San Diego Theaters Unite for World Premiere Play
MOXIE and TuYo Theatres present the World Premiere live co-production of the new play “Sapience” by Diana Burbano from January 23 through February 20, 2022, at MOXIE Theatre, located at 6663 El Cajon Blvd Suite N, San Diego, CA 92115.
“Sapience” is an imaginative play that explores how we communicate and invites audiences to experience theatre in a new way. The production marks director Vanessa Duron’s MOXIE directorial debut. Alongside Duron is MOXIE Founding Artistic Director, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, as artistic mentor on the production, and inclusion specialist, Samantha Ginn, who will provide additional support to neurodiverse members of the cast and help create a completely sensory-friendly experience for the entire run of the production.
MOXIE and TuYo are also proud to partner with Autism Society San Diego, which will participate in post-show workshops following each performance. “Sapience” explores the story of Elsa, a Latinx primatologist, who has a secret that’s becoming harder to keep since she’s been working with an orangutan named Wookie. Elsa hopes to prove she can train Wookie to speak a human language, but when Elsa’s teenage nephew, A.J., who is on the Autism spectrum, also develops a relationship with Wookie, Elsa’s worldview explodes.
“Sapience” explores communication through the lens of verbal vs. non-verbal, human vs. animal, and Spanish versus English in a groundbreaking and imaginative story about how we communicate and seek to be understood. Following each performance, audiences will be invited to participate in an educational workshop designed in close collaboration with “Sapience” production partners at Autism Society San Diego.
The workshop will build upon the themes of the show and allow guests to foster an appreciation for how community and culture are strengthened by different ways of thinking and enriched when we lift the voices of neurodiverse individuals, Latinx people, and Spanish-speaking people. All post-show workshops, like performances, will be sensory-friendly, a unique occurrence because most theatres schedule only one or two sensory-friendly performances per production..
It will also be an opportunity for MOXIE Theatre to build the expertise and infrastructure needed for sensory-friendly performances, which they have committed to continue offering during future productions.
Diana Burbano is a Colombian immigrant, a playwright, an Equity actor, and a teaching artist at Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble and South Coast Repertory. Burbano’s play “Ghosts of Bogota,” won the Nu Voices festival at Actors Theatre of Charlotte in 2019 where it will be produced in 2022.
Vanessa Duron is a local San Diego actor/director/writer and producer. She graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in theatre. Duron has experience working as an artist at MOXIE Theatre, Tuyo Theatre, Blindspot Collective, Trinity Theatre, Stagehouse Theatre and as an assistant producer for the Latinx New Play Festival at the San Diego REP and co-producer for “Recover-Me.”
For more information, visit www.moxietheatre.com or call (858) 598-7620
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