By Robert St. Martin
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/19/23 – This was the opening weekend of a new production of Arthur Miller’s classic play “Death of a Salesman” at CASA0101, the prominent small theatre in the Boyle Heights District of Los Angeles.
With a mostly Latino cast, Corky Dominguez directs a powerful rendering of a play with universal appeal because it makes its audience recognize itself in the characters. “Death of a Salesman” is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through the memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a traveling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. Veteran actor Vance Valencia, who grew up in Boyle Heights, takes on the role of Willy Loman in a towering performance of this ordinary man with so much bravado and false hopes. His wife Linda is played by Christine Avila, also a veteran of the stage with a long career extending back to “Zoot Suit,” with many stage and television roles, as well as being a lecturer in the Department of Chicano Studies at UCLA.
The talented cast includes Eddie Diaz as Biff Loman, the football star in high school who cannot find himself in any particular job for long. Adam Hollick plays Happy Loman, the younger good-looking son who is a hopeless skirt chaser and works as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a Brooklyn store.
Arthur Miller’s play, written and first staged in 1949, is not so much a realistic portrait of a lower-middle class family, but a wake-up call about the failure of the American dream, that still shapes the lives and aspirations of people in this country and immigrants to the United States as well. “We had the wrong dream,” realizes Biff near the end of the play. Through Biff, Miller as a moralist points out that this wrong dream is still the one that the greater part of America still cherishes. “The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell,” say Charley, the prosperous man who lives next door to Willy. This is the harsh fact, but Willy is not satisfied with it. He wants to be “well-liked.” Willy has always told himself that being well-liked or “known” is a way to security, success, and salvation. To be a “personality” is to cultivate the traits which make one sufficiently “well-liked’ to do a greater volume of the business of “selling” in order to achieve financial success.
His sons suffer the guilt of the father: Biff, the older, with increasing consciousness; Happy, the younger, stupidly. Hap seeks satisfaction as a course ladies’ man. Biff cannot find any satisfaction because, being more sensitive and trusting than his brother, he tries to live according to his father’s dream with which he has nothing in common: Biff yearns to live on the land and imagines himself owing a ranch in the West. Only toward the end of the play does Biff discover the spiritual hoax of his father’s life, the corruption of heart and mind to which his “ideals” are leading him. Hap – like most of us – persists in following the way of his father. He will go on striving “to come out No. 1 man . . .” The point of all this is not that our economic system does not work, but that its ideology of success distorts man’s true nature.
Willy’s loyal and loving wife Linda is supportive and docile. When Willy talks unrealistically about hopes for the future, she seems to have a good knowledge of what is really going on with him. She chides her sons, particularly Biff, for not helping their father, and supports Willy even though Willy treats her poorly. She is the first to realize that Willy is contemplating suicide at the beginning of the play. Christine Avila inhabits the character of Linda Loman brilliantly on stage. An impressive presence on stage in Ben (played by Jack Bernaz), Willy’s deceased older brother who was a diamond tycoon and frequently speaks to Willy in his hallucinations. The beauty of this production is the way the characters’ true selves emerge in the second part of the play.
It is a credit to the brilliant writing of Arthur Miller but also the fine direction of Corky Dominguez that he brings the characters to a realization of the emptiness of Willy Loman’s illusions about the American Dream. Parts of the play are flashbacks to Willy’s memories and it is unclear whether they are even accurate. Willy makes up lies about his own and Biff’s success. The more he indulges these illusions, the harder it is for him to face the reality that he at the age of 63 has been put on commission by his boss Howard Wagner (Jeff Blumberg) and does not have the money to pay the monthly bills. He keeps borrowing money from his neighbor Charley (Daniel E. Mora), who offers him a salaried office job but in his pride Willy refuses him.
What struck me most about the performance of Vance Valencia as Willy is his Lear-like insistence on his position as the head of the family and his illusions of success and being loved in a larger world, albeit the world of salesmen and buyers. “Attention must be paid to such a man. Attention!” says Linda Loman to her sons at the end of Act I. Arthur Miller makes us pay to the man and his problem, but through the fine performance of Vance Valencia we are forced to grapple with Biff’s realization of Willy Loman that “That man never knew who he was.”
The genesis of the play was a chance encounter between Arthur Miller and his uncle Manny Newman, a salesman, whom he met in 1947 in the lobby of a Boston theater that was playing “All My Sons.” In many ways, Miller based his play on his uncle Manny who had two sons similar to Biff and Hap in “Death of a Salesman.” Manny seemed to the playwright to be “so absurd, so completely isolated from the ordinary laws of gravity, so elaborate in his fantastic inventions,” yet so much in love with fame and fortune that “he possessed my imagination.” Manny committed suicide soon after, which was the cause of death of two other salesmen Miller had known. In creating Willy and the other characters, Miller also drew on his relationship with his father as well as another salesman. Miller was himself the model of the young Bernard (played here by Jared Trevino), the nerdy son of Willy Loman’s neighbor Charley; later in the play, we come to understand that Bernard became a successful lawyer.
“Death of a Salesman” is stirring in its revelation of truth and certainly Corky Domiguez’s current production of Arthur Miller’s play hits home as a timely commentary chastising us for too easily believing in the illusions of economic success that make for the American dream. Some of the other actors in this production include Leah Verrill plays the role of The Woman, whom the character of Willy Loman refers to as “Miss Francis.” Gor Leo Babakhanyah, as the waiter in the restaurant, is so real and comical in his scenes. Kriss Dozal as Miss Forsythe, the blonde tart who Hap attempts to seduce in the restaurant is touchingly naïve; she is joined by Mariana Campos as the other woman in that scene. Chloe Diaz rounds off the cast as Jenny, the secretary to Howard Wagner (Jeff Blumberg). Virtually all the actors are good. I found the set design by Marco De Léon to be perfect for this space at CASA0101 and the period costume design by Abel Alvarado impressively accurate.
For younger people not familiar with Arthur Miller, it may be of interest to note than this play caught the attention of young actress Marilyn Monroe. In June 1956, Miller left his first wife, Mary Slattery, whom he had married in 1940, and wed film star Marilyn Monroe. They met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact. Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband. Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, “I hate Hollywood. I don’t want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can’t fight for myself anymore.” She was quite happy in the marriage for a while. Miller began work on writing the screenplay for “The Misfits” in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe. It was during the filming that Miller’s and Monroe’s relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life – and ended with the suicide of Monroe on August 5, 1962.
This production of “Death of a Salesman” with its fine cast and well-paced direction is a definitely worth seeing. As Vance Valencia explained in an interview, the play speaks to us powerfully in its universality and is as relevant today as it was when it first hit Broadway in 1949.
Directed by Corky Dominguez, “Death of a Salesman” runs from June 16 through July 16 and is definitely worth the ticket price. The production is at the theater’s newly dedicated Gloria Molina Auditorium of CASA0101 at 2102 East First Street in the Boyle Heights District of Los Angeles. Performances are at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and at 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $30 for general admission, $27 for students and seniors 60+, and $25 for Boyle Heights residents and groups of 20 or more. Advance reservations are recommended. For tickets, patrons can call the CASA 0101 Theater Box Office at (323) 263-7684, email [email protected], or buy online. My thanks to Steve Moyer, publicist, for getting me tickets and production photos.
About The Playwright, Director, Principal Actors and Show Producers:
Arthur Miller (Playwright) is considered one of the greatest and most prolific American playwrights, essayists and screenwriters of the 20th century. Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915 in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan to Augusta (Barnett) and Isidore Miller. Arthur Miller had a sister, actress Joan Copeland, and a brother, Kermit Miller. Miller studied at the University of Michigan, where he first majored in Journalism and wrote for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. It was during this time Miller wrote his first play, No Villain, switching his major to English, and then soon after winning an Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. His alma mater, the University of Michigan, is the only theatre in America to bear his name.
Arthur Miller’s plays include: The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business \ (1972), The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977), The American Clock (1980) and Playing for Time (1980). Later plays include: The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1994), Mr. Peters’ Connections (1998), Resurrection Blues (2002) and Finishing The Picture (2004).
Among his other works are Situation Normal (1944), the novel Focus (1945), screenplay The Misfits (1960), and three books in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath: In Russia (1969), In the Country (1977) and Chinese Encounters (1979).
Memoirs include ‘Salesman’ in Beijing (1984), and Timebends, an autobiography (1987). Short fiction includes the collection I Don’t Need You Any More (1967), the novella Homely Girl, a Life (1995) and Presence: Stories (2007). Essay collections published in his lifetime include: The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller (1978) and Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays 1944–2000, as well as individually published volumes ‘The Crucible’ in History (2000) and On Politics and the Art of Acting (2001).
He was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for Playwriting at University of Michigan in 1936. He twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, received two Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, as well as a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was named Jefferson Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2001. Among other honors, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949) and the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award (1984).
In 1948, Arthur Miller built a small studio in his Brooklyn Heights, NY home, where, in less than a day he wrote Act I of DEATH OF A SALESMAN, which he later completed within six weeks. It was here he lived with his first wife Mary Slattery. The play received its World Premiere at the Morosco Theatre in New York City on February 10, 1949, directed by Eliz Kazan, starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda Loman, Arthur Kennedy as Biff Loman, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy Loman.
As fate would have it, Arthur Miller died in his home in Roxbury, CT, where he once lived with his second wife, Marilyn Monroe, and later with his third wife, Inge Morath, on the evening of February 10, 2005, at the age of 89, on the 56th Anniversary of the Broadway debut of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
Corky Dominguez (Director) (of Boyle Heights, CA) has over 40 years theatre experience as a producer, director, choreographer, performer, writer, and theatre teaching-artist. He has worked with several Los Angeles professional theaters and educational institutions. He is an advocate for youth oriented theatre programs. Directing credits at CASA 0101 Theater include: Remembering Boyle Heights Part 1 & 2, An Enemy Of The Pueblo, Unmasking Hercules, Eastside Heartbeats, Bad For The Community, Piñata Dreams, Hungry Woman, Real Women Have Curves (20 Year Anniversary), Midnight Marauder: A New Year’s Eve Masquerade Murder Mystery Show, Hoop Girls, Tamales De Puerco (2008 Production), When Nature Calls, and with the LGBTQ Brown and Out Festival: Dona Conception, My Perfect Boyfriend, The Baby Cries, Miercoles Loves Luna, Frankie & Johnny, Forever Young, Young Dudes, L.U.G., and Twinks & Boobs MC. Dominguez will be directing the World Premiere production of Josefina López’s latest play, Queen of the Rumba, later this year as CASA 0101 Theater.
Vance Valencia (Willy Loman) (of Boyle Heights, CA) is a local actor known for his work in dozens of film and television productions but most notably for his supporting roles the iconic Robert Zemeckis film Contact and the blockbuster Bruce Willis action film, Die Hard 2. Recent network television spots include Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He is also no stranger to the Los Angeles theatre scene having performed major roles at such venues as the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Hudson Theatre, Attic Theatre, Nosotros, Met Theatre, The Starlight Theatre, LA Actors Theatre and Taper2. Besides being an actor, Valencia is also an educator and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Los Angeles. Over the years has taught middle school Humanities in the Public, Private and Charter school sectors. As a Boyle Heights native and product of local schools – including Roosevelt High School – it is here where his love of theatre began and here where he continues to share his passion for the classics with young people who need exposure to the arts the most. Valencia is always proud to point out that the community park located catty-corner to this CASA 0101 Theater is dedicated in his father’s name, long time community leader and activist, Ross H. Valencia. As a Co-Founder of Angel City Theatre Ensemble, he has returned to CASA 0101 Theater where he enjoyed critical and popular success in the title role of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and in the subsequent the drama, Mariela in the Desert written by Karen Zacarías.
Christine Avila (Linda Loman) (of Culver City, CA) first appeared at CASA in 2014 at Calphurnia in a production of Julius Caesar. Avila appeared in the Original Cast of Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum. In the 70s she appeared in National Tours, including: Jesus Christ Superstar (as Mary Magdalene), in Mother Earth by Toni Tennille and in Summer And Smoke (as Rosa Gonzalez) playing opposite Eve Marie Saint. More recently she appeared in Detained at The Fountain Theatre. She also appeared in the Original Cast of La Poada Majica at South Coast Repertory. Other theatres she has appeared at include: Centre Theatre Group, LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Circle X and La Jolla Playhouse. She has performed in both English and Spanish in Lorca’s Yerma, Blood Wedding and Mariana Pineda (Bilingual Foundation for the Arts). She performed a one-person show on the life of Cesar Chavez called La Causa for Living Voices of over 10 years. Her television and film Mayans (recurring character), Undone (Amazon), Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, Bosch, House and Liar, Liar. She is a graduate of UCLA and studied with Sandy Meisner and Bill Esper at The Neighborhood Playhouse, New York.
Christine Avila has been invited seven times to the Sundance Playwrights Festival. She has won awards for her Books on Tape, which include: Book of Unknown American and Where Stars are Scattered. As and Educator, she has taught at The University of California – Santa Barbara in the Department of Chicano Studies; Loyola Marymount University, University of California, Los Angeles and at the University of Southern California in the Department of Theatre Arts. Avila received the Teacher of the Year Award from UCLA Extension for her work at Fred C. Nelles School for Boys. For 25 years she has worked in the Catholic Church as cantor, pastoral musician and Director of Music, including St. Clements Church in Santa Monica, CA.
Eddie Diaz (Biff Loman) (of Inglewood, CA) is first generation American born of Mexican descent, raised in Huntington Park, CA. He attended Huntington Park High School, After graduation he joined the United States Army starting as a Diesel Mechanic, working his way up from a Private to a position of Lieutenant where he trained in conjunction with the 182 Airborne unit and his Army Unit, the 950th maintenance company, to become a Helicopter Pilot.
Diaz obtained an Architecture degree from Cal Poly Pomona and upon graduation worked for world famous architects, Frank Gehry helping design the Disney Concert Hall and, NBBJ Design, which built Staples Center. Diaz helped design the new Madison Square Garden in New York. It was around this time when 9/11 happened, when Diaz’s life and career took on a new direction.
In 2000, Diaz left the Architecture world to pursue Acting after being seen by a talent manager in a showcase production he was appearing in. He made his film debut in the supporting role of Rubio in the Michael Mann film, Collateral, appearing opposite Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Diaz has appeared in several studio films and starred in several award-winning independent films such as Sun Dogs and Bebe. He is currently the lead actor and Executive Producer of Prayers In The Dark. He just wrapped starring in La Tierra Del Exodo, which is playing in 100 film festival worldwide.
On television, he is currently starring opposite Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he has a recurring role in the AMC show, Fear Of The Walking Dead. Other television credits include: Luke in Rake, playing opposite Greg Kinnear, directed by Sam Raimi; Caesar Salad in Modern Family; Officer Cortez in Lincoln Lawyer; and in featured roles in The Son of Zorn, Naval NCIS and Criminal Minds.
On stage, he appeared as Private First Class William T. Santiago in Los Angeles Premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s theatre production, A Few Good Men; and in the critically acclaimed production of The Women of Juarez at Frido Kahlo Theatre. He has also played the role of the Bridegroom in Frederico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding at Stages Theater and the title role in King Lear at Knightsbridge Theatre. As an actor Diaz has trained with Alberto Mariscal, Miranda Garrison and Anthony Meindl, who studied with Sandy Meisner, and now teaches his method.
Adam Hollick (Happy Loman) (of North Hollywood, CA) attended Azusa Pacific University on a full ride football scholarship. After two years, he decided to leave football and the scholarship to become a Music major, where he discovered a passion for Opera. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance while also training as an actor. He has performed everything from opera and musical theatre to pop music, and transitioned into Film/TV in 2017. His Theatre credits include: Eddie Carbone in A View From the Bridge, Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie with Glendale Centre Theatre, Connie Rivers in Grapes of Wrath with Sugar Creek Opera Illinois, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast with 5 Star Theatricals (alongside Susan Egan as Belle) and Plan B Entertainment, Anthony in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Captain Phoebus in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Lupe in the new musical, Viral at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Film and Television credits include: Liam Hiett in the movie Been There All Along. Christopher Blaze on NCIS, Marco Ruiz on NCIS: Los Angeles, How I Met Your Father, Simon in Lifetime’s Dirty Little Deeds, Aladdin in SyFy’s original movie Adventures of Aladdin, Daryl in Lifetime’s Labor of Lies, Dexter in Lifetime’s Deadly Bridenapping, Firefighter Louis in Lifetime’s Fireman’s Deception, Private First Class Malcolm in SyFy’s original movie Meteor Moon, and George Skiadopolous on Deadly Sins, Hollik has an avid passion for fitness and bartending as well.
Jack Bernaz (Uncle Ben Loman) (of North Hollywood, CA) has appeared in a wide assortment of roles on stage, including: Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part I, Tito Merelli in Lend Me a Tenor and Murray the Cop in The Odd Couple (North Coast Repertory); Chicago Joe in The Grift and Accomplice in The Drunk (La Jolla Playhouse); Bob Cratchit in Bah! Humbug! (California Performing Arts Center); and Herr Schultz in Cabaret (Temecula Performing Arts Center).
Daniel E. Mora (Charley) (of Glendale, CA) Mexican-American actor/producer/writer. He was last seen at CASA 0110 Theater in the role of Casca in Julius Caesar. Mora is best known for his role of Obregon in the FX series The Bridge, the film, Avenge the Crows, and web series, Sin Vergüenza (Without Shame). which won an Imagen Award in 2013 for Best Web Series: Informative or Reality, for its 1st season. In 2016, Mora was nominated for an Imagen Award for Sin Vergüenza (Without Shame) as Best Actor in a Television or Online Series. As a producer and writer, he is best known for the police reality show, Placas which aired on Telemundo in the mid-90s; the show was number one on the network its first year and remained one of the top three highest rated shows for its remaining years on air. In addition to his passion for acting, Mora a proud former serviceman as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, continues his civic duty with the US Auxiliary Coast Guard and recently helped save four lives off the coast Manhattan Beach, CA.
Jared Treviño (Bernard) (of Glendale, CA) got his start at the local community theatre in his hometown of Corpus Christi, TX, where he spent most of his nights on stage rehearsing or performing. With the help of his family and friends, Treviño moved to Los Angeles a month after turning 18 to begin his journey in the place he now calls home. In 2021 Treviño won The Third Annaul Nosotros Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam presented by NBCU, which introduced him to Hollywood’s Latino community, where he first learned about CASA 0101 Theater.
Emmanuel Deleage (Show Producer and Executive Director of CASA 0101 Theater) is a graduate of UCLA in World Arts and Cultures. While in college he joined the skid row theater troupe, Los Angeles Poverty Department, founded by performance artist John Malpede. He later became the company’s administrator. In 2001 he formed his own company Courage Productions, and produced Armand Gatti’s Public Song Before Two Electric Chairs at the Los Angeles Theater Center. He also met Josefina López that same year, and merged Courage with the newly formed Casa 0101 Theater. He is currently the Executive Director of Casa 0101. He has overseen the growth of Casa 0101 from an all-volunteer organization running out of a store front venue, to becoming an organization with four employees. He also has had the privilege of working with theater directors, Peter Sellars, Gino Zampieri, Pascal Rambert and Armand Gatti. At Casa 0101, he has directed The Imaginary Life of the Street Sweeper August G by Armand Gatti, Locked Up and You Don’t Know Me by Patricia Zamorano, Nat Turner by Randolph Edmonds and Food for the Dead, by Josefina López. As a writer, his first play was Selma Worth, about homelessness and finding self worth. His second play, which he directed and co-wrote with Lorenzo Alfredo, as An L.A. Journey – The Story of Lorenzo Alfredo.
MariaElena Yepes (Show Producer and Executive Producer and CDO for Brown Fist Producitons) is an educator and writer, and has been a community activist for the past 30 years. Yepes has dedicated her professional career to providing higher educational opportunities for the most underserved populations in Los Angeles. In 2015 she founded Brown Fist Productions. Their first production, which was presented in association with CASA 0101 Theater in 2016 was Eastside Heartbeats, the fictional story of four young Mexican-American singers who dreamed of becoming Rock and Roll stars.
David Reyes (Show Producer for Brown Fist Productions) served as Composer, Lyricist and Producer of Brown Fist Productions first show, Eastside Heartbeats, the fictional story of four young Mexican-American singers who dreamed of becoming Rock and Roll stars, which was presented in association with CASA 0101 Theatre in 2016. Reyes developed an interest in modern classical music in the early 1970’s, and his fascination with the genre led him to study it seriously in college. Because of his dedication to the pursuit of modern classical music, Reyes was awarded a scholarship to study in Europe, where he had the privilege of studying and training with modern masters who changed the course of classical music: Iannis Xenakis and Gyorgy Ligeti at Centre Acante, and at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix en Provence, France. In Los Angeles, he has worked with other influential composers: the late Dorrance Stalvey, musical Director of LACMA, and Aurelio De La Vega, faculty member emeritus at California State University, Northridge. Reyes produced a three CD set for Rhino Records called “Brown Eyed Soul,” and was Associate Producer for the PBS documentary Chicano Rock. He is co-author for “Land of a Thousand Dances” and co-curator of the exhibit Roots of the Eastside Sound. Reyes has also composer a mini opera entitled, El Circo Anahuac, scored for voices, chamber ensemble and puppetry.
About CASA 0101 Theater:
CASA 0101, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded 23 years ago by Founding Artistic Director, Josefina López, author of “Real Women Have Curves,” in 2000 to fulfill her vision of bringing art and live theater programs to Boyle Heights. From its humble beginnings in a former bridal shop, CASA 0101 has established itself as a leading arts venue for Los Angeles’ East Side, currently offering year round theatrical productions and classes in dramatic writing and acting for youth and adults. CASA 0101 is dedicated to providing vital arts, cultural, and educations programs in theatre, digital filmmaking, art and dance – to Boyle Heights, thereby nurturing the future storytellers of Los Angeles. CASA 0101 is named such, as casa means house of home in Spanish. 0’s and 1’s are the binary language computers use to operate. CASA 0101 was founded at the dawn of the digital age, when digital cameras started appearing and moviemaking became accessible to more people. Early on Josefina López taught a few digital video classes. Though the organization subsequently focused its energies on theatre and not digital filmmaking, the name stuck. 0 and 1 can also mean nothing and everything, yin and yang, male and female, and many more dual opposites. Through storytelling and theatre and other art forms, CASA 0101 is committed to exploring the world and oneself, the good and the bad, the light and the darkness of our world to the point where there are no borders and “0” and “1” are one. The day-to-day day management of the operations and of four full-time employees at CASA 0101 Theater is overseen by Emmanuel Deleage, the Executive Director. To learn more, please visit www.casa0101.org
About Brown Fist Productions, LLC:
The mission of Brown Fist Productions, LLC (BFP) is to provide quality entertainment that highlights positively the talent, artistry, and historic contributions of the Latino communities in the United States. Since 2015, Brown Fist Productions has mounted several projects in the Los Angeles area that have received notable attention in local media including the Los Angeles Times.
These productions include the following: The Rock and Roll musical Eastside Heartbeats, the fictional story of four young Mexican-American singers who dreamed of becoming Rock and Roll stars. The production was presented in association with CASA 0101 Theater in 2016 to great critical acclaim. In 2017, BFP participated in the Cherry Blossom Festival of Monterey Park by presenting a concert of music from the sixties and seventies featuring the four singers who were the lead actors in Eastside Heartbeats.
In April 2018, Brown Fist Productions began work on its second major project, El Circo Anahuac: An Aztec Opera, by presenting three high school workshops in East Los Angeles to test the interest of high school students in the opera. Then, in October and November 2018, a 40-minute rendition of El Circo Anahuac was presented and received enthusiastically at Los Angeles Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles.
In July 2019, as a result of its success at Los Angeles Plaza de Cultura y Artes, BFP was invited by A Noise Within Theater in Pasadena to participate as Artists in Residence in a project of their choice. BFP chose to expand the mini-opera by creating five new songs and introducing a new character. The residency culminated in a performance at the A Noise Within Rehearsal Hall which was attended by 110 supporters in a room designed to fit 70 people. In May 2022—after going dark for two years due to the pandemic—BFP presented the third iteration of El Circo Anahuac at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA School of Music. As in the past, the opera—now extended to an hour and fifteen minutes, received enthusiastic responses from the audience and from the music and opera faculty and staff at UCLA.
And now in 2023 BPF is co-producing a new production of Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman with CASA 0101 Theater. In addition, BFP is working on a new project based on the musical trio, The Sisters, the precursors of Women in Chicano Rock, entitled Three Hearts, the Story of The Sisters