRE + COMEDY

Talento Bilingüe de Houston (TBH) presents The Brow --The Life & Times of Frida. An original multimedia production April 28 - March 1, 8pm (Sunday - 3pm). Written and Performed by Ángeles Romero and directed by Lidia Porto. Production in English.  This riveting 75-minute multimedia theatre production was previously performed at TBH to packed houses in 2007, 2009 & 2010.

The performance portrays the tumultuous life of a world icon, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Replete with compelling physicality and interactive film projections which offer fresh insight into Frida’s struggle with death--childhood polio, a violent bus accident, a tempestuous marriage to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, ceaseless surgeries (nearly 35), her private world via painting, and her own significant death.

Lidia Porto, director of this 2011 production of “The Brow” has added a second character--La Muerte (Death) a looming voyeuristic paparazzi, who intermittently broadcasts on-stage point of view live feed to the projected screen. Mexican author, Carlos Fuentes, elegantly compares Kahlo’s fractured self to the schisms and disjunctions brought about by war, and succession of empires, by the very turbulence that existed within Mexico’s radical formation in its epoch of national identity.

While exploring this highly complex woman and her nation, The Brow follows many thematic lines, yet, the prevalent theme, “How does one find freedom to express despite the limitations of a broken body?” leaves the audience on a high note, beaming with hope.

Production in English.

Thursday, Apr 28 | 8:00PM
Friday, Apr 29 | 8:00PM
Saturday, Apr 30 | 8:00PM
Sunday, May 1 | 3:00PM

$25 Admission General
$20 Students, Seniors, METRO Q cards and uni-brows.

Ángeles Romero was born on the Mexican-American border, and she has been raised in two cultures. Her artistic work meditates on the new lexicon of contemporary Latino culture and its political relations to Anglo and international cultures. After studying Political Science at UT-Austin, she performed with Deborah Hay, made costumes, wrote plays, acted on stage and film, and co-directed performances with AlienNation Co. (between the places, North by South, migbot, Trails, fishgarden and Mirak).

In 2003, she completed an MFA in Theatre at OSU, where she performed with da da kamera at the Wexner Center for the Arts and completed, Sueño, a multimedia play based on the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Other dance (embers) and solo performances(The Brow and Cuerpos Ambulantes) were shown in the Midwest and toured internationally. After a residency as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at OSU, she returned to Houston in 2004 and has worked as an independent performance director, writer, and language interpreter.

As artist-in-residence at Talento Bilingüe de Houston, she directs the education program and has devised and taught an annual series of workshops on playwriting, multimedia theatre production, and improvisational techniques. Under a Houston Arts Alliance fellowship, she completed her latest play, Puntos de Fuga. She completed the ‘08 Summer Tadashi Suzuki Actor Training in Toga, Japan with SITI Company’s Ellen Lauren.

Currently, she teaches acting and directs the educational programs at TBH. Also she is co-writing a book with Johannes Birringer titled, "Multimedia Theatre: Directing and Performing in Intelligent Environments" being published in 2011 by IGI Global, an international publishing company.

Lidia Porto received her training at Trinity University. Her stage directing credits include Spic-O-Rama, Chilean Holiday, The
Lady from Havana, Blade to the Heat, Latina, Nuestro tiempo en este lugar, La calle de las cosas perdidas, Lombrices, and The Comfort of Anger, among others. Currently, as Forum Theater Project Co-Leader at Baylor College of Medicine, she works in health promotion and education using the arts and entertainment. Her specialty in bilingual scriptwriting and health education brought her to produce groundbreaking video works (Sugar Heart and Life: A guide to living with Diabetes and Cancer Prevention) and community outreach projects with the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine.