Written by Violeta Calles (The Latino Theatre Lab)

Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela

Scenic Design by Gronk

Film and Graphics by Gronk

 

 

Cast: E.J. Castillo, Evelina Fernández, Richard Coca, Carla Montoya,  

 

  "Although officially credited to a ficticious author, Violeta Calles, August 29th was collectively created by the Latino Theater Lab, a group of Chicana and Chicano theater artists, under the direction of Jose Luis Valenzuela in 1990. This play explores and exposes police brutality both in the past and in the present by bringing the ghost of an actaul Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar, into the life of a fictional Chicana history professor who is writing a scholarly book about the slain journalist. She is caught between her efforts to acheive tenure and pressure from community activists to denounce police brutality involving one of her Chicano students.  The Latino Theatre Lab entered into the realm of El MIsterio in order to draw attention to an important historical and political event, the Chicano Moratorium of August 29th, 1970. By focussing on Salazar's death and martyrdom twenty years after the fact, this play gives a human face to a defining moment in Chicano history, the day tens of thousands of Chicana/os marched in East Los Angeles to protest the War in Vietnam."

 

 

- Jorge Huerta, Ph.D.

Chancellor's Associates Professor of Theatre Emeritus

Department of Theatre and Dance

University of California, San Diego

 

August 29th Revival (1995)

Plaza de la Raza

 

In 1995 August 29th was Re-Mounted at Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Heights. The show was still under the direction of José Luis Valenzeula and a few new cast members were added.