A New Festival Aims to Connect Nations

Four local theater companies at Japan America Theater and seven additional companies or performers--including four from other countries--will appear at the Frida Kahlo Theatre in the first International Theatre Festival of Los Angeles, Nov. 1-10, festival organizers announced Friday.

The acronym for the festival is FITLA, which is taken from the Spanish: Festival Internacional de Teatro, Los Angeles.

The L.A. companies and artists who will appear at the 841-seat Japan America Theater in Little Tokyo are Teatro de Sinergia performing its long- running “Frida Kahlo,” Herbert Siguenza of Culture Clash in his new solo show “eforeCantinflas!,” East L.A. Classic Theatre in its conquistador-era version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Culture Clash in “Culture Clash in Americca.”

The plaza in front of the Japan America Theater will host a carnaval celebration on Nov. 1 and a Day of the Dead celebration on Nov. 2 before the evening performances.

The facilities of the adjacent Japan American Cultural and Community Center will be used for workshops as part of an educational convocation in conjunction with the festival.

The little Frida Kahlo Theater, just north of MacArthur Park, will be the venue for Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s “Etno-Tecno,” Colombia’s Mapa Teatro in an untitled performance, Mexico City’s Coincidencia in “No ser Hamlet,” Puerto Rico’s Taller de Otra Cosa in a performance that includes dance and video, the Costa Rican American performer Elia Arce in “First Woman on the Moon,” the Cuban-born but recently Argentina-based Teatro del Obstaculo in “Aplaude con una Mano” and Peru’s Yuyachkani in “No me toquen ese Valse.” Teatro de Sinergia, a resident company at the Frida Kahlo, also will perform “Frida Kahlo” there, as well as “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

Additionally, a performance of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts production of “The Mayor of Zalamea” at the company’s 99-seat theater in Lincoln Heights will be included on the festival schedule.

Some of the performances are in Spanish, others in English; those by Siguenza, Culture Clash, Arce and Taller de Otra Cosa are billed as bilingual.

The festival was organized last year by Jorge Folgueira’s local company, Folgueira’s Itinerant Theatre. A Cuban-trained artist who worked in Mexico and came to the United States in 1998, Folgueira is the festival’s president and artistic director. William Flores, a Salvadoran emigre, is its executive director and a member of Folgueira’s troupe.

The Folgueira group’s tours to festivals in other countries inspired Folgueira and Flores to create a festival in Los Angeles, Flores said. The festival’s budget is $150,000, of which only $50,000 is in cash, with the remainder in-kind donations.

All of the companies are donating their services, Flores said, although some of the foreign performers will receive lodging and per-diem payments. The festival received $7,000 grants from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the National Performance Network.

Single ticket prices will be $8 to $15 at the Japan America Theater and $13 to $15 at the Frida Kahlo, but passes to all of the performances at each venue also are available at a lower per-show cost.

Flores said the festival is envisioned as “a bridge to theater around the world.” He hopes local arts presenters will see some of the foreign companies and invite them back for longer runs.

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Information: (323) 960-5132 or www.fitla.org.