PUENTE Theatre

La piñata Diego Rivera

Dear Friends of Puente Theatre, At this time of year in Mexico where I'm from, in less peculiar times at least, there's a tradition called the Posada. It's similar to carolling here people gather in the streets to stroll from house to house, carrying candles and singing but in Mexico it's a kind of play, in which the singers play the parts of Mary and Joseph looking for an inn. The ritual requires them to be turned away from a house four times, and then finally let in, wh...ere friends and food and drink await. (There's also a star-shaped piñata ~ which is the actual origin of the ones we now whack on birthdays.) There's something beautiful about being let in, but also something beautiful about the turning away, which makes the party-to-come even better. You have to feel abandoned in order to savour being welcomed. 2020 has been one great big cosmic rejection, a door that's held firm against us all. But it's cracking open, now. Light is coming in. Soon, we will all be together again, and it will be a fiesta in the deepest sense, a celebration of life and love, felt around the world. Until then, here's wishing you all some much needed rest, a breath of respite from all your worries, a few sweet days spent with family and fond friendships ~ in spirit at least, if not around an actual table or tree. We have already passed the longest night of the year ~ more and more sunshine awaits. Yours, Mercedes Artistic Director Puente Theatre

Help us launch a theatre project to benefit the lives of newcomers to Victoria! The City of Victoria is currently holding Participatory Budgeting, where the public votes and decides how to invest $50,000 to support community projects for immigrants and refugees. Puente Theatre and Theatre SKAM have teamed up to create two paid year-long internships specifically for newcomer IBPoC artists. Since newcomers to Canada can feel isolated within their communities and left out of ...mainstream culture, lifting up newcomer artists can make whole communities feel welcome and included. And yet, systemic discrimination and economic barriers can make the dream of a life in the arts unreachable. The Newcomer Artist Program, if chosen for funding, will provide a living wage while these young artists learn the skills they need to face the obstacles ahead and, more importantly, it will create relationships in the community that will last a lifetime. The cultural life of the whole city will be made richer, more engaging, and more inclusive. YOU can help make this happen by quickly voting at this link: victoria.ethelo.net/page/arts-all Thank you for your support!

We are deeply honoured to have won the JAYMAC Outstanding Production Award for our show "Fado, The Saddest Music in the World" at the Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards organized by ProArt - The Professional Arts Alliance of Greater Victoria. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Here's a link to the awards livestream in case you missed it:

We are deeply honored to have won the JAYMAC Outstanding Production Award at the Greater Victoria Regional Awards this past Sunday for our show "Fado, The Saddest Music in the World". On behalf of our cast, crew, and creators of "Fado, The saddest Music in the World, we thank our nominators, Intrepid Theatre and Theatre SKAM, our supporters Roy Surette and Donna Spencer, our co-producer the Firehall Arts Centre, and the ProArts Jury for honouring us with this award in its ina...ugural year. We would also like to extend enormous thanks to the MCEown family for creating the JAYMAC Fund through the Victoria Foundation for this prize which our city so sorely needed awards like this one celebrate the efforts of our entire community, and are a vital tool for connecting with the public. It means the world to us to be selected, and we will use this money to commission new work from IBPoC artists in Victoria, and to support the development of theatre that builds bridges between cultures. Most of all, we would like to thank our audience, and especially the Portuguese-Canadian community, which embraced our show with open arms, both in Victoria and in Vancouver. Puente Theatre was founded 33 years ago to tell immigrant stories plays that explore what it’s like to come to Canada, to leave your homeland behind, and to start anew. Our country is steeped in these stories, and it’s vital for us to hold space for that history, which is a way for us also to hold space for the people who will come in the future. The arts help us to see the world through another person’s eyes; our democracy, our society, our economy, all must be constructed with compassion as their foundations, and it is through the arts that we tend to that compassion, delicate as it is. To see each other’s struggles portrayed, for every Canadian to see themselves on stage, on our screens, on our pages, is not just entertainment: We humbly believe that it is what will save us. Congratulations to all the other winners who were recognized for their invaluable contributions to the arts scene in our city. Rage Sweater Theatre, Jana Morrison, Theatre Inconnu, Kate Rubin, Atomic Vaudeville, Pacific Opera Victoria, Belfry Theatre, Charles Campbell, Krystal Cook, and Theatre SKAM, it is an incredible honour to be in your company. Thank you all for everything you do to make our community more vibrant.

Our show "Gruff" is being presented by Kaleidoscope Theatre in parks across the CRD from August 22nd to September 6th. Today and for the next 5 days, it will be performed at Beaver Lake Park in Saanich. Two shows each day! For more information, please go to: https://kaleidoscope.bc.ca

Join the Black Lives Matter Peace March in Victoria today:

Help the movement by donating: https://blacklivesmatter.com/