Fernando D. Castro, President of TA'YER, worked with local artists to present the free workshops as a way to help community members address issues of trauma and adversity that they may have experienced during the pandemic shutdown. (Photo Credit Manuel Santiago)
Playwright Magdalena Cordoba leads a workshop on improvisation that helps participants uncover their stories and share them with others. (Photo Credit Manuel Santiago)
Playwright Magdalena Cordoba leads a workshop on improvisation that helps participants uncover their stories and share them with others. (Photo Credit Manuel Santiago)
Free workshops include dance and movement classes as a way for participants to connect in body and mind to the healing process after adversity. (Photo Credit Manuel Santiago)
Workshop participants include stay at home moms, day laborers, retail and restaurant workers and many other community members connecting their experiences through the arts. (Photo Credit Manuel Santiago)
Pasadena-based community arts organization TA’YER, is resuming live performances after nearly two years of COVID closures with a series of multidisciplinary workshops.
The workshops which include a combination of theater, literature, writing, creative writing, and dance, are free and open for participants of all ages.
The workshops will be held every Thursday through April 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 236 W. Mountain St. Unit 117, Pasadena.
According to Fernando Castro, Executive Director of TA’YER, there will be live performances from participants, at the end of every workshop session.
“There will be a dramatic reading of the writings of participants and there should also be the element of theater in the staging and helping people prepare to deliver their writings.”
“There will also be an element of participation from the audience as well. So we prepare for them. They can also join the experience that we have in the workshops.”
The upcoming workshops are centered around the theme of the “quinceañera,” the Latino coming-of-age celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday and her transition from childhood to adulthood.
Castro believes that this is a timely theme as many people are now beginning to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
“The pandemic was our coming-of-age moment. We will never be the same again. As we come out into the world again, the quinceañera metaphor recognizes both the struggle and the joy of growing-up, overcoming adversity and crossing an important coming-of-age moment,” Castro said.
TA’YER is partnering with the Pasadena/Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders, a nonprofit community for the workshops.
TA’YER was founded in 1987 as a multicultural, multidisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) performance collective.
The organization provides emerging artists and community members with technical and artistic training and the opportunity to explore a variety of artistic disciplines with professional artists.
For more information, contact Manuel Santiago by phone (323) 244-7473 or manuelbiadxi@hotmail.com
