“La Broa’ (Broad Street)” is a new, original production inspired by the stories of Latinos in Rhode Island, collected through local oral history project Nuestras Raices. The show takes place at the fictional Doña Rosa’s Market on La Broa’, where we hear the stories of Latino immigrants from Providence and Central Falls. Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez spoke with the director of the play, Tatyana-Marie Carlo.
“La Broa’ (Broad Street)” makes its world premiere at Trinity Rep on Jan. 18, and runs through Feb. 18. More information at trinityrep.com. A disclosure: Trinity Rep is an underwriter for The Public’s Radio.
TRANSCRIPT:
Luis Hernandez: Tatyana-Marie, thanks for talking with me.
Tatyana-Marie Carlo: Hi, I’m so happy to be here.
Hernandez: It’s called “La Broa’,” that’s of course referring to Broad Street in Providence, but does the whole thing focus on just Broad Street, this one little area, or more?
Carlo: We focused on Providence, Broad Street, and then Central Falls. We looked at the communities in which there are the largest demographic, demographics of Latine people, and that being Providence and Central Falls. At the time of the writing, I believe that over 40% in Providence and over 70% in Central Falls are Latine folks.
Hernandez: Is the play in English or Spanish or bilingual? What’s it like?
Carlo: The play is in both languages. I would say it leans towards English, but definitely there are portions of the play that are in Spanish.
Hernandez: What’s it been like for you as the director and putting this performance together, something that’s been very much anticipated, and it’s been in the works for years?
Carlo: My goal in being a theater maker back to my days at Microtheater [Miami] – where we met, back to our days at Microtheater – was bilingual theater. And I think that bilingual theater allows us the opportunity to reach more people and also bring generations of families together. When my grandparents were alive, they didn’t speak very much English, and my cousins, because assimilation used to mean survival. My cousins don’t necessarily have the language in the same way. And we were able to collectively together, to watch a piece of theater and everyone understand what is happening. And it has been my mission, my personal goal to do that, to make bilingual plays. And I’ve been doing that for the past, I want to say, since 2014, I’ve been doing – wait, is that 10 years? Oh my god.
Hernandez: We’re showing our age.
Carlo: Please, I know. That’s crazy.
Hernandez: Your experience now, being here in Providence a little longer than I’ve been here, is there, is there a thirst in the Latin community for more theater?
Carlo: Big time. I mean, we have amazing theaters like ECAS who is doing Spanish language plays, and Rhode Island Latino Arts. We have Teatro en El Verano in the summer that tours through Rhode Island. I believe we’re going into our seventh season here at Trinity Rep. So there is a hunger. There is a desire for not only Latine work, but work that is in Spanish and in English. And we’re seeing that, based on the audiences that are coming to Trinity Rep and the excitement around this play in particular, I think that there is 100% like hunger for this kind of work here in Rhode Island.
Hernandez: What’s most exciting about this for you? What are you so looking forward to?
Carlo: I think the thing that I’m most excited about here is when I came to Rhode Island, I didn’t necessarily see a lot of Latine work happening on stage, and I didn’t see it at Trinity Rep. And I’m part of the company, and I love them very much, but it wasn’t happening at Trinity Rep in the same way that it is now. We did “Sueño” a couple years ago by Jose Rivera, and that was iconic because we had people from the community in the play. Trinity Rep’s model is a company model, but then also I was always curious of like, how do we integrate these amazing artists that are doing Teatro en El Verano in the summer, who are like working outside in the summer, in the heat, making these plays happen? How do we also translate that so that they’re able to be on the main stage? And now most of the people that are in the play, we have 10 amazing performers, most of them are Rhode Island natives or have moved here when they were young. And that’s the majority of the cast. And for me, I think it’s important to not only have the pioneers, right, that we’re talking about in the play, but the pioneers that are to be, and the pioneers that are happening now, especially in the theater. And that makes me the most excited.
Hernandez: Looking forward to the show. Really, really am. Thank you so much for sharing with us, and break a leg.
Carlo: Thank you! So excited.
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