Urban Ensemble - FLICKERING PARADISE

In Flickering Paradise: A Caribbean Fábula, a dark comedy with Afro-Latinx music, residents of the fictional island of Cayabo struggle to make ends meet while dealing with disruptive blackouts, extreme austerity measures, malignant spirits, and an influx of crypto investors seeking tax-free profits and cheap, beachfront condos. Stef, a community organizer and non-Western healer, attempts to fight back by working with her brother, Luis, to cultivate the spirit of a radical ancestor. She participates in more secular activism, too, including securing a grant for solar panels for the apartment building. Complicating matters is a podcaster, Smedley, who travels to Cayabo to run a cryptocurrency scam, and Stef's husband, Felipe, a laid-off lineman and plena musician who tries to appropriate Stef's non-Western magic of resistance for his own financial gain. When all seems lost and everything's on the line, the re-appearance of the ancestor spirit, abetted by Stef's ritualistic drumming and the unexpected transformation of a visitor who suddenly finds her roots on the island, seems to save the day. And then something else happens.

Written and directed by critically acclaimed playwright Rick Mitchell, with music by renowned Puerto Rican composer and percussionist Angel Luís Figueroa. Choreographed by Shenandoah Harris, artistic director of Psychopomp Dance Theater, and produced by Susan Jagosz. Presented as a workshop production by Urban Ensemble Theater Collective ("an outstanding ensemble takes the dark comedy to dizzying heights,"--LA Weekly), in association with Highways Performance Space.

RICK MITCHELL, Playwright & Director

Rick Mitchell, a critically acclaimed dramatist, has published numerous plays, including in his books Disaster Capitalism; or Money Can't Buy You Love: Three Plays; Brecht in L.A.; Ventriloquist: Two Plays; and The Composition of Herman Melville. Some venues that have presented Mitchell's plays include Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica, CA); Metropolitan Playhouse (New York, NY); the Orlando Shakespeare Festival (FL); Juneteenth Jamboree New Play Festival, at Actors' Theatre of Louisville (KY); the Great Plains Theatre Festival (Omaha, NE); the Blank Theatre (Hollywood, CA); the Samuel Beckett Festival (Las Vegas, NV); and Brecht-Haus (Berlin, Germany, in German translation). Mitchell has received numerous grants, including from California Humanities, the Puffin Foundation, the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. He is Professor of English & Playwriting at California State University, Northridge.

ANGEL LUÍS FIGUEROA, Composer

Mr. Figueroa is an international-class musician who's performed, recorded, and toured the world with several popular artists. His innovative brand of percussion spans through Latin, R&B, hip hop, classical, jazz, folk and pop, to name a few. Educated at Loyola University in Chicago (Journalism), Santa Monica College (Music), and the University of Southern California (Jazz Studies). Angel Luís was initiated into the “Havana” school of the Lucumí religious-folkloric tradition by Afro-Cuban Master, Lázaro Galarraga. For 19 years (until 2010), Mr. Figueroa was an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble Director and Private Instructor at the Jazz Studies Department of the USC Thornton School of Music, where he received several teaching commendations, university awards, and professor accolades. Organizations from which Angel Luís has received grants include the Chicago Council on Fine Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the California Arts Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs in Los Angeles, the Nielsen Company, the Walt Disney Company, and the Target Corporation.

SHENANDOAH HARRIS, Choreographer

Shenandoah is the Director of Psychopomp Dance, an LA based theatrical movement company that is athletic, acrobatic, ritualistic and grounded in Jewish culture and spirituality. Recently, Psychopomp’s work has been presented in Seattle for Coriolis Dance, Lighting in a Bottle Music Festival, Keshet Arts in Albuquerque, Temple Akiba of Culver City and the Glorya Kaufman Center. Shenandoah produces a yearly multidisciplinary new works dance festival,CHAOS! which brings together artists from across the country. Shenandoah danced with Diavolo Architecture in Motion and has been in residency with Keshet Arts, The Glorya Kaufman Center, Mashup Contemporary Dance and Jacob’s Pillow.

SUSAN JAGOSZ, Producer & Assistant Director

Susan Jagosz is a director, playwright, producer, and sometimes a mask and puppet-maker, with an MA in Creative Writing. She loves any chance to be creative, which also includes playtime and adventures with her young son.

This workshop production is funded, in part, by the Office of Community Engagement, California State University, Northridge.